Tunisian media reported late last month that the Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood has condemned the Egyptian government’s designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group. According to a Tunisia Live report:
Ennahda Party
December 28, 2013 Tunisia’s ruling Islamist Ennahdha party has denounced the official designation of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as a ‘terrorist organization.’
‘The Egyptian government rushed to accuse the Muslim Brotherhood of responsibility for the [Mansoura] bombing and designate it as ‘a terrorist organisation’,’ the party said in a statement published on December 26.
Following a bomb attack on a police headquarters in the city of Mansoura on Tuesday, the Egyptian government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a ‘terrorist group,’ criminalizing its activities and freezing its assets.
The ban was declared despite an al-Qaeda linked group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, claiming responsibility for the attack which left 16 people dead and more than 100 injured.
Ennahdha condemned the Mansoura attack before describing the the government ban on the Muslim Brotherhood as ‘a desperate misjudgment divorced from reality and a new act of incitement against a political group that is committed to democracy and peaceful activism.’
Imed Daimi, secretary-general of the Congress for the Republic party, a member in the ruling coalition, has also criticized the ban.
‘It seems that accusing the Brotherhood of involvement in terror is related to a policy aiming to exclude a political opponent with a sizeable popularity,’ Daimi told Anadolu Agency, Turkey’s official news agency.
Last September, Egypt recalled its ambassador in Tunis following Marzouki’s address to the United Nations General Assembly in which he called for the release of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
The GMBDW reported last week on the Egyptian designation of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Ennahda is headed by Rachid Ghannouchi (many spelling variations) who can best be described as an independent Islamist power center who is strongly tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptian writer Amany Maged presents his view of the relationship between the Ennahda party of Tunisia and its leader Rachid Ghannouchi to the Global Muslim Brotherhood:
Al-Nahda Party’s articles of association do not declare a link to the Muslim Brotherhood, but nor has it denied the connection. Some sources maintain that it was ideologically and organisationally inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, whereas others say that while Ghannouchi considers the Muslim Brotherhood an ally, he does not see it as having any authority, be it hierarchical or moral, over his own movement. Yet the fact remains that Ghannouchi, Al-Nahda’s founder, is a member of the International Guidance Bureau of the Muslim Brotherhood.Al-Nahda shares a number of traits with the Muslim Brotherhood. Both, says Islamist expert Ali Abdel-Aal, have a strong organisational capacity and access to substantial funds.
The GMBDW reported in September that Ennahda, the current Tunisian ruling party, had agreed to step down and handover power to an independent caretaker government. Reuters reported late last month that Ennahda and opposition parties agreed onto finish their handover to a caretaker government by January 14, the third anniversary of the fall of former leader Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
The UK. based Henry Jackson Society has published a report detailing the extremist positions and statements of the Tunisian Ennahda party and its leader Rachid Ghannouchi.
