His performance was poor, and he excluded the opposition. But the opposition turned the political conflict into an ideological conflict, which we [the Strong Egypt Party] are against. The conflict between the authority and the opposition should remain a political conflict based on political differences. It should not be an ideological conflict. No, he should have called for a referendum for early presidential elections and remained in power until a new president was elected and handed power to him.
That would have respected the constitution, even though we were against that constitution. Having a gap in power means a new revolution is taking place. The Strong Egypt Party is against this revolution; we have to complete the January 25 revolution. The country is now in chaos and is again experiencing military rule. How do you explain your change from conservatism to more openness? The change occurred because of [my] involvement in society and my dealings with people, as well as reading and receiving information.
I am also influenced by the first main figures of the Muslim Brotherhood who came out of prison in and had a moderate view of Islam, especially Umar al-Tilmisani and Shaykh Mohammed al-Ghazali.
You have said that you oppose labels for political parties such as Islamist, civil, or Islamic? I am opposed to making a distinction between religious parties and civil parties. The division between Islamic and civil parties exists in the media [only].
I am against the idea that our party and the National Salvation Front are civil parties and the Freedom and Justice Party and al-Nour are Islamic parties, because Islamic parties are still civil parties and civil parties are not against Islam.
In , he was among those who, unlike the historic leaders of the Brotherhood who dragged their heels at first, welcomed with open arms the uprising launched by young people against the Mubarak regime. He was thus one of the first public figures to join the demonstrators in Tahrir Square. For a time, he was very well placed in the polls, ahead of the Nasserite Hamdin Sabahi and on a par with the military candidate Ahmed Shafik.
He managed to obtain the support of people as different as the Internet activist Wael Ghonim, who saw him as a compromise between the representatives of the old regime and the Islamists, and the Salafist Nader Nakkar, the young spokesperson for the far right Islamist Al-Nour Party, in search of allies in its rivalry with the Brotherhood.
Morsi was a last-minute replacement for Khairat El-Shater whose candidacy was rejected by the electoral commission. His goal was to bring together the Islamists and the secular opposition forces around a program advocating economic modernization and social integration.
Soon his party joined in the protests against the Morsi presidency. He took part in the street demonstration of 30 June which was to legitimize the military coup, which he nonetheless condemned, proclaiming his determination to participate in the restoration of the democratic process.
Published On 30 Jun The family also stressed that his condition was getting worse due to medical negligence. More from News. It has now put up its own presidential candidate and demands that members of the group support him.
The doctor's own generation helped revitalise political Islam and the Brotherhood as student activists in the s. He openly criticised the restrictions on campus protests and Muslim preachers, making the president angry about his lack of respect.
The young Islamist was to end up in jail for the first time, along with hundreds of Sadat's opponents, just a month before the president was assassinated in He was imprisoned again by President Hosni Mubarak from to in a crackdown on the Brotherhood, and was detained for several months in In his recent memoir, A Witness to the History of Egypt's Islamic Movement, Dr Aboul Fotouh recalls the intransigence of his own conservative religious beliefs in the early '70s.
As a co-founder of the first cell of the Islamic Group al-Gamaat al-Islamiyah he believed that violence was permissible to spread the message of Islam and establish an Islamic state. Looking back now, Dr Aboul Fotouh condemns the group's members for their intolerance and "intellectual terrorism". He stresses how his contact with Muslim Brotherhood leaders moderated his views. He was among many Islamic Group members who broke away to join the older organisation.
The doctor was to serve on the member Guidance Bureau of the Brotherhood from to Increasingly he had become one of its most liberal and democratic voices, at times contradicting official views.
He said, for example, that women and Copts should have the right to run for the presidency in Egypt.
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