Egypt burns books it says promote violence, Brotherhood ideas

Egypt has extended its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood to include burning books it says promote violence and ideas linked to the banned Islamist group, a local official and a security source said on Saturday.       

Samia Mehrez, an official in the Red Sea province, told Reuters that local authorities and the security forces had burned "a number of Brotherhood books and literature" located at a public library in the resort town of Hurghada.           

She said the 36 books had been donated to the library during the one-year presidency of Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted by the army last year following mass protests against his rule.    

Morsi's Brotherhood supporters have since faced a security crackdown in which thousands have been arrested and many hundreds killed. The group's political wing was banned on Saturday.          

A security source said the destroyed materials included books on bomb making and others that compared Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna to the Prophet Mohamed and praised Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. 

Earlier in the day, an Egyptian court dissolved the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political wing of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, dealing a crippling blow in the campaign to crush Egypt's oldest Islamist movement.         

A court banned the Muslim Brotherhood itself in September, but that ruling did not mention its political wing, leaving open the possibility it could be allowed to run in parliamentary elections, due later this year.        

Saturday's supreme administrative court ruling excludes the Brotherhood from formal participation in electoral politics, potentially forcing the movement underground, particularly as it has lost the sympathy of large swathes of the public.         

The court's ruling called for the FJP to be dissolved and its assets seized by the state. Its decision is final and cannot be appealed, a judicial source said.         

The Muslim Brotherhood, once Egypt's oldest, best organized and most successful political movement, has seen hundreds of its members killed and thousands detained since then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew elected president and Brotherhood member Mohamed Morsi 13 months ago, following weeks of protest.       

Morsi, who ruled for a year, and other Brotherhood officials were rounded up in the wake of his ousting and hundreds have been sentenced to death in mass court rulings that have drawn criticism from Western governments and human rights groups.          

Sisi, who went on to win a presidential election in May, vowed during his campaign that the Brotherhood would cease to exist under his rule.     

The Brotherhood maintains it is a peaceful movement but attacks by militants have risen since the army overthrew Morsi.        

Most of the violence has taken place in the Sinai Peninsula near the border with Israel and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The army has responded with air and ground attacks.         

The FJP was established in June 2011, in the aftermath of the uprising that removed Hosni Mubarak from power after 30 years and inspired hopes for a more pluralistic political system in Egypt.