By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) youth held a press conference Saturday to reevaluate the group’s role in Egypt’s transition to democracy and to discuss the establishment of the group’s political part in the conspicuous absence of Brotherhood leaders who didn’t attend and refused to sponsor the event.
The group’s deputy leader, Rashad Al-Bayoumi, told Daily News Egypt that the Brotherhood didn’t endorse the press conference because the youth failed to follow procedures necessary before organizing a public conference.
MB spokesman and Essam El-Erian explained in a telephone interception with TV program “Sabah Dream” on Dream TV Saturday that the group didn’t approve of the timing of the conference or the people attending it and that it was merely a procedural issue, according to the group’s website.
El-Erian stressed that there were no rifts between the group’s leaders and its youth.
“The youth are an integral part of the group and we respect them and listen to their views,” Al-Bayoumi told DNE.
Al-Bayoumi added that the MB’s Supreme Guide Mohamed Badei met recently with more than 300 youth and discussed their views regarding this transitional period.
The youth said that the conference did not indicate divisions, but was a sign of freedom of public expression and exchanging views among the group.
The youth announced recommendations at the end of the conference that include allowing MB members to establish or join any political party as long as it doesn’t contradict principles of Islam and forming a youth division inside the MB to ensure youth participation in the group’s decision-making process.
The recommendations were presented to the group’s Guidance Office for review.
“We accept any suggestions from the youth or any other members, as long as they are in [the group’s] best interest,” Al-Bayoumi said.
Political party debate
Soon after a popular revolt that ousted president Hosni Mubarak, the MB, banned since 1954, announced plans to form a political party called the Freedom and Justice Party once laws restricting the formation of political parties were lifted.
Badei said in a statement issued March 15 that the Freedom and Justice Party would be the only political party representing the group.
“Members of the group aren’t allowed to form or join any other political party,” Badei had announced.
However, MB member and member of the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, Mohamed Abbas, disagreed, saying that having more than one political party representing the MB was “healthy” and “beneficial”.
“The Muslim Brotherhood is a broad school of ideas and ideologies, which can be expressed in different ways,” Abbas said. “Having more than one political party representing it, demonstrates freedom and diversity, not division.”
Media reports suggested that “the MB opposition front,” which had been publicly critical of the mainstream policies of the group, wwas planning to establish another splinter party representing the Brotherhood called the Renaissance Party.
“We haven’t officially announced anything yet, but we’re seriously considering the issue,” Khaled Dawoud, a leading member of the opposition front, told DNE.
Dawoud added that there were many indications that the Freedom and Justice Party would follow the MB’s decisions and views blindly.
“We believe that the political party should be independent of the group in order to best serve the people,” Dawoud added.
Researcher of Islamist movements at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic, Diaa Rashwan, said since the revolution had allowed the MB to operate openly without any oppression, divisions were expected to surface.
“The Brotherhood was never a united front and it’s expected that many Islamic movements and parties will be derived from it,” Rashwan told DNE.
The 2009 internal elections of the MB Guidance Office highlighted wide ideological divisions between the group’s younger and older generations, but the more conservative side dominated the polls.
Disagreement with opposition
The MB also faces political isolation from other opposition groups, following the referendum on the constitutional amendments, where 77.2 percent of Egyptians voted yes.
Some opposition groups who voted “no” accused the Brotherhood of exploiting religion to sway people towards a yes vote.
The Egyptian Coalition for Monitoring Elections, made up of 123 civil society organizations and rights groups, said in a statement following the referendum that Brotherhood members were seen trying to convince voters at polling stations to vote yes on the constitutional amendments.
Karima Al- Hifnawy, member of the National Association for Change and the Kefaya Opposition Movement, said she was against mixing religion with politics.
“The Brotherhood used people’s religious sentiments to convince them to say yes in the referendum,” Al-Hifnawy told DNE. “People are entitled to a free and fair voting process without any pressure or interference.”
Al-Hifnawy added that the MB depended on lies and misconceptions to get people to vote yes.
Al-Hifnawy said that the referendum proved that the MB served their own interests and not the people’s.
Mohamed Farag, secretary general of the leftist Tagammu Party, said he saw flyers claiming that “voting yes to the constitutional amendments is a religious obligation,” and “saying yes to the constitutional amendments is saying yes to Islam.”
“The Brotherhood and other Salafist groups are trying to send the message that they are the majority,” Farag told DNE. “They’re trying to divide the revolutionaries and sway the revolution towards Islam.”
Vice President of Al Wafd Party, Fouad El Badrawy, agreed that religion shouldn’t be used in politics but believed that the majority of yes votes were for stability, not to support the Brotherhood.
Political observers have repeatedly expressed fear that the MB would dominate the polls in upcoming parliamentary elections, as they are the most organized and prepared opposition group.
