“National Security officers still perceive Islamists — be they Salafis, the Brotherhood or Jihadists — as a threat to national security. They, the officers, think of themselves as the only guardian of homeland security and that they are the only ‘army' serving national interests.” Such were extracts from a long testimony posted on Facebook last week by engineer Sayed Al-Mukhtar, interrogated for going to Mali on a relief mission. Al-Mukhtar offered a hands-on account of what is going on in the National Security headquarters in the Cairo district of Nasr City, the scene of a large demonstration organised by Islamist parties and a cluster of activists on Thursday, 2 May, to protest at national security practices against Islamist detainees. Elaborating, Al-Mukhtar spoke about “corridors packed with young Islamist men” who were being insulted, humiliated and appeared to have been tortured. In conclusion, he said it was business as usual at the country's most notorious security establishment. “It is the same mentality running the place,” he said, referring to the modus operandi under the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak. It is a view shared by a growing number of Islamist activists who cite evidence that brutal and inhumane treatment of detainees is back in full force and that Islamists are first in line when it comes to who is targeted. “Nothing changed in the way Egypt's security forces conduct their work. Worse still, they may have even gotten more aggressive,” one activist told Al-Ahram Weekly. Last week's protest, say activists, was only a rehearsal for what is yet to come. On Sunday, the General Islamist Current (GIC — Al-Tayar Al-Islami Al-Aam), a loose coalition of 22 Islamist movements, issued a statement in which it threatened to go back to protest in front of the National Security headquarters in Nasr City if their demands are not met or if more Islamist activists are rounded up. “There are officers in this place who have blood on their hands,” said Khaled Said, spokesperson of the Salafist Front (Al-Gabhaa Al-Salafiya) a member of the coalition. “They have tortured and killed Islamists in prisons,” he added. Said likewise threatened new protests: “Next time, the response will be stronger and deterring,” he noted. Said called on President Mohamed Morsi to dissolve the National Security apparatus.
HOW DID IT START? Activist Hossam Abul-Bukhari, head of the GIC, had called for a mass demonstration in front of the National Security headquarters reflecting growing concern among Islamist activists over what they say is an increasingly repressive pattern reminiscent of the Mubarak days. “They have been bombarding Islamist activists with telephone calls demanding that they curb their activities, or inquiring about information, or tapping their calls,” said Abul-Bukhari. He cited as evidence the subpoenas issued by National Security officers to Islamist activists with no legal basis and the return of “criminal practices and threats” to intimidate citizens, practices that sparked the revolution in the first place and empty it of content when they reappear. Abul-Bukhari cited numerous incidents where National Security officers fabricated information and attributed fake press releases to Islamist activists to discredit their peaceful protests. “Political powers should assume their responsibility to rein in this apparatus, which maintained a hostile attitude against the people,” he said. The incidents provoked fresh questions regarding the pressing issue of police reform, a key demand of the 25 January Revolution, which activists say the president failed to honour. Police reform campaigners have been documenting tens of cases of police brutality and new patterns of violence. In the words of one campaigner, the police are acting “like an armed militia”. Interior Ministry propagandists insist the police have “changed” and that their primary concern is the security of citizens. But one study on police reform pointed out that “National Security officials and high ranking police officers have often disregarded their duty as service providers and have instead relied on fear tactics to intimidate the public.” On 15 March 2011, then interior minister Mansour Eissawi dissolved the State Security Investigations body and all its branches across the nation following massive protests against the body and its practices. On 4 March, protesters broke into State Security offices in Alexandria and the following day they raided the main headquarters in Nasr City. Interior Ministry officials, to curb public anger, said they had set up a new National Security Department whose job was to preserve national security and combat terrorism according to the law and the constitution and in tune with human rights values. But for the past year it has become common to hear complaints from different activists about the return of old State Security practices and that some of the officers who committed atrocities against activists in the past are back in business. Khaled Harbi, a coordinator with the GIC, and other activists noted how the National Security body was meddling in political affairs and imposing restrictions on Islamist activists or gathering information about them. “We are waiting to see the response to our list of demands, which include purging National Security of all officers who worked under Mubarak and who were charged with torture cases. If we do not get a proper response, our reaction will be shattering,” Harbi said. Going further, Tarek Al-Zomor, head of the political bureau of the Islamic Group (Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya), proposed that the only way to curb politicisation of the National Security Department was to issue legislation defining its exact powers and to ensure accountability before the law. Of particular concern should be to define the areas in which it should be gathering information. Sympathetic responses to Islamist calls from political rivals pointed to the possibility that efforts to end oppressive National Security practices could act as a unifying force that could break the acute polarisation that has gripped of the nation for months. The question going forward is whether or not once revolutionary comrades can bury their differences, putting political rivalries aside, to coordinate on common causes. Ali Al-Raggal, an activist and researcher on social studies from Alexandria, told Al-Ahram Weekly the idea was plausible. “Standing united in the face of abhorrent National Security practices against activists from across the spectrum could act as a unifying force,” he said. Such unity is, nonetheless, conditioned by a number of factors. “First, Islamists should continue to put pressure on the president to reform the security establishment. This should not be a one-off event,” Al-Raggal insisted. Islamists, he continued, should also stop acting as though they are the only victims of National Security abuses. “They should develop a new discourse that centres around common causes with other activists in order to mobilise larger segments and break the polarisation.” Al-Raggal pointed out that one reason for the acute polarisation is that people feel there is no central cause to defend and rally around. The Islamists' protest against National Security abuses, he said, could be a starting point. He cited a number of cases of activists in Alexandria who have been kidnapped by National Security and brutally beaten. Al-Raggal and other activists believe that “grand causes” in the fight against the old order included the security issue, but says that Islamists betrayed the revolutionary rank and file and failed to lend support when in power to the grand aspirations of the people.
