In Egypt, there is something going on that has the Muslim Brotherhood very nervous. Introduce the Salafi al-Nour Party, the ‘ultraconservatives’ looking to make their surge against the ever controversial Brotherhood movement.
After the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak it was something of a hot topic for who would rise in dominance and it looked like the only challenger would be the Brotherhood. Little to their knowledge, they were ‘outflanked’ by the Salafis. Something the Brotherhood is calling a “fundamental miscalculation.”
Feeling that they were the political powerhouse in Egypt, the Brotherhood made the mistake of letting down their guard and allowing someone else to be the influencing agent.
The underlying issue that separates these two parties is the issuance of Sharia Law.
One representative, Mohammed Yousef had this to say:
‘[Nour is] very fundamentalist. [They] see the state as a civil state with an Islamic background. All rights to all citizens would be preserved, guarded by the law and the constitution, not by religious beliefs of citizens.’
Yousef argues that “Nour sees [the Brotherhood] as a hammerhead action of totoal transformation to a sharia system.”
One voter, Mosaab Talaat had this to say about his vote for the al-Nour Party:
“They’re different than what we had before, because of their religion. Because they are Muslim, they’ll take care of Egypt.”
Talaat also thought that not only the party would be less corrupt than Egypt’s old ruling class, and that perhaps Islam combined with politics would breed less corruption.
In the end, there doesn’t look to be an end to debate in Egypt regarding who will take over. But one thing remains certain, the people are speaking up.
