‘I Think Ikhwan Strategy is Working’

Dr Zafarul Islam Khan

DR. ZAFARUL-ISLAM KHAN, a renowned scholar, author and Editor of English fortnightly Milli Gazette, is President of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (the umbrella body of Muslim organisations in India). In an exclusive interview with ZAID ARIF, Dr. Khan talks on the situation prevailing in Egypt. Excerpts:

Almost one and a half months have passed since the military coup in Egypt and the situation is worsening every passing day. Whom do you think is responsible for these calamities?

This is a very complex situation. We cannot say that this or that one party is responsible. The military, the Egyptian “liberals” and those who are supporting the military within the country and outside are responsible for the unfolding tragedy. America and other western countries are responsible because they approved of the coup. They might be saying something else now because of these continuous killings which are impossible for anyone to justify. In fact, western power gave the green signal to the military to do what they are doing now. And the Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and others also are responsible because they are politically and financially backing the new military regime. There is the news coming out of American sources that the Gulf rulers even financed the coup itself with one billion dollar paid in advance. So you cannot say that only one party is responsible. The Gulf countries are doing so for their own political aims and survival. Also, the Egyptian Army has maintained a very strong relationship with America since Anwar Sadat’s time. This allows the US to use the army to influence local politics as we have seen earlier in the cases of Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey.

Egypt is one of the most important players in the Arab world. Post-change of guard and induction of democracy, it was hoped that the country will lead the Arab world. Do you think prosperity will prevail in near future?

Egypt is not one, but the most important player in the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt is the biggest power in the Arab World in terms of population, army, in terms of achievements, history, manpower, etc. and any development in Egypt influences the whole region. Egyptian policies have always been pivotal for the whole area. Whenever it takes an initiative, it becomes a fashion in the whole region to follow. Western powers and Gulf rulers do not want any democratic and free government in this area so that their policies and hypocrisy are not challenged in the region which will lead to a great loss in their business. In earlier days also, colonial forces had tried to grab power in Egypt but they could not because the Ottoman State was very strong those days.

Do you think President Morsi had taken a wrong decision when he appointed General Sisi as the minister of Civil Safety?

It was the mistake of Morsi and his group, not just Morsi’s alone. When the military ousted Morsi, they at once arrested at least 300 people because they knew they were the core group of the President. These people thought that now that a new president has been elected democratically and freely, everything would be under his control including the police apparatus and the army. But this was their mistake. I think the main reason behind this failure is that the Muslim Brotherhood could not estimate the situation on the ground because of their segregation from politics for decades. They just thought it was good and enough that people elected their party and presidential nominee and he will be able to exercise power democratically.

But the reality was that though Mubarak had gone, his people were there in every department, like the ministry of interior, police, army and even judiciary. Since Gamal Abdel Nasser, all spheres of Egyptian life and government have been controlled by the army. Morsi and his people were wrong in their thinking that they have tamed the big elephant. In fact, they never did.

The Mubarak-men, since the first of day of Morsi in office, used all kinds of tricks and tactics to make him fail, using the military and police and by using the judiciary which too was all Mubarak-appointed. The President did not realise the gravity of the matter till his last days in office. I think Muslim Brotherhood members should have adopted the same policy what was practised in Iran and should have cleansed the whole system, especially the police and intelligence.

Can we say Morsi failed in Egypt given that he could not avert what had been expected since day one?

I think this is not the correct way to describe what happened in Egypt. In fact, the elected government failed to understand the complexity of the situation and they took things on face value. The ruling party also failed to take lessons from others’ somewhat experiences like Iran and Turkey. They should have deeply studied the situation at local as well as international levels and how others tackled potentially counter-revolutionary forces.

It has been said that some “super-powers” have been actively involved in this coup because they feared the new regime might be a threat to them in future. So at this stage can one say that no government can run without the consensus of “super-powers”?

No, this is wrong. The best example is that of Cuba which is almost as tiny in dimension as Gaza but it is not only surviving but also flourishing despite continuous sanctions and several American attempts to overthrow the revolutionary regime these past five decades. Also, you have the example of Gaza where all the super powers – the USA, Israel and even the pro-west Arab world – is hell-bent to overthrow the Hamas government but did they succeed? Zimbabwe is another example where the western powers have been active against the government for some 30 years. But did they succeed? Same is the case with a number of countries in South America like Nicaragua, Chile and Venezuela. Same is the case with the current governments of Iran and Sudan. These examples prove that a determined government and its people can weather the oddest situations in the contemporary world. But this needs strong strategy which was lacking in the Egyptian case.

How do you see the hostile role of media, especially in the Egyptian case?

It is understood that the media, especially the western media, is hostile to Muslims everywhere. I think the MB should have taken more care about it and should have established some good media houses not only in Egypt but also outside Egypt so that it could function even in situations like the present one. I used to get daily emails from some news sources in Egypt but the very day the military overthrew Morsi, it all stopped. The army people must have gone to the places from where such services were running and shut them down like the four local television stations of MB and allied forces which were immediately closed down after the coup.

Undoubtedly, MB men had established some local Arabic channels but this was not enough. They should have extended their media presence to other languages, especially English, in order to reach out to the common man all over the world. Also the Morsi regime gave unbridled freedom to the press which was not justified in a country which had not known freedom of expression for six decades.

The freedom of press under Morsi was unprecedented in the whole world and the President himself was being attacked and ridiculed every single day by newspapers and TV channels which no one could even dream of during Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak days. That is why the media was exploited by opponent of democracy and used to discredit the Morsi regime in the eyes of the Egyptian people. What people read in newspapers and watch on TV channels matters in a society as it shapes their understanding and mindset.

Thousands of common men have been killed so far and the toll is constantly rising. So, in your opinion, should MB change its strategy?

No. I think their strategy is working. Sorrowfully, some people are losing their lives, becoming martyrs for the cause of legitimacy and democracy. But their agitation is peaceful despite all these grave provocations. It is the other side which is resorting to naked violence. I am confident, the MB will remain peaceful but some elements from the MB might ditch them and form violent groups. I think we are facing a spectre of civil war in Egypt which will continue for quite a long time as we have earlier seen in Algeria in 1991 when the Islamists there were similarly robbed of their electoral mandate and some of them turned violent and continue to this day which has resulted in over one lakh deaths. We fear the same tragedy might be repeated in Egypt as a result of unseating an elected President and government.
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‘Got Half Justice, will Get the Second Half Soon’

Abdul Rauf Lala

Abdul Rauf Lala, theNCP corporator from Mumbra (Maharashtra) and the person who filed the writ petition in Ishrat Jaha fake encounter case talks on different dimensions of the case and urges all to be firm while taking up such cases. The story is based on what he said to Zaid Arif at his Mumbra residence in the last week of July 2013.

As we came to know through the media that a Mumbra girl namely Ishrat Jahan has been gunned down in an encounter in Gujarat, we reached her home at Rasheed Compound which is at walking distance from my house in the city. There we saw the house comprising one bedroom along with a washroom and a tiny kitchen. There was a tiny wooden box which contains of their clothing. And the family had access to neither television/newspaper nor a telephone.On our request, her mother Shameema Bi provided us with details.

Ishrat’s father, Shameem Sheikh, died in 2002. He worked as a constructor. After the sad demise of Ishrat’s father, the whole responsibility came to her mother’s shoulder and she joined a medical company so as to feed her family of six. There her work was to stick tags/labels on the medicine wrappers. Her elder daughter, Ishrat, was a B. Sc. (2^nd year)student and was helping her mother by teaching at a coaching centre as well as giving private tuitions at her home.In fact, Ishrat was the backbone of her family and it was she who was winning the bread for the family. Days ago, she was out for some business purpose only to meet her ill fate.

After listening to the complete story, we smelt a rat in the incident.And first of all, we demanded from the authority to return her body as we wanted to bury her in her hometown. Then a team comprising of myself, my friends MunnaSahil, Shakeb Khan,AsadullahHanafialong with Ishrat’s motherheaded towards Ahmedabad the very next day. When we reached Ahmedabad at 5 in morning, a reporter from Gujarat Samachar approached us soon and told us earnestly to raise the issue strongly, as he said that was a fabricated story and a fake encounter. He further added that many of them knew the truth but could not speak out for one reason oranother.

Then our team reached the Gujarat Crime Police Head Station at Haweli. At the police station, we met Singhal and NK Amin. They conducted their investigation upon us in a very rough manner. They talked to us as if we were criminals and were detained in our way to carry out some big mission. We were not given even water to drink and meal to eat during the period and were not allowed to perform JumaNamaz that day. After 5-6 hours of traumatising enquiry, Vanzara came and then started his turn which lasted for three more hours. Our only demand that made them torment us was our claim to return the body of Ishrat. They left no stone unturned to persuade us to withdraw our demand of taking the body to the hometown. When we refused to lend an ear to their requests or rather orders they put a condition before us and said the body would be released provided we bury it in Ahmedabad. We again declined their order and after 9-10 hour long torture we were given access to the body.

We already smelt something fishy in the incident; their behaviour turned our suspicion into surety.  We made up our mind to go through legal proceeding in the whole incident as our Constitution allows us to fight on behalf of an accused whom you consider an innocent.

On return, we consulted my friend Advocate ShahidAzmi and subsequently filed a petition with Advocate Hashim Quraishi of Gujarat in the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court.After one year and a half we found there was no significant development in the case as Advocate Quraishi seemed more interested in making headlines than fighting the case seriously. Then we formed a team along with JitendraAwhad, who is now (not at that time) MLA from Mumbra, and met VrindaGroverwho is an advocate in Supreme Court. After having listened to our story, she stood firmly and boldly with us and assured us to fight the case with full potential and she is still keeping her promise. She also refused to take any charge for this case.Then, with her consent, we appointed advocates MukulSinha and ShilpaSetty in Gujarat and filed a writ petition in Gujarat High Court.

The hearing in Gujarat High Court started in 2007. Our sole demand was to set up a CBI enquiry as we consider the encounter a faked one and the deceased had no terror link. The court appointed SatishVerma as a member of CBI enquiry team. Verma had earlier played an important role as a member of the SIT which had said in its report that the encounter was a staged one. The report of the CBI is now before the country. Half the truth has been exposed and another half is yet to be exposed. Those who brutally killed Ishrat and others have been identified by the court and those who monitored the killing are likely to be exposed soon.

We have got “half justice” with this report of the CBI which has mirrored the earlier report of Magisterial Enquiry and the report of Special Investigation Team. Now the whole world is saying what we said earlier that the encounter was staged.And—Alhamdulillah—for the first time—and no doubt as a result of our constant hard work—the Intelligence Bureau has been exposed and its Special Director, Rajindra Kumar, would be charge-sheeted soon in the case.Until now, individually some officers have been found guilty for some unholy nexus but this time the whole team of IB has been exposed.

It is, in fact, more noteworthy than the names of some political tycoons becauseall the innocents killed so far have been killed at the behest of IBand today the report of CBI makes it clear that IB, on “certain”occasions, circulates wrong information for “some reasons”. Rajindra Kumar and NaMo share very close relationship and, as per the information I have, Rajindra Kumar was completely involved in the plan right from sketching the script until it was executed. He was present at the encounter site as well. There were several phone calls from the cell phone of Kumar to Modi and AmitShah that day. After Rajindra Kumar, we hope NaMo, Shah and others would be in jail next door.

Ishrat and others were allegedly out to kill Modi. There were earlier several warnings of this sort in the state. But all such warnings later proved groundless. It was a political gimmick of NaMo to project himself as a “hero” doing some great work in public interest and hence “villains” are rushing to kill him so as to continue running their “unfair” business.But the real story is when NaMo was sent to Gujarat and the sole target of him was to put a complete control on the state machinery at any rate, he started his scheme from Godhra carnage. First, he got his own men killed and then a state-sponsored riot started for the first time in the history of the nationand then started a battery ofencounters—which numbers around 21 until the encounter of Ishrat—to en-cash the massacre. In this period Modi projected himself as a hero. And when this scheme of his was over and he gained whatever he wanted to, he propagated a second story of development.

Here one might say that the ruling Congress Party is playing this card to appease Muslims before general elections as it has earlier irked them on many occasions, especially by hanging Afzal Guru last year. Also the CBI and others have been blamed on many occasions for working for the ruling party. But I do not think it a handiwork of the Congress because the party, as I experienced, has always created hurdles in the case instead of benefitting us. As far as the autonomy of CBI is concerned, it is true that it works under pressure of the ruling party. But this time it was a completely different situation. The CBI was being monitored by a bench of Justices Patel and Avinas Kumar of Gujarat High Court. The two judges are widely known for their fair, uninfluenced and impartial decree.So it is not fair to say that the CBI worked under pressure at least in this case.

The case took a nine-year-period to reach here. It is enough time to make one give up the case. But we have started our fight reposing our faith inAllah alone. We never pinned our trust on either any individual or any organisation.And I have to say, at this stage, with great sorrow that no organisation came forward to help us and the handful of persons who backed us were either non-Muslims or communists. Among those who supported us are ShabnamHashmi, Vrinda Grover, JitendraAwhad and some others. Also MukulSinha and ShilpaShetty extended their help in Gujarat and there is a group of 15 social activists with Grover helping us at every stage. For our greatest distress, no Muslim organisation came offering their help to us during this period. I am sure everyone includes us in his special prayers and Dua but only this act of Muslims will not support us. What we needed is to encourage us in our service by standing with us or at least by extending their support through a single phone call.Also, we did not approach any group asking for its help. Once we organised ameeting of all Muslim parties in Mumbra on the issue and – Alhamdulillah— we get representation from almost all the organisations.

Any way, we never felt nervous as we had started our work basing our trust in the Almighty and the Omnipresent Allah. This only was enough to encourage us in our disappointing times. Apart from this, we were mentally prepared for all types of sufferings. We were fighting for a martyr and we were sure since the beginning of the case that the decree will be in our favour. And finally it is so.

At last I want to add thateveryone should fight for the right cause with patience and must be readyto face difficulties. We have travelled to Gujarat once in every month for nine years on a stretch and on many occasions we had to run away to save our lives. Many a hotel refused to accommodate us under the pressure of state authority. On some occasions, we reached the city to appear in the court on given date but left it without appearing. Singhal has always abused us even in courts. I remember the time when a hotel owner made us check-out at 3 AM saying some Bajrang Dal activists are coming here to protest.

But we never even thought of giving up and I think when a person has complete trust in Allah and believes that the ultimate decision is of Allah’s, he should never give up. Today the case of Ishrat has become a national issue. This goes to suggest that if you start fighting for a good cause even though you have limited resources, it is the Almighty Allah who will help you.I request all the citizens in general and Muslims in particularto take all such cases seriously and go through legal proceedings instead of issuing emotional and political statements. There are many a non-Muslim activist who is fighting for human cause and ready to help on humanitarian ground. Take assistance from them and be constant while fighting for social causes. Leave behind the idea of giving up.
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