A member of the Muslim Brotherhood shouts solgans in front of riot police during a demonstration protesting the government’s decision to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, in front of the Press Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt on April 15, 2016. REUTERS/Amr Abdullah Dalsh
Jul 29 (Reuters) – After years of a sweeping crackdown on dissent, Egypt is ready to start a political dialogue, but the once powerful and now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood is left out.
Long considered the most influential Islamist movement in the Middle East, the Brotherhood came to power in Egypt’s first modern free elections in 2012, a year after veteran President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising.
But the success of the Brotherhood, which followed decades of confrontation with its old adversary, the state, was short-lived.
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In 2013, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, then head of the armed forces and now president, removed Mohamed Mursi from the Muslim Brotherhood after mass protests against his rule. To see also : FACT SHEET: The US and G7 will take more steps to support Ukraine and hold the Russian Federation accountable.
Egypt then launched its fiercest crackdown on the group, handing down death sentences or long prison terms for its leaders and driving its members underground or abroad.
Security forces shot dead hundreds of Brotherhood supporters at a Cairo protest camp in 2013. At least 817 people were killed and probably more than 1,000 when security forces attacked the camp with bulldozers, snipers, police and ground forces, according to Human Rights Watch. report.
Cairo defended his actions, saying that he had given protesters a chance to leave peacefully and that armed elements within the Brotherhood had initiated the violence.
Despite decades of repression, the Brotherhood developed an extensive and well-organized network of committed activists and gained public support through the charitable work of its professional members. They were also influential in professional organizations such as the unions of doctors and lawyers.
Here are some facts about the Muslim Brotherhood.
– Schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna founded the Brotherhood in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia in 1928, partly in response to the British occupation of Egypt. It was one of the first and most successful movements that defended Islam as a political program in a modern context.
– Within 20 years, the movement had grown to more than 500,000 members, with branches in other Arab countries.
– The Brotherhood said it was committed to bringing about political change in Egypt through non-violent and democratic means.
– The Brotherhood was banned in 1954 after the government accused the group of trying to assassinate President Gamal Abdel Nasser, an accusation that the Brotherhood has always denied.
– A long period of repression began to wane under the presidency of Anwar Sadat in the 1970s. Although it remained banned under Mubarak, the Brotherhood operated openly within limits that varied at the whim of the authorities.
– The Mubarak government denied the Brotherhood the right to form a political party, arguing that the constitution, drafted by the government, prohibited religious parties.
– Sisi has called the Brotherhood a terrorist group and said it poses an existential threat to Egypt, a charge he denies. The Brotherhood says it is committed to peaceful activism.
– The Persian Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, see the Brotherhood as a threat to their dynastic system of government. Both have declared it a terrorist group.
– However, Qatar, the Gulf state, supported the group and took in leading figures of the Brotherhood. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party supported the Mursi government. Turkey and Qatar’s support for the group strained relations with Saudi Arabia.
– In 2019, US President Donald Trump worked to designate the group as a terrorist organization, but this never happened.
– A 2015 British government review said the group was “not linked to terrorism-related activities in and against the UK.” In the Middle East, he saw a “complex and situational relationship, in a region where political violence was and is common.”
He said the group had historically “engaged politically where possible. But they have also selectively used violence and sometimes terror in pursuit of their institutional goals”.
– Many political parties and campaign groups in the Middle East and beyond have their roots in the Brotherhood. The militant group Hamas, for example, was founded as the Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood. The movement is banned in Syria, where it helped foment an armed uprising in 1982.
– The group participated in parliamentary elections in Egypt in the 1980s, but boycotted the vote in 1990, when it joined the majority of the country’s opposition in protesting electoral restrictions. The Brotherhood circumvented a ban on its activities by running candidates in the elections as independents.
– The Brotherhood won 17 seats in the 2000 parliamentary election and then took 20 percent of the seats in the 454-seat assembly in 2005, making it the largest opposition bloc despite widespread vote rigging.
– The Brothers boycotted the 2010 elections, which the opposition denounced as rigged. Such abuses fueled the anger that led to the 2011 protests that brought down Mubarak and his government.
– Although the Brotherhood was able to function under Mubarak, it was also subjected to repression. Police routinely arrested members of the Brotherhood, including top leaders, and held them indefinitely without charge.
– Fears that Mubarak’s internal security could deal a crippling blow led the group to take a backseat in the revolt against Mubarak. That uprising was largely fueled by activists who put national pride before religion.
– It was only later in the 18-day uprising that the Brotherhood came out fully in favor, although the group said some Brotherhood members had participated independently during the protests.
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Written by Michael George
Edited by Mark Heinrich To see also : Pegasus strikes again: Thai activists fall victim to technological hack.
