UAE newspapers celebrate Abdelrehim Ali’s book, praise the author and his intellectual project

With the release of the second edition of the book “The Road to Federalism: Secret Files of the Muslim Brotherhood,” by well-known researcher Abdelrehim Ali, a specialist in the file of political Islamism and editor-in-chief of the Bawaba News website. Given the great popularity of the book, it was logical for the Abu Dhabi Book Fair to be interested in the author and his distinguished study, and to dedicate to him a symposium that received wide public attention and media coverage, the features of which are presented in the following report.

First-time documents

The Akhbar Al-Youm portal was interested and published a lengthy story entitled “Abu Dhabi Exhibition Celebrates the Book of Secret Files of the Brotherhood”, which indicated that the 505-page book contains about 160 secret Brotherhood documents published for the first time. It contains major parts about the Brotherhood’s relationship with the Americans, as told by former Guide Mahdi Akef, as well as the full text of the memorandum of the group’s agent in the Abdel Hakim Abdeen scandal, and the investigations of the assassination of El-Nokrashy Pasha, in addition to other documents between Sheikh Hassan Al-Banna and his co-founder Ahmad Al-Sukari.

Meanwhile, the Al-Ittihad website published an article entitled “Abu Dhabi Book Fair discusses the secret files of the Brotherhood”, in which it explained that the book includes three chapters. The first chapter presents the history of the Brotherhood’s political opportunism in dealing with the former leaders of Egypt, starting with its dealings with King Ahmed Fouad and ending with its dealings with Hosni Mubarak, passing through King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat. The second chapter deals with the secret files of the Brotherhood, the most important of which is the violence file, since the killing of Judge Al-Khazindar, through the killing of El-Nokrashy Pasha, and the attempts to kill Abdel Nasser and Sadat (the technical military incident).

It also deals with the files of the international organization, as well as financing and relations with the Americans, while the third chapter deals with the position of the Brotherhood state on democracy, women and Copts, and the foundations of Brotherhood thought (the thought of Sayyid Qutb).

Commentators and writers

The Emirati Gulf website published an article entitled “3 readings in the book ‘The Road to Federalism’ and statements by Abdelrehim Ali”, saying, “All signs and evidence indicate that the Brotherhood kidnapped the presidential seat and rigged the elections, while their way of managing the government indicates inability and a lack of political experience, and the results were a president traveling in search of friendships and support, a collapsed economy, a boiling street, and an attempt to demolish the intelligence services and the army, as they were demolished by the police and state security, noting that they exploited the Egyptian people horribly. However, the trials are coming, and Egyptian blood will not be in vain. The price of justice is now being paid by some judges and intellectuals who advocate for justice and the rights of the people.”

Meanwhile, El-Sayed Yassin praised the experience of Abdelrehim Ali and how he enriched the reader with important information and data, and an in-depth reading in his aforementioned book, which revealed the secrets and facts of the group by relying on documents to extract information and historical facts that revealed the nature of the relationship that linked the Brotherhood with the successive rulers and the Egyptian political scene, pointing out that there is a new Brotherhood generation that has worked to revive it again.

Farid Zahran initially celebrated the author's efforts in revealing the most important fundamental issues in the history of the Brotherhood movement, considering that the topic is very ambiguous and has multiple approaches, because it presents the Brotherhood's biography, history, and its relationship to political authorities, as well as attempts to provide an assessment of the Brotherhood's work and vision, and to what extent they were democratic and opportunistic.

Mostafa Bakry showered the group in his speech with a barrage of sharp criticism, pointing out that the chapters and contents of the book are the same as what we are experiencing in reality from paradoxes and contradictions related to this group.

Bakry emphasized that the Brotherhood had become a threat to Islam, because they put it at stake and employed it to serve their personal ambitions and desires, while Islam is innocent of their erroneous proposition and near-sightedness.

For its part, Al-Hayat newspaper website said in an article entitled “Abu Dhabi Book: Egyptian thinkers expect the imminent fall of the Brotherhood” that the session devoted to discussing the book “The Road to Federalism:: Secret Files of the Muslim Brotherhood”, which was held at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, turned into a session that predicted the imminent fall of the Muslim Brotherhood rule that came after the 2011 revolution in Egypt.

Al-Hayat clarified that Abdelrehim Ali began writing the book several years ago and recently updated it based on secret documents of the group and oral interviews with its leaders. It added that the book is divided into three parts in which it traces the history of the emergence of the group and its “opportunistic relationship” with the successive authorities in Egypt, starting from King Ahmed Fouad until the present time.

It noted that that the book put forward five secret files for the group: violence, financing, political religion, the relationship with the United States, and the international organization. In the last section, the author presented a description of the shape that the Brotherhood's state would look like, a description that conformed to reality, as agreed by the attendees at the session.

Meanwhile, the El-Siyasah website indicated in a report on the books of the Abu Dhabi exhibition that the author is a researcher specializing in Islamist movements, and that there are many indications of the imminent demise of this regime and explained, “I said before that the regime will not last more than three coming months, because the international situation has completely changed towards the new authority in Egypt. John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, described the regime before Congress as bad and that it does not have any experience in managing the country, and therefore they refused to provide aid to it. He added, “The Egyptian economy is collapsing and the social situation is in sharp decline, and the army is ready to take to the street. The regime is like a plane falling vertically.”

The writer presents five secret files of the group: violence, financing, political religion, the relationship with the United States, and the international organization. In the last section, the writer provided a description of the shape of the Brotherhood state, a description that corresponds to reality.