Egyptian citizenship was granted by Morsi to 13,000 Hamas members

Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Egypt has begun to track Hamas members who became citizens of the Arab country.

Egyptian sources said the military-backed regime has been collecting data on thousands of Hamas members who received citizenship over the last two years.

Mohammed Morsi.  /AP

Mohammed Morsi. /AP

They said Egypt’s first Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi,
granted citizenship to nearly 15,000 Hamas members.

“Under Morsi, Hamas was regarded as an extension of the ruling Muslim
Brotherhood, and members who lived in Egypt, even part-time, were given
citizenship and full rights,” a source said.

The sources said the Interior Ministry has determined that Morsi granted
citizenship to 13,757 Hamas members from June 2012 until his overthrow in
July 2013. They said the ministry plans to revoke the citizenship of all of
these Hamas members.

On March 4, an Egyptian court banned Hamas activities and ruled that its
assets must be confiscated. The court ruled that Hamas participated in the
Islamic revolt in Egypt in which more than 1,200 were killed over the last
seven months.

Egypt has accused the Hamas regime of harboring Brotherhood leaders in
the Gaza Strip. On March 1, Brotherhood deputy guide Mahmoud Ezzat was said
to have been killed in a shootout in a hotel near Gaza City.

Ezzat was said
to have been directing the revolt in Egypt with help from Hamas and Al
Qaida-aligned militias.

“In the first place, Ezzat is not in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas Interior
Ministry spokesman Islam Shawan said on March 5.

The sources said most Hamas members were believed to live in Cairo and
Alexandria. But they said the Interior Ministry assessed that at least
several thousand were based in the Sinai Peninsula, undergoing a revolt
since 2011.

“We believe that we will find a good portion of these terrorists and
send them back to where they came from,” the source said.

Source Article from http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/03/25/egyptian-citizenship-was-granted-by-morsi-to-13000-hamas-members/

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes