Sudan’s Muslim Brotherhood using Palestine to serve its interests

Aya Ezz

The branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan attacked the head of the country’s Transitional Council, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the background of his recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Entebbe, Uganda.

In making this criticism, the Muslim Brotherhood claimed that it was defending the Palestinians and their rights.

This campaign has apparently incited ordinary Sudanese citizens against the transitional government and council. Nevertheless, it is yet a new attempt by the Islamist organization to return to the political scene in Sudan after it lost its influence with the downfall of the Omar al-Bashir regime in April last year.

Brotherhood incitement machine

Renowned writer, Abdel Rahman al-Rachid, believes the Muslim Brotherhood is behind the new campaign of incitement against the transitional council and government.

This Islamist group, he said, has lost power in Sudan, which is why it is full of anger.

He added that an ongoing campaign for purging Sudanese state institutions of Brotherhood presence increases the anger of the Islamist group.

Al-Rachid noted in an article in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that the Brotherhood’s incitement machine had been working at full speed since Sudanese rivals succeeded in reaching an agreement for forming a transitional government and transitional council.

The Muslim Brotherhood is using the Palestinian issue only to serve its own interests, al-Rachid said.

Outdated justification

The Brotherhood’s anger at the meeting between al-Burhan and Netanyahu is contradictory, given the fact that the same group was silent while al-Bashir normalized relations with Israel for years.

In 2014, relations between Bashir’s regime and Israel became public. In 2016, these relations morphed into real contacts between Khartoum and Tel Aviv.

Sudanese political analyst, Abdullah Megahid, said the Muslim Brotherhood wants to return to Sudan’s political stage at any price.

“The downfall of the Omar al-Bashir regime represented a great loss for the group,” Megahid told The Reference. “This is why it wants to use every loophole to return to power.”