When, on 20 November, heavily armed police raided the home of Mohamed Ali Bishr, the only prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader left outside prison, experts differed on the reasons behind the raid and over whether it marked the end for any possibility of reconciliation between President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi's government and Egypt's largest political Islamic group. Prosecutors accuse Bishr, a member of the Brotherhood's Guidance Bureau, of inciting violence against the army and police ahead of calls for widespread demonstrations on 28 November in which participants have been instructed to carry copies of the Quran. He is also charged with espionage, communicating illegally with the United States and, to the surprise of many observers, Norway. The call for demonstrations on Friday was initially made by the Salafist Front, a small group which security bodies say acts as a façade for the Brotherhood. The Front says its so-called “Uprising of Muslim Youth” will signal the beginning of an “armed Islamic revolution” to maintain “Egypt's Islamic identity”. Security forces have been placed on full alert. Announcements have been made that there will be no hesitation in using lethal weapons to respond to any possible attacks. Several private television stations have hosted security experts who called on police to open fire on anyone who takes part in demonstrations on 28 November. The Ministry of Religious Endowments used the thousands of mosques under its control to deliver sermons attacking the call to raise copies of the Quran while clashing with police. Preachers said it was a clear attempt to incite violence, to stage a show in front of television cameras which if all went to plan would film police chasing demonstrators carrying the Quran and perhaps stepping on it by mistake. The escalation in terrorist attacks in recent weeks is compounding government worries. North Sinai has to all intents and purposes been turned into a war zone, and a growing number of towns and cities are witnessing homemade bombs that target public buildings, trains and underground stations. The Brotherhood did not take any public stand on the initial calls for protests on Friday. Supporters of the group have been holding nearly daily demonstrations to demand the reinstatement of Mohamed Morsi and an end what they term the “military coup”, led by the then defence minister Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi against Morsi. Adel Abdel-Maqsoud, a Brotherhood lawyer, says Bishr told prosecutors during his questioning that the group was maintaining a neutral position on the call for protests. He expressed surprise at claims by prosecutors that they had phone records of Bishr receiving instructions from Brotherhood leaders abroad to participate in violent anti-government demonstrations. “Bishr knew his phone was tapped by security. There is no way that he would use it to receive instructions from abroad, or to communicate illegally with foreign countries,” says Abdel-Maqsoud. Late Sunday, and in a possible response to Bishr's arrest, the Muslim Brotherhood released an official statement backing the call for widespread protests on 28 November. “The Brotherhood values the call for a new wave in Egypt's revolution to maintain the identity of the nation,” the statement said. “The Brotherhood confirms that the identity of the nation is the source of its resurrection and a pillar of its liberation. The Egyptian people will never accept the obliteration of their [Islamic] identity, the destruction of their mosques, the burning of their holy book, the killing of their youth and the chaining of their women,” the statement added. Following Morsi's ouster, leaders of the group, including its Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, and his deputy Khairat Al-Shater, were rounded up and are now behind bars. Yet Bishr, and Amr Darrag, another former minister in the short-lived Brotherhood government, were left free. Both men held talks with senior US, European and Arab officials following Morsi's removal, hoping to reach a compromise that would avoid bloodshed. Darrag later fled to Turkey while Bishr stayed in Egypt where he is reported to have continued to act as a channel for communication between security bodies and the Brotherhood's leadership, inside prison as well as those who fled to Qatar, Turkey and Europe. Counted among the “doves” in the group, Bishr has been involved in several failed “reconciliation initiatives”. Bishr's lawyer, Abdel-Maqsoud, says prosecutors also accuse his client of receiving orders from Brotherhood leaders abroad to boycott the investigation by a judicial commission appointed by interim president Adli Mansour into the events that followed Morsi's removal, including the dispersal of the sit-ins held by Brotherhood supporters in Rabaa and Nahda during which at least 800 people were killed. Brotherhood leaders abroad are alleged to have told Bishr this would amount to recognition of the “coup”. Bishr had initially announced he would testify to the commission but at the last minute failed to show up. Security bodies insist Brotherhood claims its supporters only take part in peaceful protests are false. Several experts on the group say that the security crackdown, the death of dozens of young Brotherhood members in clashes with the police over the past 17 months and the arrest of thousands more have made recourse to violence more appealing, particularly to the Brotherhood's younger cadres. Websites and Facebook pages close to the Brotherhood have been publishing the names of officers alleged to have taken part in the arrest and abuse of young Brotherhood members, with open calls for revenge. The same pages also publish instructions on how to confront police forces and set armoured vehicles alight. In demonstrations held by Brotherhood supporters in the Cairo neighborhood of Mattareya on 21 November, reported live on Qatar-based Al-Jazeera Mubasher Egypt, protesters were seen raising the flag of ISIS and chanting slogans praising the brutal terrorist group. It was a priceless gift to the pro-government media and Brotherhood critics who used the incident to back their allegations that there are no real differences between the Brotherhood and ISIS. The arrest of Bishr and the Brotherhood's official backing for the call for protests on Friday suggests the two sides are heading towards a wider confrontation. A Cairo-based European diplomat who communicates regularly with security agencies says he would not exclude even harsher measures being adopted in the near future against Brotherhood leaders, including the issuing of death sentences against former president Morsi and deputy Brotherhood supreme guide Shater. Badie has already received three death sentences and started the appeal process. “Such sentences will not necessarily be carried out. But they are a sign from the government that it has the upper hand in this ongoing confrontation, and is not worried about increasing Brotherhood violence,” the diplomat said.
