Thread: Egypt Does What Washington Won’t: Declares Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group

Egypt Does What Washington Won’t: Declares Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group

Posted By Tim Brown on Dec 25, 2013
in Articles, Email Featured, Featured, Islam, Middle East, News, Terrorism, World News | 173 Comments



On Wednesday, Egypt’s military-backed interim government declared the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist group. This declaration criminalizes the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities, financing and membership, including the countries former president Mohamed Morsi.

The Associated Press reports:

The announcement is a dramatic escalation of the fight between the government and group, which has waged near-daily protests since the July 3 popularly backed military coup that toppled President Mohammed Morsi.

Hossam Eissa, the Minister of Higher Education, read out the Cabinet statement after long meeting, saying: “The Cabinet has declared the Muslim Brotherhood group and its organization as a terrorist organization.”

He said that the decision was in response to Tuesday’s deadly bombing targeting a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city which killed 16 people and wounded more than 100. The Brotherhood has denied being responsible for Mansoura attack and an al-Qaida inspired group has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing on Wednesday.

“Egypt was horrified from north to south by the hideous crime committed by the Muslim Brotherhood group,” Eissa said. “This was in context of dangerous escalation to violence against Egypt and Egyptians (and) a clear declaration by the Muslim Brotherhood group that it is still knows nothing but violence.”


“It’s not possible for Egypt the state nor Egypt the people to submit to the Muslim Brotherhood terrorism,” he added.
According to the New York Times, “Analysts said the designation opened the door to the most severe crackdown on the movement in decades, requiring hundreds of thousands of Brotherhood members to abandon the group or face prison, and granting the military and the police new authority to violently suppress protests. The decision makes it a crime to promote the Brotherhood “by words” and could also outlaw hundreds of social and charity organizations run by Brotherhood members.”
Khalil al-Anani, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington who studies the Brotherhood, called the designation “a turning point,” claiming that it could lead Egypt toward a civil conflict. “This is a big miscalculation from the government,” he said. “It is a massive social movement, whose supporters might retaliate or fight back.”
One Muslim Brotherhood member, Ahmed al-Arainy, who has already been arrested once following the ousting of Morsi said that the terrorist designation “makes no difference to us.”
“Our problem with them is on the ground and not related to their labels,” he said of Egypt’s current leaders. “They killed us in the street yesterday, and today they’re trying to legalize the crime they had already committed.”
While the Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem Al Beblawi would not confirm the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorists, following the explosion on, he did condemn the attack as an act of terrorism. However, Cabinet spokesman Sherif Shawki spoke out ahead of the official declaration of the Muslim Brotherhood as revealing its “ugly face as a terrorist organization shedding blood and messing with Egypt’s security,” according to Middle East News Agency.
The 85-year-old Islamist movement was banned by Egypt’s military rulers in 1954, but registered an NGO called the Muslim Brotherhood Association in March this year in response to a court case bought by opponents who contested its legal status.
It is amazing that Egypt is willing to do what Washington DC will not. They are willing to openly declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group. I would imagine that would be a problem for Washington considering that Barack Obama’s brother, Malik Obama, is directly tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and helps in their finances. He also received tax-exempt status from the former Internal Revenue Service hack Lois Lerner.
It’s not just that though; Obama has also been called out by the Egyptian media as being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and his support of the terrorist organization is well documented.
Furthermore, his Homeland Security advisor, Mohamed Elibiary is a Muslim Brotherhood member, who showed his support for the terrorist organization on his Twitter account back in October, only to cave to pressure and remove it just days later. Not only that, but Elibiary apparently has a voice when it comes to whether or not our government considers the Muslim Brotherhood a terror group, at least according to his October 1, 2013 tweet:

• Mohamed Elibiary @MohamedElibiary
  
  @FPPTim NP. FYI upcoming interview discloses I've had somewhat of a front row seat as our gov has tackled whether MB terror group issue.
  
  

Tim Brown @FPPTim
Follow
@MohamedElibiary I understand that, but isn't that a bit of a conflict of interest for you? I think so.
9:51 AM - 2 Oct 2013

The question now arises as to who in the federal government, elected or merely employed, is willing to step up with Egypt and call out these savages for who they really are and remove them from the powers they hold in our government?

Don't forget to Like Freedom Outpost on Facebook and Google Plus.

http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/12/eg...rrorist-group/

Egypt names Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group

By MAGGIE MICHAEL and SARAH EL DEEB
December 25, 2013 3:45 PM

Egyptians attend the funeral of a dozen policeman and a civilian killed from an explosion at a police headquarters, in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2013. A powerful blast tore through a police headquarters in an Egyptian Nile Delta city early Tuesday, killing more than a dozen, wounding more than 100 and leaving victims buried under rubble in the deadliest bombing yet in a months-long wave of violence blamed on Islamic militants. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, which came a day after an al-Qaida-inspired group called on police and army personnel to desert or face death at the hands of its fighters. (AP Photo/Ahmed Omar)

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's military-backed interim government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization Wednesday, intensifying its campaign of arrests and prosecutions targeting its members and tightening the noose on the group's network of charities and businesses.

Related Stories

• Powerful bombing at Egypt police station kills 13Associated Press
• Egypt Brotherhood vows protests despite 'terror' listing AFP
• Egypt designates Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist group Reuters
• Egypt's rulers slap terror label on Muslim Brotherhood Christian Science Monitor
• Egypt arrests dozens under new anti-terror lawReuters

The unprecedented executive decision likely ends any chance of reconciliation between the government and the 85-year-old Brotherhood, still Egypt's most organized political group. It marks a stunning reversal of fortunes for the long-outlawed organization that saw member Mohammed Morsi reach Egypt's highest office in the country's first democratic election, only to be ousted in a popularly backed military coup in July. And it takes a step that not even autocrat Hosni Mubarak took in his nearly 30-year rule.
Hossam Eissa, deputy prime minister and minister of higher education, read the government's declaration, saying the decision was in response to Tuesday's deadly bombing in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura which killed 16 people and wounded more than 100. It was the deadliest militant bombing since Morsi's ouster and showed growing reach of the country's Islamic insurgency, previously concentrated in the northern Sinai.
Although Eissa and the government offered no proof of the Brotherhood's involvement, the accusation instilled in the public mind the image of the group as being behind the surge in violent attacks.
The Brotherhood has denied being responsible for the Mansoura attack. Earlier Wednesday, an al-Qaida-inspired group called Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or the Champions of Jerusalem, said it was behind the suicide bombing to avenge the "shedding of innocent Muslim blood" at the hands of Egypt's "apostate regime" — a reference to the security forces' crackdown on Islamists following the coup.
Brotherhood members dismissed the government label Wednesday, promising their near-daily protests against Morsi's ouster would continue.
"The protests are in the streets despite a law restricting them — and killings and prison sentences. All this has not changed the will of the people," said Ibrahim Elsayed, member of the Brotherhood's political group, the Freedom and Justice Party. "The decision has no value for us and is only worth the paper it is written on."
Another member, Islam Tawfiq, said the Brotherhood is considering whether to challenge the declaration in courts at home or abroad.
"An interim government for nine months will not stymie with terrorism a group working for (nearly) 90 years," Tawfiq said.
Soon after the declaration, however, a state-owned print shop stopped printing the Brotherhood party's newspaper. Tawfiq said it followed oral orders from security agencies to halt publication.
The declaration comes after another sweeping decision Tuesday aimed at draining the Brotherhood's finances by freezing the funds of more than 1,000 non-government organizations with links to the group and putting more than 100 schools run by the group under government supervision. That directly attacks the grassroots strength of the Brotherhood, where it has much of its power in Egyptian life.
Eissa said Wednesday's decision means that those who "participate in the group's activities, in the organization or promotion verbally or by writing or by any other means or financing its activities" will be facing punishment according to the law.
"It's not possible for Egypt the state nor Egypt the people to submit to the Muslim Brotherhood terrorism," Eissa said.
He also said that the government had notified other Arab countries about its decision. The Brotherhood has organizations and political parties in other nations in the region. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said a regional agreement for combatting terrorism requires Arab countries to hand over those wanted by Egypt.
Ahmed el-Borai, the minister of social solidarity, told reporters that the decision means that demonstrations by the group will also be banned. He said that members who abandon their membership and withdraw from the group "will be pardoned."
The Brotherhood, founded in 1928, renounced violence in the late 1970s. Since rising to power after Mubarak's ouster, the Brotherhood had faced growing public anger over what critics said was its attempt to monopolize power, enshrine Islamic laws in the country's legislation and allying with some of the country's more radical Islamist groups.
The military-backed government has blamed the group for a surge in violence particularly against security forces after Morsi' ouster, accusing it of seeking to destabilize the country to undermine the new authorities and its political plan to hold elections.
Security forces already have cranked up the pressure on the Brotherhood since July, arresting thousands of its members, including its top leadership, and cracking down on protests that often have turned violent, leaving hundreds killed.
Last week, prosecutors referred Morsi and other top Brotherhood leaders to trial on charges of conspiring with Palestinian group Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah, Iran and other militant groups and orchestrating the Sinai insurgency to avenge his ouster. Morsi supporters and rights groups have called the accusations implausible.
It's not yet clear what steps the government will take following the declaration. Rifaat Laqoushah, a political analyst, called the declaration "procedural" and could be overturned by the courts.
"The government should present strong evidence of the Muslim Brotherhood collaboration in terrorism and present it to courts in order to win a court ruling branding the group as a terrorist one," Laqoushah said.
Brotherhood defense lawyer Mohammed el-Damati said he expected the terrorism branding to have no legal repercussions since the group's members are already tried on terrorism-related charges and had assets seized.
But el-Damati said the decision will have a psychological impact, increasing the public's hostility against the group. Following the Mansoura attack, many local residents attacked properties of Brotherhood in anger.
"These are signs that this is leading to very serious consequences, an introduction to civil strife," he said.
Rights lawyer Taher Abu-ElNasr said it is possible that a campaign of coming arrests would be based only on the basis of membership to the Brotherhood. He described it as an "escalating campaign" from both sides.
"This is a message that there is no room for negotiations," he said.


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