Algeria’s Brotherhood using Covid-19 to return to political stage

Hossam al-Haddad

The branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Algeria is using the Covid-19 outbreak around the world in making political gains.

The head of the Justice and Development Front Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the North African country, Abdallah Djaballah, criticized the decision of the Algerian government to ban prayers at the nation’s mosques.

He wrote on Facebook that the outbreak of the coronavirus boiled down to rampant sin.

Djaballah added that the decision to shutter the mosques is exaggerated, given the fact that Algeria had reported a small number of infections so far.

Early Muslims put prayers and the mosques in a very high esteem, Djaballah said.

The interesting thing is that the regional sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood, namely the state of Qatar, had cancelled out all prayers at the mosques, including the weekly Friday prayers.

The Qatari Islamic Affairs Ministry said in a statement that this decision aims to protect the lives and health of Qatari citizens.

Nevertheless, the Muslim Brotherhood is using the same emergency to increase its political gains. It said the Covid-19 outbreak is a punishment from God to humanity for deviating from the right path.

However, Dar al-Iftaa, the highest religious authority in Egypt, lashed out at calls by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria organization for spreading Covid-19.

It said the Islamic State group uses social media in encouraging its affiliates to spread the disease among Egyptian police and army personnel.

It referred to a video by an escaped Muslim Brotherhood operative in which he calls on group members to contract the virus and then transmit it to Egyptian police and army personnel.