European media is reporting that the UAE has launched a trial of 30 Emiratis and Egyptians charged with setting up an illegal branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to an AFP report:
November 15, 2013 Abu Dhabi (AFP) – The United Arab Emirates state security court on Tuesday launched the trial of 30 Emiratis and Egyptians charged with setting up an illegal branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
A total of 24 defendants attended the hearing in Abu Dhabi, WAM state news agency reported, saying that the session was attended by families of the defendants as well as by representatives of civil society and the media.
The so-called ‘Muslim Brotherhood cell’ comprises 10 Emiratis and 20 Egyptians, including six who remain at large.
The judge appointed a three-member medical committee to perform check ups on some defendants, WAM said, adding that he adjourned the hearing until November 12 to allow more time for lawyers to call in witnesses.
Prosecutor Ahmed al-Dhanhani accused the group of having ‘established and managed a branch for … the international organisation of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, without a permit.’
The founders set up an administrative structure aimed at recruiting members for the Muslim Brotherhood, strengthening its presence in the UAE and maintaining allegiance to the main party in Egypt, he said.
The group also ‘raised money through donations, Zakat (Islamic alms), and membership fees to support’ the Brotherhood, he added.
Read the rest here.
The GMBDW reported in July that 65 suspects charged by the UAE authorities on similar charges of setting up an illegal branch of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood had received sentences of up to 15 years. A post from June reported that 30 Egyptians and Emiratis had been charged in connection with that case. In January of this year, the UAE announced that it would try 94 people on charges of trying to seize power in that country.
In April, the Gulf News posted an article titled “Rise and fall of Muslim Brotherhood in UAE” that provides interesting detail about the operations of the Muslim Brotherhood in that country. The article begins:
April 13, 2013 Abu Dhabi: While the Muslim Brotherhood enjoyed a lot of freedom and influence in the early 1960s and 1970s, its popularity was dealt a sharp blow in the 1990s after the government became highly suspicious of its alternative motives. The Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘conspiracy against the UAE’ goes back to the late 1960s and early 1970s, an Emirati analyst said. During those years, ‘the global movement of the Brotherhood decided to invade the UAE and other Gulf states, through recruiting students who studied abroad. Those students operated secretly through front organisations like mafia-style gangs, money-laundering and espionage rings,’ Dr Ali Salem Humaid, chairman of the Al Mezmaah Centre for Studies and Research, a Dubai-based think-tank, told Gulf News. Dr Humaid added that the Brotherhood’s cell in the UAE influenced the country’s education and judiciary until its political society Jammiyat Al Islah, was dissolved in 1994. Mansour Al Nuqaidan, a Saudi writer, quoted Mohammad Bin Ali Al Mansouri, a former member of the Islah Society’s board, as saying that the Islah had been dissolved after a complaint from Egypt that it provided financial support to Al Jihad militant group, which was affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and was involved in terrorist acts. Most members of the movement are recruited during high school or college years and, in many cases, serve in top administrative positions within the Brotherhood’s nationwide structure before being promoted to the Guidance Office, the organisation’s top executive authority.
Read the rest here.
Egyptian journalist Abdel Latif el-Menawy recently published an article titled “From Refuge To Rebellion, The Gulf’s Muslim Brotherhood” that looks at the history of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf countries and its relationship to the Egyptian organization.
The New York Times reported in mid-January on the continuing conflict between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Our predecessor publication extensively covered the ongoing developments concerning the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf countries.