posted
and therefore no member in parliament can be from a religious political party, in an interview today with al-Arabiyah TV channel (a saudi owned channel).
this comes after Jamal Mubarak made similar statements few weeks ago!!
way to go egypt. this how you can show the way to the rest of arab countries.
Posts: 299 | From: Dubai | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
IMO what J.Mubarak and Nazif said was a sneaky political statement to counter attack the internal call for religious parties like MB , Copts and lately the Bahai's. If democracy is about giving rights to people to decide what they want , then why force them to believe in secularism? While the majority are religious whether they were muslims or copts they still have the right to decide. If the Copts are complaining then guess what! Muslims also are complainig in Egypt.
The point is that the current government is a dictatorSHIP sailing to its own shore. if its masters are secular then let's go secular , if its friends/donors are muslims (KSA,Kuwait,UAE..etc) then let's be muslims , if it is seeking a regional leadership (Africa) then let's be african , if it is time to be peacemakers in the region to gain some political points then suddenly the government becomes Arab and supports palestine.
Posts: 184 | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
modern democracy is rooted in human rights, as declared in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. you can not separate the two.
no religious party I know of in the middle east respects these principals. religious parities in their nature believe that they derive their power from Allah/God (whatever you want to call him/her), which is in direct conflict with the definition of democracy.
these people want theocracy, not democracy.
Posts: 299 | From: Dubai | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
All what you know about religious parties comes from the current government. So if Egypt is doomed to live with failure like what is happening now (33 years of lies and failure) , then there is no problem to try another kind of failure ( assuming what you said is right)
I really don't care which political system Egypt will choose as long its the choice of its own people as long as Egypt becomes organized instead its state of chaos.
Posts: 184 | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
just like the rise of fascism in europe, even it through elections, would be disastrous to europe and the world for that matter, the spread of theocracy in muslim countries would constitute a major blow to the efforts to improve the lot of muslim people, even if it was the choice of the people (which would not surprise anyone after centuries of brainwashing, the tight grip of religious leaders over society, and the corruption and repression of arab nationalists/socialists).
the real state of chaos/backwardness is actually in countries like iran and saudi which are, unlike egypt, pretty wealthy, yet their governments are the joke of the world
i really like what nazif is doing now and the direction the National Party is taking egypt to.
Posts: 299 | From: Dubai | Registered: Jan 2006
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CAIRO: Egypt's banned Islamist opposition Muslim Brotherhood said on Sunday comments by the prime minister about preventing its members from standing in future elections proved the government was not committed to reform.
The group, which won a fifth of parliament's seats in elections last year, would attract more support from Egyptians if the government resorted to repressive measures to keep its members out of parliament, deputy leader Mohammed Habib added.
"It is obvious that the government does not have any real desire or serious intention towards reform. This is obvious by the way it wants to silence opposition voices," Habib told Reuters.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said on Saturday the Egyptian government wants to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood forming an opposition parliamentary group by winning seats as independents in future elections.
The Brotherhood is not allowed to form a political party and thus cannot officially field candidates in elections because Egypt's constitution forbids the establishment of religiously-based parties. The group says it won seats despite official election abuses.
Nazif's remarks were another indication the government is having second thoughts about some concessions it made to the political opposition last year when it was under U.S. pressure to bring about political reforms.
Habib said the government would probably use arrests and military trials to prevent the formation of another Brotherhood-based opposition bloc inside parliament, where secular opposition parties hold only nine seats out of 444.
"If they use repressive methods, and that is what is expected ... then it will only result in more sympathy and support for them (the Brotherhood) from the Egyptian people," he said.
The Brotherhood bloc in parliament has called for, and been denied, official enquiries into police beating of demonstrators during recent protests and over a conflict between judges and the government over judicial independence.
The authorities have detained 314 Brotherhood members for 15 days pending investigations after demonstrations last week in support of the judges.
"They (government officials) want to suppress the political movement to set the stage for an idea that is already rejected by the Egyptian people, that of inheritance," he said.
Habib was referring to a complaint by opposition groups that President Hosni Mubarak is grooming his son Gamal, a prominent member of the ruling party, to take over after him.Posts: 184 | Registered: Mar 2006
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