CAIRO – A decision by Egypt’s Salafist party Al-Nour to back Egypt’s retired military chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in upcoming presidential elections has divided its supporters’ base, with many blaming the party for “opportunism” and “sacrificing” religion for politics.
“Al-Nour leaders have chosen to be pragmatic … They know Field Marshal Sisi will win and they prefer to be with the ruling power,” Mohamed, a 37-year-old Salafist who runs a Cairo pharmacy, told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Saturday, May 17.
Accusing the group of sacrificing “religion for the sake of politics”, he added, “They are simply afraid of going through what’s happened to the Muslim Brotherhood.”
“Many of my friends think they are traitors who collaborate with state security,” he said, adding that several party members had resigned.
Al-Nour, Egypt’s largest Salafi political party, appeared in a dramatic television broadcast last July to support the army’s move to oust Mohamed Morsi, the first democratically elected president in Egypt.
Appearing in the scene, the party was widely seen as a kingmaker, giving the army the religious support it needed in moving Morsi.
The party has also campaigned actively for a successful yes vote in the January constitutional referendum. It has also announced in early May its support for former defense minister and presidential contender el-Sisi.
Since July 2013, Egypt has taken a sharply authoritarian turn, with activists, protesters, and Muslim Brotherhood members jailed in what rights activists, observers, and many in the international community call an attempt to silence dissent.
The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, has vowed to continue in peaceful protests until the Islamist president is reinstated.
There has since been a severe crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood group, as well as on other activists seen as hostile to the military-backed interim government.
Last December, the Brotherhood was declared a terrorist organization after which the authorities started punishing any public show of support for it.
Eleven months from Morsi’s ouster, the party still faces accusations of basing its stand on a mix of political “opportunism” and ideology.
Mainstream Salafi scholars support “backing the ruler, regardless of him being oppressive or democratic, because the only alternative is chaos,” Omar Ashour, a Middle East expert at England’s University of Exeter, said.
Isolation
The Salafi leaders argue their pragmatism helps avoid the turmoil and bloodshed of rebellion.
“We have a long-term vision,” said Nader Bakkar, a spokesman for Al-Nour party.
The party was formed in 2011, months after an uprising overthrew Hosni Mubarak – an uprising Egypt’s most prominent Salafi scholars viewed with caution.
Al-Nour won the second largest number of seats in a 2011 parliamentary election, behind the more politically experienced Muslim Brotherhood, and it lobbied for a larger role for Islamic law in a new constitution.
“We are for the implementation of Islamic law but not a state within a state,” Bakkar said of Morsi’s Brotherhood movement, removed from power after mass protests against Morsi.
“We want a parliamentary system, not a president who monopolizes all powers,” he said.
Sisi is expected to easily win the May 26-27 presidential election. The only other candidate is leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, who came third in the 2012 election won by Morsi.
For analysts, al-Nour’s backing of Sisi’s presidential bid was expected.
“Right from the beginning, al-Nour has been supportive of the transitional roadmap and all of its details,” Abdelfattah Mady, a political science professor at Alexandria University, told Al Jazeera.
Despite absolute support to Sisi, the honeymoon between the salafist party and the army former leader seemed coming to an end soon.
In a recent TV interview, Sisi launched a strong attack against the country’s political religious groups, including al-Nour, considering their rhetoric and ideas as outdated and a threat to societal cohesion.
He even threatened to ban the religious party based on the new constitution.
“Egypt’s fabric over the last 40 years was not able to stabilise because some people are talking in a way that does not match the circumstances of the society,” Sisi said.
“They consider themselves a different category of people. This is why we are unable to live together. There is a new constitution, in which they (al-Nour) were present in drafting. The new constitution mandates that there should not be any religious parties.”
Al-Nour’s leaders were quick to assert that their party “is consistent with the rules of the constitution and political parties’ law”.
Yet, many analysts believe that parties like al-Nour will face bigger challenges than originally expected.
“The idea that political parties will have a role in the post presidential election order is unforeseeable. We are not at the beginning of a pluralistic political system that has a role for political parties,” Mady said.
“Al-Nour thinks it will have a role in the future. Some of them spoke about occupying a majority in parliament. Others believe that whole Islamist trend may not be allowed to politically exist,” Mady said.
Source :omislam.net