Egypt's Brotherhood: stability depends on reforms

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

CAIRO - Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, warned President Hosni Mubarak's government on

 

'A message to oppressive leaders and corrupt regimes'

Egypt's largest opposition group warns Mubarak's government that it could face similar fate to Tunisia.

 

Wednesday that it could face a similar fate to Tunisia if it does not speed up political reforms.

The Islamist group said Egyptians suffer economic and political hardships like in Tunisia, where weeks of street riots forced President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country on Friday after 23 years in power.

The upheaval in Tunisia sent out "a message to oppressive leaders and corrupt regimes that they are not safe ... They are living on top of a volcano of wrath," the Brotherhood said in a statement.

"If the regime (in Egypt) does not move quickly towards taking responsibility for starting the road to reform, the stability will not last long," the group said.

The Tunisian uprising was also "a message to all the oppressed peoples of the Arab world that they can achieve a lot," it said.

"The reasons and motivation which led to the blessed uprising in Tunisia exist in many states of the region, especially here in Egypt," the Muslim Brotherhood said.

In Tunisia, the self-immolation of 26-year-old graduate Mohammed Bouazizi unleashed a wave of protests across the country and sparked a rash of copycat attempted public suicides in Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania.

Egyptians have long complained of economic hardships and Cairo has regularly come under criticism for failing to lift an emergency law in place for three decades.

The controversial law, which gives police wide powers of arrest, suspends constitutional rights and curbs non-governmental political activity, was renewed in 2010 for a further two years.