Brothers up in arms
Relations between the government and the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood
took a turn for the worse in the People's Assembly this week, writes Gamal
Essam El-Din
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Click to view caption
Central Security Forces blocked the way to Al-Azhar Mosque on
Friday to prevent protests against excavation works at Al-Aqsa Mosque
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Reverberations from President Hosni Mubarak's 6 February order that 39
senior members of the illegal Muslim Brotherhood, including the group's number
three Khairat El-Shater, be tried by a military tribunal dominated proceedings
in the People's Assembly this week. Brotherhood deputies had apparently
calculated that last Friday's clash between Israeli riot police and
Palestinians protesting against excavation work at Al-Aqsa Mosque would allow
them to regain the initiative. They arrived determined to be heard, only to be
faced by Parliamentary Speaker Fathi Sorour, who ordered Hamdi Hassan, the
Brotherhood's spokesman, to leave the chamber after what Sorour qualified as
"unruly behaviour". The Brotherhood's remaining deputies walked in protest.
It was a frustrating outcome for the group. Hamdi Hassan told Al-Ahram
Weekly that "after the wide-scale arrests of the group's members and President
Hosni Mubarak's new position that the Brotherhood is a threat to national
security, parliament has become the only stage available for the Brotherhood to
give a vent to its grievances."
Brotherhood deputies had arrived to Monday's session with high hopes.
Many submitted requests to Sorour, asking him to give them the floor to
denounce Israel and the silence of Arab rulers and display solidarity with the
Palestinians. They also wanted to use the hearing to condemn the Interior
Ministry's arrest of several demonstrators, most of them Brotherhood members,
as they gathered in front of Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque on Friday to protest
against the Al-Aqsa dig works. The group's hopes, however, were dashed when
Sorour rejected their requests. Parliamentary precedent, said Sorour, dictates
that public opinion issues cannot be debated when the government's policy
statement is under discussion. The rejection sparked a storm on the Brotherhood
benches. "Why do you want to deny us voicing anything about the assault against
Al-Aqsa," Brotherhood MPs shouted as one.
"No group will ever be able to impose its will on me even if they
number thousands," Sorour responded. "I would still order them to leave the
session out of respect for the assembly's regulations."
Sorour said the chairman of the assembly's Arab Affairs Committee, Saad
El-Gammal, had already been asked to prepare a response to Israeli digging in
the vicinity of Al-Aqsa. "While I was in Tunis last week to attend the meetings
of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Euro-Mediterranean parliament," he
added, "I made it clear that Egypt and Tunisia would withdraw from the
committee unless the Euro-Med parliament ceases its support of Israel's
anti-Islamic acts. I have asked El-Gammal to ensure his statement registers my
position in Tunis and as a consequence want to wait until El-Gammal has
prepared his statement so that we can present a good picture of the
international community on the position of the Egyptian parliament towards
Al-Aqsa Mosque. Yet some deputies want to impose their will in a bid to
convince people they are the only ones who care about Al-Aqsa."
Uncowed by Sorour, Brotherhood MPs had a field day when they were
finally given the floor. "All the government has been able to do is summon the
Israeli ambassador and call upon him to urge his government to stop its assault
on Al-Aqsa," said Hussein Ibrahim, Brotherhood MP from Alexandria. "This is
cosying up with the Israeli ambassador, not lashing out at him." Ibrahim then
charged the Egyptian government was no different from its Israeli counterpart
"since both opted to prevent people from praying in Al-Aqsa and Al-Azhar
mosques respectively."
"In fact," concluded Ibrahim, "the Israeli government was less
aggressive since it allowed Palestinians over the age of 45 to pray at Al-Aqsa
while our government's security forces prevented all Egyptians from entering
Al-Azhar Mosque by force."
Mohamed El-Beltagui, Brotherhood MP from the Cairo district of Shubra
Al-Kheima, demanded the Israeli ambassador to Cairo be expelled and Egypt's
ambassador to Tel Aviv recalled. "The government must also stop consorting with
the Israeli enemy and revoke the QIZ (Qualified Industrial Zone) agreement and
immediately end supplies of natural gas to Israel." Opposition MPs, and some
members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) also weighed in with
their own criticisms. Mustafa El-Feki, the NDP chairman of the assembly's
International Affairs Committee, said America's blind support allowed Israel to
desecrate a site sacred to more than one and a half billion Muslims. Wafdist MP
Mohamed Sherdi argued Egypt's relations with the Jewish state should be
comprehensively reviewed while Mustafa Bakri, a pan-Arabist journalist,
insisted that, "expelling the Israeli ambassador from Egypt is hardly the end
of the world" and might "compel America to intervene and face up to Israel's
acts".
Ragab Hemeida, an independent MP, pointed to the irony of asking "the
government not to consort with Israel when many cabinet ministers maintain
business relations with Israelis." Mohamed Amer, from the NDP, argued it was
"time for Arab and Muslim peoples to go and fight Israel because Arab regimes
are so weak" while his colleague, Mustafa El-Katatni, said "the only thing that
can stop Israeli evil is to use a nuclear bomb to wipe Israel out of
existence." Brotherhood MP Mohamed Al-Adli suggested that, "instead of cracking
down on the Brotherhood the government should let it lead a holy jihad against
the Israelis and then the Brotherhood will show the world how it was able to
obliterate Israel."
The intemperate tone of MPs' rhetoric prompted Minister of State for
Parliamentary and Legal Affairs Mufid Shehab to intervene.
"The government sent a strong message to the Israeli ambassador, asking
him to convey it to his government in person."
"The international community is completely biased in favour of the
Israelis," Shehab continued, "and to counter this requires more than ranting
and raving on the part of MPs."
In a continuation of its parliamentary offensive against the government
the Brotherhood issued a 48-page report criticising Prime Minister Ahmed
Nazif's 19 December policy statement.
The report, said spokesman Hassan, aimed to answer those who say the
Brotherhood lacks a detailed platform for reform in Egypt. It attacked the
decision to refer political opponents to military courts because it is "in
violation of Article 68 of the constitution which states that civilians should
be tried before civilian courts". In a press conference on Saturday to launch
the report, leading Brotherhood MPs argued that President Mubarak's
constitutional proposals aimed at obliterating the movement from political
life.
"We will keep calm, remain self-disciplined and not let ourselves be
provoked by the regime's stepping up its fight against us," said prominent
Brotherhood MP Saad El-Katatni.
He urged political parties not to turn themselves a pawn in the
regime's hands. "They must realise the regime's campaign against us is a sign
of its bankruptcy," said El-Katatni.
The report also charged that the regime's long-term alliance with the
United Stated had eroded Egypt's influence in Arab, Muslim and African circles,
alleging that "the regime sold Egypt's regional role in favour of perpetuating
American and Zionist hegemony in the Arab world".
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