The Salafi Al-Nour Party and 6 April both condemned interim president Adly Mansour’s decision to extend the state of emergency by two months. The United States Department of State also expressed concern over the decision.
Head of Al-Nour Party Younes Makhioun said in a statement on Friday that the current laws are “adequate to cope with the incidents of violence and to hold accountable those who carried them out.”
Makhioun underlined that his party does not believe “that the exceptional law will end the violence.” He added that violence could be stopped through working towards “freedom, respect for human rights, the rule of law and the realisation of the principles of justice and equality between Egyptians.” He also believes that it would be difficult to “build the foundations of the state.”
The head of the Salafi party also expressed concern that the extension of the state of emergency “sends a negative message about Egypt” to the world, adding that this will have a detrimental effect on “investment and economic activity in general.”
Makhioun ended his comments by stating that his party rejects violence and are “keen to establish security but under ordinary laws.”
Director of the 6 April Youth Movement’s media office Khaled El-Masry said on Thursday: “The imposition of a state of emergency did not prevent terrorism for many years and did not achieve security.” He stressed that the law should impose security and bring criminals to justice, adding that “the security solution will not achieve social security in the country.”
Deputy spokeswoman for the US Department of State Marie Harf said, “We remain opposed, as we have from the beginning, to the state of emergency.” She called for the interim government to call an end to the state of emergency and to “create an atmosphere where Egyptians on all sides can peacefully exercise their right to freedom of assembly and expression.”
Harf added that the interim government must also “ensure due process and that any citizens arrested by police or military are referred only to civilian courts.”
The decision to extend the state of emergency, which was begun on 14 August, was announced on Thursday afternoon by presidential spokesperson Ihab Badawi. He said the decision was taken after a review of the current security situation in Egypt. The cabinet approved the decision on Thursday.
Last week the Minister of Interior survived a suicide car-bomb attack and an improvised explosive was thrown at a police station in Cairo. There are near daily attacks on police and military forces in the Sinai Peninsula, which has undergone a marked increase of armed violence since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi as president on 3 July.
