Countries ignored our warning about Muslim Brotherhood, played with fire: Egyptian FM Abdelatty

New Delhi: Emphasising on his country’s highly-successful efforts in eradicating terrorism, Egypt Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Friday stated that there is a huge potential for enhancing cooperation with India when it comes to counterterrorism.

“We managed to eradicate terrorism in Egypt because of our holistic approach, not only the security dimension, but socioeconomic dimension, cutting funds, and among all and above all, fighting extremist ideology through our religious institutions. This is what I conveyed to our Indian friends and even to the Indian parliamentary delegation which toured the region (after Pahalgam terror attack), and I received them. So, again, we have huge potential for enhancing our cooperation and to fulfill the will of the two leaders, President Sisi and Prime Minister Modi, as it was translated in our strategic partnership,” Abdelatty said during an interaction with a select group of journalists in New Delhi.

Abdelatty, who is on his first visit to India as a Foreign Minister, held the First India-Egypt Strategic Dialogue alongside External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Thursday evening.

The visiting Foreign Minister highlighted that there is no justification for any escalation against the freedom of navigation and the navigation in the Indian Ocean, Gulf of Aden, and in the Red Sea.

Muslim Brotherhood (MB), he stated, has been designated as a terrorist group for almost 10 years now.

“We warned everybody. We warned the European countries. We warned the West. We warned the Asian countries to be careful. This is the main umbrella of all terrorist groups. You know, since its establishment in 1928, this is the umbrella of all extremist groups. And we warned everybody, but unfortunately, you know, other countries ignored our warning and they played with the fire and they’ve been burned. And up to now, you have countries, especially in Europe, that are still providing safe haven to their elements under the slogan of freedom of expression. And this is nonsense, because they are inciting on killings, on violence, and we warned everybody,” said the Egyptian Foreign Minister.

“We managed to succeed in eliminating their challenges. And by the way, it’s a big mistake by the West to differentiate between what’s so-called ‘moderate extremists’ and ‘violent extremists’. This is nonsense. It’s all extremism, and it’s all about ideas. So that’s why our holistic approach proved to be the most efficient, the most successful one. You cannot eradicate terrorism only by security measures. But this should be complemented with, you know, socio-economic development and finding jobs in order to neutralise the environment of recruitment,” he added.

Several other countries, including Bahrain, Austria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and France have also taken significant steps to investigate and crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates.

The visiting Foreign Minister also spotlighted the role played by Al-Azhar Al-Sharif the university-mosque in Cairo which is the foremost centre of religious learning in the Muslim world and plays a significant intellectual role in Egypt and beyond.

“You know, it’s very easy to kill a terrorist, but behind him there is a person who is, you know, creating hundreds of terrorists and providing training. We have Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the most notable religious institution in the Islamic world, and they have a very successful mechanism called the Al-Azhar Al-Sharif Observatory. The observatory has around 300 young men and women. They have knowledge of the religion, skills on foreign languages, including 12 foreign languages, and they are surfing the net every day, communicating with young people from India, from the United States, from Europe, from all over the world. And they are communicating with them, correcting their own ideas. What does it mean by jihad? Jihad means to purify yourself, to be closer to God, to be a good Muslim and not to kill others. So, this is very, very important, and it’s working very, very well, and we are standing ready,” said Abdelatty.

IANS