The various Egyptian Islamic parties are facing an unknown future in light of article 74 of the new draft constitution, which bans establishing parties based on religious grounds.  The draft constitution is being written up by a 50-member committee, chaired by former presidential candidate Amr Moussa, amid a debate between civil parties and movements and Islamic ones with regards to defining the elements of a religious party. The 2012 Constitution did not include such a ban.

“Will of the people”

The various Egyptian Islamic parties are facing an unknown future in light of article 74 of the new draft constitution, which bans establishing parties based on religious grounds.  The draft constitution is being written up by a 50-member committee, chaired by former presidential candidate Amr Moussa, amid a debate between civil parties and movements and Islamic ones with regards to defining the elements of a religious party. The 2012 Constitution did not include such a ban.

“Will of the people”

A number of representatives of political bodies expressed their support of banning religious parties for the purpose of developing a diverse political life. Shahata Ibrahim, Coordinator of Kifaya Movement at Faiyum said, “Experience has proven that banning the establishment of religious parties must be stipulated in the new Constitution.  It is absolutely pointless to mix religion and politics. The issue to be addressed here is whether these parties have enough rationality and pragmatism to achieve a successful political agenda based on civil ideology far from religious slogans.”

Ibrahim believes that al-Nour Salafist Party has proven its competence by demonstrating great maturity during the past few months,whereas the Muslim Brotherhood has failed and consequently should be excluded from political life and referred to it as a “terrorist organization”.

Ibrahim denied the claims of Egyptian Islamic parties that they merely have an Islamic background rather than basis. “At the end we do not want to exclude anyone, yet we refuse to manipulate the emotions of simple citizens through religious slogans that should be confined to places of worship. We do not have a problem with religion, our concerns are economic, social and cultural,” he stressed.

“Christian members in Islamic Parties”

Issam Zuheiry, Coordinator of the National Association for Change in Fayoum Governorate, underlined that religious parties in Egypt believe that allowing Egyptian citizens of different religions to join their party would conceal their religiously-based ideology, which is deemed a fraud.  Such was the case with the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists and Islamic Group parties, where Copt citizens were allowed in as a decorative addition to escape the legal ban and be classified as non-religious. “Although agendas and propagandas of these religious parties clearly affiliate themselves to religion and exploit religious publicity in their favor, they pose themselves as civil parties with a mere religious backgrounds just as there are religious parties of leftist or liberal backgrounds, ignoring the fact that leftist or liberal backgrounds are ideological references based on arguable human intellect,” he said.

Zuheiry described the article banning the establishment of parties based on religion in the proposed constitution as similar to its counterpart of the “Brothers-biased” 2012 constitution in terms of being “hazy, ambiguous and unspecific.”  “If banning religious parties is approved, we need a clear definition of the standards and criteria of a religious party,” he concluded.

“Europe’s parties are not religiously-based”

Nasser Zughbi, Secretary General of al-Thawra Mostamera Party in Fayoum, accused the Islamic parties in Egypt of being different from their counterparts in Europe, claiming (not entirely correctly) that Europeans did not base their ideologies on religious values and avoided mixing religion with politics. Islamic parties in Egypt, on the other hand, use a religious rather than a political discourse and when these parties address reforming education for instance, they do not seem to have a definite program, but only raise the slogan of “Islam is the solution” which is a religious notion that categorizes citizens based on their religion, he said.

Zughbi asserted that the Egyptian experience has proved the failure of parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which had absolute powers but miserably failed at all levels including the religious ones. They accused with infidelity not only those who opposed their opinions but also those who adopted different religious approaches during the entire year of their failing rule.

“We all believe in Islam, he explained, but there must be a text forbidding the use of religion or religious discourse in politics.”

“We are not religious parties”

The constitution will be put into effect after a public referendum on its articles, but the date has not yet been fixed. The most important Islamic parties that could be threatened by the ban include the Brotherhood-backed Construction and Development Party, the Salafist al-Nour Party and also Brotherhood-backed Freedom and Justice Party, which are the three main Islamic parties, in addition to al-Wasat Party and several Salafist parties such as al-Watan, al-Fadeela, al-Asala, al-Islah wal Nahda and al-Nahda. These are all parties that do not consider themselves religiously-based but rather have an Islamic background.

Saleh Shamata, Secretary General of the Construction and Development Party, which is the political wing of the Islamic Group in Fayoum, stressed that there is a difference between religiously-based parties and parties with religious background. The first is a party based on Islamic ideology while the latter is pro-democracy and far from religious discourse. Therefore, he said it is possible to find Islamic parties with liberal or leftist backgrounds.

“We are not a religious party. A religious party means that a cleric heads it, makes decisions and has full powers inside the party. This is not the case in our Islamic parties. We believe in power devolution and voting and we have internal elections at all organizational levels, from top to bottom,” he said.

Shamata does not believe that the existence of an article banning parties established on a religious basis would affect them since establishing the party was earlier rejected by the Political Parties Affairs Committee.  They obtained their license by a court ruling, based on the fact that it is not a religious party but rather a party with an Islamic background. There is no contradiction between the existence of Islamic parties and the constitutional article, he stressed.

“Established by virtue of article 2”

Adel Naser, Chief of the Salafist preaching at the north of Upper Egypt and member of the supreme commission of al-Nour Party, agreed with the previous opinion and said, “Al-Nour Party is based in accordance with the constitution and article no. 2. We are not a religious party since we allow Christians to join. On the other hand, there are parties based on religious basis in Europe where Christian parties do not allow Muslims to join, while our Islamic parties do not forbid Christians from joining.” Naser did not give examples of any European Christian parties that forbid Muslims from joining, which is contrary to the reality in several European countries. Naser denied the merge between al-Nour party and the Salafist Preaching confirming that al-Nour is an independent entity and each has its own members and an internal list regulating its work, partisan bodies and funding. “We are not part of the Salafist Preaching, we are a party that is dealt with legally through its reference and constitutional status,” he explained.

 “Manipulating words”

Imad Jad, political expert and manager of Strategic and Political Studies at al-Ahram, said religious parties in Egypt hold to the principles of the Islamic Sharia law and are religiously based.  Jad believes that in case the constitution is adopted with the article banning the establishment of religiously-based parties, the already established Islamic parties would be automatically dissolved unless they manipulated the law and then be dissolved by court rulings.

As for the claim by the Islamic parties in Egypt that they are not religious and only have an Islamic background, Jad described the matter as merely manipulating words. “Any religious party based on religion takes action accordingly, for instance depriving women and Christians any authority over Muslim men.”

“The Christian Democratic Party in Germany is merely a name,” Jad said, “but in its principles it does not differentiate between citizens based on religion or sect. Such parties respect the principle of separation between religion and state, but in Egypt it’s a bitter experience,” he said.