Muslim Brotherhood not ready to cooperate or compromise

People in Egypt should realize that current rhetoric used by pro-Morsi supporters will lead them into a trap, because it was Muslim Brotherhood’s political inaction that once again brought the country into chaos, blogger Sara Labib told RT.

Starting pro-democracy grassroots movements in Egypt is the only way for the country to escape violence, the blogger argues.

RT:What effect could the exclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood from the new cabinet have?

Sara Labib: There are two sides to this. First of all there’s the side that is more pro-liberal and more pro civil and secular people getting in the government becoming all parts of the cabinet. And there is a side within that group that wants to exclude the Muslim Brotherhood from the process completely which is of course very unreasonable because they do have support on the ground.

RT:Mind you there is an element within Muslim Brotherhood that wants to be excluded too…

SL: Exactly. On the other hand you have Muslim Brotherhood doesn’t want to be part of the government because that would mean acknowledging that their president has been deposed, and that he is no longer president and the transitional government is legitimate, which they don’t want to admit of course. Hence why they are still on the streets. So on both sides there’s very strong polarization. The way the Muslim Brotherhood acted when it was in power also leads one to believe that they don’t want to cooperate or compromise, so they are certainly not going to do that now when they are not in power any more.

RT:One of the reasons why people rose against Morsi was because he failed to form a coalition government with members from the opposition included....is history starting to repeat itself here already?  

SL: Yeah exactly, especially at this moment in Egypt’s life, when it is going bad economically, politically, the whole climate of the country. When the president takes steps to polarize society even more and to divide instead of trying to compromise and trying to leave way for more moderate voices to come on stage, he of course has led the country to come to this stage, in which some people justify with him being deposed like that.

They feel that there would be no future with the Muslim Brotherhood or with Morsi. People are not even sure that next elections, which would have been held, would have been fair. And it is very understandable that people were worried about the Morsi government and they were not even sure if they would have been included themselves. It is a race for survival in a way.

RT:Are pro-Morsi protesters as united as they were 2 weeks ago?

SL: I think what happened now might actually make them more united because this is their role; this is where they have been for so long – victims or the underdogs. Their rhetoric now is how they have been mistreated how they are misunderstood, misrepresented in the media, etc. Many people sympathize with that. Their own members buy that rhetoric and are still unable to realize that the ones responsible for bringing us to this breaking point are the Muslim Brotherhood themselves because they were in power, they had a chance to take another course and they didn’t. Unless they start to realize that, I’m sure they would stay on the same course they are now.

RT:What reforms are needed for real democracy in the country?

SL: What happened was very dangerous in terms of a precedent, which shows that even if you mess up, even if you choose the wrong government, the army will step in and rescue you. I think the necessary steps for the Liberals and the seculars who want to come to power would be to realize to work harder on the ground. They would have to do grassroots efforts and reach out to people and convince them of an alternative, something positive, something they can believe in. They can’t just attack the government, they have to present something themselves. And that is only when they realize their responsibility and unless that happens Egypt will keep going from extreme to extreme and there will not be any progress.