EGYPT: State Piles Pressure on Islamist Opposition

By Adam Morrow Reprint | | Print |

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

CAIRO, Sep 27 2007 (IPS) - The government has stepped up a campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood with a new wave of arrests in August and the resumption of a military trial involving dozens of the group’s leading members.

In an unprecedented move earlier this month, the interior ministry also prohibited the Brotherhood’s annual celebration commemorating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began Sep. 13.

“The ministry’s decision to cancel the Ramadan celebration was a bad move,” Diaa Rashwan, analyst at the official al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies told IPS. “The political power of the Brotherhood, which controls a fifth of the seats in parliament, isn’t going to disappear by banning an annual get-together.”

The ongoing government crackdown against the group began last December, when a rally held by Brotherhood-affiliated students was accused by the state as having constituted an “Islamic militia”. Although the group’s leaders insist the rally was non-militant in nature, hundreds of Brotherhood members have since been arrested, most commonly on charges of “association with an outlawed organisation”.

Banned since 1954, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood officially renounced violence in the 1970s, and has confined its tactics to the political arena ever since. But while the group remains formally proscribed by the state, its members can run as nominal independents in parliamentary elections.

The Muslim Brotherhood performed unexpectedly well in 2005 parliamentary elections, capturing roughly one-fifth of the seats in parliament despite widespread reports of vote fraud. The group’s surprise electoral victories have been largely attributed to its charity efforts in impoverished areas and its reputation for honest dealing, which are often viewed in contrast to the corruption-ridden National Democratic Party (NDP) of President Hosni Mubarak.

On Aug. 17, state security arrested Essam al-Arian, head of the group’s political division, along with 15 other leading members, in the Mohandeseen district of Cairo. According to reports in the local press, the men were later charged with “association with a banned organisation, attempting to overthrow the ruling regime, and provoking unrest.”

Quoted in the Aug. 21 edition of independent daily al-Bedeel, first deputy to the group’s supreme guide Mohamed Habib suggested several possible government motives for the recent arrests.

“The government wants to cripple the Muslim Brotherhood’s ability to implement its short-term plans and distract attention from its own inability to deal adequately with ongoing national crises,” Habib was quoted as saying. “Its most important objective, however, is to send a warning to the Brotherhood before we announce our political charter.”

Ever since the Islamist group’s parliamentary victories in 2005, the Muslim Brotherhood leadership has vowed to publish a political charter spelling out its long-term domestic and foreign policies. According to spokesmen for the group, the long-awaited manifesto will be released some time next month.

Habib went on, however, to posit another possible reason behind the arrests. “Perhaps they can also be tied to the current NDP party elections, which are widely seen as laying the groundwork for the inheritance of the presidency,” he said, in reference to the perceived presidential ambitions of President Mubarak’s son, Gamal.

In 2004, the younger Mubarak was appointed to head the NDP’s Policies Committee, which has been highly influential in forging recent government policy. Since then, much of the political opposition – along with numerous independent political observers – has suggested that the ruling party is preparing for tawreeth, or “inheritance”, of the presidency from father to son.

The arrests are continuing in this political environment. Only five days after the arrest of al-Arian, two Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarians, Ragab Abuzaid and Sabri Aamer, were detained by police for the second time this year. While the two men were released on bail the following day, the state prosecutor charged them both with “terrorism” and “the use of violence to overthrow the ruling regime.”

Abuzaid and Aamer were first detained in late April, along with 12 other group members, and accused of “participation in a secret organisational meeting.” Although the two MPs were quickly released in this case too, the NDP’s parliamentary majority voted shortly afterwards to strip them of their parliamentary immunity.

In an Aug. 23 joint statement, Brotherhood representatives condemned the latest detention of Abuzaid and Aamer, describing it as a “repressive and selective manner of dealing with parliamentary representatives.” The statement added that, despite the men’s subsequent release, the move constituted a “deliberate affront to both the two MPs themselves and the institution – the People’s Assembly – to which they belong.”

In mid-September, the government took another swipe at the Brotherhood, with the interior ministry banning the annual celebration for Ramadan without offering a reason.

Saad al-Husseini, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood bloc in parliament, described the decision as “irresponsible behaviour by any state with democratic pretensions.”

“There is no reasonable justification for banning the gathering, which has been held every year for the last 15 years,” al-Husseini told IPS.

According to Rashwan, the move represents an unprecedented escalation of government pressure on the group.

“The Ramadan celebration has a political aspect, because attendees often use the occasion to discuss the group’s political programme,” he said. “But it has never before been prohibited by the interior ministry.”

The Brotherhood suffered yet another blow Sep. 22, when a military trial featuring 40 of its leading members resumed after a brief hiatus. The trial, in which the accused face charges of money laundering and “financing the activities of a banned group”, has proceeded intermittently since April.

According to al-Husseini, recent moves against the group’s leadership can be attributed to a government strategy aimed at pre-empting anticipated opposition to the so-called “inheritance” of the presidency, which many observers believe is imminent.

“There’s a connection between the arrests and military trial and the inheritance project that has been set in motion,” al-Husseini said. “The regime doesn’t want any political movement to threaten that project, and is therefore putting pressure on the Brotherhood – which represents the only power realistically able to oppose it.”