Egypt reacts to Sisi interview

The two-part televised interview with former Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings spurred a wide spectrum of responses — from praise and support, to criticism and outright condemnation.

The campaign team of Hamdeen Sabbahi, Sisi’s only contender, declined to issue official comments or rebuttals on statements made by the ex-military man in his pre-recorded interview with television hosts Lamis al-Hadidy and Ibrahim Eissa.

On Wednesday, the family of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, who was deposed on July 3 by the Armed Forces, responded to Sisi’s allegations that Morsi had released radical Islamist and Jihadi prisoners.

On the Facebook page of Osama Mohamed Morsi, the ousted president’s son refuted Sisi’s comments, claiming that no presidential amnesties were issued and “no prisoners were released without proper legal authorization.” He added that “detainees were only released under the supervision of specialized committees appointed by the various security agencies.”

Tarek al-Zomor, a radical Islamist affiliated with Jama'a al-Islamiya, who was jailed for 30 years on charges of involvement in the assassination of President Sadat in 1981, was among 60 political prisoners released. He and his cousin, Aboud al-Zomor, were set free in March 2011 by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, prior to the election of the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament and over a year before Morsi's election in June 2012. Zomor recently fled the country and now resides in Qatar. He is the acting president of the Construction and Development Party.

Speaking on the Qatari-based Al Jazeera satellite channel, Zomor said, “Sisi failed in the choice of topics discussed, in the way he chose to address these topics, and even failed in the choice of presenters who interviewed him.”

“Sisi sought to present himself as the candidate for a new revolution, while being interviewed by Lamis al-Hadidy.” He cannot talk of a new revolution, Zomor added, “I tell him no. You are speaking on behalf of the counter-revolution, one of the chief mouthpieces of which was Lamis al-Hadidy,” who campaigned for the regime of Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal Mubarak and their then-ruling National Democratic Party.

Donning a prayer cap, the bearded Islamist commented that, as a military general, Sisi is not qualified to speak about politics and especially not about religious affairs. Zomor claimed that Sisi has “no real political experience.”

The host added that the former Field Marshal did not experience a single day of combat experience either.

In another interview with a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm — the Freedom and Justice Party — Hamza Zawbaa spoke on the Al Jazeera network. The presenter asked Zawbaa about Sisi’s comments regarding how the Brotherhood would not be able to make a comeback, and how (his only contender) Hamdeen Sabbahi had made similar statements previously. Zawbaa refuted Sisi’s claims that “religious rhetoric has led to Islam’s loss of humanity,” due to the politics of the Muslim Brotherhood.

On the other hand, the President of the Association of Faculty Members at Al-Azhar University, Hussein Eiwada, issued press statements to a number of local news outlets praising Sisi’s interview.

Eiwada commented that, “Sisi is a religious man,” adding, “I entirely agree with him that the exploitation of religion for electoral campaigns and political gains is sinful.”

The mainstream TV presenter Khairy Ramadan called-in on Lamis al-Hadidy’s TV show on the CBC Channel to voice his opinion regarding Sisi’s interview. Ramadan claimed: “It was a beautiful interview. People were left with a very positive impression regarding this man. People feel that if he wins the elections he will roll up his sleeves and get to work for Egypt’s interests.”

Ramadan added that Sisi’s son had applied for a job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but was rejected twice. He applauded Sisi for saying that “everybody should make their own way, rely on themselves without connections.”

In an interview with the private Veto Newspaper, Saeed Abdel Hafez, Director of the Center for Development of Dialogue and Human Rights, commented that Sisi has “a more in-depth socialist perspective than Sabbahi.”

“Sisi’s faith in the role of the state in terms of production, the distribution of wealth, and protecting the poor proves that his electoral platform is more realistic and realizable than that of Hamdeen, despite Sabbahi’s socialist background.”

Both Sisi and Sabbahi have claimed that Gamal Abdel Nasser, and his populist authoritarian brand of politics, is their role model.

On his Twitter account, Alaa Sadek, a pro-Morsi journalist, wrote: “Sisi’s solutions to the problem of unemployment confirm that this ruler had an unfortunate experience with his educational pursuit… meaning that he is ignorant.”

Meanwhile, numerous Egyptian youth commented on Facebook and Twitter that they were not able to watch Sisi’s interview on either Tuesday or Wednesday as they were sitting in the dark during lengthy electricity blackouts.