Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

June 30: Not Only Egypt... World States Abandon Brotherhood


Mon 29 Jun 2020 | 09:11 PM
Yassmine Elsayed

The move token by the Egyptians to oust the ruling regime of Muslim Brotherhood, which was established in 2012 following the January 25th- 2011 uprising, was not something confined to the Egyptians .. Rather, the organization was already banned and criminalized in a large number of countries, without Egypt's experience being the only inspiration in that.

Egypt has endured the Brotherhood’s rule for a whole year, during which their ugly face, their extremely poor performance and their bad experience in managing the country's affairs, has been reflected, causing losses in almost all vital sectors.

But more than that, they have deepened the social incitement and the obsession of social classification .. During that year, they coexisted with society with the principle of "whoever is not with us is against us." Their state authorities and departments managed accordingly.. The principle of exclusion was widely adopted in the sectors .. and non-Brotherhood members was incited against in ultra-orthodox media platforms, in an incremental manner that continued up till the protest calls and demonstrations on June 30, 2013.

In fact, the negative effects of their rule extended to Sinai which turned into a stronghold for armed groups and militias, and large areas of the place became out of law ... and we are still suffering from its consequences until now as martyrs from the armed forces fell on the borders of the homeland.

On December 26, 2013, the Egyptian government labelled the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, and all of its activities were prohibited, stressing that the Arab countries joining the 1998 anti-terror convention would be notified to classify the terrorist group, and that the penalties prescribed in Penal Code No. 88 would be imposed on all whoever participates in the group's activity or organization, or promotes it by saying or writing, or in any other way, and everyone who funds its activities.

This report is not intended to review the reasons for which Egyptians overthrew the Brotherhood from power in their country, but it shows how the organization was booed by various countries of the world and not only Egypt.

Few days ago, the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Yousef Al-Othaimeen, underscored his solid conviction that the Muslim Brotherhood organization is more dangerous than ISIS, as it has emerged more than seventy years ago, and its project is to reach power by exploiting religion and manipulating young minds.

Speaking to "Sky News" tv, Al-Othaimeen added that the second thing that makes the Brotherhood more dangerous than ISIS is that they are not merely a gathering of former prisoners or drug addicts, but rather they include parliamentarians, politicians, university professors, doctors and lawyers, i.e. various groups of society, and those who are considered successful.

Not only did the German parliament discuss a draft resolution to impose strong scrutiny on the Brotherhood and its organizations in the 16 states of the country, but also the members of the British House of Commons called for a ban on the terrorist group, as well as French deputies who demanded that the group be designated as a terrorist.

Last year, Austria decided to ban symbols and flags, and create a center to document the organization's crimes.

In Berlin, the German parliament discussed a draft resolution that calls for strong supervision over the terrorist Brotherhood in the country, before referring it to the Internal Security Committee for discussion, in a first step towards its approval. This project is considered the first serious move in the German parliament to confront the terrorist Brotherhood's threat.

Two days ago, Christoph de Vries, a German parliamentarian and a prominent leader in the Christian Democrats, revealed his rejection of an invitation to dialogue with representatives of the terrorist Brotherhood, because it was "a threat to democracy and security in the country" as he put it.

In Austria, in February 2019, the Ministry of Interior issued an executive law prohibiting 13 different flags and symbols of terrorist organizations, with the Brotherhood's slogan appearing in green "swords meddled by word: Get Prepared", as the first symbol in the ban list.

Within a year of the law being implemented, the authorities succeeded in detecting 71 violations across the country, according to Christoph Plotzel, a spokesman for the Austrian Interior Ministry.

Russia was the first foreign country to include the organization on July 28, 2006, in a list of 17 banned organizations. The Russian decision came after the group’s violent actions in the northern Caucasus regions, which have an Islamic majority, and its financial support to the elements fighting the Russian forces. Accordingly, the group’s leaders were barred from entering the Russian soil, as Moscow sensed the danger of the organization and its activities.

Kazakhstan is the second country in this context. On May 7, 2009, it issued a decision to expand the list of terrorist organizations to 31 organizations, started by the Brotherhood.

On April 5, 2014, the Canadian Parliament approved, by an overwhelming majority, to include the Brotherhood on terrorist lists, in response to a petition submitted by the Egyptian community in Canada to demand a ban on Brotherhood activities there.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also considered the Brotherhood a terrorist organization in March 2014, as it stated in its decision that the Brotherhood, ISIS, and Al-Nusra Front were terrorist groups.

In the same year, on November 15, the UAE issued a government decree listing the Brotherhood and its affiliated local groups on the list of terrorist organizations, and its decree adopted 83 other organizations, most notably "ISIS", Al-Nusra front" and "Ansar al-Sharia" in Libya Tunisia, Al-Qaeda and Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis.

Mauritania also joined the Arab countries that took measures against the activities of the Brotherhood within its territories, after it dissolved a number of Brotherhood-affiliated societies, banning the Future Association, one of the largest religious associations in Mauritania, in March 2014.

Currently, Tunisian MP Abeer Moussa, head of the Free Constitutional Party bloc in the Tunisian parliament, is leading efforts to label the movement as a terrorist group.