Attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood during the anniversary of the revolution have provoked furious counter-attacks from Brotherhood spokesmen, writes Amani Maged The circumstances of the Muslim Brotherhood have changed entirely in the year since the revolution. The organisation has founded a political party -- the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) -- which won nearly half the seats in the People's Assembly in the recent elections. It has also begun to work openly without fear of the harassment, arrest of its members and confiscation of its assets that plagued it since it was founded in the late 1920s. The Muslim Brotherhood also took part in last year's revolution from its earliest days onwards, and many believe that the part it played as the "protector of the square" was one of the reasons that the revolution succeeded. On the anniversary of the revolution, the Brotherhood set up a podium it said was open to all political forces. Patriotic music blared from loudspeakers to the dismay of the revolutionary forces and the families of the victims of last year's violence, who felt that such festivity was inappropriate on an occasion meant to commemorate the martyrs of a revolution that in any case remains incomplete. Much to its members' surprise, the Muslim Brotherhood found itself the butt of accusations from all directions, with shoes even being waved in their faces. Member of the FJP's parliamentary bloc Mohamed El-Beltagui has claimed that while 25 and 26 January passed without incident, certain elements infiltrated the revolutionary celebrations in Tahrir in the late afternoon of Friday 27 and "tried to upstage others and create an explosive situation, confirming that they were not part of the revolution or revolutionaries." El-Beltagui, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the revolution, said that he suspected that attempts were being made to create a sense of crisis and aggravate discord by stirring up controversy with regard to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' (SCAF) handover of power to an elected civilian authority. "There is absolutely no dispute about the need to hand over power to the parliament. However, we must stick to the timetable for this," El-Beltagui said, adding that the Muslim Brotherhood was interested in celebrating the achievements of the revolution and not in the movement's own gains. El-Beltagui described the assault on the Brotherhood's podium as "painful", especially as it had come on a day on which the Palestinians were commemorating their first Intifada. He deplored threats to burn down the Brotherhood's podium, as well as the insulting waving of shoes and the tossing of empty bottles. He rejected "immoral slogans" chanted by the protesters, such as, "Sell out, sell out, Badie! But our brothers' blood will not be shed in vain!" Mohamed Badie is the Muslim Brotherhood's current supreme guide. In a recent television interview, El-Beltagui discarded suggestions that the FJP was Egypt's "new National Democratic Party [NDP]", bent on exercising a dictatorship of the majority. The NDP was the ruling party under the former Mubarak regime. "Certain forces" were bent on fuelling conflict between the partners and allies in the revolution, El-Beltagui said. Explaining why the Brotherhood had started to blast out patriotic songs from its podium, FJP leader Ahmed Abu Baraka said it had been done to fire up the crowd's enthusiasm. Every other party stand or podium was doing the same thing, he added. The aim had been to remember previous revolutionary experiences in order to strengthen the resolve to fulfil the aims of the revolution. The Brothers had not been revelling in their success that day, he said. Instead, "the Muslim Brothers, who sacrificed their lives, blood and money for 80 years, are still prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country." The Muslim Brotherhood also issued a firm response to the brawls that erupted between the demonstrators in Tahrir Square and some of the organisation's members. These had reacted to the "aggressive behaviour" shown towards them, but they had nevertheless shown restraint, it said. It defended the role played by the Brotherhood in the revolution, as well as the Brothers' right to celebrate the revolution's achievements, even as the organisation remained committed to the realisation of as yet unrealised demands. Muslim Brotherhood spokesmen emphasised the movement's commitment to principled and ethical behaviour and to respect for the rights and opinions of others. It was for this reason that Brotherhood members had responded to attacks on them "in a civilised way", the spokesmen said, having no other intention but to defend their podium and themselves. In spite of the fact that several Brotherhood members were injured, and the Brothers could have responded in kind, the organisation's members had decided to turn the other cheek so as not to spoil the celebrations. According to the movement's deputy supreme guide, Mahmoud Ghazlan, those who had attacked the members of the Brotherhood had made the mistake of regarding themselves as the true revolutionaries and everyone else as traitors. However, Ghazlan said, such people should understand that "the Muslim Brothers paved the way for the revolution and fuelled it for decades through demonstrations against the emergency laws, military trials, and constitutional amendments intended to perpetuate the regime and promote the succession scenario." "Thousands of Brotherhood youths and sheikhs have been detained and imprisoned for having taken part in such protests. Brotherhood members took part in the 25 January Revolution from the very first day and protected it through its 18 days, especially during the "Battle of the Camel" and similar incidents in which dozens of them died and hundreds were wounded." Ghazlan also appealed for patience, saying that the country "has not yet finished forming democratic constitutional institutions. We have only elected the People's Assembly thus far. However, we are still on course, and in a few days we will have the Shura Council elections. We believe that constitutional legitimacy is being formed, and we call upon people to remain vigilant until the process of creating constitutionally legitimate institutions is complete." Referring to the display of anger against the Muslim Brotherhood in Tahrir Square, Ghazlan said that "the confidence of the Egyptian people in the Muslim Brotherhood will prevail over campaigns of curses, insults, hatred and malice." The "immoral" chanting aimed at the Brotherhood's podium in the square had issued from "ill-mannered" people aiming to demean the Brotherhood and the part it had played in the revolution. Ghazlan said that a campaign to denigrate the Brotherhood had started shortly after the revolution, being organised by a handful of people specially recruited to attack it. However, the movement had years of experience in combating such campaigns, Ghazlan said, and he remained confident that the fiercer such campaigns became, the more people would rally behind the Brotherhood. Ghazlan said that the campaign against the Brotherhood was being fed by "a group of media outlets", whose ferocity had surfaced at the time of the parliamentary elections. Arguing against such media outlets, Ghazlan said the Brotherhood's position from the outset of the revolution had been that the transitional period should not last "even a single day" more than six months. "This is what Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie told the SCAF on the one occasion on which he met them. Yet, the very people who are now demanding that the military hand over power immediately are the very same ones who were begging the SCAF to remain in power for a full year, and in some cases for three years, on the grounds that they were not ready for elections." Muslim Brotherhood spokesmen were not alone in denouncing what has come to be called the "Battle of the Podium". Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya spokesman Assem Abdel-Maged and several Salafi spokesmen also condemned the "attacks", describing them as "insults" to the sacrifices that the Muslim Brothers had made. Some revolutionary coalition members also echoed these sentiments in statements paying tribute to Brotherhood youths wounded during the revolution. One such youth is the son of MP Akram El-Shaer, who is currently being treated in Germany for wounds he sustained in the Battle of the Camel last year. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood is determined not to be affected by either "denigration or praise", as it puts it, with the movement insisting that it remains focussed on working for the welfare of the nation. Life under the former regime accustomed the movement to acrimony, Brotherhood members say, and this increased after the revolution because the Brotherhood was well prepared for the elections and won a parliamentary majority. At the same time, the movement remains confident that the protesters in Tahrir Square will not turn against it, because the Muslim Brotherhood is on the side of the revolutionaries.
