Is it a fourth wave to arrest Quranists?

On Sunday night, October 26, 2008, Mustafa Kamel Mohamed Ali, IQC's president Ahmed Subhy Mansour's cousin, was called into Egyptian State 's Security office and hasn't been released yet, until the writing of this press release. Mustafa has no intellectual, political, or even religious interests. His only association is that he lives in an old apartment owned by Dr. Mansour. He did not meet Dr. Mansour since the year 2000, nearly two years before Dr. Mansour travels to U.S.

Later in the day, a state security force  came to Abu-Hariez village in Sharkia district, where Dr. Mansour's extended family resides. They arrested Mr. Reda Abdelrahman Ali, a relative of Dr. Mansour who is an Islamic reformer and teaches at Al-Azhar schools and publishes his articles and researches on many online websites, including them Ahl-Aquran website, the voice of the International Quranic Center. The force confiscated Reda's personal computer, arrested him, and he wasn't released yet, until the writing of this press release. It worth mentioning that Reda has been punished before by Sheikh of Al-Azhar for the reformative points of view that he expresses in his writings.

This also comes after a few days when the Egyptian security forces had intimidated the family of Dr. Mansour's other cousin, Dr. Osman Mohamed Ali's, who is currently a political asylee in Canada and who, too, writes regularly at Ahl-Alquran website. These consequent events by the Egyptian government reveal systematic policy of harassing, intimidating, persecuting Quranists in Egypt, especially those who are related to Dr. Mansour.

The International Quranic Center condemns such unlawful, unjustified, acts of the security forces to peaceful Egyptian individuals who are merely targeted for their peaceful expression of their opinions. The center also considers the Interior Minister personally responsible for the safety of Dr. Mansour's family in Egypt . Finally, the center confirms that it will not be silenced by this policy of the Egyptian regime, namely taking innocents as hostages to stop peaceful reformers from continuing their journey.