Manama: The threat of the Muslim Brotherhood will be discussed by the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders at their meeting in Bahrain in December, Kuwaiti media claimed.
The request to include the Gulf role of the Islamist organisation in the summit agenda was made by a GCC country, Kuwait Arabic newspaper Al Shahed reported on Tuesday.
“The country said that the summit should discuss the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf countries and that the issue should be given priority because of its serious implications,” government sources told the Kuwaiti newspaper.
According to the daily, the GCC has been urged “to adopt unified decisions against the attitudes and behaviour of the Muslim Brotherhood and against its blatant interference in the domestic affairs of the member counties.”
“The Islamist organisation is accused of seeking to topple the political regimes in the GCC by inciting the street against the governments and seeking to extend the so-called Arab Spring to the Gulf countries with the support of foreign countries set to benefit from the development,” the sources that the paper did not identify, said.
Security reports to be submitted to the summit indicate that several non-Gulf members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been involved in events that have hit GCC countries. The latest involvement was a rally held in Kuwait earlier this month, the sources said.
Kuwaiti news site Citytalks said that the discussion of the Muslim Brotherhood’s role in the GCC would not be mentioned in the final communique to be issued in Manama, the host capital of the next summit.
Earlier this month, UAE Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan denounced the Muslim Brotherhood as “an organisation which encroaches upon sovereignty and integrity of nations”.
“The Muslim Brotherhood’s thinking does not recognise borders or sovereignty of nations,” Shaikh Abdullah said. “So, it is not unusual that the international Brotherhood organisation works to make inroads upon sovereignty and laws of countries,” Shaikh Abdullah said as he commented on the UAE’s talks with other countries to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood’s acts in the country.
Islamists detained in the UAE are said to have confessed to forming a secret organisation aimed at destabilising the country’s political system.
Reports in the UAE said that the organisation had been acting “in high-level coordination with the organisations of the Muslim Brotherhood in three other Gulf states.”
Shaikh Abdullah said no one rejected acts by people who respected laws and the sovereignty of countries. “The problem emerges when a chapter of an organisation believes that it has a status that allows it to encroach upon the laws and sovereignty of other countries,” Shaikh Abdullah said.
The GCC, established in 1981 in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the largest and most influential Islamic and Arab groups, was founded in Egypt in 1928 as a religious, political, and social movement.