Burnz
BANNED
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2011
- Messages
- 342
- Reaction score
- 0
CAIRO: Egypts ruling military council has amended election rules to ban the use of religious slogans, a move the Muslim Brotherhood said on Sunday may prompt it to reconsider using its traditional campaign phrase Islam is the solution.
The Brotherhood was banned under the ousted President Hosni Mubarak but ran candidates as independents, who could be identified on posters by the radical groups well-known slogan.
Many liberal politicians and Egyptians have been worried by the rising influence of the Brotherhood since the uprising. The group has sought to quell concerns by saying it wants a pluralist democracy and did not want to impose Islamic law.
Electoral campaigns based on the use of religious slogans or on racial or gender segregation are banned, a military council decree issued late on Saturday said, adding violators could face three months in jail and be fined.
The election committee earlier said the Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice party could not use the slogan, prompting some members to insist it should be allowed. But Brotherhood officials took a softer line after the army decree.
The slogan is a way of life for us but it isnt necessarily an electoral slogan, Mohamed El-Beltagy, a senior figure in the Freedom and Justice party, told Reuters after the decree.
We might reconsider using it in the elections in light of the conditions and might replace it, with other slogans, he said. The Brotherhood has been more accommodating of the army than some activists, which analysts say is because it does not want to disrupt an election process that will strengthen its role and prevent a return to repression it faced under Mubarak. Voting in a parliamentary election starts on Nov. 28.
Egyptian law bars political parties based on religion, just as it did under Mubarak. But the Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice party won approval by saying Islam was a reference and it was a civil party that did not seek to impose Islamic law.
One radical group that sought to establish a party was barred. The parties committee said that was because it called for implementing Islamic law and also because one of its founders had been jailed over his role in the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, barring him from politics.
Egypt bans religious slogans in vote; Mubarak party men want right to contest elections - Arab News
The Brotherhood was banned under the ousted President Hosni Mubarak but ran candidates as independents, who could be identified on posters by the radical groups well-known slogan.
Many liberal politicians and Egyptians have been worried by the rising influence of the Brotherhood since the uprising. The group has sought to quell concerns by saying it wants a pluralist democracy and did not want to impose Islamic law.
Electoral campaigns based on the use of religious slogans or on racial or gender segregation are banned, a military council decree issued late on Saturday said, adding violators could face three months in jail and be fined.
The election committee earlier said the Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice party could not use the slogan, prompting some members to insist it should be allowed. But Brotherhood officials took a softer line after the army decree.
The slogan is a way of life for us but it isnt necessarily an electoral slogan, Mohamed El-Beltagy, a senior figure in the Freedom and Justice party, told Reuters after the decree.
We might reconsider using it in the elections in light of the conditions and might replace it, with other slogans, he said. The Brotherhood has been more accommodating of the army than some activists, which analysts say is because it does not want to disrupt an election process that will strengthen its role and prevent a return to repression it faced under Mubarak. Voting in a parliamentary election starts on Nov. 28.
Egyptian law bars political parties based on religion, just as it did under Mubarak. But the Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice party won approval by saying Islam was a reference and it was a civil party that did not seek to impose Islamic law.
One radical group that sought to establish a party was barred. The parties committee said that was because it called for implementing Islamic law and also because one of its founders had been jailed over his role in the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, barring him from politics.
Egypt bans religious slogans in vote; Mubarak party men want right to contest elections - Arab News
