The assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin provided the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood with a golden opportunity to increase its base of support The banned Muslim Brotherhood provided one of Egypt's first reactions to Israel's savage killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Gamal Essam El-Din reports. They were also the first to utilise the assassination for their own political gain. Less than 24 hours after Yassin was killed, Mohamed Mahdi Akef, the Brotherhood's supreme guide, issued a strong statement of condemnation. The Brotherhood's statement blamed the United States for the proliferation of Israeli's criminal aggression against the Palestinian people. The statement also set its sights on Arab leaders. "Arab rulers must support Jihad against the Israeli aggressors in the occupied lands of Al- Aqsa mosque. Arab rulers who have relations with Israel must sever these relations and expel Israeli ambassadors and diplomats from their lands," the Brotherhood's statement said. During a special People's Assembly session condemning the assassination, Brotherhood MPs gave the fiercest speeches, despite attempts by MPs from the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to grab some of the Brotherhood's angry limelight. Parliamentary speaker and NDP MP Fathi Sorour gave the floor to eight NDP MPs, and only four from the Brotherhood. While some NDP MPs harshly criticised the United States for its absolute support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, they did not go so far as to call for relations with Israel and the United States to be severed. Brotherhood firebrand Mahfouz Helmi said he harboured no hopes that American and Israeli ambassadors would be expelled from the Arab and Islamic world. He did, however, recount that while he and his "friend" Yassin were in the same "Egyptian prison ... Yassin used to say that Arab and Islamic rulers were the ones who had sown the seeds of the Muslim world's predicament." Mohamed Mursi, the Brotherhood's most prominent MP, severely criticised US President George Bush's comment that "Israel has the right to defend itself." Mursi said "the same logic" could be used to justify "those who launched the 11 September attacks against America. They have the right to defend themselves." Mursi described the Egyptian- Israeli peace treaty as a bridge from which the Israelis wreak havoc on the Arab and Islamic worlds. Two other Brotherhood MPs, Akram El-Shaer and El-Sayed Hozayen, said, "Arab countries should not be afraid of severing their relations with America and Israel. Arab people do not depend on them for their livelihood, although the thrones of Arab and Muslim rulers would be destabilised if those relations were severed," Hozayen said. But the Brotherhood did not confine themselves to the verbal onslaught at the People's Assembly. The group also organised a high- profile aza (condolences ceremony) for Yassin at Nasr City's prominent Rabaa El-Adawiya mosque. The event, described by some observers as a bold move by the Brotherhood in light of its precarious relationship with both the government and the Interior Ministry, drew more than 15,000 people. While the majority were either members of the Brotherhood or sympathisers, several figures from the legal opposition were also in attendance. The Brotherhood's Akef told the gathered throng that Yassin was a brilliant example of a Muslim jihadist whose death was particularly hard on the Brotherhood itself. Yassin established the Islamic resistance movement Hamas in 1987 as the Palestinian branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Akef said Yassin was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and that "from his early years in life felt like he belonged to the Brotherhood and its Islamist ideology. In 1987, Yassin decided to establish Hamas on the same Islamic guidelines inspired by the Brotherhood," Akef said. Yassin had often spoken of his ties to the Brotherhood and its historic leader Hassan El-Banna. While he was studying in Egypt in 1965, Yassin was arrested for one month on grounds of belonging to the Brotherhood. In fact, 1965 was the year late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser decided to detain thousands of Brotherhood activists. Yassin was imprisoned alongside Helmi and the Brotherhood's ideologue Sayed Qotb. Abdul- Aziz Al-Rantisi, who replaced Yassin as the leader of Hamas in the Gaza strip, was also a member of the Brotherhood. Akef described Yassin as "the emir of martyrs. He is a martyr like his leader and imam Hassan El-Banna. Both asked for martyrdom and both got it." Akef also spoke negatively of Arab rulers -- "I hope the martyrdom of Yassin provides them with evidence that a peaceful solution to the Palestinian issue is a mirage, and I also hope that it pulls them out of the dark tunnel of their weakness, hesitation, fear and dependency." According to Akef, negotiations with Israel will lead to nothing. Only "jihad will restore Palestine," he said, calling upon millions of Muslims to join Hamas in its struggle against the Israeli Zionists and America. The mosque was surrounded by thousands of security forces, a de facto message by the government that the brothers should only go so far with their event. Brotherhood MP Mohamed Mursi told Al-Ahram Weekly that the ceremony was not about the group flexing its muscles. "We did not aim to manipulate Yassin's killing to advance our political interests. Yassin was one of us. He was a symbol of resistance. The brothers have a history of fighting the Israelis, even prior to 1948. All of this provides us with moral obligations to treat Yassin in a special way," Mursi said. Leftist Tagammu Party Chairman Rifaat El-Said said Yassin's assassination was a golden opportunity for the brothers to pick up much popular sympathy. "Sharon and Bush provided them with this golden opportunity, and they were very eager to seize it properly. The Brotherhood is the womb from which almost all extremist Islamist organisations have sprouted" over the past 75 years, El-Said said. Diaa Rashwan, a researcher with Al- Ahram's Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said the assassination was "a good opportunity for the Brotherhood to pick up new recruits. It creates a very favourable climate for Islamist organisations like the Brotherhood to flourish in, and this in turn creates a very fertile breeding ground for even more religious fanaticism and more Bin Laden-style jihadists. This is what Sharon and Bush, in particular, should be very aware of," Rashwan said. On 28 March, more than 3500 Tanta University students organised a campus protest that included the airing of a phone call with Khaled Mishaal, the new leader of Hamas. The students chanted anti- American slogans, and claimed that Yassin had a million followers who will seek out his revenge. Mishaal told the crowd, "Yassin's blood will be a curse for the Israelis." Rashwan thinks the government's on- again, off-again strategy of containing the brothers will remain in force for now. "During crises -- like the Iraq war or the bloody struggle in Palestine -- the government opts to give the brothers a bit of a free hand to move, as long as this is part of a collective opposition movement or reflects a prevailing public opinion." When things are calmer, Rashwan said, or in the lead up to parliamentary elections, the government pulls the plug and faces the group head on. "We are currently in a crisis, but it will not last for ever," he said.
