Like many in our community and across the Muslim world, it was with a heavy heart that we learned of the death of President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt on 17 June 2019.
Seven years after his historic ascension as Egypt’s first ever legitimately elected leader, and six years after the military coup that deposed and incarcerated him in favour of brutal dictatorship, we question yet again the deafening silence of the “free world” and the press who forever peddle democracy and scream human rights but find entirely palatable the Egyptian people’s mandated leader languishing for years in torturous solitary confinement bereft of dignifying treatment and adequate medical care (Human Rights Watch).
We considerthe ongoing campaign of tyranny and human rights abuses routinely reported against the Egyptian State an absolute mockery of any idea of democracy, and the British government’s continued disappointing support of El Sisi under a contradiction of its own extremism laws which include “opposition to fundamental British values, democracy, the rule of law, and individual liberty”.
The callers to democracy failed President Morsi and continue to fail the people of Egypt and tyrannised peoples elsewhere were a“friendly” dictator holds the reins of power with the backing of democratic governments.We call on the British government and world governments to support the UN’s call for an enquiry into the death of President Morsi.
We hail President Morsi’s simplicity and his presentation as an accessible leader with real concern and unashamed support for the oppressed and downtrodden in Egypt and elsewhere, most notably the Palestinian people. His fearlessness, conviction and absolute belief in Allah azzawajal (God almighty) until the very end were what his jailers feared the most -for they knew they could never break his will despite years of inflicted intolerable cruelty. They also hoped to downplay his death and importance by preventing the inevitable gathering en masse of Egyptian Muslims for his funeral prayer, but already around the world non-Egyptian Muslims are gathering en masse to pray multiple funeral prayers for their departed brother.
We pray that Allah admits Mohamed Morsi intoHis mercy, acceptshis death as martyrdom, and grants him the very highest station in paradise. We also pray that Allah grants his family patience and solace.
“Indeed to Allah we belongand to Him we will return”
(Quran, Chapter 2, verse 156)