Now, if we can just get Obama to understand that the Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group
Egypt Declares Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist
Group
CAIRO — Egypt’s military-backed
leaders on Wednesday designated the Muslim Brotherhood a
terrorist organization, outlawing the country’s most
successful political movement and vowing to treat anyone who
belongs to it — or even takes part in its activities — as a
terrorist.
Related
Egyptian Officials Point at Islamist Group After Blast at Police Building (December 25, 2013)
The country’s leaders have been locked
in conflict with the movement since July, when the military
deposed Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected
president and a former Brotherhood leader. The state’s
security forces have killed hundreds of the movement’s
supporters during protests against Mr. Morsi’s removal. Most
of the Brotherhood’s leaders and thousands of its members have
been imprisoned.
Now, with Wednesday’s decision, the government signaled its determination to cut off any air to the more than 80-year-old Islamist organization.
“This is a big miscalculation from the government,” he said. “It is a massive social movement, whose supporters might retaliate or fight back.”
With most of the Brotherhood’s senior leaders already imprisoned, he said, “there is a lack of communication between the leadership and young Brotherhood members. And these people can be dragged to the violent path.”
Now, with Wednesday’s decision, the government signaled its determination to cut off any air to the more than 80-year-old Islamist organization.
Analysts said the designation opened
the door to the most severe crackdown on the movement in
decades, requiring hundreds of thousands of Brotherhood
members to abandon the group or face prison, and granting the
military and the police new authority to violently suppress
protests. The decision makes it a crime to promote the
Brotherhood “by words” and could also outlaw hundreds of
social and charitable organizations run by Brotherhood
members.
The move came a day after officials
blamed the Brotherhood for a suicide bombing at a police
headquarters north of Cairo that killed 16 people, though on
Wednesday a separate group — Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has
derided the Brotherhood for its lack of militancy — claimed
responsibility for that bombing.
The government was not swayed. In
announcing the terrorism designation, it again blamed the
Brotherhood for bombing the police headquarters, calling the
attack a “dangerous escalation” without supplying any evidence
that the Brotherhood was responsible.
Officials framed their decision as
part of a decades-long struggle between the state and a
militant movement, making no mention of the Brotherhood’s more
recent emergence as the most
successful force in democratic elections after the fall
of Egypt’s autocratic president, Hosni Mubarak.
“The Muslim Brotherhood remains as it
has been,” the cabinet said in a statement. “It only knows
violence as a tool.”
The designation represented a victory
for government hard-liners who have sought to eradicate the
Brotherhood since the military’s
ouster of Mr. Morsi in July and cast doubt on the
repeated promises by officials of an inclusive, democratic
transition. It appeared to set Egypt, which has been in crisis
since the military takeover, on an even more precarious
course.
Khalil al-Anani, a senior fellow at
the Middle East Institute
in Washington who studies the Brotherhood, called the
designation “a turning point” and said it could lead Egypt
toward a civil conflict like the one that engulfed Algeria in
the 1990s. “This is a big miscalculation from the government,” he said. “It is a massive social movement, whose supporters might retaliate or fight back.”
With most of the Brotherhood’s senior leaders already imprisoned, he said, “there is a lack of communication between the leadership and young Brotherhood members. And these people can be dragged to the violent path.”
With the decision on Wednesday, the
current government moved against the group even more
aggressively than had been the case under Mr. Mubarak, who
ruled for three decades before being deposed by the uprising
in 2011. In the Mubarak era, the Brotherhood was banned and
its leaders imprisoned, but some members were allowed to
participate in politics, and the group’s social organizations
and charities were permitted to operate, boosting its
popularity.
Mr. Anani said that the cabinet
decision would not have been announced without the blessing of
the military and the powerful defense chief, Gen. Abdul-Fattah
el-Sisi, who is regarded as the country’s de facto leader. The
designation seemed to indicate that the military was giving
the police “carte blanche” to move even more forcefully
against the brotherhood, he said.
“At the end of the day, they don’t
have a political solution,” he said.
In a statement, the cabinet said that
the authorities would punish anyone who joined the Brotherhood
or remained a member, as well as “those who take part in the
activity” of the group or “promotes it by speech, writing or
any other means and all those who fund its activities.”
Still, Ahmed al-Arainy, a Brotherhood
member who has already been arrested once since the ouster of
Mr. Morsi, said that after months of killings and arrests by
the authorities, the new terrorist designation “makes no
difference to us.”
“Our problem with them is on the
ground and not related to their labels,” he said of Egypt’s
current leaders. “They killed us in the street yesterday, and
today they’re trying to legalize the crime they had already
committed.”
The focus on the Brotherhood appeared
to distract the government from Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a
militant group inspired by Al Qaeda that has emerged as the
face of a potent insurgency growing in sophistication and
reach.
On Wednesday, the group claimed
responsibility for the bombing of the police building in the
Nile Delta city of Mansoura, calling it a “response to the
acts of the apostate governing regime.”
The group has orchestrated several
of the most brazen attacks in a wave of assassinations
and bombings targeting the security services since July. The
explosion on Tuesday was the deadliest bombing yet and
appeared to confirm widespread fears that the insurgents were
gathering strength.
The militant attacks have tested
Egypt’s poorly trained security forces, stretched thin as the
government has sent officers to put down almost daily protests
and arrest thousands of people. At least 171
police officers have been killed since August.
It remained possible that a court
might reverse the cabinet designation against the Brotherhood,
which could threaten the perceived legitimacy of coming
elections for Parliament and a president by driving the
Islamist further underground. The Brotherhood had already
announced its intention to boycott referendum on a draft
constitution that the government views as a crucial measure of
its popularity.
Officials underlined the importance of
the referendum again on Wednesday, saying in their statement
that it “founds this new state and declares once and for all
the end of the dark, hated past.”
Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting
Submitted by: Nancy Battle/Jason Lord
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