Sasha
1st January 2013, 23:26
Salafists reshape alliances ahead of polls
Al Nurl leader quits to form new party
By Ramadan Al Sherbini Correspondent
Published: 15:38 January 1, 2013
Cairo: Nearly two months before Egypts parliamentary elections, the ultra-conservative Salafist party Al Nur is facing a hard test of survival. Emad Abdul Ghafur, the head of Al Nur, which gained 26 per cent of the now-dissolved legislatures seats, quit to establish a new Salafist party.
Abdul Ghafur, an incumbent aide to President Mohammad Mursi, and some ex- senior officials in Al Nur were set yesterday to launch Al Watan (the Country) Party and unveil an alliance with other ultra-conservative Islamists to compete for all 498 seats that will be up for grabs in the upcoming elections.
Leaders of the nascent party have said they would ally with Hazem Abu Ismail, a widely popular Salafist whose bid for Egypts president was aborted last year because his late mother held a US passport in violation of presidential candidacy criteria.
We withdrew from Al Nur because we felt it has no democratic mechanisms, said Kamal Abdul Jawad, a senior official in Al Watan. We decided to break away and establish our own party that seeks to unify ranks with followers of the Islamist current, he added.
Other founders said that Al Watan is open to all Egyptians, including the minority Christians.
In the pervious parliamentary elections, Egypts first since Hosni Mubaraks ouster, Islamists gained more than two thirds of seats with Mursis powerful Muslim Brotherhood securing nearly half of the legislature. Islamists were banned and oppressed under Mubarak who ruled the country for nearly 30 years until he was toppled in an uprising in February 2011.
Al Nur looks at pains to put on a brave face despite the latest secessionism. Abdul Ghafur is now part of a page that should be closed, said Nader Bakar, the spokesman for Al Nur. Our party has registered members of 180,000 around the country whereas the number of those who quit does not exceed 38, Bakar told a press conference in Cairo Monday. He would not say if Al Nur would ally with other Islamist parties in the run-up to the coming elections.
Some Salafists, who espouse the creation of a religious state in Egypt with a strict version of the Sharia law, have claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood seeks to undermine Al Nur allegedly in retaliation for its criticism of the Brotherhoods perceived meddling with Mursis way of ruling.
In an apparent bid to cast Al Nur as a moderate Islamist forum, Tareq Fahim, an official in the party, said that the party will not set conditions for women wishing to run for parliament on its lists.
In the pervious polls, Al Nur made it obligatory for its female parliamentary hopefuls to wear the niqab or the full face veil. At the time, the party infuriated pro-women groups by replacing pictures of women contenders on its campaign posters with flowers.
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/egypt/salafists-reshape-alliances-ahead-of-polls-1.1126419
Al Nurl leader quits to form new party
By Ramadan Al Sherbini Correspondent
Published: 15:38 January 1, 2013
Cairo: Nearly two months before Egypts parliamentary elections, the ultra-conservative Salafist party Al Nur is facing a hard test of survival. Emad Abdul Ghafur, the head of Al Nur, which gained 26 per cent of the now-dissolved legislatures seats, quit to establish a new Salafist party.
Abdul Ghafur, an incumbent aide to President Mohammad Mursi, and some ex- senior officials in Al Nur were set yesterday to launch Al Watan (the Country) Party and unveil an alliance with other ultra-conservative Islamists to compete for all 498 seats that will be up for grabs in the upcoming elections.
Leaders of the nascent party have said they would ally with Hazem Abu Ismail, a widely popular Salafist whose bid for Egypts president was aborted last year because his late mother held a US passport in violation of presidential candidacy criteria.
We withdrew from Al Nur because we felt it has no democratic mechanisms, said Kamal Abdul Jawad, a senior official in Al Watan. We decided to break away and establish our own party that seeks to unify ranks with followers of the Islamist current, he added.
Other founders said that Al Watan is open to all Egyptians, including the minority Christians.
In the pervious parliamentary elections, Egypts first since Hosni Mubaraks ouster, Islamists gained more than two thirds of seats with Mursis powerful Muslim Brotherhood securing nearly half of the legislature. Islamists were banned and oppressed under Mubarak who ruled the country for nearly 30 years until he was toppled in an uprising in February 2011.
Al Nur looks at pains to put on a brave face despite the latest secessionism. Abdul Ghafur is now part of a page that should be closed, said Nader Bakar, the spokesman for Al Nur. Our party has registered members of 180,000 around the country whereas the number of those who quit does not exceed 38, Bakar told a press conference in Cairo Monday. He would not say if Al Nur would ally with other Islamist parties in the run-up to the coming elections.
Some Salafists, who espouse the creation of a religious state in Egypt with a strict version of the Sharia law, have claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood seeks to undermine Al Nur allegedly in retaliation for its criticism of the Brotherhoods perceived meddling with Mursis way of ruling.
In an apparent bid to cast Al Nur as a moderate Islamist forum, Tareq Fahim, an official in the party, said that the party will not set conditions for women wishing to run for parliament on its lists.
In the pervious polls, Al Nur made it obligatory for its female parliamentary hopefuls to wear the niqab or the full face veil. At the time, the party infuriated pro-women groups by replacing pictures of women contenders on its campaign posters with flowers.
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/egypt/salafists-reshape-alliances-ahead-of-polls-1.1126419