A new wrinkle on the Egyptian dictatorship’s raid of NGOs
Posted by Charles II on January 11, 2012
Cam McGrath, IPS News:
“Egypt does not oppose foreign funding of NGOs as long as it complies with Egyptian and international laws. However, the funding must be for development, not political purposes,” Fayza Aboul Naga, minister for planning and international cooperation, said in November.
Aboul Naga, who was appointed by Mubarak and has survived four cabinet changes since his ouster, accused the U.S. government of directly funding 14 American and 12 unlicensed Egyptian NGOs.
Washington has admitted to as much. In June, U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson said the United States had spent 40 million dollars in Egypt to promote democracy since the revolution. She said 600 Egyptian NGOs had applied for funding.
El-Borai argues that the military is less concerned about organisations receiving foreign funds than it is about limiting the reach and resources available to NGOs engaged in supporting principles that threaten its rule.
“It’s very clear that this is a campaign against civil society groups calling for democracy, citizenship and a civil state,” he told IPS. “When (security forces) raided offices, it was these groups and not organisations receiving money from the Gulf (Arab states) that got shut down.”
According to Al-Akhbar state newspaper, the Ansar Al-Sunnah Al-Mohamedeya group received over 50 million dollars from Qatari and Kuwaiti institutions since the revolution, making it the biggest recipient of foreign aid in the country. The paper alleged that the donations went to promoting the ultra-conservative Islamic Salafi movement in Egypt.
Al-Akhbar also reported that an institution created in memorial of Mubarak’s deceased grandson received nearly 15 million dollars from the United Arab Emirates and Oman. The opaque charity is believed to be controlled by the “feloul”, that is, the remnants of the old regime.
This is actually pretty interesting. The military (i.e., the Egyptian dictatorship) is arguing that (a) the US is funding non-governmental organizations in violation of Egyptian law, and (b) that other foreign governments such as Qatar,Kuwait, UAR, and Oman (presumably with American acquiescence or connivance) are funding Islamic fundamentalists. It probably also objects to the US funding American NGOs, so an interesting question is whether the NDI, IRI, Freedom House and other USG pawns are licensed to operate in Egypt.
Now, I think it’s highly unlikely that the US would fund Islamists. The US generally either funds the old dictatorship or neo-liberal groups. It’s much more likely that Qatar, Kuwait, UAR, and Oman are doing this on their own. But the US is not putting up a big fuss over it.
Which side is the US on?
