Muslim Brotherhood Arrests Reported As Egypt Protests Continue

CAIRO, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Egypt rounded up members of the Muslim Brotherhood including at least eight senior leaders of the group ahead of planned countrywide protests on Friday, a lawyer representing the detained men said.

Lawyer Abdel-Moniem Abdel-Maksoud said at least eight senior figures had been held in raids in the early hours of Friday, including spokesmen Essam El-Erian, Mohamed Mursi and Hamdy Hassan.

"The reason is of course known: it's what is expected to happen tomorrow," he said.

A security source confirmed that authorities had ordered a crackdown on the group overnight: "We have orders for security sweeps of the Brotherhood," the source told Reuters.

The Muslim Brotherhood has not been behind three days of protests by youth angry at poor living standards and authoritarian rule, but many followers of the group are expected to join demonstrations on Friday after weekly prayers.

The government has issued warnings to youth demonstrators not to allow the Brotherhood to use protests for what the authorities described as its "hidden agenda".

Opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei and others say the government uses its Islamist opposition as an excuse for authoritarian rule.

Activists have called for the biggest demonstrations yet on Friday after three days of protests inspired by the demonstrations that toppled the leader of Tunisia this month.

Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[Charles Liu]

03:48 PM on 01/30/2011

This is not by design; Mubarak govt receives aid only 2nd to Israel. IMHO it's a "blow back" from Tunisia. Look on ned.org for Tunisia aid, you'll see who's bankrolling Tunisia's regime change.

Now the nationalistick backlash hits the fan, we are trying to get Al Baredei in to head an Islamic Revolution. Thanks to our messed up foreign policy, while undemocratic governments have nothing to worry about, anyone cares about democracy does.

This goes way back, Remember Tiananmen? Look up who Robert Helvey and Gene Sharp are, and Google this:

"Robert Helvey Hong Kong 1989"

[Hisham Faris]

01:41 PM on 01/30/2011

http://hubpages.com/hub/Husne-Mubarak-the-last-Pharaoh

Share this link and found out about Husne Mubarak!!!

[hieagle]

09:23 PM on 01/28/2011

I looked up the Muslim Brotherhood on Wikipedia to find it is the oldest political organization in the Middle East so what is the problem with their takeover of the Mubarak government? I get confused with the media, on one hand supporting the Muslim faith...while on the other condemming anything muslim in their 'own neck of the woods'...what's up...???

[Hisham Faris]

01:42 PM on 01/30/2011

nothing but they are all scared to see Islam raise to power.

[silverstreet]

07:24 PM on 01/28/2011

Americans know so very little about Egyptians, who are highly educated. Many posts seem to side with Mubarak, the oppressive dictator that the Egyptian people hate. Hypocrites.

[b525]

04:58 PM on 01/28/2011

““One of the biggest mistakes made by the Egyptian government is the building of the Aswan Dam in southern Egypt, on the Nile River. This dam has flooded some of the most fertile farmland in Egypt, stagnated the river downstream and is now killing the fertile Nile Delta by depriving it of upstream fresh water and replenishi­­ng soil sediments.

The reduction of river water downstream from the Aswan Dam has warmed, stagnated and reduced river water flows. As a result of this stagnation­­, malaria, and other stagnant water diseases and parasites has increased dramatical­­ly along the river. Much of the fisheries, which once sustained Egyptians, have been destroyed. (river fish cannot live in warm, stagnant water).

The fertilizin­­g upstream soil sediments that once made Nile riverside land fertile with yearly flooding is now barren and can only be farmed with expensive synthetic fertilizer­­s. This has impoverish­­ed Egyptian farmers.

The Nile River is the lifeblood of Egypt, without the health of this river Egypt will not continue to exist as a viable nation.

Now Sudan and other upstream nations have followed suit and are building more mega-dams on the Nile, further reducing downstream water flows and soil sediments. Without removal of the Aswan Dam and other upstream dams the destructio­­n of the Nile deltas seems inevitable as it sinks into the Mediterran­­ian Sea and becomes salt poisoned by inrushing sea water.

The fisheries at the mouth of the Nile are now depleted because of this. Mediterran­­ian fishing is compromise­­d.””

[Mister Bill]

03:40 PM on 01/28/2011

Yes Install leaders at the top (Muslim Brotherhood), create unrest at the bottom (the poor and helpless) and you have a bottom up top down strategy for the revolt in Egypt. Then you will be able to lead the people for anything that you want as long as the unrest continues.

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

12:14 PM on 01/28/2011

Muslim Brotherhood or Mubarak. If I were Egyptian, I would be asking for a third choice.

[xMoonWalkerx]

01:45 PM on 01/28/2011

Yes. But the third choice seems to be a large number of people with leaders who nobody knows. Another question is if Mubarak agrees to hold fresh elections or if he is taken out of the equation and if fresh elections take place, who do you think has a well organized machinery already in place to compete effectively? It's the brotherhood. If the new kids on the block don't manage to build a organization before elections, the brotherhood will be the default choice. The protestors are mainly from cities and they are liberal but people elsewhere in small towns and villages are religious conservatives and they won't identify themselves with the city folks. This is another plus for the brotherhood.

[silverstreet]

07:25 PM on 01/28/2011

You are not Egyptian and you no next to nothing about Egyptians -- like most Americans

[Jan Allen McDaniel]

08:07 AM on 01/29/2011

Thanks for clearing that up.

[Nm123]

12:14 PM on 01/28/2011

Sincerely hope this is a secular revolt......another Iran would be disastrous.

[Malarcus]

01:52 PM on 01/28/2011

It is a secular revolt. The Muslim Brotherhood has actually refrained from participating in these protests. I'm thinking Mubarak is taking the opportunity to eliminate political rivals under the guise of restoring order. I think this, in part, because of the reference to the Muslim Brotherhood's "secret agenda". If the agenda is so secret, how does the ruling party privy to it?

However, the fact the protests have started out secular in their roots does not mean they will end that way.