Jailan Halawi examines the background to the latest clampdown against the Muslim Brotherhood The crackdown on members of the banned group of Muslim Brothers (MB) has continued for a second week with scores of influential figures -- members of the guidance bureau, alleged financiers and what security officials say are "cadres of their paramilitary wing" -- detained. According to MB sources, this latest campaign of arrests which started last month has so far claimed some 400 alleged group members. The clampdown coincided with Minister of Interior Habib El-Adli warning, in an interview with the pro-government daily Rose El-Youssef, against what he termed "the illegal attempts of certain trends to infiltrate the political arena in preparation for establishing an Islamic Caliphate led by the Brotherhood". Yesterday, and while more arrests in the Delta Governorate of Beheira were reported, MB Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat El-Shatir and 16 other group leaders appeared before the State Security Prosecutor for further interrogation. Two days earlier state security attorneys extended the detention for an additional 15 days of 23 Al-Azhar students, arrested last month for conducting a military-style parade. Accusations against the four businessmen arrested last week have also been leaked to the press. They include establishing business ventures with the aim of raising funds for a banned group and financing military training for young people. Earlier in the week, security sources also detained 73 Salafis (hardline Islamists). The Brotherhood has denied any links with the detainees, claiming that to link the group to Salafis was an attempt by the authorities to tarnish the image of the MB. Many commentators think the latest round of detentions was precipitated by last week's announcement by the Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, Mohamed Mahdi Akef, that the group intends to establish a civil, democratic party. For decades MB members have faced periodic arrest, charged usually with belonging to an outlawed group. But "while the MB is the one political force the state is seeking to marginalise by any means, the government cannot do without it and has never genuinely sought to liquidate it for good," Amr Elchoubaki, an expert on the group at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told the Weekly. Yet whenever the group becomes an influential political actor, he added, "the government gets jittery." The past 15 years have seen the group's influence flourish on campuses, among both students and university staff, in professional syndicates and more recently in parliament. The presence of so many Muslim Brotherhood MPs, who now occupy a fifth of the seats in the People's Assembly, "is a thorn in the side of the regime it is now seeking to extract at all costs," says one political expert. While Elchoubaki believes the authorities have never really adopted a zero-tolerance strategy towards the Brotherhood, preferring instead to "weaken them and force the group to keep a low profile," many commentators now think the Brotherhood's tactic is to present itself as the only viable alternative to the regime. "The message this time round," notes one political observer, "is that the regime is moving towards zero tolerance in the light of Brotherhood attempts to make political gains." On Tuesday Al-Watani Al-Youm, the mouthpiece of the ruling NDP, carried a full-page interview with Major General Fouad Allam, the former head of state security. The MB, said Allam, still has "a secret apparatus" which continued to exist long after the MB was outlawed in 1954. Allam pointed to the fact that this "secret apparatus" has served as a recruiting ground for the radical groups that emerged in Egypt in the late 80s and early 90s. The state-owned daily Al-Ahram joined the attack, with a banner headline reading "the group ordered its militias to travel abroad for military training in preparation for taking over the regime." The article that followed claimed the Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat El-Shatir was in charge of training and financing militias. Professor of political science Hassan Nafaa believes that if the state continues its confrontational strategy with the group it will ultimately lose. It needs instead to adopt tactics other than "oppression and detention". The problem facing the NDP, argues Nafaa, is that it must seek to control both the religious forces operating in society and the bureaucracy of state. "For historical reasons the MB has positioned itself as the political force that can draw most strength from the religious impulse while the ruling party has been left to represent nothing beyond the dictatorship of the state's bureaucratic apparatus." Nafaa argues the regime must now allow a real multi- party system since its absence will "pave the way for the MB to reach power whether through election or by other means". "The irony then," says Nafaa, "is that the state's determination to prevent the Brotherhood from reaching power will have been the one thing that ensures they do." "The systematic clampdown," believes the group's Deputy Supreme Guide Mohamed Habib, "is a response to the success of Brotherhood MPs in exposing the NDP. They are attempting to distract the attention of the public by launching a smear campaign against us." In the face of this ongoing attrition the Brotherhood has intensified its public relation efforts, engaging in debates with well-known political and intellectual figures and posting statements from its Supreme Guide on its website <www.ikhwanonline.com. On Monday, MB parliamentarians met three Western ambassadors to Cairo -- the Australian, the Canadian and the New Zealander -- explaining to the ambassadors the programme of the MB political party to be announced soon. The day before, Brotherhood leaders met with veteran journalist, and the former chairman of the Press Syndicate, Makram Mohamed Ahmed. Such meetings, says Habib, are essential given the "campaign the state has launched against us. We must elucidate our vision and clarify our agenda to counter what is being said about us". What matters most, Habib continued, is to "establish dialogue and dispel people's worries and misconceptions. No matter how long it takes we will continue until our message has got across to the public -- the MB aim is to form a civil party that does not differentiate between citizens on any basis, not race, sex or religion." In a telephone interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, Ahmed stressed that "we need to wait until the group issues their political programme before making judgments." The MB, Ahmed argued, is a powerful, well-organised group that could contribute to strengthening democracy in Egypt, though only if it "separates politics from religion and establishes a civil party". The MB, says Ahmed, now stands at a crossroads, and must reveal its real intentions, not least whether the ideological framework of its proposed party will be a civil or a religious one. During the three-hour meeting with MB leaders, Ahmed stressed to his interlocutors that " Sharia (Islamic Law) should be revered as a means to enhance morality rather than rule the nation." The Brotherhood, he concluded, needs to realise that "the principle of sharing power is the foundation of democracy. Unfortunately, like the NDP, they see themselves as the only viable choice."
