Weeks after President Buhari presented the 2019 Budget to the National Assembly, the claims that he made a Muslim fundamentalist sign with his hands does not appear to be going away. All the difference between the President’s gesture and the actual Rabia sign not helping, not much have considered the origin and significance of the sign, had it been what the President intended.
In February 2011, Egyptians forced out Hosni Mubarak, who had been in power for 30 years with Israeli and Western support. Mubarak, while he reigned, ensured that the Muslim Brotherhood – a group of Muslim philanthropists who believe Islam should be peacefully brought into the governance of Egypt with a 90% Muslim population – was kept away from power.
In June 2012, Egypt had its first democratically elected President, Mohamed Morsi, who is a member of the very popular Brotherhood. But Morsi had minority forces against him, some of whom took to the streets to protest, giving the Egyptian military a reason to stage a Coup just 12 months into Morsi’s government. Then-President of the US, Barrack Obama, said he was “deeply concerned” about the suspension of the Egyptian Constitution and democracy, but fell short of calling the Coup a Coup. Documents obtained by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley was to later show that the US funded the uprising against Egypt’s first democratically elected President and ironically used a Pro-Democracy Aid programme to do so.
While Morsi fell, protesters against the Coup plot staged a peaceful sit-out in a place called Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square. On August 14, 2013, Egyptian security forces opened fire on these peaceful protesters killing what some figures put at over 2,000 unarmed men, women and teenagers. This came to be known as the Rabaa Massacre. Holding the 4 fingers up became a sign in solidarity of those who were killed that day.
Director of Human rights watch, Kenneth Roth described the massacre saying,
“This was not a mere case of excess force or poor training. It was a violent crackdown planned at the highest levels of the Egyptian government”
Rabaa means four or fourth in Arabic and the site where the massacre was carried out against members of the Muslim Brotherhood is named after a woman known as Adawiya who fought for freedom all through her life and was the fourth child of her family, hence the appellation. Some have also explained the “4” gesture to mean that Morsi is the 4th President of Egypt, but he is correctly said to be the 5th.
ONE STRETCH TOO MANY
Aside its harmless and underdog origin and significance, clear video evidence show that President Buhari did the hand gesture in response to exactly the same hand gesture by Senators and Rep members who were hailing him signifying 4+4 meaning he should or would be re-elected.
Furthermore, the Rabba sign is not done with 8 fingers but with 4. Being that Rabba is from the Arabic word “four”, making a Rabba sign with 8 fingers defeats the purpose.
Also, the Rabba sign is a very localized issue. The Arab spring which forced out Mubarak used the V sign signifying victory across countries. This was seen to appeal more to foreigners and the Western world. The switch to the Rabba sign was done to differentiate the Muslim Brotherhood Anti-Coup protest from the Anti-Morsi protests. It was also suspected that it was meant to localize the struggle.
It was not so clear what critics of the President’s propose he meant by this split second gesture in a budget presentation. But much attempt has been made to link it to support for terrorism.
