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| Terror Networks |
| Egypt nabs 34 suspected Ikhwani... |
| 2002-07-21 |
| The state prosecutor on Sunday ordered the detention of 34 suspected members of a banned Islamic group. The 34 were arrested Saturday while meeting at a house 44 miles north of Cairo, the prosecutor's office said. They are suspected of membership in the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest and largest Islamic group. The suspects will be held in detention for 15 days pending investigation on charges of joining an illegal organization and possessing books that propagate the group's ideology. Among the detainees were Sherif Abu el-Magd, head of the civil engineering department at Helwan's University, and Mohammed Haider, a professor at the college of education in the same university. The others are a lawyer, a businessman and a hospital director and 29 students from different universities. Police said they surrounded and stormed the house, arresting all the men without resistance. Police have been systematically arresting suspected Brotherhood members. The group was outlawed since 1954, though it officially renounced violence in the 1970s. Despite being banned, the group endorses nominally independent parliamentary candidates in pursuit of its stated aim of governing Egypt based on its conservative vision of Islam. Muslim Brotherhood is not so much a threat in itself as the offshoot organizations it spawns or collaborates with. It's both an independent, low-profile propaganda organization and a "next level up," allowing communication between seemingly disparate groups like al-Qaeda and the ayatollahs. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |