That terrorist group is in for one disappointment after the other and once again the Muslim Brotherhood is shedding tears. Barely a month has passed since 11 November, the day it had scheduled for the “revolution of the poor”, that mass uprising that they had fancied would catapult them back to power in Egypt and that never happened. They had been unable to conceal their hopes that Ghana would defeat Egypt in the qualifying finals for the World Cup. But Egypt won. In the meantime, they have persisted in that old gambit of theirs, which is to incite religious strife. Sometimes they exploit the occurrence of everyday troubles, such as the murder of a citizen in a police station or a brawl of the sort that often erupts in the course of the daily lives of our people. At other times they actually plan and carry out schemes intended to incite strife, using some of their Salafi colleagues, for example, to spread rumours about a suspicious relationship between a Coptic man and a Muslim woman or about a Coptic citizen who plans to turn some prayer house into a church. The tactic is particularly effective in parts of rural Egypt that are highly volatile and very susceptible to such rumours. Malicious rumours of that sort have triggered mob and arson attacks on Coptic homes in towns or villages in Minya, Assiut and Sohag in Upper Egypt and Ameriya district in Alexandria. Recently, the Muslim Brotherhood tried take advantage of the incident of Magdi Makeen and the attack against Copts in the village of Naghamis in Sohag. But again they met with disappointment thanks to the wisdom and resolve of the governor of Sohag whose rapid action to contain the situation and strictly apply the law offered an excellent model for the role provincial governors can play in extinguishing sectarian sparks before they burst into flame. In addition to the abovementioned tactics, the Muslim Brotherhood has once again turned to terrorist activities. On Friday, a Muslim Brotherhood group that calls itself the “Hasm” (Resolution) movement claimed responsibility for bomb attacks against policemen in Giza and Kafr El-Sheikh. Simultaneously, the Daesh affiliate that called itself the Sinai Province is continuing its operations in support of the Muslim Brotherhood by attacking armed forces, the police, government establishments and civilians in North Sinai. Then came Sunday's heinous attack against worshipers in the St Paul and Peter Coptic Church in Cairo, killing more than a score and sending shockwaves and revulsion throughout the country and beyond. As could be expected, the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood cheered at the cheap “documentary” manufactured by Qatar's Al-Jazeera TV with the purpose of maligning the Egyptian army. The Muslim Brotherhood's enthusiastic embrace of such anti-Egyptian propaganda is, after all, consistent with that group's ideology which subscribes to the restoration of the caliphate and accords no value to the nation or patriotic affiliation. To the Muslim Brothers, the sacred nation is no more than “a handful of putrid soil”. That group is also still bent on vengeance against the Egyptian people for having overthrown Muslim Brotherhood rule. We are already familiar with their tactic of planting IEDs next to utilities or public buildings so as to kill as large a number of Egyptians possible. More recently, they have taken to pouring oil on streets and bridge ramps in order to cause automobile accidents. The Muslim Brotherhood is bankrupt. Its sole remaining project is revenge. Towards this end, it has been instructing takfiri and breakaway Al-Qaeda groups to threaten Egypt and has released information to suggest that members of those groups have already infiltrated Egypt and are planning stage a repeat of the horrors of Iraq and Syria in our country. As we know, there have been such groups that have called themselves the “Helwan Brigades”, the “Circassian Arabs” and “Hasm”, whose members the Muslim Brotherhood sent to receive military training in Libya, Syria and elsewhere. Many such groups have been dismantled and their members arrested. Against this backdrop, rumours have been circulating in the press regarding efforts to broker a truce between the government and that group. Such reports have aroused widespread anger among the Egyptian public. But do they have any substance? Are there really reconciliation moves in progress? Surely the Egyptian people will not look kindly on anyone who advocates reconciliation with a terrorist group has been waging a relentless war against Egypt and the Egyptian people, and that has been campaigning around the clock to turn international public opinion and governments abroad against both. The Muslim Brotherhood is against the people. But the people are capable of responding to that group and its supporters while advocates of reconciliation will only lose popular support. We are speaking about a group that is part of an international organisation that places its own advancement and welfare above the welfare of nations and their citizens. In every country in which they gained power or significant influence they contributed to the destruction of that country. How can one even contemplate reconciliation with such an organisation?
