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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Message to the Brotherhood
By Jailan HalawiIn a continuing clampdown on the clandestine Muslim Brotherhood, security forces on Thursday detained 20 alleged members of the group. Sixteen of the Islamist leaders were picked up as they held a meeting in the Maadi office of the Engineering Organisations' Union. Others were arrested at their homes. All were remanded in custody for 15 days pending investigations.
The charges levelled by the state security prosecutor include "disseminating the ideas of the banned group, endangering security, trying to infiltrate and control various political organisations and sectors of the populace, plus obtaining documents and literature aimed at spreading the group's banned ideology." The prosecution also requested that a transcript of several computer diskettes seized at the time of the arrest be included in the case file.
Prelimenary interrogation revealed that "the Muslim Brotherhood's scheme was focused on inciting wide sectors of the people", security sources told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Seized documents include a fatwa (Islamic ruling) boycotting the products of foreign countries, criticising the regime after the formation of its new cabinet and exploiting regional and international issues to attack the regime.
According to security sources, the recent clampdown on the Muslim Brotherhood was "fully within the law" and that all police measures had been taken with the permission and presence of the prosecution.
The Brotherhood denied the security claims and experts on the Islamist movement were divided as to whether the arrests were simply part of a continuing confrontation or an obvious warning to the Brotherhood ahead of any syndicate elections and parliamentary polls next year.
Among those detained were twelve council members from the engineers', doctors', accountants', pharmacist', veterinary surgeons' and lawyers' syndicates. They include Mukhtar Nouh, a prominent Islamist lawyer, the former treasurer of the Bar Association and a former member of parliament. Two professors from the engineering faculty at Assiut University were also arrested.
The arrests represent the strongest action against the group since 1995 when 80 brotherhood activists in the white-collar syndicates were tried in military courts ahead of legislative elections. The Muslim Brotherhood had assumed control of three of the most powerful syndicates -- the lawyers', doctors' and engineers' -- in the 1980s.
Many commentators believe the authority's actions are a response to fears that the group is attempting to reassert its influence over the syndicates ahead of elections, and see the clampdown, following the formation of the new cabinet, as a direct message negating the possibility of any compromise.
Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamist politics at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, described the crackdown as an "unjustified war" against a group which should not be outlawed in the first place. "The government wants to emphasise the red lines it has laid down and is sending a message to the Islamists that reverting to political activity indirectly through unions will not be tolerated," Rashwan told the Weekly.
"But despite the clampdown on the Brotherhood, the group is determined to contest the upcoming syndicate and parliamentary elections," Mustafa Mashour, Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, told the Weekly. "Arresting 20 of our members will not affect us in any way."
Mashour claims that the government move is intended to "deceive public opinion and conceal basic facts". But it will, he believes, back-fire. "The fact that group members are detained will help us muster greater popular support and pose a bigger challenge to the ruling party."
The government crackdown on the Brotherhood is, according to one expert on the Islamist movement who requested anonymity, perfectly understandable given that the government views the Brotherhood as being, essentially, another terrorist group. "It is obvious the Brotherhood's eventual target is the takeover of power," he said. "They may differ from other militant factions in the methods they use but they are, if anything, more dangerous. They encroach upon the institutions of civil society, projecting themselves as moderates. They advance slowly but surely."
Ma'moun El-Hodeibi, spokesman for the Brotherhood, insisted this was the heaviest crackdown the group has faced since 1995, and constituted a clear attempt to prevent the group from re-establishing its influence among the country's professional syndicates following a court order reversing a ban on the Islamist-led lawyers union. "These arrests are connected with the preparations under way for elections to the ruling council of the lawyer's union," he said, claiming that "the concept of free elections" does not appeal to a government that enjoys a monopoly on power.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) issued a statement on Monday describing the arrests as "a violation of citizens'rights to run the country's public affairs and their rights to peaceful assembly" and called on the authorities "to release those arrested and to meet their commitments with regard to political and constitutional reforms".
It was not clear if the men detained last week would be tried before military courts.
