This article was originally published by the Gatestone Institute.
In a video of Hosni Mubarakwhen he was still
Egypt’s president, the strategies of which he accuses the Muslim Brotherhood
have come to pass. What follows are Mubarak’s words from a conference in Egypt
(date unknown; author’s translation):
So they [Brotherhood and affiliates] took advantage of the economic
situation by handing out money, to one man 100 Egyptian pounds, or about $30
dollars, [saying,] “Here take this bag of glycerin and throw it here,” or do
this or that—to create a state of instability in Egypt. And these groups—don’t
ever believe that they want democracy or anything like that. They are
exploiting democracy in order to eliminate democracy. And if they ever do
govern, it will be an ugly dictatorship. …. Once a foreigner [likely a
Westerner] told me, “Well, if that’s the case, why don’t you let them form
parties?” I told him, “they’d attack each other.” He said, “So let them attack
each other.” I came to understand that by “attack each other” he thought I
meant through dialogue. For years we’ve been trying to dialogue with them, and
still are. If the dialogue is limited to words, fine. But when the dialogue
goes from words to bullets and bombs… [Mubarak shakes his head, and then gives
anecdotes of Egyptian police and security being killed by Brotherhood and
affiliates, including how 104 policemen were killed in 1981, and how one
officer was shot by them trying to save a boy’s life.] The point is, we don’t
like bloodshed, neither our soldiers nor our officers. But when I see that
you’re firing at me, trying to kill me—well, I have to defend myself! Then the
international news agencies go to these [Islamist] groups for information, and
they tell them, “they’re killing us, they’re killing us!” Well, don’t you [news
agencies] see them killing the police?! I swear to you, not one of the police
wants to kill them—not one of us. Then they say, “So Mr. President, you gave
orders to the police to open fire indiscriminately?”—I cannot give such an
order, at all. It contradicts the law. I could at one point be judged [for it].
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