06-10-2007, 06:27 PM
ANOTHER ROUND OF ELECTIONS IN EGYPT PROMPTS ANOTHER CRACKDOWN ON THE IKHWAN
http://www.muslimedia.com/egy-crackelection.htm
It was business as usual for Egypt’s security forces last month, as Egyptians hoping to run in the Shura (Consultative) elections on June 11 began to present their candidacy papers. As soon as registration opened for the mid-term elections, to choose half of the members of the upper house of Egypt’s parliament, three leaders of the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) were reportedly arrested in Alexandria for being “in possession of leaflets aiming at inciting public opinion.” Scores of other Ikhwan activists were arrested in the following days on a variety of charges that included holding “secret organisational meetings.” For the Ikhwan, the arrests were just another episode in the group’s continued confrontation with the repressive apparatuses of the state. In the last few months, hundreds of Ikhwan members and supporters have been arrested in connection with their political activities.
The arrests coincided with a court ruling on May 14 to uphold a decision by president Mubarak to try 40 members of the Ikhwan in a military court. Supreme Administrative Court judge ‘Issam Abd al-Aziz reversed a ruling in a lower court that declared the president’s decision invalid. An earlier court order for the release of this batch of detained Ikhwan members, who were arrested in December, had been issued in January, but was annulled a few days later by Mubarak, who ordered their trial before a military court instead. Several judges in civilian courts had also thrown out the charges against the defendants on the grounds of lack of evidence. The trial of the men, who are charged with money-laundering as well as financing and membership of a banned organisation, will resume on June 3.
One of the defendants is the Ikhwan’s chief strategist and financier, Khayrat al-Shater, whose assets, together with those of other businessmen who have links to the movement, were frozen in February in an attempt by the government to cripple the Ikhwan financially. The government’s practice of trying civilians before military tribunals, which usually issue swift and harsh verdicts, has been condemned by human-rights activists both inside Egypt and abroad. An emergency law that has been in place since 1981 gives the president the authority to refer civilian detainees to military courts, prohibits gatherings of more than five individuals, and allows the prosecution of defendants on such ambiguous grounds as “besmirching the country’s image”. Last month, constitutional amendments were introduced that reinforce the president’s authority to try civilians in military courts.
The use of arbitrary arrest to pre-determine election results is an established strategy in Egypt. In 1995 the government arrested scores of senior Ikhwan members before parliamentary elections and referred them to military courts, which meted out prison terms of up to five years for non-violent offences. In 2005, thousands of Ikhwan members were arrested when the group put up its candidates as independents in an effort to evade the government’s ban on its political activity. On polling days, riot police deployed in constituencies where the Ikhwan had candidates sealed off polling stations, attacked voters with clubs, and sometimes even with live ammunition, in an attempt to limit access to polling stations.
So far, some 400 Ikhwan leaders and activists have been arrested in the crackdown that began last December, after a military-like parade held by masked members of the group’s student branch on the campus of al-Azhar University. The parade brought about an avalanche of government accusations that the movement was forming a militia that provides youths with combat-training, knives and chains, with the ultimate aim of toppling the regime. The Ikhwan denies forming a militia. Even Ikhwan MPs were not immune from the ongoing wave of detentions: on April 29 Sabri Amer and Rajab Abu Zeid were arrested in the northern Nile Delta province of al-Mannoufiyyah; they were released the next day.
The Ikhwan, which was established in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna, a Sufi schoolteacher in the city of Isma’iliyyah, advocates the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate. Imam Banna was influenced by Muslim reformist thinkers such as Muhammad ‘Abduh and Rashid Rida, who tried to revitalise and restore Islamic civilisation. Despite its original commitment to non-violence, the group set up a secret paramilitary organisation in the 1940s known as al-Jihaz al-Khas (“special apparatus”), which was suspected of a wave of assassinations and bombings. The government responded in 1948 by banning the group. In 1949 Banna was assassinated, apparently in response to the killing of prime minister Mahmud Fahmi Nuqrashi by members of the Special Apparatus in December 1948. But the Ikhwan continued to operate as a semi-secret organisation until it was banned in 1954, when the government of Gamal Abd al-Nasser accused it of an assassination attempt on him while he was speaking in Alexandria. The Ikhwan denied involvement in the attempt on Nasser’s life and accused the government of staging the whole incident in order to use it as a pretext to crush the movement.
One of the main lessons learnt by the Ikhwan during the Nasser’s repression, in which thousands of its members were systematically tortured and jailed, was to put the preservation of the group above risking an all-out confrontation with the government. This, in addition to the strict limitations in the Shari‘ah on the use of violence in Muslim society, articulated by traditional Sunni jurists, explains why the Ikhwan’s core has not taken part in political violence in Egypt for more than half a century. Forced to go underground during Nasser’s repression, the Ikhwan re-emerged on the political scene during the rule of Anwar al-Sadat, Nasser’s successor. In his drive to curb the influence of Egyptian Nasserites and leftists, Sadat began a rapprochement with the Ikhwan, releasing prisoners and promising to implement the Shari‘ah. This gave the Ikhwan an opportunity to operate within the system under the slogan “Islam is the solution” (al-Islam huwa al-hal). The group has since become Egypt’s strongest and most vibrant opposition movement; it now has now some 7,000 chapters around the country, complete with a network of mosques and charitable organisations, which operate educational institutions, provide medical services, and distribute various forms of aid to the poor.
In the past few years, the Ikhwan has jumped on the democracy bandwagon, adopting a discourse which places the issue of ‘freedom’ at the top of the group’s agenda and taking steps to position the Ikhwan as a mainstream reform force. In its participation in civil society, the Ikhwan has been careful to conduct itself in a way that promotes an impression of being after pluralism rather than dominance. For instance, in recent elections for the boards of the lawyers’ and doctors’ syndicates, the Ikhwan fielded fewer candidates than it could have done, thus allowing more space for representation from both pro-government and secular opposition groups. Ikhwan representatives in the syndicates seem to be helping to reduce mismanagement and improve performances.
The Ikhwan has also tried to cooperate with other opposition groups to coordinate strategy and organise street demonstrations and other activities. In the legislative elections last November and December, the Ikhwan ran only 130 candidates to enable other opposition parties to put up candidates.
The Ikhwan’s disciplined presence in parliament has improved attendance at parliamentary sessions and meetings of legislative committees. Absenteeism, which was a chronic problem because of the disinclination of delegates of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to attend late-night meetings, has declined since the Ikhwan got 20 percent of parliament’s 454 seats in the last elections. Because votes can be held regardless of the number of MPs in attendance at these sessions, the punctuality of the Ikhwan’s MPs in attending all sessions has forced the NDP MPs to attend to prevent the Ikhwan from steering parliamentary proceedings towards its own agenda. Nevertheless, the Ikhwan’s performance in parliament is hobbled by the fact that the NDP holds a two-thirds of the seats in the house – a majority vote that enables the NDP to pass any bills and constitutional changes it desires. Shorn of meaningful legislative weight, the Ikhwan’s bloc finds itself confined mainly to using the parliament as a forum for debate on government policies. It also showers parliamentary committees with requests for information that can embarrass the government, as it did in January, when it demanded a report on torture from the parliamentary defence committee and presented the ministry of the interior with a questionnaire on the status of 30,000 detainees.
But the Ikhwan’s participation in the political process has provoked the ire of fringe extremist elements who believe in the futility of political participation. For instance, on January 6, al-Qa‘ida no. 2, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri, issued a video message in which he criticised the Ikhwan for its participation in “the political game that America is playing in Egypt, through presidential and parliamentary elections, to exploit the masses and their love for Islam.” Disenchantment with the Ikhwan’s commitment to non-violence has often led to the formation of more radical groups by disgruntled breakaway members, as in the case of offshoot organisations such as the al-Jama‘ah al-Islamiyyah (“the Islamic group”) and al-Takfir wal-Hijrah (“excommunication and migration”).
Participation in the political process has brought to the fore a web of complexities surrounding the Ikhwan’s status as a political party. The Brotherhood’s obsession with circumventing the government’s ban on religion-based political parties has fuelled internal debate on whether the group should adopt tactics similar to those of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Reform Party in order to be able to operate legally. Among the proposals currently under discussion is the establishment of a political party with a non-religious platform, while maintaining the Ikhwan as a religious organisation. There is an inescapable element of neutralisation in this process of soul-searching. One can only hope that it does not result in a radical change of mind or a drastic change of heart.
EGYPT TELLS WEF REFORMS COULD TRIGGER "CHAOS"
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/...le03.shtml
"The winds of change in the Middle East will not bear fruit in the absence of addressing its conflicts and tensions," Mubarak said. (Reuters)
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, May 21, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Opening the World Economic Forum (WEF) in this Red Sea resort on Saturday, May 20, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak argued that rushing reforms in the region could lead to "chaos" while his premier bluntly said the government would not allow the Muslim Brotherhood to form parliamentary blocs in the future.
"The winds of change in the Middle East will not bear fruit in the absence of addressing its conflicts and tensions," Mubarak told the prestigious economic gathering, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He listed the "stalemate in the peace process, the situation in Iraq, the controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear program, the situation in Darfur and the tension between Syria and Lebanon" as pressing issues that must be addressed first to stabilize the region.
Mubarak called for the "pursuit of reform that emanated from within the region, reform based on a gradual prudent approach that ensures its sustainability."
The Egyptian leader, in office since 1981, argued that the hastening of the process could lead to "chaos and the demise of the process itself."
Reform in the Middle East is one of the main themes of the forum as host Egypt continues to draw fire for its repressive treatment of pro-democracy protestors and crackdown on political opponents.
The annual forum is being held this year in Sharm el-Sheikh under watertight security, only a month after the Sinai peninsula was hit by a spate of bombings, which killed 20 people, including foreign tourists, and wounded around 90.
Dozens of checkpoints were installed along the main roads of the Red Sea vacation spot, while security men lined the streets.
A total three-day ban on water sports has been imposed along the shores of the town, which is heavily frequented by European tourists, while plain-clothes policemen shooed away motorists parking in suspicious spots.
Among the highest-profile participants are US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who has been involved in intensive consultations in the region.
Other prominent guests include Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, as well as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a string of ministers from the region.
The Iranian president and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya were conspicuous by their absence.
No to Brotherhood
Nazif said the government would not allow the Muslim Brotherhood to form parliamentary blocs in the future.
In a rare explicit diatribe, Egyptian Premier Ahmed Nazif said the government wants to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group with 80 seats in the legislature, from forming a parliamentary bloc in future elections.
"Islamists who say they belong to illegal organization have been able to go into parliament and act in a format that would make them seem like a political party... We need to think clearly about how to prevent this from happening," he told Reuters in an interview.
The Brotherhood won a fifth of the seats in the parliament last November and December, putting the ruling party on the defensive.
Its members stood as independents in the election because the government does not recognize the Brotherhood and has refused to let the group form a political party, on the grounds that it would be based on religion.
Nazif said the government could not take way the right of individual citizens from running for parliament but members of the Brotherhood were different.
"We have a secret organization represented in parliament. They are not individuals," he said.
In recent weeks Egyptian police have taken a much tougher approach to pro-reform protests.
Plainclothes security men have beaten, kicked and clubbed people demonstrating peacefully in support of judges demanding independence from the executive and who blew the whistle on parliamentary election fraud.
Nazif dismissed multiple eyewitness accounts of attacks on protesters and said only "thugs" would take to the streets.
"Why blame the police? I am frankly fed up by the fact that people are blaming those who are trying to keep the peace against the people who are trying to break the peace."
"Front Line"
Khadiga sat between Gamal and Abul Gheit in the front row.
The most eye-catching aspect of the WEF opening was the seating of the fiancée of Mubarak's son Gamal, who made her first appearance at a big public event, Reuters reported.
Khadiga el-Gammal sat between Gamal and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit in the front row.
Key government ministers, including Investments Minister Mahmoud Mohei El-Dine, sat in the second and third rows.
Khadiga, who is about 20 years younger than her 42-year-old fiancé, had evaded public attention since her March engagement and Egyptian papers have published only one photograph of her.
But after Mubarak's opening address, she chatted casually with press photographers.
If Gamal succeeds his father as the political opposition and analysts expect, she would become Egypt's first lady -- a prominent role under both Mubarak and his predecessor late President Anwar Sadat.
Gamal, the head of the ruling National Democratic Party's Policies Department, met briefly last week with US President George. W. Bush while at the White House for meetings with top officials.
He met with Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley as well as Vice President Dick Cheney.
Egypt is one of the United States' closest friends and the most populous nation in the Arab world.
REGIMES BLOCK ARAB REFORM
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?
ARAB REFORMS FORUM OPENS IN JORDAN
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?
A survey showed that more than 80 percent of the Jordanians fear criticizing the government publicly.
CAIRO, November 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – An octopus-like arm of Arab regimes, secret security emerges as a major hindrance for reform in the Middle East, a leading US newspaper reported on Tuesday, November 15.
In the Middle East people live "under the fist of the mukhabarat," Jordanian Sameer Al-Qudah, 35, who works as a supervisor of construction projects, told The New York Times, using the Arabic word for intelligence services.
http://www.muslimedia.com/egy-crackelection.htm
It was business as usual for Egypt’s security forces last month, as Egyptians hoping to run in the Shura (Consultative) elections on June 11 began to present their candidacy papers. As soon as registration opened for the mid-term elections, to choose half of the members of the upper house of Egypt’s parliament, three leaders of the Ikhwan al-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) were reportedly arrested in Alexandria for being “in possession of leaflets aiming at inciting public opinion.” Scores of other Ikhwan activists were arrested in the following days on a variety of charges that included holding “secret organisational meetings.” For the Ikhwan, the arrests were just another episode in the group’s continued confrontation with the repressive apparatuses of the state. In the last few months, hundreds of Ikhwan members and supporters have been arrested in connection with their political activities.
The arrests coincided with a court ruling on May 14 to uphold a decision by president Mubarak to try 40 members of the Ikhwan in a military court. Supreme Administrative Court judge ‘Issam Abd al-Aziz reversed a ruling in a lower court that declared the president’s decision invalid. An earlier court order for the release of this batch of detained Ikhwan members, who were arrested in December, had been issued in January, but was annulled a few days later by Mubarak, who ordered their trial before a military court instead. Several judges in civilian courts had also thrown out the charges against the defendants on the grounds of lack of evidence. The trial of the men, who are charged with money-laundering as well as financing and membership of a banned organisation, will resume on June 3.
One of the defendants is the Ikhwan’s chief strategist and financier, Khayrat al-Shater, whose assets, together with those of other businessmen who have links to the movement, were frozen in February in an attempt by the government to cripple the Ikhwan financially. The government’s practice of trying civilians before military tribunals, which usually issue swift and harsh verdicts, has been condemned by human-rights activists both inside Egypt and abroad. An emergency law that has been in place since 1981 gives the president the authority to refer civilian detainees to military courts, prohibits gatherings of more than five individuals, and allows the prosecution of defendants on such ambiguous grounds as “besmirching the country’s image”. Last month, constitutional amendments were introduced that reinforce the president’s authority to try civilians in military courts.
The use of arbitrary arrest to pre-determine election results is an established strategy in Egypt. In 1995 the government arrested scores of senior Ikhwan members before parliamentary elections and referred them to military courts, which meted out prison terms of up to five years for non-violent offences. In 2005, thousands of Ikhwan members were arrested when the group put up its candidates as independents in an effort to evade the government’s ban on its political activity. On polling days, riot police deployed in constituencies where the Ikhwan had candidates sealed off polling stations, attacked voters with clubs, and sometimes even with live ammunition, in an attempt to limit access to polling stations.
So far, some 400 Ikhwan leaders and activists have been arrested in the crackdown that began last December, after a military-like parade held by masked members of the group’s student branch on the campus of al-Azhar University. The parade brought about an avalanche of government accusations that the movement was forming a militia that provides youths with combat-training, knives and chains, with the ultimate aim of toppling the regime. The Ikhwan denies forming a militia. Even Ikhwan MPs were not immune from the ongoing wave of detentions: on April 29 Sabri Amer and Rajab Abu Zeid were arrested in the northern Nile Delta province of al-Mannoufiyyah; they were released the next day.
The Ikhwan, which was established in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna, a Sufi schoolteacher in the city of Isma’iliyyah, advocates the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate. Imam Banna was influenced by Muslim reformist thinkers such as Muhammad ‘Abduh and Rashid Rida, who tried to revitalise and restore Islamic civilisation. Despite its original commitment to non-violence, the group set up a secret paramilitary organisation in the 1940s known as al-Jihaz al-Khas (“special apparatus”), which was suspected of a wave of assassinations and bombings. The government responded in 1948 by banning the group. In 1949 Banna was assassinated, apparently in response to the killing of prime minister Mahmud Fahmi Nuqrashi by members of the Special Apparatus in December 1948. But the Ikhwan continued to operate as a semi-secret organisation until it was banned in 1954, when the government of Gamal Abd al-Nasser accused it of an assassination attempt on him while he was speaking in Alexandria. The Ikhwan denied involvement in the attempt on Nasser’s life and accused the government of staging the whole incident in order to use it as a pretext to crush the movement.
One of the main lessons learnt by the Ikhwan during the Nasser’s repression, in which thousands of its members were systematically tortured and jailed, was to put the preservation of the group above risking an all-out confrontation with the government. This, in addition to the strict limitations in the Shari‘ah on the use of violence in Muslim society, articulated by traditional Sunni jurists, explains why the Ikhwan’s core has not taken part in political violence in Egypt for more than half a century. Forced to go underground during Nasser’s repression, the Ikhwan re-emerged on the political scene during the rule of Anwar al-Sadat, Nasser’s successor. In his drive to curb the influence of Egyptian Nasserites and leftists, Sadat began a rapprochement with the Ikhwan, releasing prisoners and promising to implement the Shari‘ah. This gave the Ikhwan an opportunity to operate within the system under the slogan “Islam is the solution” (al-Islam huwa al-hal). The group has since become Egypt’s strongest and most vibrant opposition movement; it now has now some 7,000 chapters around the country, complete with a network of mosques and charitable organisations, which operate educational institutions, provide medical services, and distribute various forms of aid to the poor.
In the past few years, the Ikhwan has jumped on the democracy bandwagon, adopting a discourse which places the issue of ‘freedom’ at the top of the group’s agenda and taking steps to position the Ikhwan as a mainstream reform force. In its participation in civil society, the Ikhwan has been careful to conduct itself in a way that promotes an impression of being after pluralism rather than dominance. For instance, in recent elections for the boards of the lawyers’ and doctors’ syndicates, the Ikhwan fielded fewer candidates than it could have done, thus allowing more space for representation from both pro-government and secular opposition groups. Ikhwan representatives in the syndicates seem to be helping to reduce mismanagement and improve performances.
The Ikhwan has also tried to cooperate with other opposition groups to coordinate strategy and organise street demonstrations and other activities. In the legislative elections last November and December, the Ikhwan ran only 130 candidates to enable other opposition parties to put up candidates.
The Ikhwan’s disciplined presence in parliament has improved attendance at parliamentary sessions and meetings of legislative committees. Absenteeism, which was a chronic problem because of the disinclination of delegates of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to attend late-night meetings, has declined since the Ikhwan got 20 percent of parliament’s 454 seats in the last elections. Because votes can be held regardless of the number of MPs in attendance at these sessions, the punctuality of the Ikhwan’s MPs in attending all sessions has forced the NDP MPs to attend to prevent the Ikhwan from steering parliamentary proceedings towards its own agenda. Nevertheless, the Ikhwan’s performance in parliament is hobbled by the fact that the NDP holds a two-thirds of the seats in the house – a majority vote that enables the NDP to pass any bills and constitutional changes it desires. Shorn of meaningful legislative weight, the Ikhwan’s bloc finds itself confined mainly to using the parliament as a forum for debate on government policies. It also showers parliamentary committees with requests for information that can embarrass the government, as it did in January, when it demanded a report on torture from the parliamentary defence committee and presented the ministry of the interior with a questionnaire on the status of 30,000 detainees.
But the Ikhwan’s participation in the political process has provoked the ire of fringe extremist elements who believe in the futility of political participation. For instance, on January 6, al-Qa‘ida no. 2, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri, issued a video message in which he criticised the Ikhwan for its participation in “the political game that America is playing in Egypt, through presidential and parliamentary elections, to exploit the masses and their love for Islam.” Disenchantment with the Ikhwan’s commitment to non-violence has often led to the formation of more radical groups by disgruntled breakaway members, as in the case of offshoot organisations such as the al-Jama‘ah al-Islamiyyah (“the Islamic group”) and al-Takfir wal-Hijrah (“excommunication and migration”).
Participation in the political process has brought to the fore a web of complexities surrounding the Ikhwan’s status as a political party. The Brotherhood’s obsession with circumventing the government’s ban on religion-based political parties has fuelled internal debate on whether the group should adopt tactics similar to those of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Reform Party in order to be able to operate legally. Among the proposals currently under discussion is the establishment of a political party with a non-religious platform, while maintaining the Ikhwan as a religious organisation. There is an inescapable element of neutralisation in this process of soul-searching. One can only hope that it does not result in a radical change of mind or a drastic change of heart.
EGYPT TELLS WEF REFORMS COULD TRIGGER "CHAOS"
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/...le03.shtml
"The winds of change in the Middle East will not bear fruit in the absence of addressing its conflicts and tensions," Mubarak said. (Reuters)
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, May 21, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Opening the World Economic Forum (WEF) in this Red Sea resort on Saturday, May 20, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak argued that rushing reforms in the region could lead to "chaos" while his premier bluntly said the government would not allow the Muslim Brotherhood to form parliamentary blocs in the future.
"The winds of change in the Middle East will not bear fruit in the absence of addressing its conflicts and tensions," Mubarak told the prestigious economic gathering, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
He listed the "stalemate in the peace process, the situation in Iraq, the controversy surrounding Iran's nuclear program, the situation in Darfur and the tension between Syria and Lebanon" as pressing issues that must be addressed first to stabilize the region.
Mubarak called for the "pursuit of reform that emanated from within the region, reform based on a gradual prudent approach that ensures its sustainability."
The Egyptian leader, in office since 1981, argued that the hastening of the process could lead to "chaos and the demise of the process itself."
Reform in the Middle East is one of the main themes of the forum as host Egypt continues to draw fire for its repressive treatment of pro-democracy protestors and crackdown on political opponents.
The annual forum is being held this year in Sharm el-Sheikh under watertight security, only a month after the Sinai peninsula was hit by a spate of bombings, which killed 20 people, including foreign tourists, and wounded around 90.
Dozens of checkpoints were installed along the main roads of the Red Sea vacation spot, while security men lined the streets.
A total three-day ban on water sports has been imposed along the shores of the town, which is heavily frequented by European tourists, while plain-clothes policemen shooed away motorists parking in suspicious spots.
Among the highest-profile participants are US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who has been involved in intensive consultations in the region.
Other prominent guests include Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, as well as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a string of ministers from the region.
The Iranian president and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya were conspicuous by their absence.
No to Brotherhood
Nazif said the government would not allow the Muslim Brotherhood to form parliamentary blocs in the future.
In a rare explicit diatribe, Egyptian Premier Ahmed Nazif said the government wants to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group with 80 seats in the legislature, from forming a parliamentary bloc in future elections.
"Islamists who say they belong to illegal organization have been able to go into parliament and act in a format that would make them seem like a political party... We need to think clearly about how to prevent this from happening," he told Reuters in an interview.
The Brotherhood won a fifth of the seats in the parliament last November and December, putting the ruling party on the defensive.
Its members stood as independents in the election because the government does not recognize the Brotherhood and has refused to let the group form a political party, on the grounds that it would be based on religion.
Nazif said the government could not take way the right of individual citizens from running for parliament but members of the Brotherhood were different.
"We have a secret organization represented in parliament. They are not individuals," he said.
In recent weeks Egyptian police have taken a much tougher approach to pro-reform protests.
Plainclothes security men have beaten, kicked and clubbed people demonstrating peacefully in support of judges demanding independence from the executive and who blew the whistle on parliamentary election fraud.
Nazif dismissed multiple eyewitness accounts of attacks on protesters and said only "thugs" would take to the streets.
"Why blame the police? I am frankly fed up by the fact that people are blaming those who are trying to keep the peace against the people who are trying to break the peace."
"Front Line"
Khadiga sat between Gamal and Abul Gheit in the front row.
The most eye-catching aspect of the WEF opening was the seating of the fiancée of Mubarak's son Gamal, who made her first appearance at a big public event, Reuters reported.
Khadiga el-Gammal sat between Gamal and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit in the front row.
Key government ministers, including Investments Minister Mahmoud Mohei El-Dine, sat in the second and third rows.
Khadiga, who is about 20 years younger than her 42-year-old fiancé, had evaded public attention since her March engagement and Egyptian papers have published only one photograph of her.
But after Mubarak's opening address, she chatted casually with press photographers.
If Gamal succeeds his father as the political opposition and analysts expect, she would become Egypt's first lady -- a prominent role under both Mubarak and his predecessor late President Anwar Sadat.
Gamal, the head of the ruling National Democratic Party's Policies Department, met briefly last week with US President George. W. Bush while at the White House for meetings with top officials.
He met with Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley as well as Vice President Dick Cheney.
Egypt is one of the United States' closest friends and the most populous nation in the Arab world.
REGIMES BLOCK ARAB REFORM
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?
"Arab regimes are not particularly willing to institute reforms because they don't want to give up power," said Hiltermann
AMMAN — Arab regimes are blocking reforms out of fear that gradual steps could eventually see them lose their tightened grip on power, analysts agreed, criticizing apathetic Arab people.
"Arab regimes are not particularly willing to institute reforms because they don't want to give up power," Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"They are afraid that if they give up a little they will have to give up everything," he said.
Opening the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday, May 20, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak argued that rushing reforms in the region could lead to "chaos".
Reform has been one of the main themes in the Arab world and the Middle East since the US launched its so-called Broader Middle East and North Africa initiative at a G8 summit in 2004.
Since then, Arabs and foreign officials have met to promote reform in the Arab world. Little, if any, has emerged.
Foreign ministers of Arab countries and the world eight industrialized countries are scheduled to meet in Jordan Thursday, November 30, to discuss means of promoting the US-sponsored reform initiative.
Some 56 countries and organizations are to take part in the third annual Forum for the Future on the shores of the Dead Sea. The two previous meetings were held in Morocco and Bahrain.
Prominent among attendees are US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.
Participants in the two-day forum will discuss a flurry of issues including political pluralism, good governance, corruption, judicial independence and freedom of the media.
Peoples Blamed
Fares Braizat of the Centre of Strategic Studies of the University of Jordan blamed the Arab people for the slow pace of reforms.
He said Arabs, though hungry for reform, are not pressing their governments enough for change.
"Opinion polls across several Arab countries show a great deal of support for democracy," he said.
"When asked their political preference, an overwhelming majority of people choose the democratic system," added the veteran pollster.
But it stops there, Braizat insists, because "Arab states are the largest employers in their respective societies" and large majorities depend on them for jobs, subsidies and business contracts.
The expert pressed for a real action to bring "badly-needed democracy" to the Middle East, to foster social and political development and help serve as a tool to ease deadly conflicts across the region.
Dead Reform
Many observers believe that the US championed aid freeze imposed on the Palestinians after electing the resistance group Hamas to power nipped in the bud the reform drive in the region.
Western countries have clamped an economic siege on the Palestinians since Hamas came to power in March, gravely affecting livelihood in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Bush administration has admitted that its policies in the Mideast, including failure to make good on a promise to help set up an independent Palestinian state, have provoked Arab skepticism on reform.
"We are not ignoring Arab public opinion," a senior US State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters in Amman.
Arab activists meeting in Jordan ahead of Thursday's forum have called for international efforts to resolve regional conflicts before seeking to promote the US-sponsored reforms.
The US official said that Washington was seeking solutions for the Middle East conflicts.
"It would be wrong to believe that the US is sitting back, positively contributing to the problems in the region without seeking to address them."
He recognized that reform cannot be imposed on the region but insisted that the G8 countries have a "responsibility to nudge governments" into making progress.
"This is an effort that requires all of us -- the G8, governments in the region and people in the region -- to be rowing our boats all in the same direction."
ARAB REFORMS FORUM OPENS IN JORDAN
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"This (Mideast conflicts) should not be used as a pretext to stop reform," said Bakhit
SHUNEH, JORDAN — Foreign ministers from the G8 industrialized nations, Arab, European and Muslim countries on Friday, December 1, opened a conference on the shores of the Dead Sea to promote reforms in the region.
Jordanian Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit told the Forum for the Future that political reform and the involvement of civil society and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the political process were "basic requirements" for economic development and tackling the Middle East's problems, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"I should like to renew our call on all to embark on a concentrated effort to address the existing tensions in our region and to resolve the age-old conflicts which have prevented it from reaching its full potential," he said.
Failing to find "rapid and fair solutions (to Mideast conflicts) casts a shadow on many initiatives and ambitious priorities for our people and slows down reform efforts" Bakhit said.
"This should not be used as a pretext to stop reform, although the absence of a fair and comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict weakens moderate forces and reinforces those who stipulate violence, extremism and hatred".
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Jordanian counterpart Abdel Ilah Khatib -- the conference co-hosts -- also spoke of the need to address the Israeli-Palestinian crisis as key to improving regional stability.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended the Forum along with and British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.
Jordan has invited 56 countries and organizations to attend the third annual forum, after Morocco and Bahrain, since Washington launched the controversial Broader Middle East and North Africa initiative at a G8 summit in 2004.
The focus of this year's forum is on issues of political freedom and good governance as well as economic and educational empowerment in the broader Middle East, from North Africa to Pakistan.
Arab activists meeting ahead of the forum have called on world leaders to take urgent measures to resolve regional conflicts before pushing ahead with reforms amid concern that Arab regimes still lack the will for change.
Ahead of the forum Rice met foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt and Jordan for talks on moves required to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the situations in Iraq and Lebanon.
NGOs
Rice (3rdL) meets with Arab Foreign Ministers on the eve of the Forum.
Britain's Beckett told the meeting that regional partnerships and the education of the area's youth were key to tackling global problems like chronic underdevelopment, climate change and terrorism.
"If we, through out partnership, fail to meet the aspirations of our people, then the only winners will be the tiny minority, the extremists, who want to see us split apart," she said.
Non-governmental organizations and civil society groups were giving presentations to the gathered ministers at the start of each meeting, officials said.
Barry Lowenkron, the US assistant secretary of state for democracy promotion, said a sign of the progress made in the region since the first forum was held in 2004 is that at that meeting only five NGOs were invited to speak, while more than 50 were involved on Friday.
"That to me is the real story of the forum," he said.
Lowenkron said a second fund of around 90 million dollars was being developed to support small business ventures.
Last year's forum set up a 67-million-dollar-fund, called the Foundation for the Future, to provide grants to NGOs in the region -- a controversial scheme in many countries which frequently view such organizations with suspicion due to their activism on issues like human rights and corruption.
ARAB INTELLIGENCE SERVICES IMPEDING REFORM
A survey showed that more than 80 percent of the Jordanians fear criticizing the government publicly.
CAIRO, November 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – An octopus-like arm of Arab regimes, secret security emerges as a major hindrance for reform in the Middle East, a leading US newspaper reported on Tuesday, November 15.
In the Middle East people live "under the fist of the mukhabarat," Jordanian Sameer Al-Qudah, 35, who works as a supervisor of construction projects, told The New York Times, using the Arabic word for intelligence services.
"We are hungry for freedoms like the right to express ourselves," said Qudah.
Qudah, who recited poems depicting Arab rulers as pirates and highwaymen, wondered "why does this part of the world lack any kind of democratic practices?"
In Jordan and across the region, the paper says, intelligence agencies interfere with everything in public life there, even appointment of every university professor, ambassador and important editor.
Those seeking democratic reform in the Middle East say the central role of each country's secret police force is one of the biggest impediments.
"In the decades since World War II, as military leaders and monarchs smothered democratic life, the security agencies have become a law unto themselves," the paper said.
Hands-on Experience
Omnipresent secret police exist in every Arab country and Mukhabarat is among the first Arabic words expatriates learn, particularly reporters, the Times said.
A New York Times reporter has a hands-on experience in the murky world.
"Once in late 2001, I was loitering outside the Cairo headquarters of the secret police, an unfamiliar building, and was detained. My Egyptian assistant and I were ushered into the office of a polite major, whose walls were hung with roughly 10 diplomas from the FBI, including one for interrogation," he said.
"After a brief, friendly conversation about my impressions of Egypt, we were released. But in the years since, whenever I was involved in any reporting in Egypt that state security considered dubious, the major would call to inquire."
Maj. Gen. Rouhi Hikmet Rasheed, a 33-year army veteran and former top military dentist, ran for Parliament in 2003 on a platform calling for a constitutional monarchy in Jordan.
According to the paper, his campaign drew the attention of the intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Saad Kheir, who warned him to withdraw from the race.
"He told me that if I meant we should have a monarch like Britain's, this is not in the best interests of the country."
Rasheed, 62 and now an MP, said he was shocked when he was warned that his children might be affected by his decisions.
"'You are a son of the regime, we trust you, but if your sons want to work in Jordan in the future, it might affect them,' "he recalled the warning.
Curbed
Many activists deem progress impossible unless the influence of the mukhabarat is curbed.
In a recent poll by the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, more than 80 percent of the respondents said they feared criticizing the government publicly.
More than three quarters said they feared taking part in any political activity.
"The issue of security has become a nightmare," Labib Kamhawi, a businessman active in human rights, said, contending that Jordan had failed to find the balance between democracy and security.
"If you give a speech against the policy of the government, this is a threat to security. If you demonstrate against this or that, it is a threat to security. It hits on all aspects of life and it is a severe hindrance to any change."
One man wrote a line from the Constitution stating that that personal freedom is protected.
Another wrote, "Love is immeasurable." A third scrawled, "Life comes first." A fourth wrote an Arab proverb about the absence of choice.
Three days later, the phone rang. The secret police summoned him and ultimately ordered him to paint over the graffiti because it might be "misinterpreted." (Click to read the article in full).