Egyptian media is reporting that the attorney for deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has described the weekly protests by his supporters as “useless.” According to a report in The Telegraph, the comments were contained in a leaked discussion with Dr. Morsi’s attorney Mohamed Selim Al-Awa:
Mohamed Selim Al-Awa
12 Feb 2014 Egypt’s deposed leader Mohamed Morsi has described weekly protests supporting him as ‘useless’ and warned that the military leader who led his overthrow may also fall victim to coup if he becomes the country’s next president.
Mr Morsi’s comments to his lawyer, Selim el Awa, were published on Monday in Al-Watan, a privately owned Egyptian newspaper. This is the third short recording to be leaked from what its editors claim was a forty minute conversation on the sidelines of one of his court appearances in early February.
Since his overthrow, Mr Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, has only been seen in court, cutting a defiant figure each time.
But the former president sounds fatigued on the leaked conversation. When Mr Mr el Awa is asked by his client for news from the outside world, he says that daily street protests by Mr Morsi’s supporters routinely end in clashes. ‘People must sit down, talk and reach a solution,’ he says. ‘Without reaching a solution, Dr Mohamed, there’s no point.’
Mr Morsi agrees, saying that the ongoing protests are ‘useless for both sides’.
Although there is growing discontent among some of the demonstrators over the wisdom of regular protests which are invariably broken up by Egypt’s security services, Morsi’s comments mark the first time it has been questioned from above.
The GMBDW notes that Dr. Morsi’s attorney, Mohamed Selim Al-Awa is a close associate of Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi who is a director of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), launched on July 11, 2004 in conjunction with a visit by Qaradawi to London for a meeting of the European Council for Fatwa and Research. The IUMS board of directors is comprised of many leaders of the global Brotherhood and is headed by Qaradawi. Dr. Al-Awa is a longtime member of the IUMS and once served as the organization’s Secretary-General.
In July 2011, we reported that Dr. Al-Awa, then a candidate himself for the Egyptian Presidency, called for “Affirmation of the Enmity” with Israel and for normal relations with the “Resistance” and Iran.
In October 2010, we reported that Dr. Al-Awa had given an interview in which he accused Egyptian Coptic churches of storing weapons in their monasteries to be used against Muslims.
