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Egypt court bans all Muslim Brotherhood activities

"The Islamist movement's financial assets are also ordered confiscated in one of the current government's most sweeping measures yet against the group."

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"For most of its 85-year history, the Muslim Brotherhood has been an outlawed organization. Now it has come full circle.

The Islamist movement, which soared to undreamed-of political heights when one of its leaders became Egypt's president last year, suffered a decisive blow Monday when an Egyptian court banned all of its activities and ordered the confiscation of its financial assets. It was among the current government's most sweeping measures yet against the group, most of whose leaders have been jailed on serious charges, with thousands of its followers dead or in hiding.

But what remains to be seen is whether this latest move by an increasingly authoritarian interim government will provoke a backlash, enhancing the movement's prestige in the eyes of supporters, and stiffening the resolve of its remaining followers."

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"Monday's court ruling, the text of which was made public by the state news agency, included a broad-ranging indictment of the Brotherhood's "abuse and arrogance" during its months in power, and a ringing endorsement of the coup that brought Morsi down.

Pressure on the group had heightened in the last week after separate court rulings froze several top leaders' assets, and its most visible English-language spokesman was picked up by police. The latest ruling paves the way for authorities to move separately against the movement's many branches, with the likely effect of driving its adherents even deeper underground."

It ain't over yet, by a long shot.