I do not mean to bother the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) members at this time, as I know that they mourn the assassination of their founder Hassan al-Banna in February every year. But on his 60th anniversary this year, I notice that there is incessant talk within the group about Banna not having been killed, but rather that he died a martyr. The difference between the two deaths is as big as that between the MB interpretations of things and those of historians and intellectuals. So the question is: Did Banna die a martyr or was it a political assassination like many others that happened at that time? On Saturday, February 12, 1949 at 8:00 p.m., Banna was coming out of the Muslim Youth Society building accompanied by its chairman. Suddenly, the phone rang inside the building, and the Chairman went back in to answer it. Then he heard a shooting, and so he went out again only to see Banna shot in the armpit and running behind the car that the killer was in, taking down its plate number 9979. It was later found out that the car belonged to Prince Mahmoud Abdel Meguid, the Director-General of the Criminal Investigation Police of the Ministry of the Interior.
Another assassination associated with Banna's was that of Mahmoud Fahmy el-Nokrashi Pasha (April 26, 1888 - December 28, 1948), a leader of the 1919 Revolution and twice prime minister at the time of King Farouk who ruled Egypt from 1936 to 1952. On December 8, 1948, when Nokrashi was prime minister, he dissolved the Muslim Brotherhood Group, confiscated its funds and arrested most of its members. Twenty days later, he was assassinated in broad daylight. The police arrested the assassin, who was a member of the MB special force. Banna then disclaimed any relation to the assassination. Still MB today does not recognize the basic assumption that Banna's assassination was in response to Nokrashi's less than two months before. I am not absolving Nokrashi of the mistakes he did to satisfy King Farouk, but the assassinations on both sides logically refute Banna's dying a martyr. Martyrdom is decided only by God and not by man. Otherwise, if Banna died a martyr then Nokrashi did too by the same token. Perhaps MB should reopen the old files of their bloodthirsty Abdel Rahman el-Sindi of the special force. Not only Banna was assassinated, Prime Ministers Ahmed Maher and Nokrashi were assassinated before him. MB should note that the Jamaa Islamiya has admitted that Sadat died a martyr 20 years after its members assassinated him. Perhaps six decades after the incident, the Muslim Brotherhood would acknowledge that Nokrashi died a martyr too, just like their founder.