Muslim Brotherhood Empire.

Part of articles from: El Masry El Youm

27 March 2012

The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party has said it would start the proceedings for dismissing Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri’s cabinet on Wednesday by rejecting its parliamentary briefing.

“Nineteen parliamentary committees and all political parties agree with the FJP’s desire to dismiss the cabinet,” said FJP MP Abdel Aziz Khalaf. “It is the cabinet that is plotting all the crises [from which] we suffer.”

Islam Fares, a young member of the Brotherhood, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the young members were assigned to organize demonstrations against the cabinet in all universities on Tuesday, beginning with Al-Azhar University and ending in Tahrir Square.

Around 4,000 students protested inside the campus of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, calling for the Muslim Brotherhood to form a new government, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

Emad Abdel Ghafour, president of the Salafi-oriented Nour Party, said only a coalition government would be able to resolve the economic crisis.

“It is time the military council listened to the voice of reason and immediately dismissed the cabinet for its failure to manage the country during this difficult phase,” Abdel Ghafour said.

“It should also absolve itself of responsibility for overseeing the presidential elections and the preparation of the constitution, and leave it up to the political parties to handle,” he added.

FJP spokesperson Yousry Hammad said Ganzouri should meet with the Islamist parties in Parliament to consult with him on how to run the government if the military council decides not to remove him.

According to the Constitutional Declaration, only the SCAF has the right to appoint and dismiss the cabinet.

ADDITIONALLY, ON THE SECULARIST FRONT .....

Relations between Islamists and secular political forces are at a low point since the latter withdrew their members from the assembly tasked with writing Egypt’s new constitution, calling the forthcoming document’s legitimacy into question.

Eighteen secular public figures have balked at participating in the 100-person panel in protest of the vague criteria and opaque process for electing its members, accusing the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and Salafi-oriented Nour Party — which together hold over 50 percent of the Parliament’s seats — of dominating the body and favoring their affiliates.

Five political parties on both the right and left of the political spectrum withdrew their members from the constituent assembly almost immediately. Two days later, the liberal Wafd Party’s executive bureau also recommended withdrawal, likely leaving the Reform and Development Party as the sole representative of non-Islamists.

 “We refused the political bargain because it was made evident to us that the constitution will be drafted solely by Islamist forces, who gave to themselves the right to write the constitution, excluding the remaining components of Egyptian society,” Saeed said, echoing arguments from various secular groups that Islamists have afforded themselves too much representation in the body without being transparent or subject to sufficient oversight.

After the two houses of Parliament agreed that they would elect to the body 50 members from Parliament and 50 from outside, the final composition included 36 MPs from either the FJP or Nour’s parliamentary blocs.

Many from the non-MP half have either Islamist backgrounds or sympathize with the Brotherhood, whether they are experts in law or finance or represent professional syndicates, which are largely dominated by Islamists. All bankers and businessmen included in the assembly are from Islamist backgrounds, and the bankers work in Islamic banking. In total, 56 percent of the constituent assembly is in some way connected to Islamists.

Liberal forces were also unnerved by the lack of representation for important segments of the Egyptian population, as only six Coptic Christians, who make up around 10 percent of the population, and six women are included. Youths were also largely excluded, though more than half of the population is under the age of 35, according to UN statistics.

The non-Islamist groups announced at the conference on Tuesday that they will form a parallel constituent assembly to write a constitution properly representing all the interests of Egyptian society. Saeed announced that the groups have invited Islamists to join them in this alternate body.

During the press conference, secular forces were divided over whether or not an intervention from the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to solve the secularist-Islamist impasse might benefit the non-Islamists.

Sameh Ashour, a Nasserist who heads the Lawyers Syndicate and was named to the constituent assembly, called on SCAF to intervene to “protect the nation” and announce a new constitutional declaration changing Article 60 of the current document, which places no stipulations on how Parliament composes the constituent assembly.

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Meanwhile, Hatem Abdel Azim, an FJP MP, said the withdrawal of few secularists would not threaten the legitimacy the new constitution, confirming Sayed and Soliman’s expectations that Islamists won’t offer concessions.

“The constitution derives its legitimacy from the public referendum,” he told Egypt Independent.

He went on to argue that the appeals already filed by secularists to challenge the makeup of the assembly would go nowhere. “These appeals are unfounded,” he said. “The assembly was formed according to the Constitutional Declaration and bore no legal or constitutional violation.”

Seventeen public figures and constitutional experts have filed a case in the Administrative Court against SCAF head Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, FJP People’s Assembly Speaker Saad al-Katatny, and Shura Council Speaker Ahmed Fahmy, to halt the decision to form the 50-MP, 50-non-MP constituent assembly, claiming it violates the March 2011 Constitutional Declaration. The first court session is scheduled for Tuesday.

Abu Taleb said Islamists should reconsider their decision on how to compose the assembly and re-elect a new one with 20 members from Parliament and 80 from outside.

“That a single political force controls the process is political absurdity,” Abu Taleb said. “This would mean that they are reproducing the same behavior of [Mubarak’s ruling] National Democratic Party, but with beards this time.”

The first session of the constituent assembly is scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

OUR COMMENT: UP TO DATE IT IS QUITE EVIDENT THAT THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AFTER HAD ACHIEVED THE FIRST GOAL, WHICH WAS TO CONTROL THE PARLIAMENT, NOW WANTS TO CONTROL THE CABINET AND THE PRESIDENCY TOO AND, OF COURSE, TO WRITE A NEW ISLAMIC COSTITUTION.

THEY ARE STRONG, THEY ARE SMART, THEY HAVE SUPPORT FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE SOCIETY AND NOT ONLY.

FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PODIUM, SECULARIST/LIBERAL PARTIES ARE WEAK, CONFUSED AND LOST IN VAGUE IDEAS AND VAGUE PLANS.

IT SEEMS THAT EGYPT WILL PASS FROM MUBARAK’S REGIME TO MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD’S REGIME COHERENTLY WITH WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE ENTIRE REGION.

WE HOPE THAT EGYPTIAN WHO SUPPORTED THE UPRISING AGAINST MUBARAK’S REGIME ARE SATISFIED FOR THE ACHIEVEMENT.