Mohammed Salim Al-Awa (Photo: Wiki Commons)
Host Marco Werman speaks with Dr. Mohammed Salim al-Awa who is a devout Muslim and a prospective candidate for president of Egypt.
He says Islamists don’t hate the United States but America needs to realize it’s not the only big player in the Middle East.
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Marco Werman: Egypt’s ruling military council is promising to step aside in June of this year. Presidential elections are due to be held before then. The formal registration process for presidential candidates is slated for mid March. One of the prospective candidates is Islamic scholar Mohammed Salim al-Awa. We reached him in London today. Al-Awa says his work lead him to become a candidate.
Mohammad Salim al-Awa: I’m in the position of a very good friendship with all the Islamic powers in Egypt, not only in Egypt, but all over the world because I have been working for the Islamic cause since more than 45-50 years. I was the founding secretary general for the International Union for Muslim Scholars, so I have very good relations with all the Muslim activists in the world, and especially these scholar circles.
Werman: Now another relationship that is apparently pretty close to you is that with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, SCAF, the Egyptian military. Would you describe yourself as pro-Army?
Awa: I have to have this relationship with them because I’m an activist. I work for the benefit of the people. I have many political situations which needed contact with them, and I did that all the time.
Werman: Let’s talk about one thing undertaken by Egypt’s military that’s become quite controversial. This week America’s highest ranking military officer said he pleaded with Egypt’s ruling generals to resolve the crackdown on nonprofit groups in Egypt, NGOs. What are your views on the current NGO detentions in Cairo?
Awa: Well, by the way it is not only American NGOs, it is international NGOs from all countries and Egyptian NGOs.
Werman: Right.
Awa: We have a law that regulates the activities of NGOs in Egypt. And as in every country, in strong support of abiding by the law, any NGO that did not abide by the law should face the rules and regulations presented thereof. And I think the legal matter should be left entirely to the judiciary, to the Egyptian judiciary. It can’t be dealt with internationally or from outside. It has to be dealt with the by the judiciary of Egypt.
Werman: Bearing in mind current events in Syria and general regional instability after the Arab Spring, why do you so vocally support Iran and vilify Israel. Won’t this just create more tension?
Awa: No, it wouldn’t create more tension. In fact, it will decrease tension because what I’m saying, that Iran is a part, eternal part of the Middle East. Eternal people in the Middle East, and they cannot be ignored. Once we deal with Iran as a normal country with which we have interests and to which we have some fears, and then we deal with these interest and those fears in a practical way, Iran will become a normal country like any other. But putting it in the square of [inaudible 3:06] and make a sort of propaganda all over the world that this is the country which may destroy civilization is very unfair in my view.
Werman: But doesn’t vilifying Israel as you’ve done in the past prompt and provoke even more tension?
Awa: I think the way Israel is dealing with the Iranian problem, as well as the Palestinian problem in fact, will not lead us to any point of agreement or any solution. It will lead us to more tension and conflict in the area. Israel needs to change its policy toward the Arab world and toward the Islamic world, and toward Iran, in particular.
Werman: There are concerns in the west, Dr. Awa, that with Islamists in power in Egypt that there could be a real break between Egypt and the United States. I don’t know if you would call yourself an Islamist or not, but you’ve been critical in the past about the US. Are you an opponent of the US?
Awa: No, I’m not an opponent of the US. I criticize the US when I see something that needs to be criticized, as I do with any Egyptian governments, including Mr. Mubarak. I used to be critical of what I think needs to be criticized. I’m not anti-American, even the Islamists of Egypt, of them of course, I am one. I’m not anti-American, but we need to deal with the American people, the American government, the American administration on equal footing.
Werman: We should say too Dr. al-Awa, Egyptians are also concerned by Islamists in power in their country. So let me just ask you straight out, are you, do you consider yourself an Islamist?
Awa: Yes, of course, I’m an Islamist. Islamist is a man who believes in God and Muhammad, his prophet, in the Koran, who tries to live in his family, his society, his business, his relationship according to Islamic values.
Werman: Should those values be imposed on others in a kind of legal way?
Awa: No, no.
Werman: Sharia?
Awa: No. On the contrary, we recognize the rights of everybody else, whether being Muslim, non-Muslim, Egyptian or a foreigner, to do and believe and act as he wishes.
Werman: So Islamists in Egypt are not to be feared?
Awa: No, no, no.
Werman: Dr. Mohammed Salim al-Awa, one of the prospective presidential candidates in Egypt, thank you very much for speaking with us.
Awa: Thank you.
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Discussion
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