Essam El-Haddad
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Essam El-Haddad | |
|---|---|
| عصام الحداد | |
 Essam El-Haddad in 2012 | |
| Born | 14 November 1953 Alexandria, Egypt |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Organization | Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt |
| Political party | Freedom and Justice Party |
| Spouse | Mona Imam |
| Children |
|
Essam El-Haddad (Arabic: عصام الحداد, romanized: Isām al-Haddād; born 1953)[1] is an Egyptian politician. He was a senior advisor for foreign relations for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Freedom and Justice Party. In August 2012, he was appointed as one of four Egyptian Presidential assistants with responsibility for foreign relations and international cooperation[2] until the overthrow of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013. He is now in custody in solitary confinement in Al-Aqrab Prison in Cairo.[3]
Essam spent his early life in Alexandria in Egypt. He attended the faculty of medicine in Alexandria University where he earned BA degree. His political involvement began while he was a student when he was elected a president of the student union.[4]
He had his M.B.A. from Aston University, England. He studied for PhD degree in University of Birmingham Medical School where he also worked as a research fellow, in addition to being Head of Egyptian Students’ Society in Birmingham and Head of Islamic Students’ Society in Birmingham University.[5]
In 1984, El-Haddad co-founded Islamic Relief, an international humanitarian organisation working in more than 40 countries providing emergency aid, carrying out long-term development, and campaigning for change. The Islamic Relief international headquarters are in Digbeth, in Birmingham, UK.[6]
In Egypt, he chaired the Arabian Group For Development (AGD), the company was a member of the Union of Arab Exhibitions, the International Business Forum, the German-Arab Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the British Egyptian Business Association, and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. He also founded "Inter-Build Egypt," the country’s largest exhibition for the construction sector.[4]
He worked also as a management consultant in SKOPOS Company, one of the leading Management Consulting and Organization Development companies in Middle East based in Dubai, UAE.[2] He is also a member of the board of governors (BOG) of the International Business forum (IBF) in Istanbul, and a frequent discussant and participant in Friends of Europe Think Tank (Development Forum) in Brussels.[5]
Family members
One of his sons is Gehad El-Haddad Senior Adviser and Media Spokesperson for the Muslim Brotherhood.[7] Gehad had become the most recognized face of the Muslim Brotherhood in foreign media during the period following former President Mohamed Morsi's ouster. He held several interviews with international media from inside Rabaa Square where protesters made a sit-in for more than a month. He is now also in Al-Akrab prison in solitary confinement.[8]
Morsi Administration
El-Haddad was appointed as Assistant to President Mohamed Morsi for Foreign Relations and International Cooperation in August 2012. He was leading the country’s efforts to join the BRICS, and engineered the Egyptian Initiative to end the Syrian Crisis. He also contributed to the cease-fire between Gaza and Israel in 2012.
In 30 June 2013, after a year of Morsi presidency, millions of protesters across Egypt took to the streets and demanded the resignation of Mohamed Morsi. After 3 days, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces launched the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état overthrowing president Mohamed Morsi.[9]
Before General Sisi made his statement. El-Haddad took to the official Facebook account to post a frightening statement as described by media at that time. The following are parts of it.
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As I write these lines I am fully aware that these may be the last lines I get to post on this page. For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let’s call what is happening by its real name: Military coup.
...
On January 25 I stood in Tahrir square. My children stood in protest in Cairo and Alexandria. We stood ready to sacrifice for this revolution. When we did that, we did not support a revolution of elites. And we did not support a conditional democracy. We stood, and we still stand, for a very simple idea: given freedom, we Egyptians can build institutions that allow us to promote and choose among all the different visions for the country. We quickly discovered that almost none of the other actors were willing to extend that idea to include us.
...
There are still people in Egypt who believe in their right to make a democratic choice. Hundreds of thousands of them have gathered in support of democracy and the Presidency. And they will not leave in the face of this attack. To move them, there will have to be violence. It will either come from the army, the police, or the hired mercenaries. Either way there will be considerable bloodshed. And the message will resonate throughout the Muslim World loud and clear: democracy is not for Muslims.
...
I do not need to explain in detail the worldwide catastrophic ramifications of this message. In the last week there has been every attempt to issue a counter narrative that this is just scaremongering and that the crushing of Egypt’s nascent democracy can be managed. We no longer have the time to engage in frivolous academic back and forth. The audience that reads this page understands the price that the world continues to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Egypt is neither Afghanistan nor Iraq. Its symbolic weight and resulting impact is far more significant.
...
Many have seen fit in these last months to lecture us on how democracy is more than just the ballot box. That may indeed be true. But what is definitely true is that there is no democracy without the ballot box.[10]
Two months later, troops loyal to Sisi began a bloody crackdown against protestors and dissidents–later to be dubbed the August 2013 Rabaa massacre–that left 1,400 dead and 16,000 detained.[11]