Cabinet Minister in Egypt Blamed for Crackdown on Activist Groups

In Congressional testimony Thursday, U.S. pro-democracy groups pinned blame on an Egyptian cabinet member for triggering Cairo’s campaign against nonprofits, Reuters reports.

“We can safely say that Faiza Abu el-Naga started this, but I think it has gotten out of control since then,” Lorne Craner, president of the International Republican Institute, told a House committee, referring to Egypt’s minister of international cooperation. “She has managed to convince some of the [ruling Egyptian] military that we were doing nefarious things.”

Ms. Abu el-Naga, a cabinet holdover from the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarek, filed the initial judicial complaint against foreign organizations, setting off an investigation in which 43 nonprofit workers have been accused of operating illegally in Egypt, NPR says in a profile of the minister.

She has continued her attacks in televised appearances, winning significant public support with her claim that groups such as Mr. Craner’s seek to mold post-Mubarek Egypt according to American interests. The crackdown on nonprofit organizations has fueled tensions between Washington and Cairo and imperiled billions of dollars in U.S. aid and international loans to Egypt.