In light of the outraged behavior of Israeli Arabs to the recent arrest of five local leaders of the Islamic Movement, for membership in a terrorist organization and for contact with and providing information to foreign agents, it bears examining the reaction of Israel's neighbors to far less Islamist provocation.
The al-Hayat newspaper, out of London, reported this month on a new clampdown in Egypt on the Muslim Brotherhood. The reason for the Egyptian authorities new operation against the Brotherhood? A letter signed by the movement's leader "in which he strongly criticized governmental policies," according to the Lebanese report.
The Egyptian police went after the Muslim Brotherhood by arresting eleven of the leaders as they met in a house in the al-Daqahila region. "The group was accused of working on reactivating the Muslim Brotherhood and planning to turn the public against the government," al-Hayat reported. The latest enforcement campaign is the fifth time this year that the authorities arrested leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. The newspaper quotes the group's lawyer, Abdul Menem Abdul Maqsoud, as saying, "[the] latest campaign is no different than the others, in that it reflects the government's insistence on preventing the Brotherhood from practicing its political activities." The lawyer goes on to tell al-Hayat that the authorities "have been doing the same since the mid-1990s...."
The al-Hayat newspaper, out of London, reported this month on a new clampdown in Egypt on the Muslim Brotherhood. The reason for the Egyptian authorities new operation against the Brotherhood? A letter signed by the movement's leader "in which he strongly criticized governmental policies," according to the Lebanese report.
The Egyptian police went after the Muslim Brotherhood by arresting eleven of the leaders as they met in a house in the al-Daqahila region. "The group was accused of working on reactivating the Muslim Brotherhood and planning to turn the public against the government," al-Hayat reported. The latest enforcement campaign is the fifth time this year that the authorities arrested leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. The newspaper quotes the group's lawyer, Abdul Menem Abdul Maqsoud, as saying, "[the] latest campaign is no different than the others, in that it reflects the government's insistence on preventing the Brotherhood from practicing its political activities." The lawyer goes on to tell al-Hayat that the authorities "have been doing the same since the mid-1990s...."