Egypt designates new Muslim Brotherhood members as terrorists
New blow for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. An Egyptian court has decided to include several Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members currently residing in Turkey on the terrorist list. The Egyptian Official Gazette has published the decision of the Southern Criminal Court in Cairo to list 20 members of the Brotherhood as terrorists.
This new list includes the former secretary general of the group and leader of the organisation known as the "Istanbul Front", Mahmoud Hussein. Hussein is followed by Medhat Al-Haddad, an affiliate of the Istanbul Front, and his brother and assistant to the President of the Republic for foreign relations during the government of former President Mohamed Morsi.
Al-Haddad, before being designated as a terrorist, had earlier managed to obtain Turkish citizenship, among a large number of other Muslim Brotherhood members present in Turkey.
This new decision sends a clear message confirming the eradication of any kind of political track between the government of Abdelfatah Al-Sisi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Moreover, the ruling comes at a time of crisis for the Society. For the former supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the latter have not been able to deliver on the promises they had made, as well as their political programmes, so there is significant social discontent, not only in Egypt but also at the regional level. According to different analysts in the region, the Muslim Brotherhood has failed politically and morally through associations with corrupt parties.
Although Al-Sisi's government has managed to prevail over the Brotherhood, the Brotherhood remains one of the best-organised Islamic groups, with strong external connections and financial resources that fund them from abroad. For Al-Sisi, any hint of dialogue with the Brotherhood is considered a "betrayal". The Egyptian leader has assured that his government has succeeded in "destroying the infrastructure of terrorist organisations" and has managed to put an end to "the forces of evil and darkness".
In this struggle to curb the Muslim Brotherhood threat, Egypt has tried to weave a series of international networks to support its eradication. In this attempt, the international community, represented by the United States, the European Union, Israel and Turkey, has been trying to put together a strategy of support for Egypt that has not yet been formalised, which is of concern to several international institutions such as the European Centre for Intelligence and Counterterrorism Studies.
According to a report published by the organisation, they insist on the need for constant monitoring of the Islamist Brotherhood. In addition to Egypt, nations such as the United States and Russia consider the Muslim Brotherhood to be terrorists and warn that they carry out practices that contradict respect for human rights.
In this vein, countries such as the UK and France have adopted a series of policies aimed at curbing Islamist influence. In the case of France, French President Emmanuel Macron passed a law aimed at combating what he calls 'Islamist separatism'. Following this guideline, Macron ordered the closure of a dozen mosques, arguing that they had tried to promote Islamic radicalism.
