US Muslim Brotherhood Groups Call On Biden To Intervene To Halt Executions In Egypt

In mid-June 2021, the US Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions (USCMO) called on US Pres­i­dent Biden to inter­vene to halt the planned exe­cu­tion of for­mer offi­cials of the Egypt­ian Mus­lim Broth­er­hood gov­ern­ment, led by the late Mohamed Mor­si. Accord­ing to a USCMO post::

June 18, 2021 The US Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions (USCMO) is call­ing on the Biden Admin­is­tra­tion and con­gres­sion­al lead­ers to con­demn and take con­crete action to stop the U.S.-supported Egypt­ian government’s plan to car­ry out a mass exe­cu­tion of democ­ra­cy activists, faith lead­ers, and oth­er polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in the com­ing days. In 2018, the Egypt­ian gov­ern­ment secured death sen­tences against 12 polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Egypt, includ­ing a for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter who served in the country’s first and only demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­ern­ment. This week, Egypt’s high­est court approved the sen­tences, paving the way for mass exe­cu­tions to occur at any moment.

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The group also called on Biden and oth­er politi­cians, includ­ing the Chair­man of the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee, to sus­pend any US mil­i­tary aid to Egypt until the coun­try improved its human rights record and demand­ed the Egypt­ian gov­ern­ment free all polit­i­cal prisoners.

Despite the USCMO char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of the 12 indi­vid­u­als as “democ­ra­cy activists, faith lead­ers, and oth­er polit­i­cal pris­on­ers,” the indi­vid­u­als are, in fact, lead­ers of the Egypt­ian Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. A June 2021 rul­ing by Egyp­t’s high­est appeals court upheld the death sen­tence against 12 senior Broth­er­hood mem­bers lead­ers for crimes relat­ed to 2013 sit-in protests that called for the rein­state­ment of the deposed Pres­i­dent Mohamed Mor­si. Among the defen­dants are Abdul Rah­man Al-Bar, described as the group’s top reli­gious schol­ar, Mohamed El-Belt­a­gi, a for­mer mem­ber of par­lia­ment, and Osama Yassin, a for­mer min­is­ter in the Mor­si administration.

In Feb­ru­ary 2021, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed that a group of US law­mak­ers had ini­ti­at­ed an “Egypt Human Rights Cau­cus” with the assis­tance of Mohamed Soltan, the son of an Egypt­ian Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leader and who also served as the de-fac­to social media man­ag­er for the 2013 sit-in protests. Accord­ing to recent report­ing in US media, the Direc­tor of the Egypt­ian Gen­er­al Intel­li­gence Direc­torate has alleged that US offi­cials had agreed to jail Soltan, whom Egypt­ian author­i­ties had charged with ter­ror­ism-relat­ed offens­es, upon his arrival in the Unit­ed States as part of an effort to secure his extra­di­tion from Egypt.

The Unit­ed States Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions was estab­lished in 2014 by eight orga­ni­za­tions, sev­en of which are part of the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in the US. Since its found­ing, the USCMO has grown to include 35 mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions, almost half known to be part of the US MB and includ­ing almost every impor­tant com­po­nent of the Broth­er­hood in the US. Pri­or GIOR report­ing about the USCMO has also included:

• An Octo­ber 2020 report that Turk­ish Pres­i­dent Erdoğan had wel­comed USCMO rep­re­sen­ta­tives to the Turk­ish pres­i­den­tial com­plex, dis­cussing the need to strength­en US-Turk­ish relations.

• A Jan­u­ary 2021 report that the USCMO had pub­lished an online form for gov­ern­ment jobs in the Biden admin­is­tra­tion as part of its “Empow­er­ment and Ser­vice” program.

• An April 2021 report that the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of a USCMO mem­ber orga­ni­za­tion had met with the Turk­ish ambas­sador to the US and a Turk­ish-Amer­i­can influ­ence group close­ly tied to the Turk­ish rul­ing party.

• A May 2021 report that the USCMO had pub­lished an open let­ter call­ing on Pres­i­dent Joe Biden to appoint a State Depart­ment spe­cial envoy to mon­i­tor and com­bat Islamophobia.

• A May 2021 report that the USCMO had joined an ini­tia­tive to boy­cott a vir­tu­al White House Eid cel­e­bra­tion host­ed by Pres­i­dent Biden in con­nec­tion with his stance on the vio­lence in Israel and Gaza.

NOTE: The GIOR presents the above infor­ma­tion for pur­pos­es of con­text and not to endorse or approve of the exe­cu­tion of pris­on­ers and ill-treat­ment of polit­i­cal activists at the hands of the Egypt­ian authorities.