Egypt's leaders have been locked in conflict with the movement since July, when the military deposed Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president and a former Brotherhood leader. The state's security forces have killed hundreds of the movement's supporters during protests against Mr. Morsi's removal. Most of the Brotherhood's leaders and thousands of its members have been imprisoned.
Now, with Wednesday's decision, the government signaled its determination to cut off any air to the 80-year-old Islamist organization.
Analysts called it the most severe crackdown on the movement in decades, requiring hundreds of thousands of Brotherhood members to renounce the group or face prison, and granting the military and the police new authority to violently suppress the movement's protests. The decision could also outlaw hundreds of social and charity organizations run by Brotherhood members, and makes it a crime to promote the Brotherhood "by words."
The decision came a day after officials blamed the Brotherhood for a suicide bombing at a police headquarters north of Cairo that killed 16 people, though on Wednesday a separate group — Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has derided the Brotherhood for its lack of militancy — claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The government was not swayed. In announcing the terrorism designation, it again blamed the Brotherhood for the bombing of the police headquarters, without supplying any evidence. Officials framed their decision as part of a decades-long struggle between the state and a militant movement, making no mention of the Brotherhood's more recent emergence as the most successful force in democratic elections after the fall of Egypt's autocratic president, Hosni Mubarak.
"The Muslim Brotherhood remains as it was," the cabinet said in a statement. "It only knows violence as a tool."
The designation represented a victory for government hard-liners who have pressed to eradicate the Brotherhood since the military's ouster of Mr. Morsi in July. And it set Egypt, which has lurched from crisis to crisis over the last three years, on an even more precarious course.
Khalil al-Anani, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington who studies the Brotherhood, called the designation "a turning point" in the conflict and said it could lead Egypt toward a civil conflict like the one that engulfed Algeria in the 1990s.
"This is a big miscalculation from the government," he said. "It is a massive social movement, whose supporters might retaliate or fight back."
With most of the Brotherhood's senior leaders already imprisoned, he said, "there is a lack of communication between the leadership and young Brotherhood members. And these people can be dragged to the violent path."
With the decision on Wednesday, the government moved against the government even more aggressively than it did under Mr. Mubarak, who ruled for three decades before being deposed by the Egyptian uprising in 2011. Under Mr. Mubarak, the Brotherhood was banned and leaders were imprisoned, but some members were allowed to participate in politics and the group's social organizations and charities were permitted to operate, boosting the Brotherhood's popularity.
Still, Ahmed al-Arainy, a Brotherhood member who has already been arrested once since the ouster of Mr. Morsi, said that after months of killings and arrests by the authorities, the new terrorist designation "makes no difference to us."
"Our problem with them is on the ground and not related to their labels," he said of Egypt's current leaders. "They killed us in the street yesterday, and today they're trying to legalize the crime they had already committed."
The focus on the Brotherhood appeared to distract the government from Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, a militant group inspired by Al Qaeda that has emerged as the face of a potent insurgency growing in sophistication and reach.
On Wednesday, the group claimed responsibility for the bombing of the police building in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, calling it a "response to the acts of the apostate governing regime."
In a statement posted on online militant forums, the group also appeared to threaten similar attacks in the future, warning Egyptians to stay away from security buildings "to preserve your sacred lives and blood."
The group, whose name means Supporters of Jerusalem, has orchestrated several of the most brazen attacks in a wave of assassinations and bombings targeting the security services since July. Tuesday's explosion was the deadliest bombing yet and appeared to confirm widespread fears that the insurgents were gathering strength.
Most of the attacks have taken place in the lawless, marginalized Sinai Peninsula, where Ansar Beit al-Maqdis is based.
The group rose to prominence in October, after releasing a video claiming responsibility for bombing the convoy of Egypt's interior minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, in September. He survived the assassination attempt.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis also said it was behind the murder of Lt. Mohamed Mabrouk, a senior police official who was responsible for investigating extremist groups. Lieutenant Mabrouk was shot to death in his car last month.
In the statement, the group said it was responding to what it asserted were a catalog of government offenses, including "fighting against Islamic Sharia," as well as "violating the honor of our women and sisters."
And it repeated a warning to police officers and soldiers to abandon their assignments "if they wanted to preserve their religion and their lives."
The militant attacks have tested Egypt's poorly-trained security forces, stretched thin as the government has sent officers to put down almost daily protests and arrest thousands of people. At least 171 police officers have been killed since August.
From BEN Latest News: www.benlatestnews.blogspot.com
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