I read the article of the Honorable Professor Hesham Jaafar: (The Muslim Brotherhood and the Social Question: Towards an Interpretative Model), and I have known his distinguished research ability for more than three decades ... Incorrect, which is the measurement of Islam in light of the standards of other systems, such as capitalism or socialism, and the criterion of governance has become proximity or distance from neoliberalism [1], or the issue of social justice.
Whereas, the original rule of the Brotherhood’s thinking is the general purposes of Islamic law, and the policies and programs that it builds on, which differ from one place to another, and from time to time, according to the needs of the individual and society, without this trend being stained with socialism or capitalism. The Brotherhood’s issue of social justice is not the product of a class struggle, hatred for the rich, or a desire to monopolize wealth, but its motive is: the theory of the right to a decent life, which manifests itself in the preservation of self, mind, religion, supply and money.
The second thing, which started from him, is his imagination of what had the Brotherhood reached in the fifties and sixties to rule, and that they would have chosen socialism, instead of the neoliberalism that they followed during the rule of Morsi .. This is answered in many ways, and you are a skilled researcher, was the contribution of Dr. Mustafa Al-Sibai, which she struck, for example, is the expression of the Brotherhood’s tendencies as a group? Or is it a scientific contribution from a specialized scientist who wanted to make his substitution in a reality in which there is a socialist culture? As there was the contribution of Dr. Al-Sibai - may God have mercy on him - there were other contributions bearing the title "no socialism in Islam", and another example, my book Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali - may God have mercy on him - in which he outlined the uniqueness of Islam as a way of life from the other prevailing systems of capitalism and socialism, namely The book "Islam and our economic conditions", and the book "Islam and socialist approaches".
Was Dr. Morsi's bias toward peasants and debt forgiveness a liberal approach? Was Dr. Morsi accepting the appointment of 450,000 temporary workers in the corridors of government and converting them to permanent employment, a liberal approach?
Of course, he learned the contributions of the martyr Abdul Qadir Awda in his books "Islam and our political conditions" and "Islam and our legal conditions", and this may be in the fifties and sixties, but you contemplated the contribution of Dr. Tawfiq Al-Shawi in his huge encyclopedia entitled "Jurisprudence of Shura and Counseling" which was issued in the nineties. This is sufficient, so as not to go on in the models of intellectual and scientific contributions that scholars have contributed, known for their intellectual and dynamic affiliation to the Brotherhood, because what is important in this matter is that a publication is not taken here or there is evidence, through which I define the direction of the Brotherhood in adopting policies related to people's lives in Meeting, politics and others.
As for the ruling that the Brotherhood adopted a "neoliberal" approach during the rule of President Morsi - may God have mercy on him - I am surprised how did you reach this absolute rule? Was Dr. Mohamed Morsi's announcement from the Iron and Steel Complex to halt privatization and public sector reform a neoliberal approach? Was the strategy announced by Dr. Mohamed Morsi to achieve self-development (will we produce our food, medicine, and weapons) a neoliberal approach? Was Dr. Morsi's bias towards farmers peasants and debt forgiveness a liberal approach? Was Dr. Morsi accepting the appointment of 450,000 temporary workers in the corridors of government, and converting them to permanent employment, a liberal approach? Was Dr. Morsi's bias towards the breadwinner woman, the provision of free health insurance to her, or the increase in the number of families benefiting from a social security pension, raising the value of the pension, a neoliberal approach?
Was it required to confiscate people's money and return them to the nationalization of the property? I would have liked to take into account the temporal context while writing this article, as well as the events that occurred during the experiment, before taking sides with judgments made by researchers who lack scientific neutrality. The Brotherhood’s strategy in the economic and social aspects during the period of Dr. Morsi was completely different from the accusations against it. We were focusing on a large project for self-development in Egypt that depended on the state’s presence in economic and service projects, according to sound rules, and at the same time we are working to build Competitive private sector, operating in a legal environment, away from corruption. I am writing this while I am close to the experience, as I was one of the contributors to the preparation of the Freedom and Justice Party program, and head of its economic committee, and I am present for many important economic events that Egypt experienced during that period, and there is no room for dealing in detail.
Has the Brotherhood chosen, from the fall of Mubarak to the military coup, only democracy? How did the Brotherhood come to power then? Who enacted an election law that would allow the results to be announced in the sub-committees, and would enable people to be transparent and respect their choice?
Also, I started in your article from your vision that "the social issue has become one of the most important priorities of the Arab citizen, ahead of other topics, which have gained priority in past years, such as identity issues." Here we must differentiate between making the issue of identity an area for division and fragmentation of the fabric of society, and to know that a correct understanding of the social issue must be linked to identity. Otherwise, how can we behave on issues such as ownership and distribution of wealth and the work of power, unless I have resolved the issue of identity. Displaying the issue as I presented in your article, enables you to see the separation of religion from the lives of people, and there is no need to recall what happened between you and me from the dialogue on the issue of the relationship between religion and identity.
I reckon that the issue of identity after the January 2011 revolution was called upon by some elites to create confusion and to prevent Egypt from proceeding with the path of reform, which was presented by the Islamists.
Also, from the absolute rulings in your article, the Brotherhood did not realize the nature of the January 2011 revolution, and they did not realize that the issues of democracy and social justice are more important than the issue of identity (Sharia). I ask you: Did the Brotherhood choose, from the fall of Mubarak to the military coup, only democracy? How did the Brotherhood come to power then? Who enacted an election law that would allow the results to be announced in the sub-committees, and would enable people to be transparent and respect their choice?
And the issue of social justice, people must be aware of its main components, in order not to be limited to visualizing labor movements, left-wing parties, or stabbing political opponents. There are three components of social justice, which are: providing opportunities for all, enabling it, and sustaining it all the time. . Was the Brotherhood’s literature or practice impeding social justice? On the contrary, the practices of the Muslim Brotherhood enabled a good number of people from the poor and middle classes, through the practice of public work and engagement with social reality, from student unions, unions, local councils, and parliament, to the presidency.
Rather, one of the most important reasons that led to the fact that a segment of judges is hostile to the Muslim Brotherhood, and is biased towards the deep state, that the Brotherhood arranged the method for selecting new entrants into the prosecution service away from mediation and favoritism, and made the application and selection based on clear rules that take place in an electronic way, and away from interventions By any party. There are many examples that could reflect the Brotherhood's clear vision of democracy and social justice. I will not go into the examples, but I conclude this point with your question, and you have been concerned with union issues since we got to know us at the end of the eighties of the twentieth century, when did the left and representatives of other currents win the elections of the Medical Syndicate, whether in the General Syndicate, or in the Medical Syndicate in Alexandria? Was this not the year in which the late President Mohamed Morsi ruled?
Notes on the concept of the social issue of the Muslim Brotherhood:
Regarding the lawsuit, I disagree with you about what you go to, and agree with it with other writers that you cite, which is to impose on the Brotherhood a way of thinking and a style of practice, while you know that the principles and treatments of the Brotherhood differ from others, by virtue of their Islamic reference. Islam does not know the classes, and view society in light of historical or class struggle; But the Brotherhood’s view was determined by their literature, and most notably the book, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Ghazali, “Islam and Our Economic Conditions”, where he criticized the class idea for its intellectual distortion, and adopted the Grades Index, which respects people's efforts and potentials. Hence, the Brotherhood's discourse can be analyzed as based on Islamic principles that cannot be interpreted, namely: “If I honor you with God, I will fear you”, and “Say: Do, so God will see your work, its messenger, and the believers.” And so that I will not be prolonged, the Brotherhood’s vision of the social issue comes within the framework of their understanding Comprehensive of Islam, and that those who retain his capabilities and capabilities from individuals are guaranteed by society to complete his needs, to lead a free and dignified life, through the role of the state in social protection, and the contributions of civil society, from the rights of relatives, Zakat, endowment, charity, and so on. If the Brotherhood's advocacy speech works to waste the value of class, as a distorted concept, then this is calculated for them, then it is not the Brotherhood's role to read the reality of their societies through marketing misconceptions and practices.
There is an important observation, in your conclusion to analyzing the advocacy discourse as one of the pillars of your vision of the social issue with the Brotherhood, as you mentioned: "... but at the same time made it fail to express its electoral base, which was mainly concentrated in the middle and lower classes, which lost its popularity during the rule of Morsi al-Qasir ". My view is that this is an absolute judgment that required you to be careful and reasoned. And your adoption of this result neglects all that has been done in several areas, from other parties to reach the military coup. I understand that the Brotherhood has lost their popularity, through free and fair elections. You could say the Brotherhood’s decline in popularity. As for the ruling that the Brotherhood lost their popularity in the poor and middle classes during Morsi’s rule, it is an incorrect result.
Regarding what I called "moral" rhetoric, I mentioned, "With ethical rhetoric, it transcends or wastes talk about social, political, economic, and even cultural structures that produce poverty, differentiation, and class contradictions in society." I reckon that your reading needed to be based on a fair study, or an analysis of the Brotherhood's behavior, I ask you what caused the Brotherhood’s persecution since its inception and a clash with the ruling authority, beginning with King Farouk, and through Abdel Nasser and Sadat, Mubarak, and ending with Sisi, except that they adopted different social, political and economic policies? (Continued)
As for reading charitable work as being in the context of an unwritten deal, this is an accusation that is not based on evidence. Rather, successive governments have limited the Brotherhood’s practices in charitable work by confiscating association funds, interfering in the formation of their boards of directors, and arresting those responsible for them. The Mubarak regime may have allowed charity work within the limits of a certain margin; But he was never in a deal. On the other hand, have you forgotten that this charitable work comes within the framework of Islamic laws, rights and duties, which are inevitable to do? Was the Brotherhood required to abstain from their people their zakat and alms, or to ask the rest of the able-bodied in society to refrain from paying zakat and charity as a pressure card on the government?
Regarding zakat specifically, and speaking about it in this way, I see that the vision you adopted is influenced by the vision of the left movement, which views zakat as a charitable act upon which societies are not based. The truth is that the essence of the Muslim Brotherhood’s thought and practice is that zakat is one of the tools of financial policy, and it is the duty of the state, and through it the state fulfills its duty in the issue of social protection .. This does not mean that it is the only tool for reforming people's social and economic lives, but zakat comes within a system of work and production For all components of society, including the state.
And the Islamic idea does not suffer from weakness in the social issue, neither in terms of concept, nor in terms of practice, and it is not a factor in strengthening the Islamic idea in the social issue to coalesce with what it called "the Islamic left". The most important characteristic of the Islamic idea since its inception is the clarity of its social vision ; Some denounced the Brotherhood that they were adopting the principle of rights and duties in public affairs, and more than once the Brotherhood's refusal to keep silent about the advantages of persons or groups that they did not deserve was a reason to abuse them.
As for the question of the relationship between the individual and the organization, and your saying: "The sacred organization separates its membership." The individual in the Brotherhood is free, and the organization is not sacred, in the context of my personal experience that spanned for about 40 years in the ranks of the group, and - you are the best person to know the meaning of the term - the sacred is the precursor of error, and the Brotherhood teaches and teaches their members and all people the hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him and all " Ibn Adam is a mistake and the best of the sinners are those who repent. ”And Malik bin Anas, may God be pleased with him, said:“ Every human being is taken from him and left except the infallible, may God bless him and grant him peace. ”
It is unreasonable to reach a ruling that the Brotherhood preferred the neoliberal option, which unleashes the freedom of the individual, and not the Brotherhood as well, and the role of education in practicing the Brotherhood is not tying individuals, but rather their starting-ups in society. It is that the Brotherhood is legitimate and an idea, larger than it is an organization and a group, so the most important elements of the Muslim Brotherhood’s thought spread in society, namely: that Islam is a comprehensive religion that regulates all aspects of life, and that the Islamic nation is one nation, and that the inclusion of the idea does not mean the inclusion of the movement, because Islam seeks the nation With all its components. There was no restriction on the movement of individuals, their assimilation into society, and their interaction with its issues, and if there were wrong practices, they express the personalities of their owners, and do not express the group's thought or practices.
In the context of my personal experience, the Brotherhood presented a party program in 2007, and it was subject to give and take. The Freedom and Justice Party program was presented after the January 25 Revolution, and it has a lot of what Mr. Hisham and other left-wing writers demanded, but some read it according to their view, as he did. Owners of the terms "wasted capital" or "pious neoliberalism".
It is not absent from my brother’s acumen, Mr. Hisham, that the policies of any political faction remain abstract until he comes to power, so that he is aware of the most accurate components of reality, and how many of the policies announced by political parties and forces were put forward before they were able to power, and were turned upside down immediately after Their coming to power, or the presence of emergency events that might compel them to adopt policies against their identity; The example of the left parties in Greece after the financial crisis in 2010 is a good example of this, as is the behavior of the US government to Bush Jr. after the global financial crisis, where his government's actions to address the global financial crisis in 2008 came against all the rules of capitalism.
He described the Brotherhood's ideology as pragmatic and lacking an understanding of the nature of the Islamic reference, which is based on the interests of society. It may be in the interest of society at one time to give a greater role to the private sector, and it may be appropriate at another time to give more space to the public sector, and it may be the best option to combine Public and private sector contribution, wealth redistribution and resource allocation. The Islamic culture was a precedent in this matter, through what our master Omar did by allocating pastures in the city to the camels of the poor, and preventing camels Ibn Affan and Ibn Auf, and other rich people of the city from approaching this pasture, and on this basis the Brotherhood built their economic and social vision, existing On the flexibility of policies to achieve the interests of society. Was our master Omar a socialist?
I reckon - other than what it goes to in support of what others have written - that the Brotherhood tested in the localities that they won in 1992, and presented practices that express their full awareness of the social issue, as well as in the unions that you at the beginning of our research work called "outlets for reform", How did the Brotherhood-run unions serve their members professionally and socially, but rather contribute to public concern and concern.
As for the past practice of seeing the Brotherhood’s work, it is a description that needs revision, because it considers the Brotherhood as if they were the ones who established the institutions of society through which they work, or they are the framers of the rest of the institutions that control the movement and work of society. The other issue is that the social sciences and their development come in part as part of the monitoring of reality, its study, and its establishment, and many of the conditions accepted by the Brotherhood within the framework of the gradual and gradual reform approach, and not a clash with institutions and society.
Regarding the fifth element of your vision to explain the Brotherhood’s understanding of the social issue, which you called “the predominance of the protest” over the presentation of policies, I remind you of our dialogue in 2013, and a month before the coup, at the symposium of the Association of Upper Egypt in Ain Sukhna, in which I presented my intervention under the title “Reading in Justice” The social status of the Islamists: Mr. Sayed Qutb and Sheikh Muhammad Abu Zahra are two models. “Remember,” I presented the paper, and I found interventions and discussions in another direction, accusing the Brotherhood of adopting the neoliberal approach. I only had to take the Freedom and Justice Party program out of my bag, and I showed what was in it. From social justice policies.
Finally, I do not claim absolute correctness of what I see, and I hope for more reflection on the issue in its many aspects, and this is what I think is closest to what we perceive as right.
[1] Neoliberalism is an ideological thought based on absolute economic freedom, or the empowerment of the private sector and the non-interference of the state in the economy.
Capitalism: An economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, and the production of goods and services for profit. The main characteristics of capitalism include private ownership, capital accumulation, wage labor, market freedom and full competition.
Socialism: a political and economic doctrine based on the control of the state over the means of production and comprehensive planning, and the pursuit of social justice.