CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie called upon workers on Labor Day to preserve the values of Islam and act upon it, in his weekly address to follows. He noted the demand for their rights must be consistent with the need to preserve what remains of the country's enterprises and factories, the MB's official English language website Ikhwanweb reported. He emphasized that it was the “homeland's first line of defense to preserve public funds for public interest.” In the weekly message titled “Labor Day message to workers” Badie stated that Islam raised the status of the worker and acknowledged that “toil and efforts were highly significant in Islam.” He asserted that the prophets had all engaged in manual work occupying a close second to faith and worship “Toil and labor takes top priority in the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology as it primarily depends on the fact that Islam stresses the importance of gaining, mastering and sacrificing time for the sake of preserving dignity, honor and independence,” Badie said. “As the world celebrates Labor Day and honors workers as the corner stone of civilization, Muslim communities suffer throughout the world and in Egypt, in particular. Workers conditions have been dramatically altered in the social hierarchy and workers have become the lowest wage earners suffering from extreme poverty, early retirement and exploitation by wealthy employers,” he added. Badie underscored that Islam “demands us to pay the hired hand his wages before his work is done.” He cited UN human rights covenants and the International Labor Organization (ILO) statements on workers' rights without discrimination, “providing them with adequate compensation to meet their basic needs for food, shelter, clothing, health care, and personal care, protection from unemployment, welfare and training to acquire skills necessary to meet development.” “Unfortunately workers in the Muslim communities have been denied these privileges where regimes have advocated privatizing the public sector and selling them to foreigners at the cheapest price,” he said. Badie concluded his message stating that “the continued application of the emergency law in Egypt over the past 30 years has constituted a serious violation of human rights. Under these laws, laborers were denied their rights in peacefully expressing their opinion in organized demonstrations or strikes. In addition to this they were prevented nominating for trade unions where thousands have been arrested for vocalizing their demands.” BM
