Muslim Brotherhood Is Considering National Coalition That Would Bypass Mistakes of the Past: Habib

Muslim Brotherhood Is Considering National Coalition That Would Bypass Mistakes of the Past: Habib

The Muslim Brotherhood is currently considering a "national coalition entity" that "avoids the mistakes of the past" and "aims at building a strong alliance between diverse Egyptian forces," Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Chairman Dr. Mohamed Habib told Ikhwanweb Friday.

Habib reaffirmed in statements to Ikhwanweb that the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) deals with other political parties and powers from a national perspective and on the basis of accepting the other.

Habib referred to previous examples of the cooperation of the Muslim Brotherhood with the Egyptian national parties for the sake of insuring the enforcement of reforms.

The Muslim Brotherhood cooperated with Alwafd liberal party during 1984 elections as well as when the MB aligned with Alamal leftist party and the liberal Alahrar party during the elections of 1987, Habib added.

In 2005, the MB has agreed with other political parties on establishing a real political life and the peaceful rotation of power through which the nation would be the main source of authority and people have the inalienable right for choosing their leaders and their MPs, Habib said.

Habib cited the annual Iftar (Ramadan banquet) hosted by the MB, where national powers are invited for negotiations and discussions over a national ground to bypass this situation of political deadlock, working for the best of Egypt.

Habib stressed on how keen the MB is on the reformation issue and bringing about change through joint national efforts.

"Change will not come by only one party no matter how strong it is, even if it was as big as the Muslim Brotherhood," Habib said.

He clarified that even though there is a lack of influential political parties on the stage, the MB is maintaining contact with the major parties such as the liberal Alwafd Party, the Nasserite Alnasery, the leftist Altajamoe and the Democratic Front Party.

Habib added that the Egyptian regime attempts to set MB aside from all national political powers in order to keep the parties separated and weaken their effect.

"Whenever the government senses any potential strength by any party it works on destroying it internally like what happened in Alamal party, Alwafd party as well as Alghad party."

Habib reaffirmed the agreement between the MB and other political powers on a number of issues such as allowing general freedoms like the freedom of establishing political parties, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of establishing organizations, freedom of demonstrations and the termination of exceptional laws and trials. He also asserted the importance of an independent judiciary and the necessity of holding free and fair elections that reflects public will.