Many states have a tendency to label acts terrorism when they want to blame groups they don’t like.
CAIRO, EGYPT — The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) sure elicits different reactions from different people. To some it is a terrorist group. To others it is a conservative religious group. To a third cohort it lies somewhere in between.
I have at least two books on my shelf that talk about option A (i.e. it is a terrorist entity). To date several countries do consider it as such, including Syria, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The latter should come as no surprise as the current president cum dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ousted the former MB president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Other countries, namely Jordan and Tunisia see the MB – rightly in my view – as a religious political party and social movement. The first post-Arab Spring government in Tunisia was led by the En-Nahda party, an MB ally, and continues to play a role in the regime.
The US government of Donald Trump appears to be considering whether to list the group as a terrorist entity. Again, this is not surprising as Trump, a man who seems to gravitate to autocrats, is an el-Sisi ally. For their part, the Pentagon and State Department have raised objections to the plan, saying that the Muslim Brotherhood does not meet the legal definition of a terrorist group.
On this day in 2014, Egypt’s army blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for an attack on an army bus which killed one officer and wounded three others.
Complicating matters is the fact that a few very high profile MB members went on to become real Islamist terrorists. Perhaps the best example of this is Sayyed Qutb, an Egyptian terrorist known by many as the father of modern Islamist violent extremism. His works, most importantly Milestones (Al Mua’allim f’il Tariq in Arabic), are still read.
2014 Shooting in Cairo
Back in Egypt, however, there is no room for manoeuvre on this matter. The MB is accused of all kinds of nastiness. On this day in 2014 Egypt’s army blamed the organisation for an attack on an army bus which killed one officer and wounded three others. The MB strongly condemned the attack in an emailed statement, saying the targeting of army soldiers and civilians is a “heinous crime that requires a thorough and transparent investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
I am sure you have heard of the term ‘the fog of war’. When it comes to violence it is often very hard to separate fact from fiction. Egypt definitely has a vested interest in painting the MB as the root of all evil, including acts of terrorism. This has to be noted.
I have no idea whether the act in question was the work of the MB, even if I do not see them as a terrorist band. They certainly have a grievance against the el-Sisi regime for having kicked them out of power.
As consumers of information however we all have a duty to consider the accuracy of what we read. Bad analysis stems from bad information after all.
