Global media is reporting that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is ending its opposition to a Coptic candidate for Egyptian President following the recent bomb attack against a Coptic church in that country. According to one report:
Cairo, 3 Jan. (AKI) – Egypt’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood is ending its bnanket opposition to any and all Coptic Christian candidacy for the country’s presidency following the New Year’s eve bombing that killed 21 people at a Coptic Church in the port city of Alexandria, according to an important member of the Islamist political group.
“The heads of the Muslim Brotherhood has decided to suspend its decision to reject all Coptic Christian candidates for the next presidential elections,” Ibrahim Manirat, a top member of the group, told Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi. No one has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing which killed 21 people and injured dozens outside the Alexandria church, but suspicion is likely to fall on Al-Qaeda linked or inspired Islamist radicals, according to analysts. “Our group is reviewing its position, even if this change should not be considered to be tied directly to the attack on the church in Alexandria, which we strongly condemn,” Manirat said. Egypt will go to the polls in September to elect a new president. Hosni Mubarak, aged 82, has been in office since 1981. He has yet to name a vice-president or successor, or to confirm if he will seek another six-year term.
The county is made up of 90 percent Muslims and 10 percent Christian.
Earlier posts discussed condemnations of the attack against the Copts by the Egyptian Brotherhood.
Previous posts have discussed the claim by Egyptian Copts that the Egyptian government is afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood, the statements by a well-known Egyptian blaming the Muslim Brotherhood for the deteriorating position of religious minorities in Egypt, and reactions by the Muslim Brotherhood to a shooting attack against Coptic Christians in southern Egypt claiming that religious intolerance was not to blame. Another post discussed an interview with the Secretary-General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) in which its Secretary-General accuses Egyptian Coptic churches of storing weapons in their monasteries to be used against Muslims. The IUMS is headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi.
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood can be considered to be the “mother” organization of what is referred to in these pages as the Global Muslim Brotherhood which developed as Muslim Brothers fleeing Egypt settled in Europe and the United States, as well as other places, throughout the years. The global network has since eclipsed the Egyptian organization as evidenced by global Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi’s decision to turn down the leadership of the Egyptian organization when it was offered to him in 2004.