Egyptian Court Bans Muslim Brotherhood

CAIRO — An Egyptian court on Monday banned the Muslim Brotherhood and its vast social services network in what could be a devastating blow to the Islamist organization, which swept Mohamed Morsi to the presidency just last year and has fiercely resisted the military coup that ousted him in July.

The far-reaching ruling appears to apply to any group remotely associated with the world’s oldest Islamist movement, granting temporary legal cover to the military-backed government of Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi to broaden a crackdown that has already left the Brotherhood battered.

Hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters have been killed and thousands have been arrested, including Morsi and other top leaders. Authorities have lately reached inside mosques to bar thousands of Islamist-leaning preachers.

The ban covers “all the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, the groups emerging from it, its associations, and any institution that branches from it or follows the group or receives financial support from it,” according to Egypt’s state media outlet, MENA, which offered the only account of a ruling that has not been made public.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday that U.S. officials are seeking further details about the ruling, and she urged all parties to “avoid steps that would undermine” an inclusive political process.

Monday’s ruling is likely to fuel the anger that has begun to erupt in the form of attacks on police and security forces in Egypt’s eastern Sinai region, in its Nile Delta towns and in the heart of Cairo, where a suicide bomber early this month targeted the country’s interior minister, who escaped unhurt.

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- Unknown Updated at: Tuesday, September 24, 2013