Iraqi Kurds Condemn Egypt's Crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood
Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 4:07 pmERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Several thousand Kurds, mainly members of Islamic parties, staged a protest in the Kurdish capital of Erbil on Saturday to denounce the killing of Muslim Brotherhood protesters in Egypt by the army.
The gathering in Erbil’s Shanidar Park was organized by the Kurdistan Islamic Union and the Islamic League (Komal) to condemn the “coup” by the Egyptian military against the government of Mohammed Morsi and the violent crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protesters.
Amid shouts of “Down with Sisi’s Army,” by the crowd, the leaders of the two Islamic parties, Muhammad Faraj and Ali Bapir urged the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to publically denounce the killing of civilian protesters by the Egyptian army hundreds of whom have been in the killed in the past two days.
“We Kurds have been burnt by the fire of repression before,” the Komal leader Ali Bapir told the crowd. “Therefore we feel other people’s pain.”
“Our Muslim neighbors have persecuted us, the superpowers have betrayed us,” he added. “What happened to the Muslims in Egypt is the same that happened to us, that’s why we stand against it.”
Ali Qaradaghi, a Kurd, and head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars condemned the attack by the Egyptian army on the Muslim Brotherhood and he urged the Kurdish parties to denounce the violent in Egypt “as America and the rest of the world.”
“The attacks in Egypt are against democracy and legitimacy,” Qaradaghi said. “All nations in the world must condemn that act because it is an inhuman and undemocratic act. It is a holocaust.”
The Kurdistan Islamic Movement (IMK)—Kurdistan’s oldest Islamic party—boycotted Saturday’s gathering, saying that the Islamic Union and Komal had exploited the event for their own political gain.
In an official statement, the IMK said that the Islamic Union and Komal had stolen the idea for a public gathering on the events that was initially suggested by the IMK.
“All Islamic groups and scholars should have been consulted to make it a joint effort and keep it away from political agendas and a election propaganda,” read the IMK statement, referring to the organizers’ monopoly of the gathering in Shanidar Park.
Organizers of the protest however, told Rudaw “We invited the IMK to join us and express their views openly, but they declined.”
Islamic officials also complained that the security forces and the police had stopped people from entering Erbil in order to participate in the protest and turned them back at the checkpoints.
But governor of Erbil, Nawzad Hadi, told Rudaw that the organizers of the protest had initially said that the gathering would only be for the residents of Erbil.
“They had told us that the gathering would only be for the people of Erbil and its suburbs,” Hadi said. “They said that they would organize similar gatherings in other towns separately, that’s why people were not allowed to come to Erbil.”
Comments
3 0 Bakir Lashkari | 4 hours ago
NO MUSILIMBROTHERHOODs IN KURDISTAN! There is no doubt for what so ever killing the innocent people is a crime against the humanity and its work of the terrorists. I wonder why these Muslims(if they are Kurds) are not protesting in Iran and Syria who are killing and hanging the Kurdish people every day! Shame of those the so called Muslim political parties who never ever protested against the regime of Saddam Hussein who killed five thousands of people in Halabja on 16 of march 1988. It is a propaganda for the Muslim Brotherhood to start a problem in the Kurdistan Region! I would rather forbid them and send them to Egypt, if they want to fight for their destiny, rather than fighting against AL Qaida in Syria who are killing the Kurdish people systematically.
The gathering in Erbil’s Shanidar Park was organized by the Kurdistan Islamic Union and the Islamic League (Komal) to condemn the “coup” by the Egyptian military against the government of Mohammed Morsi and the violent crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protesters.
Amid shouts of “Down with Sisi’s Army,” by the crowd, the leaders of the two Islamic parties, Muhammad Faraj and Ali Bapir urged the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to publically denounce the killing of civilian protesters by the Egyptian army hundreds of whom have been in the killed in the past two days.
“We Kurds have been burnt by the fire of repression before,” the Komal leader Ali Bapir told the crowd. “Therefore we feel other people’s pain.”
“Our Muslim neighbors have persecuted us, the superpowers have betrayed us,” he added. “What happened to the Muslims in Egypt is the same that happened to us, that’s why we stand against it.”
Ali Qaradaghi, a Kurd, and head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars condemned the attack by the Egyptian army on the Muslim Brotherhood and he urged the Kurdish parties to denounce the violent in Egypt “as America and the rest of the world.”
“The attacks in Egypt are against democracy and legitimacy,” Qaradaghi said. “All nations in the world must condemn that act because it is an inhuman and undemocratic act. It is a holocaust.”
The Kurdistan Islamic Movement (IMK)—Kurdistan’s oldest Islamic party—boycotted Saturday’s gathering, saying that the Islamic Union and Komal had exploited the event for their own political gain.
In an official statement, the IMK said that the Islamic Union and Komal had stolen the idea for a public gathering on the events that was initially suggested by the IMK.
“All Islamic groups and scholars should have been consulted to make it a joint effort and keep it away from political agendas and a election propaganda,” read the IMK statement, referring to the organizers’ monopoly of the gathering in Shanidar Park.
Organizers of the protest however, told Rudaw “We invited the IMK to join us and express their views openly, but they declined.”
Islamic officials also complained that the security forces and the police had stopped people from entering Erbil in order to participate in the protest and turned them back at the checkpoints.
But governor of Erbil, Nawzad Hadi, told Rudaw that the organizers of the protest had initially said that the gathering would only be for the residents of Erbil.
“They had told us that the gathering would only be for the people of Erbil and its suburbs,” Hadi said. “They said that they would organize similar gatherings in other towns separately, that’s why people were not allowed to come to Erbil.”
Comments
3 0 Bakir Lashkari | 4 hours ago
NO MUSILIMBROTHERHOODs IN KURDISTAN! There is no doubt for what so ever killing the innocent people is a crime against the humanity and its work of the terrorists. I wonder why these Muslims(if they are Kurds) are not protesting in Iran and Syria who are killing and hanging the Kurdish people every day! Shame of those the so called Muslim political parties who never ever protested against the regime of Saddam Hussein who killed five thousands of people in Halabja on 16 of march 1988. It is a propaganda for the Muslim Brotherhood to start a problem in the Kurdistan Region! I would rather forbid them and send them to Egypt, if they want to fight for their destiny, rather than fighting against AL Qaida in Syria who are killing the Kurdish people systematically.
