Shortly after an advisory body at the Higher Administrative Court had last week concluded that the ruling Muslim Brotherhood have no legal status and recommended they be dissolved, the Islamist group dropped a bombshell. The Brotherhood's lawyer, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsud, disclosed that the group were last month registered as a non-governmental organisation (NGO), according to a law issued in the era of the now-toppled president Hosni Mubarak, whose regime oppressed Islamists. The Brotherhood's move is widely seen as pre-emptive move ahead of a ruling anticipated to be issued today by the Higher Administrative Court on cases requesting the dissolution of the group, from which President Mohamed Morsi hails. Legal experts expect the court to order that the group, created in 1928, be disbanded. It is not clear yet how such a ruling would affect the Brotherhood's recently acquired legal status. However, as an NGO, the Brotherhood will be subjected to certain restrictions. Under the 2002 Law on NGOs, such organisations are barred from dabbling in politics or having a religious basis. Moreover, the law obliges registered NGOs to disclose their finances. Since the 2011 revolt that deposed Mubarak, the mostly secular opposition have been calling for the powerful Brotherhood to go public with their finances and the sources of their financing. Shortly after the anti-Mubarak revolt, the Brotherhood, banned for more than five decades, obtained a licence for their first-ever political party: Freedom and Justice. The party, which was headed by Morsi before he became the head of state, secured nearly half the seats in the now-dissolved Parliament. How will this party fare, should the court disband the parent group, while the Brotherhood have become an NGO, technically barred from practising politics? Paradoxically, during a recent debate at the Islamist-dominated Shura Council, Egypt's interim legislature, the Brotherhood members said they were in favour of imposing tough curbs on NGOs, including restrictions on dealing in politics or receiving overseas funding. The Brotherhood, who celebrated their 85th birthday last week, are locked in a sharp dispute with the opposition, which accuse them of tightening the Islamists' hold on power and seeking to change the country's identity. Opponents also claim that Egypt is being ruled from the Brotherhood headquarters in the suburban eastern Cairo district of el-Moqattam, not so far from the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis. The Brotherhood have failed to mend fences with their opponents, amid a growing political and economic malaise in the country. In recent months, protests against the Brotherhood's perceived dubious agenda have descended into violence, with several offices of the group attacked and plundered. Pitched battles erupted on Friday between the Brotherhood's supporters and opponents near the Brotherhood's headquarters, leaving more than 200 people injured. As the political crisis drags on unresolved in the absence of national consensus, the Brotherhood's opponents are most likely to step up their campaign to undercut their street clout and drive them out of politics. The situation spells further trouble for President Morsi, whose detractors accuse him of acting at the group's behest. Since taking office in July, Morsi has been seen on several occasions to be at loggerheads with the judiciary, because of court rulings claimed by his Islamist allies to be politically motivated.
