Egyptian politics are going through a difficult labor. The norm here is to say, with birth drawing near, that “hopefully it's a boy”. However, the new democracy in Egypt, in order to be worthy of its name, is supposed not to treat males and females differently. For this reason, I just hope that the democratic newborn will be in good health that would spread around and help us all recover. I will skip discussing the known parties today. The National Democratic Party is going through its final death throes, while the reader must no doubt know about the parties of Al-Wafd, Al-Ghad, the Arab Nasserist Party, Al-Tagammu' and the Democratic Front. I thus move on to the newer parties on the Egyptian political arena, specifically the Free Egyptians Party, and the Freedom and Justice Party. The well-known businessman Naguib Sawiris is behind the first party. He said time and again that he wants to establish a party for youths and for all Egyptians, not just Christians. For this reason, he declared that he will not nominate himself to be the party's chairman, and left it to allies that include some of the most prominent Egyptian personalities to file for a license to establish the party. These figures include the writer Mohamed Salmawy and the poet Muhammad Najm (the poet of the revolution before the revolution), and also writer Gamal al-Ghitani, Ahmed Ishak and Khaled Qandil. I found Naguib Sawiris to be mentioned very frequently in newspapers. He split his company Orascom into two companies, and bought shares in them after the stock exchange reopened, perhaps to protect the companies and stimulate the market. He had made some controversial statements. For instance, he announced his opposition to seeing a Christian assume the post of president to reassure the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's Muslims in general, and also raised the ire of the Copts when he made it a condition on each Copt seeking to join the Free Egyptians Party to bring two Muslims along. While he opposed the slogan of ‘Islam is the solution' to avoid discrimination among the various communities, he said that he does not oppose that one of the Muslim Brotherhood would be elected president, and that he would rather die than be hostile to Islam. I also observed that a lot of effort is being made in Egypt, by the various segments of society, to avoid any religious confrontation or tension that might hurt national unity. However, the fact that everyone is trying to avoid a potential crisis means that there indeed is one, and perhaps the Muslim Brotherhood is leading the efforts for reconciliation. They, more than anyone, have the ability to do this, even though I found them also preoccupied with another confrontation with the Salafis accused of leveling shrines and assaulting a Coptic citizen. I said jokingly to Montaser al-Zayat, the lawyer for the Islamist groups, that I believe that the Muslim Brotherhood invented the Salafi group to scare people and show the Muslim Brotherhood as moderates by comparison. He smiled and told me that the Salafis have been around for years, but did not appear until the revolution succeeded. In truth, Salafi ideology opposes rebellion against the ruler unless the ruler is found to be blasphemous. While Hosni Mubarak was accused of many things, blasphemy was not one of them. In fact, some of the youths of the revolution told me that the Salafis attacked them as they confronted the Mubarak regime, and then claimed to be a part of the revolution only after it succeeded. I cannot say for sure how popular are the Salafis and what influence they will have in the short term future, and I believe that the Muslim Brotherhood will most probably remain the largest political force in the country given their experience and their abilities. Even if the brotherhood represents 20 percent of the Egyptians only, and I think they represent more, they are still capable of making all twenty percent vote in the elections, while the other political parties combined cannot push more than 20 percent to vote. This makes the Muslim Brotherhood appear much popular than the support they actually have among the Egyptians would otherwise make them appear. I read a lot about the program of the Freedom and Justice Party (the name is reminiscent of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party – Justice and Development – and I hope that the Egyptian party will be as intelligent and enlightened as the Turkish counterpart). I did not see anything I did not expect. The leaks about the new party's program contained praise of the youths' role in deposing the former regime, and the army's role in ensuring a peaceful transition of power. The program also spoke about building upstanding citizens, spiritually, religiously, scientifically, culturally and morally, with emphasis on the values of justice, citizenship, pluralism and the respect of other people's rights. I believe that the last words are the most important thing in the whole issue, and are what I wish the Muslim Brotherhood would observe, and respect the personal freedom of each citizen. I believe that the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood is very wise as it seeks to reassure all Egyptians. The leader in the group Kamal Helbawy, who returned to Egypt after 22 years of voluntary exile abroad, said that he does not mind it if a Christian is elected president and that he would vote for George Ishak, from Kefaya, if he nominates himself. This is nice and reassuring, and goes even further than what the Freedom and Justice Party reportedly said, that it does not oppose the candidacy of any Egyptian to the presidency, but that it would not nominate a woman or a Copt. But I do not think there is one Egyptian who expects such a nomination anyway. [email protected]
