Egypt Identifies Prosecutor General’s Assassins
When Egypt’s chief prosecutor was assassinated on June 29 last year, authorities knew too well who the rabble-rousers were. They have now officially been identified as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
Egypt’s interior minister, Magdi Abdel Ghaffar, told reporters on Sunday that Turkey-based Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leaders coordinated with Hamas to kill Hisham Barakat in a car bomb attack in Cairo. The interior minister said that “Hamas trained, prepared and oversaw the implementation” of the assassination.
Barakat, the slain official, was known mostly for prosecuting MB members, including former President Mohamed Morsi. When Morsi was placed on death row in May, pro-Muslim Brotherhood clerics incited Egyptians to “strive for complete elimination” of the current “criminal and murderous regime” of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and to do so by “all legitimate means.” As theTrumpet.com reported at that time, the decree was endorsed by 10 Islamic bodies and half a million supporters across the Muslim world.
It appears the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas heeded the call.
Barakat became the most senior Egyptian official to be assassinated in 25 years, according to the New York Times.
During Sunday’s press conference, Ghaffar said authorities had arrested 48 MB members and secured “a number of” car bombs that were carrying “huge amounts of explosives” and ready for detonation.
The minister said 14 of the arrested suspects had confessed collusion to Barakat’s assassination. “This is a very big conspiracy that started a long time ago and continued,” Ghaffar said.
Despite knowledge of this “very big conspiracy,” both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood deny the accusations of involvement in the violence. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the accusations were “baseless and not in harmony with the efforts being exerted to develop the relationship between Hamas and Cairo.” MB spokesman Mohammed Montasser accused Egyptian security authorities of being “the real conspiracy against Egypt.” He added, “You are the murderers. Look amongst [yourselves] for the killers of your public prosecutor, you infidels and murderers.”
Both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood have been designated as Islamist terrorist groups. The Muslim Brotherhood is the world’s oldest Islamist organization, and over the years, it has inspired the formation of radical Islamist militia like the Islamic Group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda. Hamas is perhaps Israel’s most immediate national security threat.
Yet both organizations enjoy tremendous international legitimacy. Hamas has been the de facto administrator of the Gaza Strip since 2007, and the Muslim Brotherhood ruled neighboring Egypt—under Morsi—for 12 months after the nation’s first-ever democratic election in June 2012.
While other Islamists are often quick and eager to acknowledge their guilt in terrorist attacks, Hamas and the MB propagandists are more reserved about their activities. They appear unwilling to jeopardize whatever diplomatic gains they already have.
But both groups’ terrorist agenda ought to be clear for all to see and hear. When some of its leaders were killed by the Egyptian security officials last year, the MB made this chilling call to action: “Come out in rebellion and in defense of your country, yourselves and your children. Destroy the citadels of his oppression and tyranny and reclaim Egypt once more.”
Following Morsi’s death sentence, Montasser said, “[R]evolution will be ignited, popular anger will increase, and we promise you unexpected revolutionary surprises.” He has also issued public calls for a “revolution that would decapitate heads.”
In “Egypt and Libya to Join Iran’s Terror Network,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry chronicled the developments that are leading, increasingly, toward a terrorist network of Iranian proxies and allies. He quoted American Thinker’s William L. Gensert, who wrote: “Egypt, once considered a strong American ally, is now drifting within the Iranian orbit.”
To understand more about how and why Egypt will join Iran’s terror network and about the role the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas will play, request your free copy of The King of the South.