EGYPT-POLITICS: Government Cracking Down on ‘Muslim Brotherhood’

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Cherif Cordahi

CAIRO, Feb 20 1995 (IPS) - The Egyptian government, in a determined bid to squash Islamist opposition, is cracking down on the outlawed ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ though it has been officially tolerated from more than 20 years.

The authorities, which have been fighting a Muslim militant campaign of violence since 1992, now feel it is time to deal with the non-violent Brotherhood.

Last week, the Egyptian People’s Assembly, or parliament, voted in an amendment to a 1993 law giving the judiciary wide-ranging powers over elections for professional syndicates. The Brotherhood, which says it condemns the militant violence, controls many of the syndicates.

“History is repeating itself,” said Abou Ella Madi, deputy secretary-general of the Engineers Union, also controlled by the Brotherhood.

“Law 100 was introduced in 1993 in order to prevent the Islamists from capturing the lawyers’ syndicate. In 1995, this amendment is being introduced to prevent Islamists from being re- elected to the Engineers syndicate.”

Islamist Union leaders last week called on lawyers, doctors and engineers, to strike against the amendment. The call, which was going to be limited anyway, went largely unheeded.

The parliamentary amendment, which does not become law until approved by President Hosni Mubarak, gives the Justice Ministry the right to call on other government ministries to help in running elections.

Analysts say this leaves the door open for involvement by the Ministry of Interior to then rig elections to ensure the Brotherhood was voted out.

The amendment also gives the judiciary the right to say when and for how long elections can take place, to decide where voting booths should be placed and to announce election results.

And, it gives judges the right to vet the credentials of both candidates and to list the members entitled to vote.

For every 500 union members, the judiciary appoints one judge to oversee elections. Since there are three million members in Egypt, analysts say this will legitimise the Justice Ministry’s request for help from other government departments setting up so- called “administrative committees” to manage elections.

Since 1990, many of Egypt’s prestigious professional unions have come under Brotherhood control. Outlawed since 1954, the Arab world’s oldest Brotherhood organisation has consistently sought a way into Egyptian politics.

During the reign of President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s, the Brotherhood, or Ikhwan, as they are known in Arabic, were politically repressed.

In the 1970s, they re-emerged onto the political scene because then President Anwar Sadat sought their support against the leftist activists of his predecessor, especially in universities.

When the incumbent Mubarak came to power in 1981, political freedom for the Brotherhood widened. Though still outlawed, they were allowed to join alliances with established political parties.

In their first alliance with the right-wing ‘Wafd’, the Brotherhood won several seats in parliamentary elections. In their second alliance with the left-wing Labour party, they were yet more successful in general elections.

However, in 1990, they opted out of parliamentary elections, saying they were pointless because the assembly was little more than a rubber stamp. Their new strategy was to take control of professional unions though low turnouts because of general apathy.

In 1993, after the Brotherhood took control of several top unions, the government introduced a new law canceling elections if turnout was below 50 percent. The Brotherhood and associated Islamist groups had been able to take control on turnouts as low as 10 percent.

By 1993, Mubarak’s largely secular government was locked in a violent struggle with Muslim militants trying to set up an Islamic state. The Brotherhood, which concedes it shares the same goals as the militants, says it will only do so peacefully.

However, analysts agree there is a degree of overlap between the Brotherhood and the militants of the ‘Gamaa al Islamiya’, the Islamic Group.

Recently, the government has done away with any pretence that it believes the Brotherhood when it says it is non-violent. Mubarak has said several times that the Brotherhood is a “terrorist” organisation acting as little more than a cover for the Gamaa.

On Sunday, the government extended for another 15 days imprisonment orders for 26 leading Brotherhood members accusing them of forming an “illegal group” that “threatens” state security. Two of those arrested in January were released.

“They were arrested for no reason and suddenly released,” said Brotherhood spokesman, Ma’moun al Hodeibi. “Nobody can question the government in Egypt for its actions.”

The syndicates have promised they will face up to the government over the amendment. But with the Brotherhood indicating it is not willing to confront the regime head on, the repression is likely to continue unchallenged.