The third encounter VI- From mosque goers to potential killers THE Egyptian Gazette of December 12, 1965 front-paged the indictment of another Ikhwan group and their imminent trial before the Supreme State Security Court. The Gazette report said: “The State Security Prosecution yesterday released the indictment of the first case of the clandestine Muslim Brotherhood organisation in which the terrorist Saeid Ramadan and eight others will face trial before the Supreme State Security Court”. Meanwhile, The Egyptian Gazette of February 4, 1966 came up with a front-page story headlined: Ikhwan: 43 charged with terrorism The Gazette report said: “The indictment in the case of the defunct Muslim Brotherhood's clandestine terrorist command was issued yesterday by el-Sayed Salah Nassar, Chief of the State Security Prosecution at a press conference yesterday. The Minister of Justice el-Sayed Isameddin Hassouna, and the Public Prosecutor General el-Sayed Mohamed Abdulsalam, attended. “The indictment names 43 men accused of terrorism, including Sayed Kotb, Mohamed Youssef, Aly Ashmawy, Abdulfattah Ismail, Ahmed Abdulmeguid, Sabry Arafa and Magdy Abdulaziz, all of whom are referred to the First Chamber of the Supreme State Security Court for trial”. The next day (February 5, 1966), The Egyptian Gazette published exciting revelations quoted from the third and last part of the indictment of Ikhwan leaders comprising 46 members. This part reveals how the clandestine association drew and raised its members from simple mosque goers turning them into potential assassins. The Egyptian Gazette report said: “Several of the Ikhwan men under indictment were regular mosque goers when the secret outfit caught them. They were first lured in on the pretext of attending courses on Islam. The next step was to apply their (the Ikhwan) particular interpretation of Islam on some aspects of modern society and to come out with the conclusion that modern society was anti-Islamic ��" in fact pagan. “After Islam, came physical training: they walked; they wrestled; and above all they trained in judo. After sports came arms. They led off with daggers and ended up with machineguns. They had a special shooting range up north at Baltim on the Mediterranean on one side, and the desert on the other”. [email protected]
