CAIRO, EGYPT – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has condemned extremists trying to impose their religious and political convictions through acts of terror like the recent beheadings of 21 Egyptian workers in Libya in an attack that drew global condemnation.
He said the peace-loving Egyptians experienced untold pain, anguish and anger following the beheading of the 21 Egyptians who had gone to that country as migrant workers.
El-Sisi stressed the retaliatory attack along the border where the beheadings took place was to demonstrate his country’s resolve to protect its people and defend its territorial integrity.
El-Sisi was speaking at the Presidential Palace in Cairo last Thursday where he addressed a group of newspaper editors and senior radio producers from fifteen African countries amongst them Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan.
El-Sisi strongly condemned the spread to Africa of abominable acts of terrorism and religious extremism that could potentially engulf the entire African continent.
He noted terrorism is foreign to Africa after it was previously only confined to strife-stricken countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan where this highly destructive ideological and religious phenomenon has become synonymous with those countries.
El-Sisi, the former Egyptian Military Intelligence Chief and former chief of the Egyptian army is concerned if African countries do not collaborate and collectively fight terrorism this scourge has the potential to spread across the African continent and endanger the lives of its people.
The Egyptian leader who was speaking through an interpreter was emphatic that extremists and religious fanatics should not be allowed to impose their religious convictions on the people of Africa and that the will of Africans should always be allowed to prevail.
“Some people want to exploit different segments of the same fabric. They want to turn our lives into a living hell under the name of the Holy God,” El-Sisi told visiting African journalists.
“Imagine the senseless destruction of an entire nation in the name of the Holy God,” quipped the Egyptian president, who also stressed war does not benefit anyone but only causes untold misery and the destruction of property and the senseless loss of lives.
El-Sisi suggests the scourge of terrorism could be nipped in the bud if African governments work hand-in-glove while at the same time providing decent education and jobs to their citizens and that “political will” is also essential if terrorism is to be tackled head-on.
President El-Sisi said the continent also needed to mobilise and build capacities of its people in order to attain the development goals.
“We still have a long way to go, we need to do a lot for our people, we need to create jobs and secure the future for our people,” he said.
El-Sisi also said his government was committed to improving its human rights record, but he said some of the news reports about the situation in Egypt and were blown out of proportion and unfair as they were not a true reflection of the situation on the ground.
On the situation in his own country he said Egyptians should have political and religious tolerance and “we need to live together in peace and harmony.”
Regarding the removal of Mohamed Morsi from power El-Sisi said Morsi was ousted through a popular revolt similar to the one through which Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak was removed from power on February 11, 2011 in a revolt that started at Tahrir Square.
He stressed the military council intervention that followed the 2013 uprising against Morsi became inevitable after Morsi and his government imposed certain unpopular doctrines and religious beliefs that were highly divisive and were widely rejected by Egyptians.
El-Sisi explained the military intervention was timely as this had prevented the country of 90 million people sliding into civil war and this would have destabilised the entire region.
On the issue of the Al-Jeezera journalists who were arrested for months sparking an international outcry he said the arrests took place when he was not in office and he personally felt the issue could simply initially have been resolved by deporting them.
Meanwhile, El-Sisi has reiterated Egypt’s commitment to work with other African countries and to increase bilateral and multilateral cooperation and country-to-country trade and he put emphasis on the attainment of the African renaissance.