The Gulf News has 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. Recruitment Related Links Prominent Muslim Brotherhood idealogues The many faces of the Muslim Brotherhood 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.
A post from January reported that that the United Arab Emirates would try 94 people on charges of trying to seize power in that country.
The GMBDW has extensively covered the ongoing developments concerning the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf countries:
- A post from earlier this month reported that that the UAE had arrested 10 people described as the leadership of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in that country.
- A post from November 2012 reported on further comments by the Dubai police chief accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of creating unrest in the UAE. As noted in that post, Lt. Gen. Dhahi Khalfan also said that UAE Muslim Brotherhood members who had been arrested had met with Kuwaiti Brotherhood “mentors” including Kuwaiti Brotherhood leader Tariq Al-Suwaidan.
- A post from October 2012 reported on comments by the United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister in which he said that Gulf Arab countries should work together to stop the Muslim Brotherhood from undermining governments in the area.
- A post from late September 2012 reported that the Muslim Brotherhood in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had denied setting up an armed wing with the goal of seizing power. A post from late September reported on the trial in Abu Dhabi of what are described as “activists belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood” and who reportedly admitted that they have engaged in financial actives and communicated with “the international organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood and other bodies.”
- A post from April 2012 reported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had detained six members of the local Muslim Brotherhood whose citizenship had been revoked on the basis of belonging to groups that fund terrorists. Earlier posts reported on allegations by the Dubai police chief that the Muslim Brotherhood is using social media to attack the UAE and his threat to arrest Qaradawi who criticized the UAE for revoking the visas of Syrians demonstrating against the regime in Damascus.
- In March 2012, a post reported that that Tariq Al-Suwaidan had added his voice to the conflict between the UAE and the Global Muslim Brotherhood by warning that if the UAE followed through on its threat to arrest Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, “it would be a disaster” for the UAE.
The New York Times reported in mid-January on the continuing conflict between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.