Friday, December 15, 2006

So, What Israel Does to Hamas is Okay by Egypt?

Egypt on Thursday arrested several leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned but powerful opposition group, and more than 140 student members after a campus protest. The government said the group had formed what amounted to militant squads that planned “acts of unrest.”

But what brought on the arrests?

The arrests followed a demonstration at Al Azhar University in which dozens of students, some in militant-type clothing with black masks, paraded through the campus while performing what looked liked martial exercises.

In a statement, Interior Ministry officials charged that the brotherhood had created what it called “deterrence committees,” which were “trained in the arts of combat and provided with knives, sticks and chains, and appointed to start holding strikes and demonstrations and acts of unrest in the university.”...

...Candidates allied with the brotherhood did well in the parliamentary elections last year, weakening the governing party’s monopoly on power...

...But the sight of brotherhood members parading in costumes that resembled the militant attire of the Palestinian group Hamas apparently crossed a red line. The students immediately apologized, and brotherhood leaders said it was a mistake, but the arrests were ordered anyway, and included the detention of one of the group’s top officials.


Ah, so just looking like Hamas can get you arrested in Egypt. So, acting like Hamas (terror, suicide bombing, etc.) should be allowed to get you killed, no?

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