The freezing of assets of Islamic charities will "open the door" for Christian missionary oragnisations to convert poor Muslims to Christianity, said the Muslim Brotherhood in a Thursday statement. The Muslim Brotherhood strongly denounced the freezing of the assets of 1,055 NGOs, denying they had links to the group. The Brotherhood's statement added that it "hurts millions of individuals and families that depend on their money from these associations," saying the organisations help "half a million orphans" and "support millions of families, offering free or discounted treatement for millions of individuals, and educate hundreds of thousands of children of the poor". The statement accused the interim government of attacking Islam in an effort to attack the Brotherhood and its popularity. This was evident, according to the Muslim Brotherhood, in the proposed constitution "in articles on identity, ethics, and the fight against corruption." The Brotherhood attributed a quote to Bishop Paul of Tanta saying that, "the Orthodox Church began providing aid to poor families affected by the decision to confiscate the funds of terrorist groups; the love of Lord Jesus reaches everyone". The statement presented this quote as evidence that "this ferocious campaign on Islamic charities opened the door to missionary organisations to convert "poor Muslims from their religion". The Egyptian Food Bank, which had initially been placed on the list of NGOs with suspended assets, released a statement on Thursday saying interim President Adly Mansour had notified it of its removal from the list. The organisation thanked the government for allowing the food bank to return to "normality" and continue its work. The Ministry of Health had declared a state of emergency after the decision to freeze the assets, and notified government hospitals that they were to receive patients affected by the frozen NGO assets.
