The Egyptian government’s determination to crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood shows no sign of abating with this week’s arrest of 52 members of the group, including several senior figures. Sunday’s dawn raids in seven governorates, including Cairo, Alexandria, Gharbiya, and Kafr Al Sheikh, came after a series of demonstrations against the current situation in both the Palestinian territories and Iraq.
Meanwhile Abu Ela Madi, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, made a third application for official recognition of his Al Wasat Al Masri as a political party on Monday – prompting speculation that others may leave the Brotherhood to join him. The group, which includes seven Copts and 40 women, said it advocated the introduction of Sharia and Islamic rules, while working to establish a modern political movement with Islam as a cultural background open to “reinterpretation and change.”
The Muslim Brotherhood condemned Sunday’s operation in a statement, saying it was the most intensive since 1995 and came “amid aggravating incidents against the Arab and Islamic nation.”
The Brotherhood has also criticized the authorities for focusing on business interests. The group’s lawyer, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud, said “Many businesses were searched and closed down without justification.”
According to Maqsoud, around 20 companies were shut down, including shops, publishing houses, construction companies, and pharmacies. The Company for Scientific Service, host of the Brotherhood’s official website, Ikhwan Online, was among those closed for business.
“Police seized money and jewelry found in homes and funds held in business premises, and froze bank accounts,” Maqsoud said, claiming that a total of E£3.5 million had been confiscated.
The detained men have been accused of “taking advantage of regional and local political issues to incite the public against the regime.”
Two of those detained – Alexandria publisher Gamal Saadi Madhi and businessman Medhat Ahmed Al Haddad – spent three years in prison in the 1990s. Another detainee, Ibrahim Sayed Muhammad, an engineer, has been detained in several previous roundups.
An official investigation memorandum alleges that the Muslim Brotherhood has organized military training for militants in “desert areas,” as well as in Iraq, the occupied territories, and Chechnya. “They were training militants on the arts of fighting and guerrilla warfare, so they will be prepared to face the authorities in [Egypt] when they come back to change the regime by force,” the document said.
The State Security Investigations bureau (SSI) identified Al Qazafi Badr, a 28-year-old cleric and owner of Al Shorafaa – a company ostensibly hiring Egyptians for work abroad – as a key figure involved in sending militants for training outside Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood denied any knowledge of Badr, insisting he was not a member of the group.
The SSI also confirmed this week that a total of 58 members had been targeted for arrest, six of whom remained at large.
Analysts say the focus on Muslim Brotherhood business interests marks a significant change in tactics by the authorities, cutting off funding as well as human capital to the group.
However, Maqsoud strongly denied allegations that members of the Muslim Brotherhood were using businesses to raise funds to train militants abroad.
“These accusations are totally incorrect and not based on any evidence,” he said. “The main objective of these charges is to demean and blacken the image of the Muslim Brothers.”
And he warned that while there was no evidence to support such allegations, the nature of the charges meant that detained members of the Brotherhood now faced the very real possibility of a military trial.
Members of the Muslim Brotherhood maintained that this week’s mass arrests were an attempt to portray the group as a terrorist organization and so further sideline it from national political dialogue. A recent joint initiative by the ruling National Democratic Party, Al Wafd, and Al Tagmmua to draw up a plan aimed at political reform failed to include the Brotherhood.
Esam Al Erian, a leading member of the group, told the Middle East Times that the crackdown on Brotherhood members was not only the most far-reaching in years, but also the most damaging. “It is one thing to arrest people on certain charges; it is unfair to close down businesses employing thousands of people with families,” he said. “Even the timing of the arrests was critical, with final exams around the corner.”
The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mahdi Akef, responded to the arrests – the first of such a scale since he took the helm earlier this year – with defiance. “The Muslim Brotherhood will remain despite the repression it faces,” he said.