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| International |
| 16 are convicted of conspiring against Egyptian government |
| 2002-07-30 |
| A military court convicted 16 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group Tuesday, mostly academics and professionals, on charges of conspiring against the government and sentenced them to up to five years in prison. The convictions, part of a crackdown on Islamic militants, were derided by the defendants and their lawyers as a politically motivated attempt to reassure Washington that Egypt is battling extremism in the wake of Sept. 11. I certainly feel reassured... On hearing the verdicts, the defendants shouted "God is great!" and repeated Brotherhood slogans. The men were accused of subversion, sedition and recruiting new members for the Muslim Brotherhood. Six defendants were acquitted. Of the 16 convicted, five received five-year prison terms and 11 were sentenced to three years. "The group manipulated the minds of the youth and of the simple people, secretly worked to recruit new members and provided training courses ... to fulfill their personal aim: to rule the country," Judge Ahmed el-Anwar said. There's a real difficult choice involved in dealing with these people. On the one hand, if you're a believer in democracy, it's a terrible thing that the Ikhwan's being suppressed. On the other, if you're a believer in individual liberty, it's a great thing. If the aim of a group is to establish a system in which there is no individual liberty, how to deal with it? The Ikhwan fills the same sort of function as organizations like the Deutsche Arbeitsfront, with elements of the Allegemeine SS, only without the pretty uniforms. Nor is it confined to a single country. In the interest of preserving the liberty (such as it is, in the case of Egypt) of the many, I'm quite willing to see the few locked up — and preferably indoctrinated with some less virulent idea set. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |