US media is reporting on comments by a Jordanian prince urging that the Muslim Brotherhood not be excluded from a future Egyptian government. According to a report on the hill.com blog:
The Muslim Brotherhood should not be excluded from a post-Hosni Mubarak government in Egypt, Jordan’s Prince El-Hassan bin Talaal said Sunday. If members of the group do join the new government, it will be a “test” that will give Egyptian voters an opportunity to later vote them out, Hassan said on “Face the Nation.” “It is better to test people on the democratic template than to not test them at all,” he said. Hassan noted the Brotherhood members took a more active role in Jordan’s government during the 1980s, but “many were voted out four years later.” Some U.S. lawmakers and regional experts are leery of the group assuming more power in Egypt, concerned its brand of non-secular politics might spread to other Middle East nations. His comments came hours after members of the Muslim Brootherhood and other opposition groups met with new Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman. The brotherhood’s participation in those talks sent ripple waves through Egypt and across the region. It favors a government based on religious law, and many analysts question whether democracy is possible were the group to seize power. Hassan also said he think it is a certainty that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will leave office, as he announced last week. “It’s a question of what follows,” not whether the maligned president will make good on his pledge to not seek re-election, Hassan said.
Hassan bin Talaal (Talal) is the major patron behind the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Jordan which sponsored the so-called “Amman Message” that was also signed by many Muslim Brotherhood leaders