What's Behind the 'New' Call for Muslim Brotherhood's Reconciliation With Sisi?
On September 14th, 2021, Youssef Nada, widely known as the “foreign minister” of the Muslim brotherhood, said that the door was open for dialogue with the Egyptian regime’s presidency, without preconditions.
Nada’s words came in an open letter titled “Where is Egypt Heading?” in which he mentioned only one goal for the dialogue.
"Opening a dialogue with the presidency of the Egyptian regime currently, as its message suggests, requires ending the suffering of imprisoned women and men and the suffering of their families.”
"Let the beginning of the work of the new national strategy [for human rights] be the implementation of what is stipulated in Article 241 of the Egyptian Constitution [issuing the transitional justice law]," Nada said.
"We have learned in politics that setting preconditions spoils dialogue, so I say that the door is open...and perhaps God will do something after that." He concluded.
Nada’s letter came days after Sisi’s live speech in a meeting to launch a national human rights strategy in the country for the first time.
“I do not disagree with these people, but provided they respect my path and do not intersect with me and do not target me…I will accept his idea, but don’t impose it on me, not me as a person, but on Egypt and society,” Sisi said.
No comments from both sides, the Egyptian authorities, and the Muslim Brotherhood, have been issued regarding Nada’s letter.
Since late 2013, Cairo has classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a “banned terrorist group,” and most of its cadres and leaders, including Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, are in prison pending sentences related to "terrorism and incitement,” charges that the group has often denied.
Internal Dispute
Nada’s letter coincides with a new structure of the Muslim brotherhood, where the classic abroad leader Ibrahim Monir has recently won elections, ruling other historical and younger leaders out.
Inside the brotherhood there was no unified vision of the reconciliation, opinions varied between total opposition and mere acceptance.
A source from the Muslim Brotherhood, who talked to al-Estiklal on the condition of anonymity, explained the nature of this dispute.
In 2015, an amendment was made to the structure by forming what is known as revolutionary unity, coinciding with the start of the activities of sub committees in the revolutionary streets and squares.
Although the organizational conflict did not appear publicly until May 2015, its signs began to emerge within the group during the assessment of the events of January 2015.
“The classic leaders’ group, which rejected the plan of exhaustion and confusion in the Supreme Administrative Committee, maintained its position despite the majority's decision.”
The revolutionary plan of confusion and exhaustion did not bring tangible political gains or change the balance of power on the ground, although it restored the spirit to mobility after securing it and regrouped after a period of weakness.
Another source from inside the Muslim Brotherhood, who preferred anonymity and witnessed the dispute in that period told al-Estiklal that one of the main points that the brotherhood was split upon is the reconciliation file.
“The classic leaders of the brotherhood have always mentioned that they have no problems with the reconciliation with the regime, without prior conditions,” the source said.
“The youth and younger cadres wanted to complete the revolutionary path, calling for the downfall of Sisi’s regime, and closing the reconciliation file forever.”
“The classic leaders sought to end the dispute in any means for their favor, they tried to talk with the youth, but the younger generation never accepted to sit and talk with the regime, especially after the Rabaa massacre,” he added.
“Tens and hundreds of discussions occurred, some members of the brotherhood accepted the terms of the reconciliation, others refused, every group accused the other of treason and betraying the blood of martyrs,” the source concluded.
Different Responses
For more than 5 years, from 2013 to 2018, at least 15 initiatives calling for reconciliation between the Brotherhood and the state emerged.
Salafist preacher Mohamed Hassan in 2013, just days before the break-up of the Rabaa al-Adawiya and Ennahda sit-ins, sought reconciliation between the brotherhood and the state, and Hassan returned on July 14, 2015, to repeat his initiative, saying: "I am still ready to lead reconciliation, but on conditions, including retribution for those who were killed unjustly, and the waiver of part of his rights for the benefit of Egypt.”
Before the end of 2013, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei called on the state to open channels of dialogue with the Brotherhood, he made the same call again in October 2015 to involve the group in Egypt's political future and democratic transition, and to release Morsi and Brotherhood prisoners, in exchange for the group abandoning violence and returning to what he called the "embrace of the people."
In November 2016, Imad Abdel Ghafoor, head of the Al-Watan party and a former aide to Morsi, called for a new reconciliation under the name of "national reconciliation" calling on the state and the Brotherhood to make some concessions and retreats, but no response came from both sides.
In April 2018, journalist Imad al-Din Adeeb, through a television show, called for reconciliation, demanding that Brotherhood youth be integrated into society, reconciled with them, and make intellectual reviews of the group's members.
One of the initiatives that sparked controversy and strong rejection was the initiative launched by the dissident leader of the Brotherhood Kamal Al-Halbawi on April 25, 2018, calling for the need to seek a comprehensive national reconciliation in Egypt. Both parties refused the initiative fiercely.
In January 2017, Rashid Ghannouchi, head of Ennahda Party, the Tunisian arm of the Brotherhood, announced that he had submitted an initiative for reconciliation between the Egyptian state and the Brotherhood, and asked Saudi Arabia to mediate with Egypt to reconcile with the Brotherhood, considering that the group is an ancient component of the Egyptian people, and cannot be excluded, pointing out that this was done during a meeting brought together by the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, where he was asked to meditate to calm the atmosphere.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi commented on calls for reconciliation several times, on November 4, 2015, during an interview with the BBC that indicated that only the Egyptian people had the decision to give the Brotherhood another role in the country's future.
But Sisi was more explicit regarding reconciliation initiatives in October 2018, an interview published by the Kuwaiti daily “Al-Shahid”, declaring that the Brotherhood would have no role in the Egyptian scene during his time in power, and that the people of Egypt would not accept their return because the Brotherhood's ideology is unviable and clashing with it, as the group has led chaos in many Arab countries such as Yemen and Libya.
But the new strategy of human rights opens new horizons both for the regime and the brotherhood, it’s an opportunity that may lead to a new development in the reconciliation file.
