Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood in History CAIRO – The Muslim Brotherhood, which was declared a “terrorist” organization on Wednesday, December 25, is Egypt’s oldest and largest Islamist movement. The groups political arm, Freedom and Justice party, has won in five consecutive elections since 2011 revolution. Here follows a timeline for key stations in the history of the Muslim Brotherhood: March 1928: The Muslim Brotherhood is founded in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia by schoolteacher Hassan Al Banna. It is staunchly opposed to colonialism and Zionism, and promotes a return to Islamic values in an increasingly secular Egypt. December 1948: A member of the group assassinates prime minister Mahmoud Fahmi Al Nuqrashi, who had ordered the Brotherhood dissolved. The assassination was condemned by Al Banna, who was detained along with the group leaders as political prisoners at the time of the attack. February 1949: The secret police assassinates Al Banna as the government arrests key leaders of the organization. Between 1954 and 1970: Thousands of Brotherhood members are arrested or go underground during the presidency of Jamal Abdul Nasser, a secular Arab nationalist. 1966: Sayyed Qotb, a Brotherhood theoretician, is hanged. 1971: Anwar Sadat succeeds Nasser, and his regime grants the Brotherhood leadership amnesty but officially bans the movement. The Brotherhood renounces violence and embraces social work and grass-roots activism. 1984: After the assassination of Sadat by a radical group, his successor, Hosni Mubarak, recognizes the Brotherhood as a religious organization but refuses its political registration. 1984-87: The movement fields candidates in a block with Al-Wafd party, winning 36 seats. 2000: The Muslim Brotherhood fields candidates on independent tickets, winning 17 seats in the parliament, including the outgoing President Mohamed Morsi. 2005: Brotherhood candidates running as independents gain one-fifth of parliamentary seats, but the group emerges empty-handed from the first round of 2010 elections and boycotts the second round, denouncing massive fraud. February 2011: A popular uprising, heavily supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, forces Mubarak to resign and hand power to the military. The Brotherhood later founds its political party; Freedom and Justice Party. 2011: The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party clinches an overwhelming majority in 2011-2012 elections, before parliament is dissolved when a court finds irregularities in the elections law, proposed by the military. June 30, 2012: Mohammad Morsi wins 51.73 per cent of the vote and is sworn in as Egypt’s first freely elected president. July 3, 2013: After massive demonstrations demanding his resignation, the army overthrows Morsi. The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, has vowed to continue in peaceful protests until the Islamist president is reinstated. August 14, 2013: In a bid to quash protests and sit-ins that ran for more than 45 days in Rabaa and Nahda squares, the protesters camps were broken up in a bloody security forces crackdown, leaving hundreds of people killed, according to official records and rights groups. Further clashes during a day of rage called by the Brotherhood on Friday, August 16, left at least another 173 people across the country dead, including 95 in the capital and 25 in Alexandria. August 20, 2013: The authorities detain the Brotherhood’s supreme guide, Mohammad Badie, 70, who later goes on trial accused of inciting violence and charges related to protester deaths. September 23: A court bans the Muslim Brotherhood from operating and orders its assets seized, a week after having ordered the freezing of the assets of senior leaders of the organization. December 25: The government declares the Brotherhood a “terrorist” organization and blames it for a deadly suicide bombing against a police headquarters in Mansoura that had already been claimed by an Al Qaida-inspired group.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 04:24:16 +0000
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