Saudi Arabia deems Muslim Brotherhood a ‘terrorist group’

Saudi Arabia identified the Muslim Brotherhood as a "terrorist group" on Friday, warning those who join them or support them that they could face five to 30 years in prison.

A Saudi Interior Ministry statement said King Abdullah approved the findings of a committee entrusted with identifying “extremist” groups. The decree punishes those who fight in conflicts outside the kingdom, join the groups within Saudi Arabia or support them financially.

The king's decree followed the Saudi Arabia's enactment of a sweeping new counterterrorism law that targets virtually any criticism of the government.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been targeted by many Gulf nations since the July 3 military overthrow of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, himself a Brotherhood member. Saudi Arabia has banned Brotherhood books from the ongoing Riyadh book fair and withdrew its ambassador from Qatar, a Brotherhood supporter. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates also withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar.

In a statement, the Muslim Brotherhood condemned Saudi Arabia's decision.

"It is one of the founding principles of the group not to interfere in matters of other states, and this new position from the kingdom is a complete departure from the past relationship with the group, since the reign of the founding king until now," the statement read.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Attie praised the decision, saying it "reflects the coordination and solidarity" between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He said he hopes that other countries make the same decision.

"We expect other countries to fulfill their responsibilities in the fight against terrorism," Abdel-Attie told journalists Friday.

The Saudi statement on the new law said it would also apply to any group identified by the United Nations Security Council or other international bodies as "terrorist" or "violent" groups. It said the law also would be applied to any Saudi citizen or foreigner residing in the kingdom for propagating atheism or pledging allegiance to anyone other than the kingdom's leaders.

The law may be an attempt to stem the flow of Saudi fighters going to Syria, Yemen and Iraq. The Syrian civil war is believed to have drawn hundreds of young Saudis, worrying some in the kingdom that fighters could return radicalized and turn their weapons on the monarchy.

Meanwhile in Qatar, outspoken Egyptian cleric Youssef el-Qaradawi did not deliver his usual sermon on Friday. The reasons for his absence were not made immediately public. His past sermons, in which he publicly criticized the UAE and other Gulf countries for their support of Egypt's new government in its crackdown on the Brotherhood, led to outrage among Qatar's neighbors who saw the comments as an attack on their sovereignty.

Al Jazeera and wire services