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Top Egypt Islamist says he 'fully supports' reconciliation with state

Abboud el-Zumar, a prominent leader in Egypt's Gamaa Islamiya, told Al-Monitor in an interview that he supports a full reconciliation with the state and that the Brotherhood is not fit to negotiate on behalf of Islamists.
Abboud al-Zumar speaks during an interview with Reuters in his home after his release from Liman Tora Prison at Helwan, south of Cairo, March 17, 2011. Abboud al-Zumar went to jail 30 years ago for his role in killing Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Now a free man, he believes democracy will prevent Islamists from ever again taking up the gun against the state. Picture taken March 17, 2011.        To match feature EGYPT/ISLAMIST-MILITANCY       REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS RELIGION H
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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.

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