US midterm elections keep the MB on tenterhooks

Douaa Emam

The Muslim Brotherhood is on tenterhooks expecting the results of the US mid-term elections on November 6 to loosen the Republicans’ grip on both chambers of Congress. Categorised as terrorist group in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE; the MB believes that the Democrats, its long-standing allies in the corridors of power in the US White House and the Congress, will throw the life jacket to its leaders on trial in Egypt or at large in the US and European countries.

In retaliation for its disgraceful downfall in 2013, the group’s leaders, who hold the US passport, have been circulating false and fabricated reports about Egypt and its post-June 30 leadership. They have also targeted Egypt’s economy by urging cut in the US aid to Egypt. November’s vote is the first chance for the US voters to pass judgment on Donald Trump since he took the White House.

The MB counts much on candidates, who allegedly have leanings towards Islamists in the Arab region. They include Ammar Campa al-Najjar, who is bidding to be the first Arab-origin Congressman. However, al-Najjar finds it too hard to disown himself from the criminal history of his grandfather Mohamed Youssef al-Najjar. The Democrat candidate’s grandfather was one of the perpetrators of the deadly attack on Israeli athletes in Munich, Germany in 1992.

Al-Najjar’s Republican opponent Duncan Hunter said that he had obtained strong evidence that the Democrat candidate received support from the MB-linked CARE, an organisation branded as terrorist in the US. Hunter warned the American voters that al-Najjar’s win would be a potential threat to the safety of the United States.

Hunter based his accusations on reports, which disclosed that al-Najjar’s grandfather swore loyalty to the MB in 1951. Researcher Mohssen Mohamed Saleh in his book “The Road to Jerusalem… Historical Study on the Islamic Experiment on the Land of Palestine” disclosed that the grandfather had strong relationship with Hani Bassiso, the MB’s observer in Palestine. The grandfather was accused in Saleh’s book of calling for armed resistance. “But Bassiso rejected this proposal,” said the author.

Defending his integrity, the son of a Mexican Catholic mother, said that Hunter’s allegations were part of election campaign.

Tarek Abul-Saad, a researcher interested in Islamic movements, discounted speculations that the US Congress would turn its back on the MB by branding it as a terrorist organisation. Abul-Saad told the Reference that fitting the MB into the category of terrorist organisations would shake the credibility of the US officials, who used to defend it.

“Democrats and Republicans, who had had talks with the MB’s General-Guide Mohamed Badie and his high-profile aides in Cairo, would not condemn the MB for being a terrorist group,” he said. However, Abul-Saad continued, the US Congress viewed the MB founded in 1928 differently from the post-June 30 organisation. Elaborating, Abul-Saad said that any US tough decision against the MB would not deal with its doctrine or ideas.

In the meantime, a police general urged the ministry of interior to collaborate with the foreign ministry should intensify their contacts with member states of the UN Security Council to back Egypt’s campaign against the MB. Gen. Reda Yacoub, founder of an international counterterrorism group told The Reference that the Egyptian  government should exert more efforts to deny the MB’s fugitives sanctuary in foreign countries.