CAIRO — Recent days have witnessed a new cycle of conflict pitting the Muslim Brotherhood against Gamaa Islamiya. The latter was the Brotherhood’s foremost ally following its fall from power on July 3, 2013. Yet Ibrahim Munir, the Brotherhood’s deputy supreme guide, accused Gamaa Islamiya of responsibility for the violence that broke out during the period of former President Hosni Mubarak’s rule. His accusation drove Abboud el-Zumar, a prominent leader and member of the Gamaa Islamiya’s Shura Council, to demand that ties between the two groups be frozen.
Gamaa Islamiya was not just another member of the National Alliance to Support Legitimacy, which was founded in 2013 following the Brotherhood’s ouster. It was the alliance’s largest partner after the Brotherhood and participated in protests and sit-ins across Egypt’s various squares. It paid much in the blood of its members to defend the Brotherhood.