Egypt's Dar Al-Ifta – the state Islamic authority charged with issuing religious edicts – said recent remarks by the once-ruling Muslim Brotherhood make clear that the movement's "thirst for power" is behind its actions and statements.
In a statement issued on Sunday commemorating the third anniversary of the deadly dispersal of two pro-Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo, the now-banned group said that it would not cede the "legitimacy" of the ousted president Mohamed Morsi,
The group also called on the international community to "prosecute the perpetrators of this massacre," in a reference to the killing of hundreds of Morsi's supporters during the police dispersal of the sit-ins against the ouster of Morsi in Rabaa and Nahda squares in August 2013.
At least 30 police officers were also killed during the clashes that took place during the dispersal.
A sub-body of Dar Al-Ifta that monitors jihadist and extremist edicts said on Sunday that the Brotherhood's leaders mobilised supporters against the state during the 2013 sit-ins and incited them to "commit violence and justified it as legitimate jihad."
It said that the Brotherhood leaders eventually backed down, leaving the youth and elderly people to face the consequences of the group's "political greed and interests."
The religious unit also said the movement has continued its treachery against the state by claiming that the dispersal of the protest camps was "a massacre" while overlooking "their own crimes of inciting violence, murder and torture of whoever criticised or opposed them."
Also on Sunday, the New-York based Human Rights Watch called on Egypt’s parliament to pass a transitional justice law opening a new, impartial investigation into what it described as the "mass killing of protesters" in the Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins.
The Egyptian government has maintained that protesters opened fire first at security personnel who "offered safe passages," prompting a response in kind.
