Inspired by Tunisia, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Warns of Unrest Written by David E. Miller Published Thursday, January 20, 2011	E-Mail This Printer-Friendly Archives
Islamists warn government to start sweeping reforms or face the wrath of the street The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, has tacitly threatened to emulate the popular uprising in Tunisia that brought down President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali, if its demands for political reform are not met. "If this regime doesn’t fight corruption and cancel the state of emergency, it will face the same situation and difficulty the Tunisian government faced," Essam Al-Aryan, the Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, told The Media Line. In a statement issued Wednesday, the Brotherhood declared that if the government did not quickly take responsibility and initiate a serious reform process, stability in Egypt would not last long. Unlike many other Islamic movements, the Brotherhood has traditionally shunned violence in favor of gradual reform of society along religious lines. But the movement’s success in winning seats in parliament was reversed last November when official rigging of the elections result deprived the Islamic movement of a single seat. Inspired by the success of the Tunisian masses and signs of tension on the Egyptian streets, the Brotherhood seems more ready to act than ever before. A man who set himself on fire in Egypt's northern port city of Alexandria – mimicking the kind of protest that set off unrest in Tunisia last month – died on Tuesday. Earlier that day, another man set himself on fire in the capital, Cairo. Cairo’s stock index dropped to an 11-week low this week amidst fears the unrest that toppled Tunisia’s president would spread to Egypt. The Brotherhood said in its statement that it was still interested in effecting reform through constitutional change by peaceful means, but that the government of Egyptian President Husni Mubarak preferred to deal with the country's problems by transferring them to security agencies "which absolve it from thinking and exerting real effort." "It’s a matter of time before widespread street protests begin in Egypt," Maha Azzam, a researcher with the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House, a London-based think-tank, told the Media Line. "It's no longer a question of if this will happen, but of when." Azzam said the Muslim Brotherhood realized that if protests break out in Egypt, they will be difficult to control, prompting them to advance cautiously. "Many Egyptians are holding their breath in expectation for change," Azzam added. "The Brotherhood was correct in issuing the statement at this time. If they had remained quiet, their credibility would be damaged." In its Wednesday statement, the Brotherhood specified 10 far-reaching demands for political reform, including ending the 30-year long state of emergency, which allows for extra-judiciary measures by the government; a presidential decree dissolving the "fraudulent" parliament; and constitutional amendments that would allow candidates to freely run in presidential elections. Egyptians are scheduled to go to the polls in September to elect a new leader, but observers said the only question is whether Mubarak will seek another term or opt to anoint a successor. The Brotherhood also called for an immediate revision of Egypt's foreign policy towards Israel, demanding that the government sever diplomatic ties with the Jewish State; annul gas and oil exports to Israel, and support Palestinian jihad against "the Zionists." Al-Aryan of the Muslim Brotherhood told The Media Line that his movement didn’t intend to change its strategy, and would continue to convince the population to demand their democratic rights. "The people are in one camp and the government is in another," he said. Ironically, it was Ben Ali, Tunisian's deposed president, who predicted that the Muslim Brotherhood would take over Egypt. According to an American diplomatic cable revealed by WikiLeaks, in March 2008 Ben Ali told Assistant Secretary of State David Welch that the situation in Egypt was "explosive" and that sooner or later the Brotherhood would overthrow the regime. Azzam said that comparisons were often drawn in Egypt between Mubarak and Ben Ali. "Like in Tunisia, Egypt is characterized by corruption at the highest political levels, even amongst the president and his close environment. There is also a huge disparity between rich and poor. In many ways, Egypt is almost identical to Tunisia." According to recent research conducted by the National Council for Social and Criminal Research, a government think-tank, 90% of Egyptians do not feel secure due to increased crime and a shrinking security presence on the street, Al-Masri Al-Youm daily reported on Wednesday. Almost half of all Egyptians said their insecurity stemmed from a sense of social injustice, unequal distribution of wealth and poverty; issues raised by Tunisian protesters as well.
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