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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 March 1999 Issue No. 419 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 March 1999 Issue No. 419
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Piece of the cake
By Amira HoweidyNews of security clampdowns on members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood is never a surprise. Although it has been banned since 1954, the group not only continues to function but wins over new members -- all in violation of the law. Analysts tend to read into the timing and scale of some of the arrests, arguing they are politically motivated.
The theory has once again been floated in an attempt to interpret the latest arrests. Since the beginning of this year, 19 Brotherhood members have been rounded up. The latest crackdown occurred last Monday in the southern governorate of Assiut, where security forces arrested two alleged members of the Brotherhood. On Thursday, police raided an apartment in Cairo arresting five people on suspicion of attempting to propagate the group's ideology and recruit new members. A day earlier, three other members were detained in the southern governorate of Beni Suef on charges of violating the constitution and attempting to recruit followers for an illegal group.
But it was the first series of arrests this year, on 14 February in Alexandria, which observers view as the most telling. Nine members of the Brotherhood were detained and referred to the State Security Prosecution (SSP) on similar charges. Those arrested included Ibrahim El-Zaafarani, assistant secretary-general of the Alexandria chapter of the Doctors' Syndicate.
El-Zaafarani, 46, was first arrested in January 1995 along with 12 others who were the Brotherhood's most active members. The group, as well as 69 members arrested later, were put on military trial in an unprecedented deterioration of Brotherhood-government relations. Twenty-seven were found innocent and the remaining 54, who were found guilty, were sentenced to terms ranging from three to five years imprisonment with hard labour.
At the time, analysts linked the clampdown and the trial to the 1995 parliamentary elections which the Brotherhood had been planning to contest. El-Zaafarani received a three-year sentence. Although by January 1998 he had completed serving the jail term, he was only released in March 1998. The fact that he was arrested again last month set off talk about a possible connection to parliamentary elections scheduled for November 2000.
Officials strongly denied that the arrests and the elections were related. "The State Security Prosecution shouldn't even be approached with such a question," State Security Prosecutor Hisham Saraya told Al-Ahram Weekly.
But Salah Eissa, a leading member of the leftist Tagammu Party, said there was a connection. "The Brotherhood is the only political force capable of competing with the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP)," he said. The government's policy on the Brotherhood is to tolerate their existence but also to weaken them by repeated arrests "to curtail their growth or expansion," he argued. Ironically, Eissa said, the arrests are sending a message that the Brotherhood is a "real" threat to the NDP, which is an obvious exaggeration.
The arrest of El-Zaafarani last month was preceded by a series of clampdowns throughout the second half of 1998. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), which viewed the repeated arrests as an "alarming phenomenon," issued an 18-page report last month called The Cases Varied but the Charge Remains One. The report monitored what it called the "basic features" of the arrests, the charges and the interrogation procedures. All Brotherhood members who were arrested (during the last decade) were faced with the same charge: belonging to an illegal organisation. However, the report said the charge has never been supported by material evidence. Ironically, it argued, the same charge has been made against others belonging to various political trends.
The "pattern" that follows the arrests, the report said, shows that the defendants are either remanded in custody for 15 days or interrogated by the SSP. The 15 days are either renewed or the SSP decides to release the defendants. This "general and undefined" charge could be viewed, from a legal perspective, as insignificant, thus resulting in a prompt acquittal. But it could be viewed seriously enough to refer them to trial; hence the 1995 military trial. "This raises question marks about the genuine nature of the charge, on the legal level, and enhances the politicisation of the whole process," the report said.
Although the parliamentary elections are 20 months away, Eissa argues that "all political forces are already preparing for the electoral battle, and the Brotherhood arrests are one manifestation of these preparations."
Diaa Rashwan, managing editor of the annual report on the State of Religion in Egypt, issued by the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, described the arrests as "pre-emptive action policy."
"The state security forces made similar arrests a year in advance of the 1995 elections; the scenario is simply repeating itself," he told the Weekly.
"The government does not want to find itself faced with a situation similar to Algeria (when the Islamic Salvation Front won a sweeping victory in the 1991 parliamentary elections, forcing the army to cancel the ballot). So, it's doing all it can to avoid such an experience," said Rashwan, who then argued that there may be an "exaggeration of the real strength of the Brotherhood."
"We don't have polls or the means to measure the political strength and popularity of Egypt's political forces. But one can easily argue that the NDP will emerge a sweeping winner, even if the Brotherhood is allowed to contest the elections with a large number of candidates," Rashwan said. "The power, influence and nationwide services provided by the NDP guarantee this result."
For Eissa, the fact that the political parties have remained silent over the clampdown on the Brotherhood reflects their implicit approval of, or indifference to, the arrests. "This position amounts to a contributing factor in attempts to weaken the Brotherhood. It's obvious that this will give many political parties a better chance of winning more seats. Everyone wants a piece of the cake," Eissa said.
