Ousted former president Mohamed Morsi and dozens of Muslim Brotherhood leaders are facing accusations that include spying, the killing of protesters, inciting violence, and possessing weapons and explosives, and Egyptian prosecutors have frozen the assets of at least 14 senior Brotherhood leaders and other prominent Islamists as part of their investigations into the alleged incitement of violence at demonstrations in favour of the former president. Meanwhile, unidentified militants, allegedly Brotherhood loyalists, have been carrying out strikes targeting the Armed Forces in Sinai, including an attempt to assassinate Ahmed Wasfi, the army second-in-command, near Sheikh Zuweid last week. These aspects of a still-polarised political scene have dimmed prospects for reconciliation between Egypt's military backed interim government and the ousted Brotherhood. It has also become doubtful whether reconciliation will happen anytime soon as a result of the beginning of a so-called “war on terrorism” in Egypt. Brotherhood supporters are suspected of carrying out terrorist acts as a result of a video showing Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) executive bureau member Mohamed Al-Beltagui. In the video, Al-Beltagui says that “stability will return to Sinai once the military coup ends and former president Mohamed Morsi is reinstated.” “The situation there will return to stability automatically the moment the military coup is over and all consequent actions have been reversed, the most important of which is the reinstatement of elected president Morsi,” Al-Beltagui said in the video. Al-Beltagui claims that the media has “cut and paste” his words to make him appear culpable for the Sinai violence, adding that the media is “run by the intelligence agencies.” Whether or not the Brotherhood is responsible for the deadly violence in Sinai, it has spurred debate on whether or not to include the Brotherhood and its political arm the FJP on the political scene. On its part, the presidency announced this week that contacts are conducted with the MB and Islamist leaders to reach a kind of reconciliation. Liberal politician and former MP Amr Hamzawy would prefer to find a way of bringing about reconciliation with the Brotherhood, though he also wants “to hold the instigators of the violence and those involved in financing or exercising it among the leaders of Brotherhood accountable.” Due to the current atmosphere of fierce polarisation and division in the country, Hamzawy has come under attack for backing reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. TV presenter and columnist Khaled Montasser was among those who criticised Hamzawy, stressing that “there is a contradiction between Hamzawy's stance towards the political isolation law passed in 2012 and his refusal to exclude the Brotherhood after the ousting of Morsi.” Hamzawy had a role in drafting the isolation law, afterwards found to be unconstitutional by the Higher Constitutional Court, which excluded members of the former Mubarak regime from participating in the political scene. Political analyst and columnist Fahmy Howeidy said that political figures and intellectuals calling for reconciliation and the defence of the democratic process in Egypt were being subjected to an unjustified campaign of slander and intimidation. He described the “exclusionary measures and atrocities” being carried out by the “security services and certain politicians against the Brotherhood and supporters of Morsi as neo-fascism.” Moreover, the campaign of insults in the Egyptian media, he said, had gone hand-in-hand with other measures against the Brotherhood, including preventing Brotherhood journalists from publishing in national newspapers, closing down some religious TV channels, expanding arbitrary arrests and the detentions of Islamist leaders, and blacking out news of mass rallies and sit-ins by supporters of ousted president Morsi. Political activists have been divided on the issue of reconciliation, with some calling for excluding the Brotherhood and others calling for reconciliation and for similar moves to be made towards former members of the Mubarak regime. Activist Hazem Abdel-Azim refused all reconciliation with the Brotherhood, while Wael Abbas has said that “the 30 June Revolution refuses reconciliation with the Brotherhood members and Islamists who ruled for one year, but it welcomes reconciliation with those who killed, tortured, and stole from the Egyptians for more than 30 years,” meaning survivors of the former Mubarak regime. In a bid to bring about national unity, former presidential candidate Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh met with Al-Azhar's Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb on Friday to discuss possible national reconciliation efforts to end the nationwide conflict. The Strong Egypt Party founder's visit is considered “part of efforts to communicate with different parties in order to contain the ongoing crisis the country is facing,” according to a statement by the party. In a statement last week, Al-Tayeb called for comprehensive national reconciliation, declaring that he might have to “go into seclusion” if the current cycle of violence did not stop. Mufti Shawki Allam also agreed with Al-Tayeb on the need for national reconciliation, saying that all the Islamist parties would be an essential part of this process. Nevertheless, hundreds of scholars and preachers affiliated to Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni world, demanded the resignation of Al-Tayeb as a result of his support for what they described as a “coup” against former president Morsi during a march on Sunday. The scholars also held a conference, dubbed “Preachers against the coup”, on the same day inside Al-Azhar to show support for Morsi, demanding an immediate halt to the crackdown on the Islamists and the reopening of the Islamic TV channels. Sheikh Hassan Al-Shafei, a senior advisor to Al-Tayeb, also called for the release of Morsi before engaging in any talks for national reconciliation. Leader of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party Mohamed Abul-Ghar has also said that the way out of Egypt's current political strife is the release of deposed former president Morsi. In an interview with the Al-Arabiya channel late on Friday, Abul-Ghar said that releasing the former president should be part of a “reconciliation deal” with the Brotherhood, even though the movement's supporters have cited the return of the deposed president to power as their condition for accepting dialogue towards reconciliation. Essam Al-Erian, the FJP's deputy head, said there had been attempts to mediate between the Brotherhood and the army through former local development minister Mohamed Beshr, notably in a bid to end the group's sit-in at the Rabaa Al-Adawiya Mosque in Nasr City. Though it had sent prominent figures to the negotiations, Al-Erian said that for the time being the Brotherhood rejected the mediation efforts. Brotherhood spokesman Gehad Al-Haddad said that Egyptians would not accept any political role for the army, either now or in the future, saying that the “supporters of constitutional legitimacy” were not “afraid of death” and would continue to demonstrate in the streets across Egypt.
