Egyptian media is reporting on comments by an Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader who said that the Egyptian Brotherhood’s new political party would continue to insist that women and Christians are “unsuitable for the presidency.” According to an Al-Masry Al-Youm report:
A leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Egypt’s largest opposition group, said on Monday that the MB’s new “Freedom and Justice Party” would continue to stick by its view that Christians and women are unsuitable for the presidency. Saad al-Husseini, a member of MB’s Guidance Bureau, the highest executive authority within the group, said the new party program will be announced late March after it is approved by the MB’s Guidance Office and Shura Council. Al-Husseini said that although they stick by this view, they “respect all opinions”. “Our adherence to the jurisprudential opinion refusing the appointment of women or Christians as president does not mean we impose this opinion on the people, who have inherent jurisdiction in this regard,” he said. “I personally accept for Copts to be appointed in hundreds of positions, including sensitive leadership positions in the country in accordance with the criterion of efficiency and competence, regardless of their proportion in society.” Meanwhile, MB spokesman Mohamed Morsi said the group is pushing for a civil state, without the tutelage of the clergy. Morsi said the group does not call for a religious state. During an interview on state-owned television on Sunday night, Morsi said, “The civil state sought by Islam and the MB would ensure equal rights for Copts.” He pointed out that the new party will not discriminate in its membership between Muslims and Christians, or males and females, and that it will represent the politically focused side of the group, while the MB will continue to practice all of its social and preaching activities.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
In 2007, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood made public its first detailed political platform which would bar women and Christians from becoming president and establish a board of Muslim clerics to oversee the government. Previous posts have discussed the recent plans by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood for establishing a new political party.
It should be noted that the Muslim Brotherhood today has become a global network and that the Egyptian mother branch is not necessarily the most important part of the movement. Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, close to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, is often referred to by the GMBDW as the most important leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood, an acknowledgement of his role as the de facto spiritual leader of the movement. In 2004, Qaradawi turned down the offer to lead the Egyptian Brotherhood after the death of the Supreme Guide