Monday, August 19, 2013

Jesuit criticizes Western support of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

I searched the Internet today and I found some statements made by a leading Jesuit cleric who lives in Cairo.  I found articles on what Henri Boulad, SJ, said about the current crisis in Egypt, in Spanish and French; I looked for a similar content in English... 
But, I could not find any recent statements from him in the digital media.  

Here are a couple of articles I found in foreign languages:

In Spanish:

In French:

 However, with a prolonged search on Yahoo and Google, I was able to find this article from (JUNE 2013) earlier this year:

Jesuit criticizes Western support of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt


Written by Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News

Wednesday, 12 June 2013 11:48





Fr. Henri Boulad speaking to the Middle East Discussion Group on Parliament Hill on June 10. - Photo by Deborah Gyapong


OTTAWA - Western support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has created a looming catastrophe, warned a Jesuit priest invited to speak on Parliament Hill.

Fr. Henri Boulad, SJ, the Egypt-based director of the Jesuit Cultural Centre, said the Muslim Brotherhood has built a fascist regime in Egypt far worse than the military dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak that preceded it. He singled out the United States, France and Great Britain for supporting the Islamist group.

The Muslim Brotherhood is also one of the groups responsible for 100,000 deaths in his native Syria, Boulad told a meeting of the Middle East Discussion Group at a luncheon hosted by Senator Ann Cools.

“Syria is a disaster,” he said. “Egypt will soon be a disaster. How democratic countries can support such movements is disgusting.”

“As long as Islam is not reformed we are going to catastrophe,” he warned.

Bouland said he hoped liberal democracies would support a growing coalition mostly comprising Muslims who oppose the regime. The coalition includes journalist, thinkers, youth, and Christians, he said.

The Muslim Brotherhood has a systematic plan to harass Christians, including kidnap and rape of Christian women, so they will leave Egypt, he said. When opposed, the organization claims to be victims of discrimination. They cry “Islamophobia” and it “is politically incorrect to be an Islamophobe,” Bouland said.

“The United States, France and Great Britain are supporting this,” he said. “It’s crazy.”

He questioned how these countries can reconcile the promotion of human rights, democracy and rule of law with the practices of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region.

Bouland is concerned that Egypt has become extremely unstable as the government runs out of money. Income from tourism has dried up due in part to a dangerous lack of security, he said. “Security is a terrible problem.”

The Muslim Brotherhood succeeded in jumping over the original grassroots revolution that toppled Mubarak because it distributed food and money and supported women wearing the veil, he said. But today the majority of Egypt’s Muslims oppose the Muslim Brotherhood because they “don’t want this kind of Islam.”

“If you hear that I am stabbed in a few days, don’t be surprised,” the priest said. “It [would be] proof that what I am saying is true. Their only weapon is threats and menace.

“I am speaking up and saying ‘Don’t be intimidated by these people. Resist in the name of your principles.”


Source
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This is an article I posted on EndrTimes back in 2011; where H. Boulad SJ, expressed a slightly different point of view: 

(http://endrtimes.blogspot.com/2011/02/egypts-revolution-belongs-to-young.html)


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Egypt’s Revolution Belongs to the Young People, Writes Jesuit


10 February 2011

Jesuit Father Henri Boulad, Director of the Jesuit Cultural Center of Alexandria, and Soliman Chafik, journalist and political analyst, have written their reading of recent events in Egypt, which is posted online.

They see a danger that the Muslim Brotherhood could exploit the unrest and wrote that the revolution belongs to the “ young people, specifically those between 25 and 35, just graduated, and still unemployed, frustrated, unemployed, homeless, without future prospects.”

They continued, “These young people beyond a brutalizing scholastic education, beyond empty religious slogans without substance, beyond alienating social and moral constraints, are searching for their own way to give meaning to their lives through the Internet, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.”

For more of their thoughts on Egypt visit AsiaNews.

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Finally, I thought I'd mention: 
It seems as if the cleric Henri Boulad is following the developments (on the ground) closely. It also seems like the Jesuit Boulad has his finger on the pulse of the situation.

Arsenio.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here is the document of Fr Henri Boulad into English:

http://henriboulad.com/Docs/Egypte/THE%20POOR%20PERSECUTED%20MUSLIM%20BROTHERHOOD.pdf

Please don't edit my comment,
God Bless You

Anonymous said...

Here is the document of Fr Henri Boulad into English, please share.

No need to edit my comment, I just wanted to give you this document
God Bless You

http://henriboulad.com/Docs/Egypte/THE%20POOR%20PERSECUTED%20MUSLIM%20BROTHERHOOD.pdf