Tunisia’s Brotherhood following in footsteps of mother organization in Egypt

Mahmud Mohamadi

The Muslim Brotherhood has been involved in violence since it was founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928.

This violence was more linked to Banna’s ideas than to specific problems suffered by the group.

Brotherhood theoretician, Sayyed Qotb, also had deep influence on the group after Banna. In 1940, the Brotherhood founded its own militia, known as secret apparatus, to ostensibly stage holy war and liberate Palestine.

Nevertheless, the real reason behind the founding of the apparatus was to stage terrorist attacks and assassinate politicians and government figures through the many cluster cells that were founded by the apparatus.

Banna issued a document on May 6, 1948, in which he said the establishment of an Islamic state would only be possible if his group seizes power.

The Brotherhood tried to seize power by staging terrorist attacks. The group assassinated Fahmi al-Noqrashi Pasha, the then-prime minister of Egypt. It also tried to assassinate president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1945.

Banna called for fighting those who disapprove of his ideas.

Contagion in Tunisia

The secret apparatus of Ennahda movement, an ideological offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, came to light in September last year.

Tunisian prosecutors opened an investigation in information and documents about this apparatus. This came amid accusations for the apparatus of carrying out assassinations in the years that followed the 2011 revolution in Tunisia.

In the last two days, Tunisian police raided the house of Abdel Aziz al-Daghansi, one of the Ennahda leaders and a suspected figure in the 2013 and 2014assassinations of opposition politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi. Daghansi is also accused of espionage and infiltrating state agencies.

Belaid’s and Brahmi’s lawyers have revealed important information about the presence of a security apparatus inside Ennahda, one that liquidates the opponents of the Islamist movement.

Borhan Bsaies, a former senior member of Nidaa Tounes movement, linked the raids on Daghansi’s house to the secret apparatus of his movement.

“There are indications that some developments are happening in the way state authorities are dealing with the presence of this apparatus,” Bsaies said.

Daghansi is one of the most important leaders of Ennahda. He is a son-in-law of the movement’s leader Rached Ghannouchi. He is also accused of running the secret apparatus of Ennahda.