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High-Ranking Muslim Brotherhood Leader Is Seized in Egypt Prominent Muslim Brotherhood Leader Is Seized in Egypt
(7 days later)
CAIRO — Egyptian security forces on Wednesday captured Essam el-Erian, one of the last few prominent leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood still at large after a crackdown on the group that began with the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, its ally. CAIRO — Egyptian security forces on Wednesday captured Essam el-Erian, one of the last few prominent leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood still at large after a crackdown that began with the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, another of the group’s leaders.
The seizure of Mr. Erian, a senior leader in the Brotherhood’s political arm and an adviser to the president, appears to complete the incarceration of the organization’s top leaders less than 18 months after they stood on the brink of consolidating power over the presidency and Parliament. He was among the most visible and outspoken leaders of the Brotherhood, Egypt’s mainstream Islamist movement, and his arrest caps a career that has traced the group’s evolution through years of repression, internal reforms, electoral victories and political failure. The seizure of Mr. Erian, a senior leader in the Brotherhood’s political arm and an adviser to the president, appears to complete the incarceration of the organization’s most visible leaders less than 18 months after they stood on the brink of consolidating power over the presidency and Parliament. He was among the most outspoken leaders of the Brotherhood, Egypt’s mainstream Islamist movement, and his arrest caps a career that has traced the group’s evolution through years of repression, internal overhauls, electoral victories and political failure.
The charges against Mr. Erian were not immediately clear, although many of his fellow Brotherhood leaders have been arrested on allegations of incitement to violence. “He epitomized the swagger and overreach of the Muslim Brotherhood after the revolution,” said Mona el-Ghobashy, an Egyptian political scientist at Barnard who has studied the group. “It was like he was showing off, ‘We are the biggest party around and we are in power now.' ”
A physician by training, Mr. Erian, 59, began his rise through the Brotherhood’s leadership in the 1970s as a student, helping lead a revival of the Islamist movement in Egypt. He became part of a group of young reformers who pushed the organization to open up, embrace democratic politics and compete in elections for Parliament even when it was dominated by allies of President Hosni Mubarak. Some members of the group ultimately broke with the Brotherhood to form what became known as the Center Party, arguing for a full separation between electoral politics and the group’s core missionary work. The authorities said they had arrested Mr. Erian after 26 failed attempts and finally found him in a villa in a Cairo suburb, according to state news media. Mr. Erian, who put up no resistance, looked gaunt and wore a white robe in pictures that circulated after he was detained.
Mr. Erian stayed with the Brotherhood. He was jailed several times for his opposition to Mr. Mubarak, including a five-year stint that ended in 2000. He ultimately won a seat on the group’s internal governing board. But in 2009 he was pushed off the board for his relative liberalism, emphasizing pluralism and individual choice, in a conservative purge that also expelled an ally, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh. He faced charges including the murder of police officers, and inciting the killing of protesters.
But when Mr. Mubarak’s ouster in 2011 forced the group to confront the challenge of a new democratic opening, Mr. Erian chose to stick with the Brotherhood’s more conservative leaders against moderates like Mr. Aboul Fotouh, who argued that the organization should separate its religious mission from politics and allow its members to enter the electoral fray. A physician by training, Mr. Erian, 59, began his rise through the Brotherhood’s leadership in the 1970s as a student, helping lead a revival of the Islamist movement in Egypt. He became part of a group of young reformers who pushed the organization to open up, embrace democratic politics, and compete in elections for Parliament and leadership of a trade association when both were dominated by allies of President Hosni Mubarak. He was elected to Parliament in 1987 and began to build a national reputation, so before the 1995 parliamentary elections Mr. Mubarak had him arrested. He was jailed for the next five years.
Mr. Erian ultimately won a seat on the group’s internal governing board. But in 2009, his expected ascent to the board was blocked at the same time an ally, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, was expelled in a purge.
Their removal was attributed to their relative moderation, emphasizing pluralism and individual choice. But Professor Ghobashy said it appeared more related to nonideological infighting for power among the group’s factions.
“He was always very much a climber and a power player within the organization,” she said, arguing that the emergence of such characteristics was a sign that the Brotherhood was opening up after years as a tightly knit secret society.
When Mr. Mubarak’s ouster in 2011 forced the group to confront the challenge of a new democratic opening, Mr. Erian chose to stick with the Brotherhood’s more conservative leaders against moderates like Mr. Aboul Fotouh, who argued that the organization should separate its religious mission from politics and allow its members to enter the electoral fray.
Mr. Aboul Fotouh was expelled from the group for declaring his presidential candidacy as an individual outside the Brotherhood’s political party and against the decree of its leaders. Mr. Erian stayed with the Brotherhood, becoming the vice chairman of its newly formed political arm.Mr. Aboul Fotouh was expelled from the group for declaring his presidential candidacy as an individual outside the Brotherhood’s political party and against the decree of its leaders. Mr. Erian stayed with the Brotherhood, becoming the vice chairman of its newly formed political arm.
As the Brotherhood gained power through parliamentary and presidential elections, Mr. Erian began to sound increasingly strident, even erratic. He publicly reprimanded Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey — a hero to Islamists across the Arab world — for suggesting that Islamists in Egypt had nothing to fear from a secular, democratic government like Turkey’s. He urged Egyptian Jews who had fled the country in past decades to come home from Israel because he predicted an end to the Jewish state.As the Brotherhood gained power through parliamentary and presidential elections, Mr. Erian began to sound increasingly strident, even erratic. He publicly reprimanded Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey — a hero to Islamists across the Arab world — for suggesting that Islamists in Egypt had nothing to fear from a secular, democratic government like Turkey’s. He urged Egyptian Jews who had fled the country in past decades to come home from Israel because he predicted an end to the Jewish state.
Most fatefully, in December 2012, when the police refused to protect Mr. Morsi’s office in the presidential palace from demonstrators, Mr. Erian led public calls for Brotherhood members and other Islamists to defend the building themselves, by force if necessary. The appeal led to a night of bloody street fighting in the blocks around the palace that left at least 11 dead, most of them Morsi supporters. He was often patronizing toward the younger, non-Islamist activists who jump-started the revolt against Mr. Mubarak. Before this summer’s protests that helped usher out Mr. Morsi, Mr. Erian denounced them as an attack on Islam.
The fighting that night was the first major violence between rival political factions — as opposed to political groups and the police — in more than 50 years. It led to widespread warnings of a coming civil war and became a turning point in the events that ultimately led to Mr. Morsi’s military ouster amid enormous protests against his rule. Announcing the takeover on July 3, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the nation’s top military leader, said he was acting to protect Egypt from further descent into division and violence. Most fatefully, in December 2012, when the police refused to protect Mr. Morsi’s office in the presidential palace from demonstrators, Mr. Erian led public calls for Brotherhood members and other Islamists to defend the building themselves, by force if necessary. In a television interview at the time, Mr. Erian told supporters to go to the palace “and surround the thugs and separate the real revolutionaries out,” according to a report by Human Rights Watch, adding, “for one or two nights and then we can arrest them all.”
Prosecutors have now charged Mr. Morsi with incitement to murder, alleging that he instigated the violence that night last December, and he faces trial on Nov. 4. The appeal led to a night of bloody street fighting in the blocks around the palace that left at least 11 dead, most of them Morsi supporters.
Although symbolic of the total elimination of the Brotherhood’s leadership, Mr. Erian’s arrest is unlikely to have much consequence for the continuing protests against the military takeover. As a fugitive for the last few months, he was unable to communicate with the organization’s rank-and-file members, while others in its hierarchy appear to have stepped up to take enough control that it can continue to organize protests around the country. The fighting that night was the first major violence between rival political factions — as opposed to fighting between political groups and the police — in more than 50 years. It led to widespread warnings of a coming civil war and became a turning point in the events that ultimately led to Mr. Morsi’s military ouster amid enormous protests against his rule.
Announcing the takeover on July 3, Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the nation’s top military leader, said he was acting to protect Egypt from further descent into division and violence.

Kareem Fahim contributed reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: November 1, 2013

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Essam el-Erian’s tenure on the Muslim Brotherhood’s internal governing board. In 2009, he was blocked from a seat he was expected to receive; he was not pushed off the board.  (He ultimately won a seat.)