By IndiaTomorrow.net,
Washington D.C., 08 Dec 2014: In what may shock Egypt, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, the United States has refused to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group saying it doesn’t have credible evidence that the Egypt-based group of ousted president Mohammad Morsi has resorted to violence. Since the General Sisi-led military coup sacking the Morsi government in July 2013, three Muslim countries have declared the Islamist organization as a terrorist group.
The US reaction has come in response to a year-old public petition seeking the Barack Obama administration to declare Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group.
The petition was uploaded on the website of the White House on 7th July 2013 soon after the military coup in Egypt. The petition gathered over 2.13 lakh signatures. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/
The petition read: “Muslim Brotherhood has a long history of violent killings & terrorizing opponents. Also MB has direct ties with most terrorist groups like Hamas. A book by one of their prominent figures, Sayyid Qutb, called Ma’alim fi-l-Tariq is the bible for many terrorist groups. The Muslim Brotherhood has shown in the past few days that it is willing to engage in violence and killing of innocent civilians in order to invoke fear in the hearts of its opponents. This is terrorism. We ask the US government to declare MB as a terrorist group for a safer future for all of us.”
scan image of White House website
The White House response to the petition was: “We have not seen credible evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood has renounced its decades-long commitment to non-violence. The United States does not condone political violence of any kind and we continue to press actors of all viewpoints to peacefully engage in the political process. The United States is committed to thwarting terrorist groups that pose a threat to U.S. interests and those of our partners.”
In June 2012, after Hosni Mubarak stepped down in the wake of the historic public outrage, Mohamed Morsi won the presidential election with 51.73% of total votes to become the first democratically elected president of Egypt.
In July 2013, a coalition led by the Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi removed the President Mohamed Morsi from power and suspended the Egyptian constitution.
In December 2013, Egypt’s military-backed interim government declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, criminalising all its activities, its financing and even membership to the group from which the country’s ousted president hails.
In March 2014, Saudi Arabia also declared Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.
In November 2014, UAE has followed the suit with its cabinet including Muslim Brotherhood in the list of 86 terrorist groups.
