Abderrahmane
Amor
By
Abderrahmane Amor and Nazmus Sakib
September
5, 2020
Executions,
extrajudicial killings and the murders of former democratically-elected
presidents overthrown by military coup d’états are a common phenomenon in the
Muslim-majority world.
Fire is seen burning in Cairo's al-Nahda square as Egyptian police
dispersed supporters of Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi (portrait) in
two huge protest camps in the Egyptian capital on August 14, 2013 [HASSAN MOHAMED/AFP
via Getty Images]
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In their
pursuit of the application of a fusion of spiritual and secular law, as well as
a will to achieve true independence from the remnants of physical and
intellectual imperialism, Muslim Democrats have faced eerily similar fates.
Mohammad Mosaddegh, Adnan Menderes and Mohamed Morsi serve as uniquely similar
case studies of the destiny of those who advocate a democratic – yet
foundationally Muslim – identity for their people in the Muslim-majority world.
Mohammad Mosaddegh, was the head of a democratically elected government,
holding office as the Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 until 1953
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Iran:
Mosaddegh’s Lonely Fate
Mohammad
Mosaddegh was elected as the prime minister of Iran in 1951. With the nearly
unanimous support of parliament, Mosaddegh’s government voted to nationalise
Iran’s oil fields previously owned by British companies. This move sparked a
diplomatic row with the UK and the shah of Iran.
Built by
the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company – later British Petroleum – on the basis of a
lease obtained in 1909, Abadan Oil Refinery in Abadan, Iran, was one of the
world’s largest oil refineries. Reacting to Mosaddegh’s attempt to nationalise
oil fields, Britain initially mobilised military forces to seize control of the
Abadan oil refinery, only to reverse the decision and employ Iranian agents
working for the UK to undermine Mosaddegh’s government. What followed, was a
collaborative covert operation by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the
shah’s forces that overthrew the Mosaddegh government in 1953; the CIA would
only acknowledge its role in the coup 63 years later. Mosaddegh would be
sentenced to three years’ solitary confinement in a military prison, and kept
under house arrest for more than a decade. Like the prisoners of conscience
before and after him, his death can be reasonably attributed to physical and
mental anguish.
The modern
Iranian conscience does not forget Mosaddegh’s fate. Rather, it acts with full
knowledge of a history plagued by Western intervention that aimed to stifle the
democratic will. This democratic will had attempted to end the practice of
extractive colonisation, while merging traditional values and secular
democratic ideals. Western intervention in the 1950s would awaken a conscience
that would result in the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Ultimately, Mosaddegh’s
toppling – like the toppling of other democratically elected leaders – resulted
in the polar opposite of its original intent of stifling the people’s will.
Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes
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Turkey:
The Execution of Menderes
Following
the Republican People’s Party’s 27 year-long rule after the establishment of
the republic, Adnan Menderes became the first democratically-elected prime
minister of Turkey. Menderes was a democrat – and a secularist by many
definitions – who merely introduced a newfound tolerance of traditional Muslim
ways of life. His platform in the 1950 elections included legalising the
long-outlawed Arabic Islamic call to prayer (adhan), which had been banned
since the abolishment of the caliphate in 1923. In one particularly infamous
speech, Menderes exclaimed that members of parliament have the democratic right
to choose what form of government they preferred, even if that meant a majority
in favour of reinstating a polity modelled after the caliphate.
A military
coup d’état on 27 May, 1960, led to the overthrow of the elected government and
Menderes’ arrest. Menderes and other leading figures of the Democrat Party were
put on trial by a military court, where Menderes was sentenced to death and was
executed at the gallows within a year. But Menderes’ execution produced a
generation of Turks who perceived his killing as a stain of “original sin” on
the republic, a sin that cannot be undone nor replicated. Current Turkish
President Erdogan, then an adolescent, was one of those witnesses who recalled
watching his father – a humble mariner from the Black Sea region – weep when
Menderes was sentenced to death. He states that the sadness of the moment
served as a catalyst for his political career.
Morsi had been in jail since he was toppled by the military in 2013
after mass protests against his rule [File: Mark Wilson/Reuters]
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Egypt:
Morsi’s Slow Death
The news of
the death of Egypt’s first and only democratically-elected president Dr Mohamed
Morsi – just over a year ago – was a shocking yet “entirely predictable” turn
of events. Numerous major human rights organisations had pleaded for the
immediate medical care Morsi was in dire need of throughout his six years in
state prisons. A former warden at the infamous “Scorpion” prison wing in Cairo,
Egypt, said it had been designed: “So that those who go in don’t come out again
– unless dead.” Morsi, a diabetic who also suffered from high blood pressure,
was held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for the majority of six
years. His family was allowed a total of three visits throughout those six
years, while all demands for proper medical attention were denied. Even as
Morsi collapsed in court, reportedly suffering a heart attack that eventually
led to his death, fellow prisoners who were doctors by training were prevented
from rushing to his aid.
Erdogan,
the United Nations and various human rights groups have called for an
independent investigation into this death, with a plethora of claims of
premeditated murder. Following his death, new revelations showed that just days
before, Egyptian officials threatened Morsi with “consequences” if he did not
agree to a public disbanding of his political party and its movement. Against
his family’s wishes, Morsi’s body was hastily buried in a cemetery of the
government’s choosing, within only a few hours of his death. A strict and
ironic censorship of the details of his death, followed by an official
rejection of a public funeral, raised many questions. In his piece shortly
after Morsi’s death, David Hearst argued that current Egyptian President Abdel
Fattah Al-Sisi had ample opportunity to do away with Morsi in a more private
fashion, but that if he wanted to convince the domestic and international
audience that Morsi had died of natural causes, the execution would have to be
done in public. This explains his collapse in a public court, rather than in a
private dungeon.
The plights
of these three influential figures are eerily similar, and so, too, were their
visions to represent the genuine, legitimate and grassroots demands of their
own people. These demands were denied by illegitimate and illegal juntas who
forcibly deposed these democratically-elected leaders. Eventually, directly or
indirectly, these figures were killed while imprisoned. In their quest to
achieve national and cultural independence, their lives were lost.
One cannot
help but draw parallels specifically between the plight of Menderes in 1960,
and the plight of Morsi in the 21st century. Just as Erdogan recalls his
father’s weeping at the news of Menderes’ execution, many Egyptian adolescents
today who are witness to the death of Morsi will become leaders of the future,
true to the struggle against physical and intellectual imperialism, and driven
by the memory of oppression against the democratic will.
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The
views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily
reflect the editorial policy of New Age Islam.
Original
Headline: Mosaddegh, Menderes And Morsi: When Muslim Democrats Are
Systematically Executed
Source: The Middle East Monitor
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/muslim-democrats-mosaddegh,-menderes-morsi/d/122806
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