(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - “Muslims around the world expect great things from you,” Essam el-Erian, deputy head of the Brotherhood’s new political party, told supporters crowded into a tent, with men across the aisle from women, who wore headscarves or black veils. “We have to build a nation of freedom and equality, a nation of the true Islam.”
The scene, like many in Egypt now, was inconceivable before president Hosni Mubarak’s Feb. 11 removal from power. Under Mubarak’s autocratic regime, the Brotherhood was banned. Tens of thousands of its members were arrested, many tortured, and its gatherings were held largely in secret.
Now, with Mubarak gone, the Brotherhood is storming into the open, appealing to religious voters and trying to win over Egypt’s poor. It is likely to be part of Egypt’s next government, with a hand not only in ruling but also in writing a new constitution. Its strength has fueled fears among many Egyptians that it will turn what began as a pro-democracy uprising in the most populous Arab nation into Islamic rule.
In one of Cairo’s most prominent mosques, the Brotherhood’s top leader, Mohammed Badie, paused in the combination sermon-campaign speech he was delivering from an ornate niche marking the direction of Islam’s holy city of Makkah. A child next to him, with a green Brotherhood sash across his chest, took the cue to break in with a chant.
“God is great!” the boy piped up. The crowd of more than 1,000 men, seated on the carpets of the Amr ibn Al-As Mosque, echoed back, “God is great, God is great!” “Egypt’s revolution was produced by none other than God Almighty,” Badie resumed. “The days of `no religion in politics and no politics in religion’ ended long ago.”
As Egypt races toward its first free and open parliamentary elections, planned for September, the Brotherhood’s power in the new Egypt comes down to a raw count: How many seats it wins. In this country of 80 million, Egyptians are expected to vote in unprecedented numbers. Their preferences have never been measured before.
The 90-year-old Brotherhood, with its hundreds of thousands of activists, has a leg up on more secular activists scrambling to form parties from scratch. For the first time, it has formed a political party, holding rallies nationwide, from rural towns to urban slums.
The 90-year-old Brotherhood, with its hundreds of thousands of activists, has a leg up on more secular activists scrambling to form parties from scratch. For the first time, it has formed a political party, holding rallies nationwide, from rural towns to urban slums.
It has revved up social services that long helped build its following. In the city of Alexandria, young Brothers clean streets and fill potholes. In Kafr Mit Fatek, a tiny Nile Delta farming village, a traveling clinic of Brotherhood doctors gives families free dental work, checkups and gynecological exams.
El-Erian, the party’s deputy head, says parties must work together for several years to entrench a democratic system.
“Maybe after that, everyone can compete without any problems,” he said.
The vision they have for Egypt: a “civil state with an Islamic basis.” It is a vague formula, and the Brotherhood is under pressure to make clear what it means. It could promote broad slogans, like “Islam is the solution,” and draw support from resentment of Mubarak.
Now Brotherhood officials on Television talk shows are questioned whether they will ban alcohol or implement Islamic punishments. Their answer: It is not the time. The time may never come, they say, and if it does it will only be with voters’ consent.
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