Radical members of the Muslim Brotherhood have started ‘crucifying opponents of newly installed President Mohammed Morsi,’ claimed unconfirmed media reports.
‘During a recent rampage, Muslim Brotherhood operatives crucified those opposing Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi naked on trees in front of the presidential palace while abusing others,’ reported WMD , quoting Middle East media.
Raymond Ibrahim, a fellow with the Middle East Forum and the Investigative Project on Terrorism, told the website ‘the crucifixions are the product of who the Middle Eastern media call partisans.’
The Algemeiner backed up the claims and said that several news outlets including Arab News, Al Khabar News, Dostor Watany, and Egypt Now reported that people were being ‘crucified.’
They said the Muslim Brotherhood supporters were specifically targeting ‘secular media.’
A media crackdown in the first month of Mohamed Mursi’s rule has raised fears Egypt’s Islamist president is moving to stifle criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood.
This week, formal accusations by state prosecutors were filed against two journalists, while an issue of the newspaper al-Dostour was confiscated by the state’s censorship unit – disappointing those who believed last year’s overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak would lead to greater media freedom.
Mursi, who resigned from the Muslim Brotherhood when he was elected in June, saying he wanted to represent all Egyptians, has also named Salah Abdel Maqsood, a former colleague from the Islamist group, as information minister.
‘The Brotherhood’s recent actions against the media are harsh and unacceptable and tell us that we are going backwards and that things are managed the same way they were during Mubarak’s time,’ said rights activist Gamal Eid.
The crackdown on media is also worrying the United States, which for years has secured the loyalty of one of the Arab world’s most influential states with substantial financial aid, now running at about $1.55 billion a year.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Thursday that Washington was ‘concerned by reports that the Egyptian government is moving to restrict media freedom and criticism in Egypt.’
The Brotherhood has repeatedly denied any intention to censor opinion, saying it wants only to stop media reports which might incite violence or unrest, or which personally insult the president.
‘Those who filed the complaints against the journalists with the public prosecutor are not all from the Brotherhood.
‘There were also ordinary people upset about the disgusting insults that some media have been publicising,’ said Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan.
One of the two charged journalists is Islam Afifi, the editor of the daily al-Dostour newspaper, whose Aug. 11 issue was confiscated. Afifi was sent to a criminal court after the state’s public prosecutor charged him with insulting Mursi and inciting the overthrow of Egypt’s ruling system.
The other one is Tawfiq Okasha, owner and the main host of an Egyptian television channel called Al-Faraeen who was also sent to a criminal court on accusations of inciting people to kill Mursi and insulting him.
The prosecutor ordered the channel be taken off air.
Al-Faraeen TV channel is privately owned by Okasha, a strong opponent of Mursi and Islamists. Okasha had previously said in one of his talkshows that Mursi and his group ‘deserve to get killed’.
A Brotherhood lawyer also filed a complaint on Wednesday with a state prosecutor, accusing three prominent editors of Egyptian dailies including Afifi of insulting Mursi.
‘I accused them of insulting the president and spreading false information that could destroy the state and create panic among the people,’ lawyer Ismail al-Washahy told Reuters. ‘Most of what they published had nothing to do with media but were pure insults with no proof,’ he added.
SOURCE: mail online
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