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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 June 2000 Issue No. 487 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 June 2000 Issue No. 487
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Focus Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Who listens to the sheikh?
By Amira Howeidy
The statement issued last week by Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the spiritual leader of the clandestine Al-Gama'a Al-Islamyia, expressing a desire to reconsider the cease-fire observed by the group for nearly three years, has raised questions concerning the once-powerful militant group. In the view of some analysts, the statement, and the reactions it has elicited, reflect the apparent disarray within Gama'a ranks.
Lynne Stewart, Abdel-Rahman's American lawyer, released the statement in the sheikh's name from his US prison cell on 14 June. Two days later, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper quoted the "historic" leaders of the Gama'a, imprisoned near Cairo, as affirming their full commitment to the truce. Two days after that, Reuters released an interview with Rifa'i Ahmed Taha, a leading member of the group, who is believed to be residing in Afghanistan and who reportedly has been marginalised recently. Taha voiced support for Abdel-Rahman's call to reconsider the truce, arguing the government had done little for the Islamists in return.
Montasser El-Zayyat, the group's Cairo-based lawyer and de facto spokesman, said the sheikh's statement had been misinterpreted and taken out of context.
Some analysts interviewed by Al-Ahram Weekly suggested that the statement did not signify a shift in Gama'a policy but was meant to gain media attention and serve personal interests.
"The sheikh is not the emir of the Gama'a or its overall leader," said Abul-Ela Madi, a one-time member of the group who later defected to the illegal, but non-violent, Muslim Brotherhood. Three years ago, he quit the Brotherhood, joining other members in trying to establish a legal political party called Al-Wasat. Attempts by Madi to establish Al-Wasat were quashed. Recently, however, he succeeded, together with a number of prominent Islamist intellectuals, in establishing a cultural non-governmental organisation.
Nabil Abdel-Fattah, the chief editor of the annual State of Religion in Egypt Report, issued by Al-Ahram, believes Madi's shift to an NGO recognised by the government may have angered some Gama'a members. "For them, this seems like a bargain of sorts with the security bodies," Abdel-Fattah said. Indeed, the failure of Madi's and other attempts to establish legal political organisations has been cited by the Gama'a's Taha as one reason for his support for Sheikh Abdel-Rahman's call to reconsider the cease-fire. "The government will never allow Islamists to play an effective political role through recognised parties," he said.
Similarly, Mamdouh Ismail, the would-be founder of a party called Al-Shari'a, which was turned down last year, announced two weeks ago he would not pursue a legal battle to establish the party. He, too, argued that the government did not want Islamists to play an active and legal political role.
"There's a message here addressed to the government," Abdel-Fattah says. "It seems that they are trying to warn the security authorities that if they do not continue releasing detained Gama'a members, the group can be dangerous."
Abdel-Fattah believes that security preoccupations -- widespread arrests of Muslim Brotherhood members, monitoring developments at the Bar Association where elections will be held soon and making plans to secure the November parliamentary elections -- "have meant that insufficient attention was being given to the Gama'a."
Although the government denies that it made a deal or struck a bargain with the Gama'a in return for the truce, a number of observers believe that some sort of arrangement must have been made. In support of that claim, analysts point to the release of some 2,500 detainees from prison following the truce declaration.
"But the release of the remaining prisoners has stopped for the time being because security authorities have been distracted," Madi suggested.
On the other hand, personal reasons, says Madi, may have possibly played a role in the latest developments. "The sheikh, locked up in an American prison, deprived of his basic needs, may have wanted to draw the media's attention. And, of course, he has."
In Taha's case, explained Madi, "the fact that he was marginalised by the Gama'a might have forced him to try to reassert his de facto importance by declaring support for the sheikh. To legitimise such support, he stressed the importance of complying with Abdel-Rahman's fatwas (religious opinions)."
Madi argued that the Gama'a initially "never viewed the sheikh's views as being the last word. If his fatwas appealed to them, they backed him; if not, they were ignored. This was important for them in the past because, then, they needed to give religious legitimacy to their anti-state violence. Now they don't need his fatwas."
This is not to say that Abdel-Rahman is without influence within Gama'a ranks. According to Madi, the sheikh continues to command respect among the group's "historic" leaders, which is why "they made a point of insisting that his statement was misinterpreted [to imply a call for the resumption of violence] -- though, in fact, it was not."
Other analysts, such as political science professor Hassan Nafaa, believe the US, in an attempt to put pressure on the Egyptian government, was behind Abdel-Rahman's statement renouncing the truce. "Of course, there's no concrete evidence to support this theory," Nafaa told the Weekly. "But it just can't be overlooked."
"These developments are taking place because Egypt is not giving in to US pressure in the Middle East peace negotiations," Nafaa said, adding that it was rumoured that President Hosni Mubarak has refused to attend a Camp David-like summit and has discouraged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat from doing so.
Related stories:Islamists come into the fold of civil society -- 20 - 26 April 2000
The limits of tolerance -- 25 Nov. - 1 Dec. 1999
The application is the message -- 14 - 20 October 1999
Islamists crash the party -- 16 - 22 September 1999
'Wassat' by any other name -- 14 - 20 May 1998
