An interview with Mohamed Ghanem, a Muslim Brotherhood representative regarding the objectives of the Egyptian revolution in regard to its Political stance towards other countries.
The following is the rush transcription of the interview.
Q: How do you see the situation right now because there is some resistance whether to charge him or actually try him in military court in Sharm el-Sheikh [International Hospital], or take him elsewhere. Overall, so far with the charges that they have been looking at, it seems as if they have basically concentrated on the demonstrations and the killings of demonstrators, but what about the decades of oppression that Mubarak exerted on his people? Do you think he will have to answer for that?
Ghanem: For Mubarak, the case now has become completely legal. Wherever the general persecutor put him in prison or put him in Sharm el-Sheikh, it is a legal process. In my opinion, I would see [it] dangerous to put Mubarak in Tura [Mazraa Prison] where all his government and most of the national party are; [that would be] putting or helping the old gangs to get together, God knows [what] the outcome will be. It is very wise, regardless Mr. Mubarak's health, to keep Mubarak away, actually, as well to divide those gangs to more than one prisoner to cut any chance for them to get together, maybe to plan another conspiracy or whatever those people [are] capable of doing.
Then it's not healthy for Mubarak or the Egyptian people to put Mubarak with all [the members] of his old regime and his old gangs together. But for trying him, the most important thing for the Egyptian people [are] 2 things: to try him fairly and secondly to get all the money.
And when you try Mubarak, I'm sure there is a lot of other [people who are] associated [with him], who [are] not persecuted,[and] so far should come up and should be tried as well, and get the whole jigsaw of these gangs or this old regime together. Now Egypt is moved to be a free Egypt and we don't want any from the old regime to affect the movement of the new Egypt.
Q: What about that Mr. Ghanem, how likely is it that the Egyptian government will be able to get all of the money that Mubarak and those around him had taken or put outside of the country ?
Ghanem: It's not the government only, I have heard as well form the media and other friends, there is a lot of people, legal people, the judges, even some foreigner would like to help the Egyptian people to bring this money. We know here we have a lot of companies, which they volunteer to try to get the money from outside.
But I now the Egyptian people will not rest until they get every penny this man and his family and his gang stole from the Egyptian people, sucked from the blood of the Egyptian people back to the country. But that is not an easy task or doesn't come over night. It has to have cases, be very well documented, [and] represented to the juristic entity which should add accordingly, and may procedure and guarantee this money comes back to Egypt and the Egyptian people.
Q: Mr. Ghanem let's look at some of the changes that many Egyptian are expecting, and let's see if their expectations will be realized. I want your perspective on this: One of the main demands of the Egyptian people, looking at foreign policy, it is the change of the relationship that Cairo has with Tel Aviv, how likely do you think that's going to happen?
Ghanem: Well, when the revolution came, the whole ship or the Egyptians took off for two or three [gear in] Egypt. Maybe they're still in first gear, but they are going towards a change into a new Egypt. Now when we say new Egypt, it has 2 elements, the internal one and external one.
[The] internal one is very complex as a structure, you need to change the political structure because the previous structure was dropped and there was a dictatorship. To move from dictatorship structure to democracy, freedom, and respect in human rights you need only to change [the] economic structure, social structure, education, health wise; all these has to go together. You don't change society over night. This is up to the Egyptian people; they have suffered dictatorship... they're going to change and they'll make the political life healthy in order to repair the structure of being destroyed and destructed by the old regime.
For the external, this revolution wouldn't [be] called [a] success unless it's spread in all the areas in the Middle East and Muslim world, because when you say we should reach independence and we should finalize the relation between Egypt and Israel, that's wrong, that will take us back to the same position we were. We have to aim, by this revolution, to bring back the united Ummah as it was before, then one of the objectives is to bring back the whole earlier [united Ummah] together and when you get that healthy political mood, then the relation with Israel has to change, and Israel has to respect the rights of the Palestinian people as a part of the area all together.
Then we can regain the balance which can give the Palestinian people a fair deal and make the whole stable, but talking again about national security for the Egyptian regime all these slogans will put us back, and to succeed this revolution and get the fruit out of it, we must complete until the external affect should be in the whole Middle East. I'm not saying bring in the whole Middle East in one country, no. With all its courtiers, they have to bring the entity of the nation again. When you get the entity of the nations with healthy political and repairing the structure in the whole area, then you can talk about a new era, internally and externally and worldwide.
Ghanem: Today, the US-based Pew [Research Center] came out and said the majority of Egyptians are saying that they want a system that's based on the Qur'an. How significant is that and are you surprised at those results?
Ghanem: Well, with respect to everyone, the Qur'an does not produce a system but [according to the understanding] of the Muslim Brotherhood, in Islam, we don't describe [it as a] system, because [it] depends on a social structure and technology. And that's what subhana watala has lifted the people.
According to the Islamic principle, the ultimate objective of Islam is justice. We have to put justice on our eye as an objective, and work toward that. The majority of Muslim people believe in that, believe in Islam, and Qur'an as well, [which] helps to develop morality, and when you have the law, which aims through justice, and you have morality, the human being can do [a lot of] good, and they achieve any objective they want. And if you put close together the political would be healthy, and all the other structures which work with these rules are more than the physical rules.
And we know from the Qur'an and science and we put that together and get the people to choose the representatives and judge [them based on their] knowledge and honesty and moral as well, because if it's not a moral person, he will use the power behind the law and change even the good laws with all those that the Egyptian people have practiced in the past. And Egypt is always rich [in] producing the enough man power and using the men and women [who are] very cleaver. And just give them the chance to be free, they will together maybe make Egypt the most wonderful country in the world.
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