Egypt may be preparing to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, amid escalating efforts by the Islamist group and its supporters to derail passage of a new constitution aimed at facilitating a political transition from the current interim army-backed government to an elected one. The Brotherhood rejected the new constitution, which establishes a framework and offers a timeline for elections, last week. Its aligned Pro-Legitimacy and Anti-Coup Coalition, which emerged after the army deposed the country’s former Brotherhood-linked President Mohammed Morsi in the wake of unprecedented popular anti-government demonstrations, subsequently called on its supporters to hold protests throughout the country Friday opposing the sitting government. The Jerusalem Post Friday conveyed reports from Egypt’s El-Watan newspaper, which has tended to side with the military and against the Brotherhood, describing a closed door meeting – attended by at least Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi and several other ministers – exploring the possibility that Cairo may declare the Islamist organization a terrorist group. The report comes a day after the Associated Press disclosed that Egyptian officials are investigating the degree to which Morsi cultivated jihadists during his roughly one-year tenure as president, with security figures suggesting that they’ve identified at least “indirect” links between the Brotherhood leader and violent Islamists.

“What is happening now, from the attacks in Sinai to the bombings of military intelligence offices and the targeted killings is not random,” said Makram Mohammed Ahmed, an expert on Islamic movements who is a sharp critic of the Brotherhood. “There is a maestro for all that and there is a plan that was put in place well before the execution.”

There had already been reports during Morsi’s rule that the army was straining at its leash to operate against the terrorist infrastructure that was at the time taking root in the Sinai Peninsula, and was being held back by the then-president.

[Photo: Jonathan Rashad / Flickr ]