Brotherhood blamed

Government and ruling party officials accuse the Muslim Brotherhood of organising last week's riots in Mahala, reports Gamal Essam El-Din

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The government and ruling party officials this week solely blamed the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood for the violence that swept the industrial city of Mahala Al-Kubra on 6 and 7 April. The consultative upper house of the Shura Council, dominated by members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), opened the campaign against the Brotherhood on Sunday, arguing, that "the dark fingers of an illegitimate group tried its best to ignite fire all over Mahala". Safwat El-Sherif, who is the chairman of the council and secretary- general of the NDP, said "the riots were not a reaction to repressive acts but the work of an irresponsible group with a long record of inciting violence."

"Thank God," he continued, "the workers and people of Mahala refused to be a tool in the hands of these extremists." El-Sherif described the reaction of Mahala workers as a "declaration that the conspiracies of outlawed groups are rejected".

Minister of Local Development Abdel-Salam El-Mahgoub echoed the accusations, saying "an outlawed group tried its best to take over the Mahala workers' strike and use it to incite popular protest all over Egypt."

Minister of Labour Aisha Abdel-Hadi said, "Egypt will continue to live in peace despite the conspiracies of an outlawed group that tried to turn 6 April into a black day". She also accused some newspapers of "urging Mahala workers to close down their plant and set the town ablaze".

El-Sherif, El-Mahgoub and Abdel-Hadi all heaped praise on security forces, saying they had exercised restraint in the face of severe provocation, while Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabali blamed satellite television channels for airing misleading coverage of the riots. After touring the streets of Mahala on 7 April he said two schools and an ambulance depot had been damaged, while "the number of people injured by the riots stood at 155, with 128 suffering only slight wounds". Only 16 people were still receiving treatment, he said, before confirming that two people had died in the disturbances.

Deputy Interior Minister Lieutenant-General Ahmed Diaaeddin claimed that, "outlawed groups seized on the open democratic climate to raise misleading slogans and urge people to go on strike", adding that several members of Kifaya had been arrested and would face charges of inciting violence and calling for civil disobedience. He, too, said the police had exercised restraint as rioters torched 15 police cars, and stressed that the Interior Ministry would stand firm in the face of any future demonstrations or strikes.

While there was a near consensus among NDP members that the Muslim Brotherhood had deliberately exacerbated tensions, some non-NDP members of the Shura Council begged to differ. Mamdouh Qenawi, the chairman of the Free Constitutional Party, accused the ruling party and government officials of providing a "shallow interpretation of the riots" and failing to recognise that they were an expression of "popular discontent and potentially a forerunner of even worse developments". He said government policies were depriving people of both food and freedom and called on President Hosni Mubarak to lead a national dialogue with all political forces.

Nagui El-Shehabi, chairman of Al-Geel (Generation) Party, said the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has become a major problem for President Mubarak. "This is a government for businessmen and crony investors that has acted to widen the gulf between rich and poor people and in doing so has created fertile ground for the spread of such strikes and demonstrations."

El-Shehabi also attacked the Muslim Brotherhood, warning that "were this group to come in power in Egypt the heads of thousands of free people would be on the scaffolds" and blasted the Qatari-based satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera for providing biased coverage of Mahala riots.

Muslim Brotherhood MPs said attacks against the group by NDP Shura Council members were completely unfounded. They demanded Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to open an impartial investigation into the cause of the Mehala riots.