Minister of Religious Endowment Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa has called for the inclusion of the already-dissolved “Al-Azhar Scholars Front” onthe list of “terrorist entities”, according to state-run news agency MENA on Friday.
The comments came following the alleged circulation of a statement via social media networks,that calls for protests on 14 August in commemoration of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Al-Nahda Square sit-ins dispersal in 2013.
The official statement could not be found on the group’s official website. However, it was found on the dissolved Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) news website. The party was the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing.
Gomaa urged for prompt decisions to be taken towards anyone belonging to or supporting the banned Front, as well as the World Federation of Muslim Scholars, as it is “the terrorist, intellectual wing of the international Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood”.
The Front could not be reached for comment.
The presidency had approved the terrorist entities law last February. The law defines as a terrorist entity any group “practicing or intending to advocate by any means to disturb public order or endanger the safety of the community and its interests or risk its security or harm national unity”.
The pro-Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Al-Nahda Squares in Cairo were forcefully dispersed on 14 August 2013, following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.
The Brotherhood was deemed a “terrorist organisation” in December 2013. Since Morsi’s ouster, the government launched a nationwide crackdown on Brotherhood members and their supporters for a number of charges, including inciting violence, illegal protesting and belonging to a banned group.
