Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Says Organization Will Press for Liberal Political Reforms
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

CAIRO, Egypt — On the verge of unprecedented representation in the national assembly here, the Muslim Brotherhood is vowing to pursue a political reform agenda not much different from the secular liberal opposition vanquished in last month’s parliamentary elections.
The deputy of the banned organization, Mohammed Habib, told The New York Sun that the brotherhood would press for liberal political reforms and greater development assistance to poor people when the next session of parliament convenes on December 17. When asked about Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, however, he said he believed eventually it should be re-evaluated and favored a referendum on the first treaty whereby an Arab country formally recognized the Jewish state.
The Muslim Brotherhood, an organization widely seen as the first modern Islamist movement has secured 86 seats out of the 454 in parliament in an election process that has been marred by repression from the government and cheating. In the last parliament, the Muslim Brotherhood had 15 seats. The views of the Muslim Brotherhood are important because the organization’s ideology has provided the inspiration for more radical Islamists like Al Qaeda’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. If the elections succeed in tempering the Muslim Brotherhood here, it could weaken the global jihad movement.
“We know our numbers are not going to be enough to erect new laws or stop ones we don’t like,” Mr. Habib said in an interview in the Cairo apartment that serves as the group’s national headquarters. “But we have a chance to enhance the political discussion here.”
With graying hair and an easy smile, Mr. Habib, in appearance and language, is almost the mirror opposite of Sayyid Qutb, the Muslim Brotherhood writer whose virulent anti-Western philosophy inspired Mr. al-Zawahiri. In the interview, Mr. Habib said when he visited America in 1978 to study geology at Missouri State University, he came away, “with no harsh feelings for Americans.” Mr. Qutb, on his visit to the country in 1949, reflected that America was a “soulless” land in which no Muslim should aspire to live.
The first priority for Mr. Habib is to lift the emergency law that has been in effect since a splinter group from the brothers, known as Gamaa Islamiya, assassinated President Sadat in 1982.
“We are looking to expand freedoms of the press, the right of parties to assemble, annulling extralegal military courts and expand the role of the judiciary so it is more independent,” Mr. Habib said. Those priorities are very similar to the liberal coalition formed a little more than a year ago known as “Kafaya,” the Arabic word for “enough.” It also echoes the agenda of Ayman Nour, the liberal opponent to President Mubarak in the September presidential elections. In some part, this may explain why the brothers cooperated in some rallies with the more liberal opposition. Specifically, the brothers want to restrict the tenures and powers of the presidency and enumerated in Articles 76 and 77 of the constitution.
When asked about what the brothers would do with regard to Israel, he said, “Foreign relations need to be built on what is good for the Egyptian people.”
The brotherhood has maintained close financial ties with Hamas, an organization that still formally rejects the two-state solution and officially seeks the destruction of Israel, since the organization was formed in the 1980s.
“There has been a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel since 1978. Every treaty should be reevaluated every five years. Is this treaty good for the Egyptian people?”
When pressed, Mr. Habib did not go so far as to say he would favor a new war between Egypt and Israel, but he did say he would call for a referendum on the peace treaty and push to renegotiate it so that the terms were better for the Palestinian people.
On the question of the role of Islam in Egyptian society, Mr. Habib was careful to say that he did not believe there should be any institution above the national assembly or constitutional courts to determine whether laws contradicting Islamic law. That view is in marked contrast to the arrangement in Iran, where a council of clerics can and often does overrule the legislature.
“We are completely committed to pluralism in Egypt,” he said.
But Mr. Habib also said that the brothers favored the application of Article 2 of the constitution, which he says provides that Islam should be the “source of legislation,” and the “official religion of the state of Egypt.” “We will not support legislation that contradicts the principles of sharia,” he said.
On three occasions, Mr. Habib stressed that the brotherhood would not seek in the next parliament legislation on either foreign policy or the role of Islam in Egypt. And while the national agenda for the brothers stresses these secular reforms, at their rallies last month a favored chant was, “Islam is the solution.
Some pro-reform analysts here are skeptical.
“I don’t believe them,” the editor of the al-Ahram center’s Democracy Journal, Hala Mustafa, said. “They have called for censorship for things, they give attention to the Islamic character of the country and call for Islamizing the whole society and culture, they will do the same in this parliament.” The al-Ahram center is an arm of the ruling party here, but Ms. Mustafa has at times publicly criticized the government’s tactics against voters and demonstrators.
She said she believed the Muslim brothers sought to align themselves with the secular opposition in order to appear palatable to the West and because a more forthright campaign based on Islamic initiatives would not be popular.
“They want to group themselves with the secular opposition to have more influence against the regime to open up the system, they know they are stronger than the other type of opposition,” she said. “Also this is a way to legitimize themselves to the international community.”
Mr. Habib, in the interview, seemed to have an eye to the rest of the world as well.
“There is no doubt that the freedom we had in this election was because the rest of the world has put pressure on Mubarak to have real elections,” he said.