Turkey’s AKP adopts Muslim Brotherhood’s Rabia sign in its bylaws

Rabia salute, a hand gesture that has become commonly used in the Islamic world since 2013 by the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood - whose elected government led by Mohammed Morsi was ousted by an army coup in Egypt –, has now been adopted by Turkey’s ruling party AKP as a new article in its bylaws with a slightly different meaning but with the same gesture.

While going over the modifications of his party’s bylaws, Deputy Chair of AKP, Hayati Yazıcı, mentioned that a change was made to Article 4 and the statements of ‘one homeland; one state; one flag; one nation’ were added to this article.

The word Rabia, or Rabaa, means ‘four’ in Arabic and it is also the name of Cairo’s famous Rabaa Square, which gets its name from female Islamic saint Rabia al-Adawiyya. The Rabaa Square was the spot where major protests and sit-ins against the coup of Sisi took place in 2013.

A sign frequently used by Turkey’s President Erdoğan at virtually all public meetings, Rabia will now have a ‘modified meaning’ in Turkey, where it will symbolize AKP’s newly adapted 4 principles: ‘one homeland; one state; one flag; one nation.’

Source: https://www.birgun.net/haber-detay/rabia-isareti-akp-tuzugune-de-girdi-160439.html