Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood threatens terror attacks on Pepsi

Daniel Greenfield has the story:

The Muslim Brotherhood has big ambitions. Not only are its branches at war with different countries around the world, but now it’s taking on Pepsi.

They’ve been quick to claim bombings across Cairo in recent months, targeting security and police officials, but now Egyptian jihadist group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (or ‘Supporters of Jerusalem’) has another target in mind.
A soft drinks giant.

On Friday, the Sinai-based group threatened to attack Pepsi Co. for allegedly allowing the Interior Ministry to use their company vans to transport detainees.

“You know who we are and what we can do,” the group addressed the company on Twitter. “This is the last warning and after this, Pepsi Co. can only blame itself. By Allah, we will not tolerate working with the police whatever the client, the amount and status.”

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis is allegedly funded by the Muslim Brotherhood, which makes it another one of many Brotherhood front groups.

Why would the Muslim Brotherhood target Pepsi, aside from the silly detainee stuff which is likely fiction?

Pepsi plays an interesting role in the Egyptian economy. Pepsi bought into the Egyptian Bottling Company which was a state owned enterprise. It did so together with the Saudis. Pepsi is now politically controversial and ubiquitous in Egypt.

So Pepsi has come under various attacks over the years, such as claiming that it’s made out of pig intestines or that a penny from each can is given to Israel.

The story becomes more complicated because Egypt, like most of the Muslim world, is an oligarchy and its economy is dominated by the Egyptian military and the Muslim Brotherhood, both of whom control a variety of civilian companies. A political struggle in Egypt is also economic. Imagine if Tropicana was aligned with the GOP and Minute Maid with the Democrats. We have this to some extent in the US, but our oligarchy hasn’t gotten as bad yet.

But it is a very real issue in Egypt.

It’s likely that the same Brotherhood funding the terror attacks intends to profit from them through destabilizing Pepsi’s virtual monopoly in Egypt.