Today’s issue of the Muslim Brotherhood’s mouthpiece newspaper, Freedom and Justice, attests to the mounting tension between the Brotherhood and Salafis. The feud is the outcome of the Salafi Dawah’s decision last week not to back the Muslim Brotherhood’s presidential nominee, Mohamed Morsy, and to endorse instead former group member Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh.
Under the title “To our brothers in the Salafi Dawah: Blame, advise and reminder,” the Muslim Brotherhood’s official spokesperson, Mahmoud Ghozlan, wrote a full page blaming Salafis for going public about criticizing Morsy and accusing them of compromising religion to back Abouel Fotouh, who had been marginalized in the group for his reformist views since late 2009 and eventually was dismissed in 2011 for violating the group’s initial decision not to engage in the presidential race.
“It is unacceptable and inappropriate to have Mr. Abdel Moneim al-Shahhat tour satellite television channels to hurt the Muslim Brotherhood and its candidate, Dr. Morsy. [Shahhat] said [Morsy] is weak and hence the [Brotherhood’s] supreme guide will be the actual ruler of the country,” Ghozlan wrote about the Salafi Dawah’s leader.
To highlight what he believes is a paradoxical Salafi attitude, Ghozlan lists the Salafi Dawah’s previous statements on Abouel Fotouh. He quotes a pamphlet that the group allegedly circulated in the past stressing Abouel Fotouh’s controversial statements on democracy, Sharia, freedom of expression and the right of non-Muslims to run for president. In this pamphlet, the group had questioned Abouel Fotouh’s faith, basing its opinion on a number of Quranic verses.
“This is exactly what you said about the presidential candidate that you endorsed,” wrote Ghozlan in reference to the pamphlet’s content. “It is beyond doubt that you want an Islamist candidate, but you have chosen a candidate who says unequivocally that he is not an Islamist candidate but calls himself a conservative or a liberal. It is a confusing position that one cannot understand.”
Ghozlan goes on to deconstruct claims by Salafi sheikhs that the endorsement of Abouel Fotouh would achieve the good of the nation.
“In order to achieve the good, religion should be safeguarded first,” wrote Ghozlan, adding that Abouel Fotouh’s outlook would not protect the Muslim faith.
While Ghozlan accuses Abouel Fotouh of not being Islamist enough, Amr Moussa, the leading secular candidate, is quoted in Al-Shorouk warning against Abouel Fotouh’s “religious project.” Moussa argues that Abouel Fotouh won Salafi support after he expressed his commitment to their ideological project.
“How could Abouel Fotouh present himself as a liberal president … after Salafis backed him?” Moussa asked rhetorically in the privately owned daily.
On the same page, Abouel Fotouh is quoted as denying rumors that he had promised the Salafi Dawah and its political wing, the Nour Party, to appoint a Salafi deputy if he wins.
Besides electoral feuds, most papers have curtain raisers for today’s upcoming meeting between Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and a parliamentary delegation. In this meeting, both parties are expected to discuss thorny issues, including the Cabinet's future, the assembly tasked with writing the constitution, the recent clashes in the vicinity of the Defense Ministry, and whether the military will pass a complementary constitutional declaration to define the authorities of the president, according to Al-Shorouk.
This meeting comes a week after Parliament suspended its session in objection to the military’s reluctance to sack the Cabinet, which parliamentarians dismiss as inefficient. For several weeks, the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party — which holds more than 40 percent of parliamentary seats — has threatened to move a no-confidence vote against the Cabinet. As the interim constitution does not grant Parliament that right, the Brotherhood eventually had to back off .
State paper Al-Ahram quotes MP Margaret Azer from the liberal Wafd Party as saying that Parliament has one of two options: either to drop its initial demand to sack the Cabinet and move ahead with its legislative agenda, or to maintain the same position and suspend parliamentary sessions until the Cabinet is dismissed, or at least a reshuffle is announced. In the meantime, she complained that the Cabinet is reluctant to send the budget to Parliament, according to Al-Ahram
The same paper probes the opinions of several legal experts on whether there is a need for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to issue “a complementary constitutional declaration” before a new president is elected. Nour Farahat, a constitutional law professor at Zagazig University, is quoted as saying that a new constitutional declaration is the only alternative left if there is no intention to revive the 1971 Constitution.
He added that this additional interim constitution should specify the right of Parliament to question the Cabinet and move a no-confidence vote against it. It shall also define the president’s authorities including the right to dissolve Parliament and to veto legislation. The would-be constitutional declaration should explain how conflicts between the president and Parliament over bills should be revolved. Farahat explained that Parliament should have the right to pass a bill vetoed earlier by the president if the bill earns the support of a special parliamentary majority. Sayed Taha, a law professor at Cairo University, is quoted as saying that SCAF will set the new constitutional declaration to a public referendum before it comes into effect.
The privately owned Al-Watan newspaper reports that the People’s Assembly's Culture, Information and Tourism Committee is almost finished with the first draft of a bill envisaging the establishment of a national media authority. The paper quotes committee head Mohamed El Sawy as saying that this authority would be in charge of issuing licenses for both print and broadcast media. It would also be tasked with investigating how private media are financed to ensure their objectivity. As to how the authority’s members would be selected, Sawy tells Al-Watan: “Some people have suggested that the authority include independent personalities who have no political affiliation and do not work for the bureaucracy to ensure that they won’t be subjected to any pressure.”
Egypt’s papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Watan: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
Al-Nour: Official paper of the Salafi Nour Party
