Al Jazeera has a report online that a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Khalid al Za'afrani, has announced the formation of the Reform and Justice and Development Party (catchy!), which he describes as a "popular [sha'abi] Islamist party." He emphasizes that this will not be a religious (dini) party but will "represent what he calls the simple popular Islamic trend." He says that he is the only of the party's founders who is a former MB member, and notes that 10 of the party's 65 founders are Coptic Christians. He describes the party's platform as committed to the peaceful rotation of power on the basis of an elected parliament, and the right of citizenship, and the people are the source of authority, and that the party will respect intellectual and political pluralism. (here's an English version on al Jazeera - their English site is getting better at translating news stories, I've noticed).
The Egyptian government has rejected similar applications for new political parties before - most noticably Hizb al Wasat, rejected yet again last October, about which our friend Josh Stacher at the Arabist Network has written. It will be interesting to see how they respond to this application, and whether the new party can/will put forward a Presidential candidate.
I've seen absolutely nothing written about this anywhere else yet, but I'm hoping to learn more soon.
UPDATE: Asked and answered. Thanks, Issandr!
I heard about that. I see no problem, if we are to one day have a democracy, all factions have to be represented, and the Islamists are a pretty large opposition force to be reconed with. Regardless, at this time i do not think they will be allowed to form such a party.
Posted by: Orientalism | March 25, 2005 at 02:53 AM