The Egyptian\'s former foreign minister Mohammed Orabi Egypt\'s former foreign minister Mohammed Orabi has launched a fierce attack against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, saying the Brotherhood are merging religion with politics whilst considerably undermining the ethical values of Islam.Speaking at a symposium held on Saturday in the headquarters of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, the former minister warned against what he said is a \"dangerous deterioration in all aspects of life in Egypt.\"
\"I spent 35 years working as a diplomat in the Egyptian foreign ministry; throughout this period I had never seen a president speaking about addressing litter in the streets as one of his top priorities. It is shameful that our government\'s ambitions are limited to this level while the entire world is moving forward. We are not just deteriorating, we are hitting the bottom ground,\" Orabi said in his speech.
Orabi served as foreign minister for only few days in 2011 before he was forced to resign on the back of popular rejection to his appointment due to alleged close ties between him and the family of the ousted president Hosni Mubarak. He was described as being a member of the so-called \"deep state\" of the Mubarak regime.
\"This expression [the deep state] was just a fashion adopted by the people you see them always talking in the TV shows,\" said the veteran diplomat.
\"We have to stop categorising each other; Muslim Brotherhood against liberals, civilians against military... This would never make us any good.\"
\"The Brotherhood are merging religion with politics, although each of them is totally different to the other. On the other hand they are significantly undermining the ethical values our religion was based on, and you can see that ethics are badly missed in Egypt\'s political sphere at the mean time.\"
Strategic expert Alaa Rizq accused the Brotherhood of restricting the freedoms of their opponents. Rizq said that the organisers of the symposium wanted to publish an ad for it in the state-run newspaper, al-Ahram, but the paper\'s administration refused their ad because they expected the symposium will be criticised by the Brotherhood and President Mohammed Morsi, who is affiliated to them.
Rizq linked this incident to the sacking of the al-Gomhuria newspaper\'s chief editor Gamal Abdelrehim, who was sacked after his paper published news that former defence minister and interim ruler, retired Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and his former deputy, retired General Sami Annan, will be referred to court for their responsibility for the death of peaceful protestors during the transition period when their military junta was ruling the country.
Rizq also criticised President Mohammed Morsi\'s economic approach, as the latter has sought to get foreign loans from countries and international institutions, mainly the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
\"These loan will keep our economic policies tied to the will of the IMF and the international powers which stand behind it,\" said Rizq.
\"I warn President Morsi of repeating the same mistakes that brought the former regime to end.\"
Rizq went on to say that Morsi must work to avoid internal strife in the country and keep the Egyptian people united against the challenges facing them.
\"Unity is the answer for our problems. In 1899 Egypt was going through economic hardships similar to those we are enduring now. But as a nation we were able to reduce our expenditures and increase our income and our resources until we came out of the crisis,\" he explained.
\"The people need a great national goal to inspire them to work in order to achieve it, it couldn\'t be imagined that this goal could be finding a solution for the spread of garbage or the shortage in fuel supplies,\" he said referring to the goals set by President Morsi to be achieved during his tenure, which were seen as humble by many of Egypt\'s politicians and activists.