A call to support Egyptian president

Dear Editor:

Upon a world marred by Islamic turmoil, terror, and violence, a gift of inestimable value has been bestowed. On Dec. 28, 2014, in a speech directed at Islamic religious scholars and clerics, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said, “It is inconceivable that the ideology we sanctify should make our entire nation a source of concern, danger, killing, and destruction all over the world. Honorable Imam (the Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar), you bear responsibility before Allah. The world in its entirety awaits your words, because the Islamic nation is being torn apart, destroyed, and is headed to perdition. We ourselves are bringing it to perdition. We need to revolutionize our religion...”

The extraordinary, unprecedented courage of President El-Sisi in taking this position, endangering his life, stands in stark contrast to the misguided message of world lay, political, and religious leaders, who deceive the public by denying that the atrocities, which President El-Sisi seeks to correct, are of Islamic origin.

The significance to world peace of these momentous words, spoken not by our heads-of-state or religions, but, amazingly, by a leader of the Muslim world, and the head of the most populous Arab nation, preposterously, falls on deaf ears.

It is incumbent on our president, Congress, their equivalents in the free world, and lay and ecclesiastic leaders, to express appreciation and support to President El-Sisi for his stance. Criticism of harsh measures against Muslim Brotherhood, opponents of his regime, should be set aside. In any society, order must come before justice and freedom.

In like vein, the Muslim community in the United States must be exhorted to openly and positively endorse and support President El-Sisi’s courageous action.

To repeat President El-Sisi’s words, in his selfless move to bring peace to the world: “We need to revolutionize our religion.”

Robert I. Lappin,

Swampscott, Mass. 

Editor’s note: Excerpts of President El-Sisi’s speech were reported in the Jan. 16, 2015 issue of Heritage in an article written by Wallace Bruschweiler and Alan Kornman titled Egyptian president calls for Islam to grow up.