Egyptian court sentences 185 Muslim Brotherhood members to death; Obama says MB are not terrorists; Jordanian MB smuggle weapons into Israel

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian judge sentenced 185 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death on Tuesday over an attack on a police station near Cairo last year in which 12 policemen were killed.

The ruling is preliminary and subject to a lengthy appeals process. It also goes to the country's top religious authority for approval although his opinion is not binding.

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(Newsmax) Citing what it calls the Muslim Brotherhood's "non-violent" nature, the White House has rejected a petition with more than 200,000 signatures calling on the Obama administration to declare the group a terrorist organization.

The petition was posted on "We the People," a White House web portal, on July 7, 2013. It says the Muslim Brotherhood has shown "that it is willing to engage in violence and killing of innocent civilians in order to invoke fear in the hearts of its opponents."

"This is terrorism," the petitioners say.

Within 30 days, the petition had garnered 100,000 signatures — the required threshold for an official response, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

But the White House did not respond until Monday, when it rejected the petition. By Monday evening, the petition had 213,000-plus signatures.

"We have not seen credible evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood has renounced its decades-long commitment to non-violence," the White House said.

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(JPost) The Jordanian government arrested 21 Muslim Brotherhood members for smuggling weapons and money into the West Bank, Arab media reported.

The Brotherhood members are accused of creating a secret military organization and planning to carry out terrorist attacks in the West Bank, senior Jordanian sources told the London-based daily Al-Hayat in a report published on Sunday.

Two of the suspects were charged with receiving military training in Gaza after participating in an organized visit there. According to the sources, “these two young men tried to train other Muslim Brotherhood members in order to carry out operations in the occupied West Bank.”

They also raised money to buy weapons.

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