Tag: ikhwan

Islamists to demonstrate tomorrow Friday at Al-Azhar against Culture Minister

Posted on By 3arabawy

Al-Azhar mosque is expected to be the scene of a mass demo against Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni over his recent veil remarks, tomorrow following the Friday prayers. Both the Muslim Brothers and the Islamist-leaning Labor Party supporters are expected to be present and have a leading role.

Already thousands of Muslim Brothers supporters have demonstrated this week in universities in Cairo and the provinces, demanding the minister’s resignation.

Artists and Writers for Change, one of Kefaya’s offshoots, issued a statement. While refusing to support Farouk Hosni, for his corrupting role in the country’s cultural life, the movement denounced the attack on freedom of expression by the Muslim Brotherhood and “some of the NDP poles,” and called up on the activists to devote their energies to the more urgent political and social struggles.

MB activist dies shortly after his release from prison

Posted on By 3arabawy

Dr. Hassan el-Hayawan, an academic with the Muslim Brotherhood released Wednesday from extended detention, died last night of a heart attack.

UPDATE: AP report by Nadia Abou El-Magd:

Senior Muslim Brotherhood member dies days after he is released from prison
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ A senior Muslim Brotherhood leader who had been imprisoned for nearly a year died three days after his release of heart attack, the group said Sunday. He was 48.
Hassan el-Haiwan was released from prison Wednesday and died Saturday night, the Brotherhood’s Web site said.
He was arrested during last year’s violent legislative election season during which at least 10 people were killed. Many of the deaths were blamed on security forces trying to block opposition voters from reaching the polls.
El-Haiwan, a university professor and doctor, was tried on charges of possessing weapons and plotting to use them during Egypt’s parliamentary elections in November and December last year.
A state security court ordered he be released in June, but el-Haiwan remained in custody. He was released in October, but a few days later el-Haiwan was re-arrested. The court again ordered his release on Sunday.
Thousands attend el-Haiwan’s funeral Sunday in the Sharqiyya Province, located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Cairo.
Hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members have been detained since the elections in a new crackdown on the banned group. In June, police detained about 220 members who were attending a protest in support of el-Haiwan.
The Muslim Brotherhood increased its seats in parliament sevenfold in last year’s legislative elections. The Brotherhood, which holds 88 seats in parliament _ still well short of a majority _ is Egypt’s largest Islamist group.
Founded in 1928, the Brotherhood has been banned since 1954, though it renounced violence in the 1970s. It is not allowed to run as a party in the elections, but it endorses “independent” candidates who openly declare their allegiance to the group.

Clashes at Ain Shams University

Posted on By 3arabawy

I don’t have details yet, but it seems for the second day on the row, Ain Shams University’s campus in Abbassiya was the scene of clashes between the Free Student Union activists and those who belong to the government-appointed official Student Union, backed by criminal thugs who were allowed into campus with wooden sticks and sharp objects. The intimidation campaign is ongoing, while the university’s security personnel are absent from the scene, making sure the crackdown on the FSU to be portrayed as a students vs students affair.

UPDATE: A report by Aziz El-Kaissouni:

Plainclothes security disrupts Egypt student vote

CAIRO, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Plainclothes security men working with the police disrupted elections for unofficial student unions at Cairo’s Ain Shams university on Monday, Muslim Brotherhood and human rights sources said.
A Muslim Brotherhood student activist said the security men, working in large groups without uniforms or insignia, attacked voters and organizers with sticks, knives and bottles.
“They entered campus from the gates, with their sticks and everything, with the knowledge of (university) security,” said activist Muhammad Suleiman, adding that police stood by as students were assaulted.
The Muslim Brotherhood called for elections for “free” student unions throughout Egypt after almost all of their candidates were disqualified from the simultaneous official elections as part of a crackdown on opposition groups.
Suleiman said he and other students came under attack after one of the police officers in charge of campus security identified them by pointing them out in the crowd.
Muhammad Adel, a lawyer with the Egyptian Association for Supporting Democratic Development, said violence broke out in Ain Shams on Sunday as well and two students were seriously injured there. The association monitors elections.
Adel said the turnout at the universities where the unofficial elections are complete has been many times higher than for the official elections. A spokesman for the ministry of the interior declined to comment.
The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt’s strongest opposition group, despite being banned since 1954. Members elected as independents hold 88 seats in the 454-member parliament, which is dominated by the ruling National Democratic Party.
The government controls state universities, which block Islamist candidates at student union elections every year.
The U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch said last month that Egypt had intensified its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood with a new round of arbitrary arrests.

UPDATE: Student Union elections have become a microcosm of national polls outside the campus, writes Karim El-Khashab for Al-Ahram Weekly.