Worries Spread as Egypt Elects Muslim Brotherhood Parliament Speaker

Egypt's newly elected interim People's Assembly elected Muslim Brotherhood's Saad Katatni to be its new Speaker. The Brotherhood won 235 seats in the 498 seat chamber. The dominance of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt's new parliament, however, has many Egyptians worried because of the Islamic group's longstanding stances on issues like women's rights, minority rights, Islamic shariah law. In addition to the list of concerns, westerners also fear the Brotherhoods own self-proclaimed anti-West, anti-Israel positions.

In fact, in his pamphlet "Knights Under the Prophet’s Banner" Ayman al-Zawahiri -- al Qaeda leader and longtime Muslim Brotherhood member -- stated explicitly in 2001 that:

“If God will it, such a state in Egypt, with all its weight in the heart of the Islamic world, could lead the Islamic world in a jihad against the West. It could also rally the world Muslims around it. Then history would make a new turn, Insha Allah, in the opposite direction against the empire of the US and the world’s Jewish government.”

Al-Zawahiri, of course, was talking about the invocation of an Islamic caliphate in Egypt. His statements also serve as corroboration of what many believe to be the Muslim Brotherhood's own stated goals of establishing an Islamic caliphate. A translation released nearly one year ago of a 1995 book by the Brotherhood's fifth official leader exposed just how Egypt’s Brotherhood views itself and its mission.

"Jihad is the Way" is the last of a five-volume work, "The Laws of Da’wa by Mustafa Mashhur," who headed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from 1996-2002. JPost published excerpts of the text, compiled by Palestinian Media Watch founder Itamar Marcus and analyst Nan Jacques Zilberdik"

They detail the Brotherhood’s objectives of advancing the global conquest of Islam and reestablishing the Islamic Caliphate, the public and private duties of jihad and the struggle Muslims must wage against Israel.

The full text, translated by PMW, will be posted Wednesday on the organization’s website, Palwatch.org.

“The Islamic ummah,” it says, referring to the supranational community of Muslims, “can regain its power and be liberated and assume its rightful position which was intended by Allah, as the most exalted nation among men, as the leaders of humanity.”

Elsewhere, it exhorts Muslims, “Know your status, and believe firmly that you are the masters of the world, even if your enemies desire your degradation.”

The Brotherhood, whose slogan is “Islam is the solution,” won 47 percent of the vote in three rounds of parliamentary elections, stunning democracy advocates like Egyptian publisher Hisham Kassem, who admits to having been taken aback by the growing success of these Islamic fundamentalist groups.

“I never was so off-track as I was with my forecast for the parliamentary elections. I didn't see the Salafi party having any presence. I forecast 10 seats for them and I didn't think the [Muslim] Brotherhood would exceed 20 percent," said Kassem.

Egypt's fundamentalist Salafi party, the Hezb al-Nour or Party of Light, wants the clock to be turned back and life to be lived as it was in the time of Islam's prophet during the Seventh Century. The Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis agree on some points, but disagree on others.

Hisham Kassem stresses that he's not afraid to live under Muslim Brotherhood leadership, so long as the group abides by several key rules.

"I have fought for free elections and believe in them and this has been the outcome, and even though this is not my political persuasion, I accept it and we need to engage politically with the Brotherhood and hope that they will abide [by] good governance and rotation of power, and that they will hold an election, when it's time for a next election," said Kassem.

VOA adds:

Top Muslim Brotherhood figures have met with U.S. officials in recent weeks, including Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, Assistant Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson. Many observers say that the Brotherhood does not want to adopt any extreme positions, so as to frighten the international community.

Omar Ashour, who teaches political science at Britain's University of Exeter, argues that the Brotherhood wants to maintain good relations with both the international community and the country's ruling military council.

"Any confrontation with the international community will reflect badly on the economy and a clash with the military will reflect badly on politics. So, I think what they will try to do is avoid a clash with these two big entities and it doesn't really matter if they have the house speaker. They are trying to avoid being in the front line, too visible and holding direct responsibility," he said.

Many secularists reportedly fear that a heavily Islamic assembly will try to impose shariah law on the country. Ashour, however, believes that the Muslim Brotherhood has more important issues to deal with right now, like consolidating its power.

"I think they have other priorities at the moment," Ashour said. "They need to consolidate power in the parliament, to influence the constitutional assembly that will be formed. They will need to be very influential in terms of constitutional crafting. They will need to focus on the military establishment, on one side they don't want to confront, but on the other side they don't want it to have too much influence in politics because it will undermine them. So, they have too many battles and I don't think the shariah battle is going to be fought unless there's a bit of outbidding from the Salafi side and they will have to say something to their audience."

Christian Egyptian telecom mogul Najib Sawiris, who heads the country's Free Egyptian Party which won 9 percent of parliamentary seats, has emphatically expressed his opposition to the imposition of shariah law on Egyptians.

Meanwhile, Egypt's business community and affluent secular communities are scrambling over fears tha shariah law will set the country back into the Stone Age.  Some businessmen have reportedly been quietly trying to funnel their money out of the country, and some Christians and Western-educated individuals have been emigrating as inconspicuously as possible .