comment by Jerry Gordon

Strongman President Mubarak has a love hate relationship with the largest opposition in the Egyptian Parliament, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The MB has an extremist Islamist credo that surfaced in the Holy Land Foundation Federal trial in Dallas. Many Muslim advocacy groups in the US are fronts for MB; eg., CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, MPAC, MAS. US Congressmen like House Majority leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland have met with MB political leaders in the garden of the US Embassy in Cairo. Now, we see that Mubarak is getting wary and cracking down on the MB opposition, jailing and torturing them, no doubt. After being in power for more than 27 years after the 1981 assassination of the late President Anwar Sadat, Egypt might have a Muslim Brotherhood majority, sharia law, so we guess the Arabists in our State Department want to do outreach to a group like the MB who despise our fredom, liberty and forms of constitutional government. Strange.

Reuters, July 20, 2008

Egypt detained 39 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Monday in the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheikh, security sources and the Brotherhood website said.

Those detained included three members of the Brotherhood’s provincial leadership, the group said on its website.

Police took the men from apartments, accusing them of holding organizational meetings. The Brotherhood says the men were on vacation.

The Brotherhood has been outlawed since 1954, but has traditionally been largely tolerated and operates openly.

An unexpectedly strong showing in a 2005 parliamentary election triggered a government crackdown against the group. Since then, several Brotherhood leaders have been prosecuted and imprisoned.

The banned group advocates turning Egypt into an Islamic state through the ballot box.

Analysts say the government wants to stop the Brotherhood from mounting a real threat to the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, in power since 1981. Mubarak’s ruling party has a comfortable majority in every elected body in the country.

Since the 2005 vote, Egyptian authorities have prosecuted leading members of the Brotherhood in military tribunals and arrested thousands of members and supporters. They have also prevented Islamists from winning more elected positions.