Mona Khalil: “The slogan "Islam - here's the solution!" has nothing to do with Islam”

Interview by Vestnik Kavkaza

Scientists, political scientists, and experts often complain that the Russian mass media spread deformed information about the events in Egypt. Vestnik Kavkaza interviewed Mona Khalil, political scientist, Director of the "Center for Humanitarian Cooperation", about Egyptian prospects.

-    How will the situation develop in Egypt after overthrowing of President Muhammad Morsi?

-    We hope that the conflict will die down in Egypt. It is already dying down. A highly professional interim government is now working. We hope it will be effective. Six months later, we are waiting for new presidential elections. For us the main thing now is to make a good, decent constitution and just to do lots and lots and lots of work. And I hope that we will succeed.

-    What do you think about economic prospects of Egypt?

-    We have great hope that the very highly qualified professionals came to us who will finally be doing everything possible to bring the country out of the economic crisis. Investment is flowing. Tourism, I hope, will now begin to develop more actively. There are all the prerequisites so that Egypt in the near future could just show a really big step forward.

-    Obviously, the situation in the country is influenced by developments in the Middle East states, including Syria. What do you think about the situation there?

-    With regard to Syria, it is very difficult to predict anything. But again, we hope that common sense will prevail after all, that the government of Bashar al-Assad will stay in power, and that the endless stream of militants, not only from the Arab world, but, apparently, from all over the world, who purposefully rushed there, will be stopped, and somehow the situation in Syria will be normalized.

-    And what about denunciation of relations between Egypt and Syria?

-    The deposed Egyptian President Morsi denounced diplomatic relations with Syria, the embassy was closed. I hope that now this madness will be changed. Of course, Egypt and Syria are the closest countries that simply cannot be imagined out of friendship, and of course, diplomatic relations.

Speaking about reasons for demanding Morsi’s recognition for the Egyptians, Mona Khalil stated: “In these days about 33 million people went out in different areas, the streets of Egyptian cities. Approximately we can say that around 57% of the able-bodied population went out on the streets. There were a lot of reasons for demanding Morsi’s resignation for the. On the one hand, there are the poor. Ordinary people are very tired of the endless price increases, deterioration of living standards, power outages, which began recently, lack of gasoline. And most importantly, in Egypt there is what ordinary Egyptians call the "selling religion" or "selling faith." Many who voted for the "Muslim Brotherhood" very quickly realized that they had been deceived, that the famous slogan of the organization, "Islam - here's the solution!" has nothing to do with Islam. Such hypocrisy from the government, hiding behind religion, was not tolerated by the Egyptians with their traditional religious consciousness; very quickly they were not so much disappointed as outraged at an attempt at speculation and the manipulation of their religious feelings.

On the other hand, the intelligentsia was very indignant, including secular intellectuals who felt a desire to make the society religious; it has evolved into a series of strange initiatives. In particular, they talked about a ban on ballet, dance, because it is supposedly a sinful activity.

In fact, people who have an idea about the economy remained terrified of the failure of the “Muslim Brotherhood" to solve at least some economic task. And the country was rapidly swept into economic disaster.

President Morsi broke off diplomatic relations with Syria. He urged Egyptian youth for a jihad against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. He threatened Ethiopia, which has decided to build a dam on the Nile, with war. And there was a feeling that Egypt may be embroiled in hostilities with other countries for no apparent reason. And the national security of the country was questioned. That certainly was one of the biggest concerns of the armed forces of Egypt.

I must say that the cup was overflowed by the constitutional declaration. He signed a constitutional declaration, according to which all power was passed to the president. He towered over the constitution, and it was such a legitimate usurpation of power. It was so shocking for all people, because even Hosni Mubarak was not allowed to do such things.”

According to Mona Khalil, “the U.S. very sharply reacted to the events in Egypt. It had very actively supported the "Muslim Brotherhood." And at once it said that in Egypt there was a military takeover, that this is a small group of people that is trying to seize power from the legitimately-elected president. As we know, of course, it is not so, but then the Western media tried to complete the programme.

Here we also see the recent reaction of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was extremely angered by the overthrow of Morsi and said that for him there is only one president of Egypt - Mohammed Morsi - and that in Egypt there had been an accident. And it was one of the most dramatic views on the issue to be sounded from abroad.

Turkey has closed the project of EU membership and has long claimed to be the leader of the Pan-Turkic world, hints have recently appeared that this country might want to see itself as the leader of the Islamic world in general. This is evident from the Islamization that is occurring in Turkey, causing Taksim and the protest movements that have been taking place in Turkey up till now. And Ankara saw the backbone of the regime in the Arab world, of course, in Mohammed Mursi and the "Muslim Brotherhood." The whole story takes place with the active support of the United States, which is likely to imagine that maybe Cairo and Ankara will be Islamist and rule the rest of the Islamic world. It is clear that what happened in Egypt was not expected by the Americans. They were, oddly enough, not ready for this situation.”