Occupied Arab World

Egypt targets global Islamic movement in service of global state terrorism

Crescent International

Shawwal 01, 14222001-12-16

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Mubarak has ordered the arrest of 94 Islamic activists and their appearance before a military tribunal, accusing them of plotting terrorism against American, Israeli, Russian and Balkan targets. According to Muntassir al-Ziyat, an Egyptian lawyer representing 87 of those appearing before the military tribunal, all that his clients did was to “interpret the Egyptian people’s will” to support the Palestinian intifada by collecting money from them for the purpose. Al-Ziyat told the military tribunal in Cairo that the defendants were charged with granting aid to the intifada and to the Hamas movement by providing them with funds and arms, an AFP report said on December 5. Adding that that was the only basis of the charge, he argued that even if it was accurate his clients were only interpreting the will of the Egyptian people in the face of a war of extinction being waged by Zionists against the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority.

Accusing Islamic activists belonging to the “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood of going to the aid of their fellow Muslim and Arab brothers is a confirmation of media reports — most of them Western — that Cairo has aligned itself totally with the US in its war against Islamic movements fighting aggression in many Muslim countries. Indeed, charges brought against others include the plotting of terrorist acts in Russia and the Balkans. Among the 94 people being charged are three Islamic activists from Daghestan, one of the Central Asian republics, who are charged with entering Egypt illegally after committing terrorist acts in Russia, to train Egyptians in preparing explosives and using weapons.

According to the prosecutors, the Daghestanis were training Egyptians to use explosives against American and Israeli targets in Egypt. One of the three, according to Arabic newspaper reports, has been forced to admit — probably under torture — that he belonged to a group called Tabligh and Dawah while in Daghestan, where he had committed acts of aggression against Russian targets.

The charges and dubious evidence being brought against these defendants are bound to be used by the Russian, Yugoslav, American and Israeli governments to track down ‘terrorists’ in the 50 countries that Washington claims host al-Qaida activists and bin Ladin supporters. Russia and China, who have already secured the approval of Western governments and their Muslim allies to suppress Chechen and Xinjiang ‘separatists’, will particularly value such help from Muslim countries.

But the Egyptian people are not likely to be taken in by these trials of Islamic activists. Indeed, the Ikhwan have become even more popular, and Western politicians and journalists — who have criticised Cairo severely for not backing the “war against terrorism” —are now concerned that Mubarak’s autocratic ways will increase popular support for Islamic activists. Egyptians’ anger with their leaders has increased noticeably since US president George W. Bush declared his total bias towards Israel by effectively declaring war on the Hamas movement, and Mubarak followed him meekly by holding Palestinians and Israelis equally responsible for the “violence in the region”.

Mubarak’s decision to act as an “honest broker” between Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon, by sending his foreign minister to Israel and the West Bank to mediate, has also proved unpopular. The spectacular failure of the mission to arrange a ceasefire, in the face of Shamir’s determination to continue to try to bomb the Palestinians into submission, has added to the Egyptian government’s embarrassment. The most effective way, in the eyes of many Egyptians, to end this embarrassment and increase the weight and influence of their country is to break (or at least to threaten to break) diplomatic relations with Israel.

But Mubarak is determined to maintain those ties, and his ministers have time and again vowed in recent weeks not to sever them. The reason is said to be the $1.3 billion Cairo receives annually in US ‘aid’. Recent editorials in American newspapers, particularly the Washington Post, have taken Egypt to task for not being more supportive of Israel against the Palestinian intifada and called for the withdrawal of the aid; their argument is that it was offered in the first place to reward Cairo for establishing diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv.

Egypt’s relations with Israel and its hostility towards Islamic movements are not, however, the only cause of popular dissatisfaction with Mubarak. Rampant corruption and economic mismanagement have led to widespread poverty and unemployment, and the much-vaunted economic reforms have succeeded only in enriching the influential few, while further impoverishing ordinary Egyptians.

A new book, A Grand Delusion: Democracy and Democratic Reform in Egypt, by Eberhard Kienle (pub. I B Taurus) explains how the Egyptian people have been taken for a ride by Mubarak’s economic and political reforms, which have made them poorer and the system more corrupt. It is reviewed in the December issue of the Middle East magazine (London), which also compliments Mubarak on his “clever balancing act between secular and Islamic groups”. Given that the review makes it clear how critical the book is of the regime, and describes it as “essential reading for both students of political economy and those who follow the affairs of the Middle East”, the magazine’s praise for Mubarak makes little sense.

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