Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brothers defy state crackdown

Mar 13, 2008, 12:22 GMT

Cairo - Egypt's outlawed Muslim Brotherhood is actively campaigning for local elections despite a nationwide government crackdown that has seen hundreds of its members detained.

The government recently intensified its crackdown, rounding up at least 800 members at their homes across the country, ahead of the elections planned for April 8, Mohamed Habib, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Members, commonly known as Muslim Brothers, are usually charged with belonging to a banned political movement, opposing the government and distributing religious leaflets.

'It is usual that the government launches a crackdown against us prior to every election. But in this one, they are selecting candidates of local elections and active members of the group,' Habib said.

The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt's largest opposition grouping. But only 438 of its members have been accepted as nominees, he said.

Habib accused the government of preventing Muslim Brotherhood candidates from submitting applications. Some members, he said, have not even been allowed to reach the offices where applications are processed.

Defying restrictions and obstacles, Muslim Brotherhood members have filed 2,420 lawsuits against Egypt's interior ministry, for violation of election regulations.

'The court has ruled in only 875 for our favour, but more rulings are expected,' said Habib.

In another sign of defiance, detained members have vowed to run their election campaigns from behind bars. But their requests have been rejected by the general prosecution.

It has been reported that the group gave up traditional slogan 'Islam is the solution' in the current election campaign, in a gesture meant to alleviate fears of Egypt's secular opposition and Christian minority of its Islamist political platform.

But Habib denied this, saying that the slogan would be used. He asserted that the group has added more slogans such as 'Together for fighting corruption' and 'Together for achieving change.'

'The Muslim Brothers cannot change their famous slogan 'Islam is the solution.' They are just using other slogans as to grab attention away from their religious-based motto,' Khalil al-Anani, an expert on political Islam, told dpa.

He stressed that there is a political struggle between the government and the Muslim Brotherhood.

He said, 'In its political confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood, the government has indirectly decided to disallow the Muslim Brothers from any political participation, so it launched this crackdown on all the members of the group.'

Al-Anani described the Muslim Brotherhood's participation in the upcoming local elections as 'a wrong decision.'

He said that they should not have taken part in the local elections, after they were defeated in the Shura Council or upper house of parliament elections in June 2007.

The local elections would not have been as important, if Egypt's constitution did not state that any presidential candidate should gain the support of 140 members of the local councils.

'The government fears that the Muslim Brothers would succeed in the local elections through which they can gain the required local councils' support, which would enable their candidates to nominate themselves for presidency,' al-Anani said.

But he predicted that Muslim Brothers would not be allowed to run in the elections, as they failed in the Consultative Council elections.

The Muslim Brotherhood won 88 seats in the parliament after running as independents in the parliamentary elections in 2005.

The group has been banned since 1954 but has re-emerged in the past 30 years as Egypt's strongest and best organized opposition political movement.

It says it wants to establish an Islamic state where civil liberties and democracy are respected. But many people fear the group is disguising its radical beliefs under the banner of democracy.