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Press TV has conducted an interview with Mostafa Abbass, a Cairo-based political analyst, to discuss the ongoing escalation of tensions in Egypt.

- Mr. Abbass, it has been described as a dramatic escalation of a crackdown by the military-backed government, I am referring to the court ruling as you know yourself that bans Muslim Brotherhood activities.

How fair, first of all, do you see this kind of action?

- Well, this kind of action is not new. It is a repetition of what happened in 1954, so this is 1954 revisited in the sense that the Muslim Brothers organization was banned at that time but it continued to work underground for decades, for even 60, 70 years as strong as it always has been.

The nature of the decision that was taken today is clear because, I think, it is a political decision, in essence. I have not read yet, the prelude or the preamble of the decision taken by the court and the reasons for the decision but to my mind or at first blush, as they say, this is a political move meant to be a chip on the bargaining table that at one time will hold or host the two sides or different sides of the political arena in Egypt now.

One thing has to be mentioned here, this is the court of first instance, it not a final decision, the decision will be appealed, it definitely would be appealed. Whether it would continue to be politicized or it would be upheld by the court or not, I really do not know, I am not a legal expert; but legally you can say the organization, that is the Muslim Brotherhood organization, is banned but de facto it has existed and I think it will continue to exist, working underground though.

- Mr. Abbass, a lot of people have been accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of being “terrorist” and also exploiting religion in political slogans, as your guest there was suggesting in London this has come to the Muslim Brotherhood because it is something that it brought on itself.

What is your response to these kinds of criticisms?

- I think that the accusation of terrorism that is being imputed to the Muslim Brotherhood is rather unfair and unjustifiable.

First of all we do not have, as yet, the word over; we do not have a definition of terrorism because an act of violence, let me put it this way, an act of violence could be interpreted [either] as an act of resistance or could be interpreted as an act of terrorism or even a crime. It depends on the perception.

The word ‘terrorism’ has been in vogue in Egypt for the last three or four months and unfortunately the current situation in Egypt is similar to that prevailing in Israel and even in the United States. Those who are against me are being branded or I can brand them as terrorists. We have first to define what is the act of terrorism. 

If people come to the street and ask for return of the previous regime or the deposed regime, this is not an act of terrorism.

If people are asking for justice or asking for something, that is not an act of terrorism but if people explode a bomb, killing innocent civilians, this is an act of terrorism.

So I do not know..., this word has been very much abused in Egypt, very, very much so, to the point that the Egyptian television has been just using the word liberally against anyone who is not in favor of what happened on the 30th of June or on the 3rd of July or the 26th of July.

I believe that this is a new Marxism or a sort of Fascism that has been prevailing in Egypt for at least three or four months and this has to stop. If they are truly for democracy, that has to stop. So I disagree with my interlocutor.

- Mr. Abbass, what are you concerns about a military-led government that has been described right now? What are your concerns about another rise of the military in Egypt and do you think that General Sisi will not be a candidate?

- The problem in Egypt is that we have heard this kind of thing from the military and from the previous governments a hundred times.

They would say that they will not run for this or that; unfortunately they come a time after that and the people are enticed into or driven to go to the streets and ask for that person to nominate himself or herself and then they just go back on their word, on their promises.

Several times Mr. Mubarak, who belongs to the military establishment in Egypt, said that he would not rerun for the elections and he would do that on account of some demonstrations concocted by the intelligence or what have you. They come to the street and ask the man to run for the sake of the country, to save the country.

Mr. Sisi clearly said and here I agree with Mr. Ragab who said that if Mr. Sisi goes for the nomination would be doing a fatal mistake and that would undermine the credibility of everything in Egypt.

I hope that Mr. Sisi would not run for elections because somehow and to my mind, General Sisi is in the same situation of that of Alaa Mubarak, son of the former president, he will use and recapitalize on his situation at the moment as the defense minister and as a hero as he is in the eyes of some Egyptian people.

So if he wants to run for elections I think he should resign as the defense minister, wait for a year or two and then we will see if he can get any kind of popularity but if General Sisi runs for election and unfortunately I have my own concerns that he would and my own suspicions that would; if he runs for elections then this will just complete the whole story.

This is a military coup and again the military is in the saddle and we do not have only General Sisi, you have at least three or four generals from the army, just toeing with the idea, floating some news here and there that they would be running for elections and some of the former candidates, unfortunately, are declaring themselves in favor of General Sisi or this or that person. That would be, again, a catastrophe for Egypt and that will setback Egypt at least 60 or 70 years.