The new ruling military-backed government in Egypt is wasting no time extinguishing the flame of the Muslim Brotherhood. Layers of Brotherhood leadership have been either executed or imprisoned. The group has been relegated to virtual insignificance and the heat will continue on until there is nothing left. Al Jazeera reports:
With former Defense Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi — the man who ousted Morsi — now occupying the presidential palace, the Brotherhood’s short-term prospects in Egypt look grim. The group was officially declared a terrorist organization in December, and Sisi has said that there is no place in the new Egypt for the Muslim Brotherhood. In an interview with Reuters shortly before his election, Sisi said, “The problem is that [the Brotherhood] lost their connection with the Egyptians, lost sympathy from a majority of Egyptians … They have no real chance of a reconciliation with society.”
What remains of the Muslim Brotherhood’s senior leadership has scattered, with hubs in London, Istanbul and Doha, Qatar. But it remains a subject of intense speculation among foreign governments and Brotherhood watchers just how the group’s strategic decisions are being made and by whom.
“It’s not only their top tier. Their second tier and third tier are in jail. Almost all of the political people are incarcerated,” said Issandr El Amrani, a longtime Egypt resident and North Africa director for the International Crisis Group. “The reality is that this is an organization in complete disarray.”
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