Egyptian courts have banned the Muslim Brotherhood and ordered all of their assets confiscated, reports the Associated Press.
The ruling comes after a months long crackdown on the group following the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi.
From the Associated Press:
The ruling, which can be appealed, opens door for authorities to track down the group's elaborate network of social services, dealing a deadly blow to its pillars of grass-root support.
Egyptian people took to the streets this year to protest the leadership of the Brotherhood and Morsi. Their protests largely revolve around resisting Morsi's intentions to install a more religious government, basing law around Islamic Shariah.
Critics complained that Morsi's government seemed more focused on telling women how to talk to their husbands than on governance. Meanwhile, basic problems like unemployment, lawlessness, and lack of food persisted.
In June of this year, former director of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy EnergyMuhammed El Baradei (now acting vice president of Egypt), summed up the problem in Foreign Policy (emphasis ours):
The executive branch has no clue how to run Egypt. They do not know how to diagnose the problem and then provide the solution. They are simply not qualified to govern.
The Brotherhood doesn't have the qualified people, who hail mostly from liberal and leftist parties. You need to form a grand coalition, and you need to put your ideological differences aside and work together to focus on people's basic needs.
You can't eat sharia.
The ruling returns the Brotherhood to the same status they had beneath the Mubarek regime for 30 years, that of outlaws.