Muslim Brotherhood banned

Associated Press

CAIRO

An Egyptian court on Monday ordered the banning of the Muslim Brotherhood and the confiscation of its assets, opening the door for authorities to dramatically accelerate a crackdown on the extensive network of schools, hospitals, charities and other social institutions that was the foundation of the group’s political power.

Security forces have already been moving against the Brotherhood’s social networks, raiding schools and hospitals run by the group since the military’s July 3 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

The sweep points to the ambitions of Egypt’s new leaders to go beyond the arrests of top Brotherhood figures to strike a long-term, even mortal, blow to the group by hitting the pillars of its grass-roots organization. Doing so could cripple the group’s political prospects far into the future.

“The plan is to drain the sources of funding, break the joints of the group, and dismantle podiums from which they deliver their message,” said one senior security official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss security agencies’ intentions.

Blurring its political and religious nature, the Brotherhood vaulted to election dominance in large part because of its multiple business interests that provide funding, as well as schools, mosques and powerful social institutions providing cheap medical care and services to millions of impoverished Egyptians. As a result, after the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, the Brotherhood swept parliament elections and lifted Morsi into office as the country’s first freely elected leader.

“The hospitals and schools are among the most powerful tools to garner support, which would be translated into votes,” said Ahmed Ban, a researcher and former Brotherhood member. Schools give the group “a large pool to recruit new cadres at an early stage of their lives,” he said. Hospitals send the message that “we are offering good and cheap services, and we are the good Muslims.”

In election seasons, Brotherhood hospitals, joined by candidates, would send medical convoys offering free care to villages where state services are absent. The past two years, the Brotherhood’s political party, the Freedom and Justice Party, held markets selling reduced-price food and clothes.

Outlawed for most of 85-year existence — with successive regimes alternating between repression and tolerance — the Brotherhood built its networks largely underground. That made it difficult for authorities to track, since many institutions were registered under individuals’ names.