ACTIVIST URGES EGYPT’S SISI TO RECONCILE WITH BROTHERHOOD

Cairo, 15 Muharram 1437/28 October 2015 (MINA) –   A prominent human rights activist has called on Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to reconcile with the Muslim Brotherhood group, which since 2013 has been subject to a relentless crackdown by the government.

“I’m calling for reconciliation with the Brotherhood so as not to waste our resources in vengeful operations [against the group],” Saad Eddin Ibrahim, the founder of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, said in televised comments Monday, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Ibrahim, an Egyptian-American sociologist, urged Sisi to put his reconciliation proposal before a public referendum.

“If approved, this would be great. If not, then we have to respect the choice of the people,” he said.

Egyptian authorities have waged a harsh crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood — the country’s oldest Islamist movement — since mid-2013, when the army ousted President Mohamed Morsi in a coup.

In late 2013, the Egyptian government designated the Brotherhood a “terrorist organization”.

Egypt’s military-backed authorities blame the Brotherhood for a string of militant attacks on security personnel that have rocked the country since Morsi’s overthrow.

The Brotherhood, for its part, denies the claims, saying it adheres to strictly peaceful forms of activism. (T/P010/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)