Leader of hardline Islamist group warns Egypt of Army from exile
2 Dec 2013 6:24 AM IST
A leader of a hardline Egyptian Islamist group that fought the state in the 1990s warned that the army had driven the nation to the ‘edge of a precipice’ since he fled the country after President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster in July.
The state and Islamists are old foes in Egypt, a strategic US ally which has a peace treaty with Israel and controls the Suez Canal. Egypt has been torn by the worst internal strife in its modern history since the army deposed the Islamist Morsi.
Assem Abdel Maged of the Gamaa Islamiya told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network he expected the situation in Egypt to deteriorate, saying protests ‘will be what breaks this coup’. He is the first high profile Islamist who fled Egypt since Morsi’s ouster to speak publicly from abroad. Abdel Maged said the military made a ‘major mistake’ by siding with ‘religious, political, and social minorities’, an allusion to Christians and secular-minded Egyptians. The army deposed Morsi after mass protests against his rule on 30 June.
Abdel Maged, who once shared a prison cell with al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, was jailed for 25 years until 2006 for a role in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat and other crimes. He now faces charges of inciting the killing of protesters. Egyptian security officials said Abdel Maged fled to Qatar via the sea or the border with Libya. Qatar is one of the few Arab states that was sympathetic to the Islamists during Morsi’s year in power.
The state and Islamists are old foes in Egypt, a strategic US ally which has a peace treaty with Israel and controls the Suez Canal. Egypt has been torn by the worst internal strife in its modern history since the army deposed the Islamist Morsi.
Assem Abdel Maged of the Gamaa Islamiya told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network he expected the situation in Egypt to deteriorate, saying protests ‘will be what breaks this coup’. He is the first high profile Islamist who fled Egypt since Morsi’s ouster to speak publicly from abroad. Abdel Maged said the military made a ‘major mistake’ by siding with ‘religious, political, and social minorities’, an allusion to Christians and secular-minded Egyptians. The army deposed Morsi after mass protests against his rule on 30 June.
Abdel Maged, who once shared a prison cell with al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, was jailed for 25 years until 2006 for a role in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat and other crimes. He now faces charges of inciting the killing of protesters. Egyptian security officials said Abdel Maged fled to Qatar via the sea or the border with Libya. Qatar is one of the few Arab states that was sympathetic to the Islamists during Morsi’s year in power.
Next Story
