Sisi vs. the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

Trump has publicly admired the strong man currently in power in Egypt for his authoritarian rule and for the ferocity of his efforts against Islamism, of which the Muslim Brotherhood could almost be said to have been the creator, back in the day.

The Society of the Muslim Brothers (Arabic: جماعة الإخوان المسلمين‎ Jamāʻat al-Ikhwān al-Muslimīn), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood (الإخوان المسلمون al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn), is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928.

The organization gained supporters throughout the Arab world and influenced other Islamist groups such as Hamas with its "model of political activism combined with Islamic charity work", and in 2012 sponsored the elected political party in Egypt after the January Revolution in 2011. 

However, it faced periodic government crackdowns for alleged terrorist activities, and as of 2015 is considered a terrorist organization by the governments of Bahrain, Egypt, Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Quran and the Sunnah as the "sole reference point for ... ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community ... and state".

For many years the movement was supported by Saudi Arabia, with which it shared some enemies and some points of doctrine. 

Today, the primary state backers of the Muslim Brotherhood are Qatar and Turkey.

Trump has also expressed admiration for Erdogan's strongman rule in Turkey.

As a Pan-Islamic, religious, and social movement, it preached Islam, taught the illiterate, and set up hospitals and business enterprises. 

The group spread to other Muslim countries but has its largest, or one of its largest, organizations in Egypt despite a succession of government crackdowns in 1948, 1954, 1965, and 2013 after plots, or alleged plots, of assassination and overthrow were uncovered.

The Arab Spring brought it legalization and substantial political power at first, but as of 2013 it has suffered severe reversals. 

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood was legalized in 2011 and won several elections, including the 2012 presidential election when its candidate Mohamed Morsi became Egypt's first president to gain power through an election, though one year later, following massive demonstrations and unrest, he was overthrown by the military and placed under house arrest.

Egyptian court sentences 75 people to death over 2013 demonstration

An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced 75 people to death for participating in a 2013 demonstration in support of then-President Mohamed Morsy, and referred their cases to the country's Grand Mufti for a final decision, according to state-run news agency Ahram Online.

The defendants, which included members of the Muslim Brotherhood, were arrested and tried for participating in a sit-in at Rabaa al-Adawiya and al-Nahda squares in Cairo, to protest the removal of Morsy, a former Brotherhood leader and the country's first democratically elected president.

The month-long protest culminated in mass violence, when Egyptian security forces -- under the command of now-President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi -- attempted to clear thousands of demonstrators by using automatic weapons, armored personnel carriers and military bulldozers.

The government's actions were widely condemned by international rights organizations. 

A 2014 report by Human Rights Watch found at least 817 people were killed in the violence.

The Egyptian government has since banned the Muslim Brotherhood, declaring it a terrorist organization.

And yet nobody would say Sisi's Egyptian government is entirely secular.

The 75 defendants sentenced to death on Saturday are accused of "attacking citizens, resisting authorities, destroying public property and buildings, and possessing firearms and Molotov cocktails," according to Ahram Online.

Among those sentenced are Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and prominent members Essam El-Erian, Mohamed El-Beltagy and Wagdy Ghoneim, Ahram reported.

The government is prosecuting 739 people for participation in the protests.

Before the verdict can be finalized and death sentences carried out, Egypt's penal code requires the Grand Mufti, the country's leading Islamic authority, to issue a religious opinion on the matter, according to Ahram. 

The Grand Mufti's opinion is non-binding but rarely ignored.

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A criminal court will issue its final verdict on the death sentences on September 8, Ahram reported, but defendants will have the right to appeal.