Egypt Mulls Over Outlawing the Muslim Brotherhood

The Mideast News Source

CAIRO – Amid continuing violent confrontations between supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi and Egyptian police, Egypt’s interim government is mulling over dissolving the Muslim Brotherhood altogether.

Over the weekend, Prime Minister Hazem ElBeblawi proposed the legal dissolution of the Brotherhood, which was outlawed for decades under former President Hosni Mubarak, whose ouster in 2011 was followed by the election of Morsi. In an attempt to justify his plan, ElBeblawi accused Muslim Brotherhood leaders of ordering their supporters to block roads and attack state institutions and churches in order to foment violence.


...“The country has witnessed terrorism conducted against civilians. They have burned hospitals, churches, police stations and government installations that have nothing to do with the demands of the protesters,” Fahmy added.

The minister showed pictures of armed gunmen presumed to be members of the Muslim Brotherhood among the protesters firing at the police and army during the protests.

On the streets of Cairo, many Egyptians are angry about the force used against the protestors and the campaign against Morsi supporters.

“They are attacking those protesters like they have missiles with them. It’s unfair, and God will take revenge for the oppressed,” Mohamed Saleh, a taxi driver, told The Media Line.

Other Egyptians worry that the violence could spark a civil war similar to the one raging in Syria for almost three years.

“The number of dead is rising, and now Egyptians will fight each other for revenge,” Reda Ahmed, a middle-school teacher from Alexandria told The Media Line. “There is no family in Egypt that doesn’t have a member in the army or the police. Families will fight each other over spilled blood, and there will be revenge killings,” Ahmed predicted.

Members of the interim government say that some of the protestors are not even native Egyptians. An intelligence officer told The Media Line on condition of anonymity that undercover troops are on the lookout for Afghans, Pakistanis, Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians who are helping the Muslim Brotherhood’s fighters.

“We arrested a lot of foreigners from Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Palestine in areas of where violence took place. We’re looking for these nationalities and Lebanese and Qataris as well,” according to the officer.

Egyptian police also arrested Mohamed Al-Zawahiri, the head of Egypt’s Gama’a Islamiya terrorist organization and brother of Al-Qa’ida leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

Editor's note: The United States has been the target of the Muslim Brotherhood's civilization jihad for decades.