Cairo – Egypt's General Prosecution detained on Thursday a member of ISIS pending investigation on charges of joining the terrorist organization and attempting to recruit Egyptian youths to its ranks of militants in Libya and Syria. The suspect confessed during his interrogation by the General Prosecution that his ties with religious groups started when the Muslim Brotherhood invited him to take part in demonstrations that followed the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi. He added that he met ISIS members, who are active in Iraq, Syria and Libya, through social media networks, revealing that he had received funding from the militant group. Meanwhile, Egypt's Dar al-Iftaa announced that the terrorist "Hasm" group, which has recently grown active and violent in the country, is the new branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. In an attack against the Brotherhood on Thursday, Dar al-Iftaa said the members of the group have "pledged allegiance to it and not Islam." Political Islam security experts and researchers agreed that "Hasm" is one of the products of the Brotherhood, which was removed from power following popular protests in July 2013. The "Sawaed Egypt – Hasm" group came to prominence following the failed assassination attempt against Egypt's former Grand Mufti Dr. Ali Jomaa in July 2016. It had also claimed responsibility for an attack against six security officers at the touristic al-Haram Street in western Cairo in December 2016. Dar al-Iftaa said, in a study entitled "Terrorists" and which tackles the Brotherhood: "Belonging to the group has taken precedence over belonging to Islam." "The affiliation has become a form of fight for survival for the group at the expense of preaching," it continued. "Preaching Islam has become the first step towards military jihad. It is being used as a means to recruit new members," it added. "The Brotherhood is still focused on outdated ideas and it refuses new ones ... which brings us to the core of extremist and terrorist groups and that is stagnation," said the Dar al-Iftaa study. It also noted the Brotherhood's failure to hold dialogue with groups, Islamic or liberal, that do not agree with its approach, which led it to a clash with them. Morsi was ousted in 2013, a year after coming to power. Since then, the Muslim Brotherhood has been practicing violence against the current administration, which has labeled the group as a terrorist organization. It blames it for all extremist attacks in the country.
