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Re: Clear ASS PICK, I TOLD YOU SO Egypt Revolts, declares Israel their Number One Enemy

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Re: Clear ASS PICK, I TOLD YOU SO Egypt Revolts, declares Israel their Number One Enemy

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Re: Clear ASS PICK, I TOLD YOU SO Egypt Revolts, declares Israel their Number One Enemy

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Re: Egypt Revolts, declares Israel their Number One Enemy

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Re: Clear ASS PICK, I TOLD YOU SO Egypt Revolts, declares Israel their Number One Enemy

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Re: Clear ASS PICK, I TOLD YOU SO Egypt Revolts, declares Israel their Number One Enemy

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Re: Clear ASS PICK, I TOLD YOU SO Egypt Revolts, declares Israel their Number One Enemy

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Re: Clear ASS PICK, I TOLD YOU SO Egypt Revolts, declares Israel their Number One Enemy

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Re: Clear ASS PICK, I TOLD YOU SO Egypt Revolts, declares Israel their Number One Enemy

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Re: Clear ASS PICK, I TOLD YOU SO Egypt Revolts, declares Israel their Number One Enemy

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Re: Egypt Revolts!

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Re: Egypt Revolts!

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Re: Egypt Revolts!

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Re: Egypt Revolts, declares Israel their Number One Enemy

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Re: Egypt Revolts! Israel clears out its embassy

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Egypt Revolts; Muslim Brotherhood considers fielding candidate for President of Egypt

Posted by Olog-hai on Fri Mar 23 01:37:12 2012, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Mar 21, 4:47 PM EDT

Egypt's Brotherhood mulling run for president

By MAGGIE MICHAEL
Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most powerful political group, said Wednesday it is considering running its own candidate in upcoming presidential elections, dropping its previous decision to avoid direct participation in the race.

The group appears to be playing one of its last cards in a power struggle against the ruling military council, after it failed to force the military to replace its Cabinet with a new one appointed by the Islamist-dominated parliament.

If a Brotherhood fields a candidate and wins the presidency, the group would control the two main branches of power. In parliamentary elections, the first since a popular uprising unseated President Hosni Mubarak last year, it won nearly half the seats.

Since then, the Brotherhood has sought to allay fears of local liberals as well as Egypt's Western allies about an Islamist takeover by saying it would not field its own candidate for president. Elections are set for May 23-24.

That appears to have changed. Mahmoud Hussein, the Brotherhood's general secretary, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that his group has been "forced to consider the option of fielding a candidate from its own ranks."

Besides rejecting its demand for a new Cabinet, Hussein charged that the generals are working behind the scenes to persuade presidential candidates to turn down Brotherhood support.

"When we reach out to some people, they either refuse because they feel they are not up to the mission or they come under pressure from the military council," he said. He declined to give names.

Another factor is that younger Brotherhood members are disobeying the group's leadership by supporting a former Brotherhood leader, Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, who was expelled from the movement after he announced his decision to join the race.

Abolfotoh, a strong presidential hopeful, also has the backing of some liberals, who see him as a reformer.

For the Muslim Brotherhood to field a candidate after expelling Abolfotoh for defying its ban on running would be seen as double standards, said Essam Sultan, a lawmaker from the Wasat, or Centrist, party.

"The Brotherhood is in real crisis over the tremendous support Abolfotoh has among its youth, but it will be in a double crisis if tries to solve this by fielding" another candidate, Sultan said.

The name of the Brotherhood's deputy chairman, Khairat el-Shater, has been mentioned in local media as the group's likely candidate.

Critics warn the Brotherhood against taking too much on itself just a year after it emerged from decades of operating in the shadows as an illegal organization.

"It would be a fatal mistake, because they would be faced with huge challenges," said Mohammed Habib, a former deputy leader of the group who quit last year, citing the group's undemocratic policies.

The ruling military council has presidential powers to dismiss Cabinets and form new ones. Under Egypt's interim constitution, the parliament doesn't have the power to take a no-confidence vote in the military's hand-picked government.

In heated parliament sessions, the Brotherhood along with other political parties have harshly criticized Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri, a 78-year-old Mubarak-era premier, for failing politically, economically and even over internal security.

El-Ganzouri, appointed in November by the military council, has taken criticism for ineffective handling of explosive issues such as a political spat between Egypt and the United States over U.S.-funded democracy groups, a deadly soccer stadium riot that killed at least 74 people, a surge of armed robberies and other crimes and periodic shortages of fuel and cooking gas.

Sultan said that the government is "fabricating" crises such as fuel shortages in an attempt to reduce the Brotherhood's support among the people.

"The military council, through its government, is telling the people, 'look, your representatives are not able to solve your problems,'" Sultan said.

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Egypt Revolts, but still gets $1.3B in military aid despite Islamists in government

Posted by Olog-hai on Fri Mar 23 13:51:18 2012, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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U.S. approves Egypt military aid despite rights fears

By Andrew Quinn
Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:46pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The Obama administration on Friday formally released $1.3 billion in military aid for Egypt despite Cairo's failure to meet pro-democracy goals, saying U.S. national security required continued military assistance.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton waived congressional conditions imposed late last year that tied U.S. aid to progress in Egypt's transition to democracy following the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak.

"These decisions reflect America's over-arching goal: to maintain our strategic partnership with an Egypt made stronger and more stable by a successful transition to democracy," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.

Clinton's decision, which has been criticized by some U.S. lawmakers, took note of Egypt's progress since last year's street revolution, including holding parliamentary elections and preparing for a presidential election in May.

But a crackdown on pro-democracy forces — including some U.S. groups — over the last several months infuriated lawmakers in Washington and caused the Obama administration to warn Egypt that its aid might be in peril.

Political analysts said the U.S. move showed that Washington still hopes to maintain its influence with Cairo, although they said these hopes may be misaligned with the political transition occurring in the country.

"They keep banking on the military as our partner in Egypt, and that does not comport with the reality in Egypt now," said Michele Dunne, director of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council.

"The military still has some influence, but civilian institutions such as the parliament, and a new president to be elected in May ... are going to become much more important. And I think they are making a real mistake here, just placing their bet with the military."

U.S. officials said the decision to release the aid also avoided disruption of existing defense contracts, which could have led to expensive termination costs that could have exceeded $2 billion.

Uncertain Transition

Congress has approved $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt — the same level the country has received for years — for this fiscal year, which ends on September 30. Congress also approved $250 million in economic aid and up to $60 million for an "enterprise fund."

Clinton further certified that Egypt is meeting its obligations under its peace treaty with Israel, an additional requirement for U.S. aid to flow.^BS!

Some U.S. lawmakers have criticized the move, saying it was inappropriate to waive conditions on military aid while the Egyptian government's transition was so uncertain.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate subcommittee on foreign aid who wrote the law imposing conditions on aid, said the United States should release no more money than is "demonstrably necessary."

"The Egyptian military should be defending fundamental freedoms and rule of law, not harassing and arresting those who are working for democracy," Leahy said on Thursday.

The State Department said it remained committed to helping Egypt further its democratic gains, including protections for civil society groups and non-governmental organizations.

"We remain deeply concerned regarding the trials of civil society activists — non-Egyptians and Egyptians alike — and have raised these concerns at the highest levels, urging an end to harassment," the U.S. statement said.

The law still requires Clinton to consult congressional appropriators before any funds are actually transferred to Egypt, and U.S. officials said they would be keeping a careful eye on Egypt's political development.

"We have the flexibility to adjust what is being disbursed out of this assistance and we obviously ... will be watching the situation on the ground to decide if we need to exercise that flexibility at any time," one senior U.S. official said.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell and Arshad Mohammed. Editing by Christopher Wilson)

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Re: Egypt Revolts, but still gets $1.3B in military aid despite Islamists in government

Posted by Avid Reader on Fri Mar 23 14:22:38 2012, in response to Egypt Revolts, but still gets $1.3B in military aid despite Islamists in government, posted by Olog-hai on Fri Mar 23 13:51:18 2012.

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Re: Egypt Revolts, but still gets $1.3B in military aid despite Islamists in government

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Re: Egypt Revolts, but still gets $1.3B in military aid despite Islamists in government

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Re: Egypt Revolts, but still gets $1.3B in military aid despite Islamists in government

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Re: Egypt Revolts, but still gets $1.3B in military aid despite Islamists in government

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Re: Egypt Revolts, but still gets $1.3B in military aid despite Islamists in government

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Re: Egypt Revolts, but still gets $1.3B in military aid despite Islamists in government

Posted by orange blossom special on Sat Mar 24 18:05:06 2012, in response to Re: Egypt Revolts, but still gets $1.3B in military aid despite Islamists in government, posted by Avid Reader on Fri Mar 23 19:03:06 2012.

Praise be to Allah. With the grace of Allah, the head of unbelief and polytheism, known as Shenouda, died yesterday, may Allah exact revenge from him. God’s worshippers and the trees and the animals were all relieved by his death.
....
We should be happy that he died. Let him go to Hell. May Allah exact revenge from him in the Hellfire – from him and from all those who follow his path.

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Re: Egypt Revolts, but still gets $1.3B in military aid despite Islamists in government

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Egypt Revolts; Islamists Tighten Grip On Power

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Mar 25 17:48:18 2012, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Mar 25, 5:28 PM EDT

Egypt's Islamists tighten their grip on power

By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's newly-empowered Islamists have tightened their grip, giving themselves a majority on a 100-member panel tasked with drafting a constitution that will define the shape of the government in the post-Hosni Mubarak era.

Led by the Muslim Brotherhood to victory in parliamentary elections, fundamentalists now have their eyes set on the next prize: the presidency.

The new constitution will decide whether Islam will gain even more strength in Egypt, abandoning decades of secular traditions that made the nation a top U.S. ally and a bulwark against extremism.

The charter also will determine whether the decades-old system of a powerful president will be maintained, or instead, an empowered parliament under Islamist domination will set the tone.

"We don't want another pharaoh," said Yasser Burhami, a leader of the ultraconservative Salafi movement whose followers have won 25 percent of parliament's seats. "We want a political system that is half parliamentary and half presidential."

A list of names published Sunday by the country's official news agency showed that the panel will have nearly 60 Islamists, including 37 legislators selected the day before by parliament's two chambers. The second half of the panel comprises public figures, also selected by members of parliament.

The strong Islamist showing follows their victory in parliamentary elections — a seismic shift for groups that were heavily repressed under Mubarak but have used the vast organizational skills gained over years of working underground to rise to the upper political echelons.

It also reinforced fears by secular and liberal Egyptians that the dominant parliamentary faction would pack the panel with supporters and ignore concerns of other groups, including the youth activists who spearheaded last year's uprising against Mubarak's authoritarian regime.

"The Brotherhood's monopoly on setting the criteria for selecting the constitutional assembly leaves us skeptical of whatever promises they make," prominent rights activist Hafez Abu Saedah wrote on his Twitter account.

Just a handful of Christians and women were selected for the panel, reflecting the disproportionately low representation in parliament of both groups. There also were only a few names from the revolutionary movement that ousted the leader.

One significant exception, however, was Ahmed Hararah, a young dentist who lost sight in one eye during the uprising and later lost his second eye in clashes that broke out between security forces and protesters calling for a faster transition to civilian rule in Cairo. He has become a symbol of the revolutionaries.

With the parliament and the constitutional assembly firmly in hand, Islamists are turning their attention to presidential elections, which are to be held on May 23-24, with a runoff between the two candidates with the most votes in early June if nobody wins an outright majority. The winner is expected to be announced June 21.

Neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor the Salafis — which are sometimes at odds over policy — have publicly backed a candidate, but both groups say they will only support one with an Islamist background.

The importance of the presidency to Islamists became clear Sunday with the eruption of a public dispute between the Brotherhood and the generals who took power following Mubarak's ouster.

The Brotherhood's political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, accused the military council of trying to "hinder" the transition to democratic rule. In a statement posted on its website, it also raised concern that presidential elections could be rigged to benefit a "certain candidate" it did not identify.

The party, it added, is studying proposals to field its own candidate, reversing an earlier decision not to do so.

The military and the Brotherhood have emerged as Egypt's two most powerful forces, and an enduring quarrel between the two could put in serious jeopardy the transfer of power promised by the military for before the end of June.

The Islamist party charges that the military-backed government has failed to resolve any of the crises facing the nation, including an acute fuel shortage, rampant crime and a worsening economy.

"The (ruling) military council bears full responsibility for attempts to hinder the process of democratic transition and ... exporting crises to future governments," said the party's statement, suggesting that the military and the Cabinet were manufacturing the problems to discredit a future government likely to be led by the Brotherhood.

The generals responded quickly with a statement carried by the official news agency. They called attempts to cast doubt on the integrity of the forthcoming presidential elections "baseless" and pointed out they were the ones who planned and carried out recent parliamentary elections. The vote was widely viewed as the freest in the nation's modern history.

Liberal lawmakers, meanwhile, say a permanent constitution should not be written only by those who won a majority in a single election, but rather by representatives of Egyptians from all walks of life and ideological persuasions.

Some Islamists previously indicated that they would seek to write the constitution by "consensus," but the parliament's two chambers jointly decided last week to allocate half of the panel's seats to its own members, three-quarters of whom are Islamists.

About half of those are from the Brotherhood, which until now has been vague about what it wants the constitution to include. But they also include ultraconservatives known as Salafis, many of whom have called for the constitution to reflect hard-line interpretations of Islamic Sharia law. Such a move could lead to the revocation of relatively liberal family laws on divorce and other issues, and lower the minimum age for marriage for both sexes.

The country's most prominent democracy advocate, Mohamed ElBaradei, was not included on the panel, though his public opposition to Mubarak's regime in the year leading up to its overthrow injected energy into the youth groups that engineered last year's uprising.

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Egypt Revolts—Liberals, leftists resign from constitutional committee, citing Islamist usurpation

Posted by Olog-hai on Tue Mar 27 00:59:31 2012, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Liberals and leftists resign from constitution-writing panel in Egypt

By Leila Fadel
Published: March 25, 2012

CAIRO — Egypt’s liberals and leftists vowed Sunday to boycott a crucial body tasked with writing the nation’s constitution, accusing Islamist parties of trying to dominate the process as the country lurched toward a political crisis.

Early Sunday, after a lengthy voting session, the parliament chose the 100-member body that will write the document. The constitution will delineate the powers of the once all-powerful president and the parliament and define the role of religion and minority rights in post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt.

Liberals and leftists accused the two most powerful Islamist parties of packing the assembly with their supporters to ensure a constitution steeped in Islamic ideology. Islamists took more than 70 percent of legislative seats. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party alone has nearly half of the seats in the newly elected parliament.

“We are going to boycott this committee, and we are going to withdraw and let them make an Islamic constitution. We are going to continue struggling for a secular Egypt in the streets,” said Mohammed Abou el Ghar, head of the Social Democratic Party, who was elected to the assembly but has resigned his post. “We agreed that this will be a balanced committee and it will represent all views of Egypt. But as you can see, there is no representation of secular Egypt.”

As agreed by the parliament last week, 50 members were chosen from the parliament and 50 members were chosen from other sectors of society. Ghar and other liberals and leftists said the panel has little representation of women or Egypt’s minority Christian community. Ghar said his party, along with the liberal Free Egyptians and the youth party known as “the Revolution Continues,” all agreed to withdraw from the constitution-writing process. At least eight people had resigned their positions on Sunday and Ghar expected others to follow.

Ghar said it was unfair that a group of lawmakers chosen in one election would draw up a document that could last decades.

“Who knows what the next election will bring. Maybe the liberals and leftists will be the majority. So how can Egypt’s constitution be written by a group of people who happen to be elected at one point in history?” he said in an interview.

The Revolutionary Youth Union, a group of activists, issued a statement accusing the Freedom and Justice Party of putting its interests “before those of the country,” and “following the same methods of the dissolute National Democratic Party [Mubarak’s Party] in controlling all positions and all political matters in the country alone, purposefully eliminating everyone outside the Brotherhood.”

The group urged Egyptians to join a protest Wednesday outside parliament when the constituent assembly is scheduled to meet for the first time.

The Freedom and Justice Party fired back at the accusations, declaring that the assembly “included all factions, directions and institutions,” and was representative of Egypt’s artists, political parties, journalists, prominent figures and Christian and Muslim institutions.

“The constituent assembly was not taken over by the Freedom and Justice Party as some have said,” the statement said.

According to the rules agreed on by parliament, if someone resigns from the assembly, a person selected from a list of 20 alternates will replace them.

Special Correspondent Ingy Hassieb contributed to this report.

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Re: Egypt Revolts—Liberals, leftists resign from constitutional committee, citing Islamist usurpation

Posted by SelkirkTMO on Tue Mar 27 01:06:01 2012, in response to Egypt Revolts—Liberals, leftists resign from constitutional committee, citing Islamist usurpation, posted by Olog-hai on Tue Mar 27 00:59:31 2012.

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Egypt Revolts, and "no-one can stop the Brotherhood" (not even the military)

Posted by Olog-hai on Tue Mar 27 01:10:42 2012, in response to Egypt Revolts!, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 28 16:01:55 2011.

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Muslim Brotherhood asserts its strength in Egypt with challenges to military

By Leila Fadel
Published: March 25, 2012

CAIRO — As Egypt’s ruling generals near the end of their formal reign, the country’s main Islamist party is asserting increasing authority over the political system and openly confronting the powerful military.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s growing influence came into sharp focus Sunday as its political wing and other Islamists established a dominant role in the 100-member body chosen by the parliament to write the country’s new, post-revolutionary constitution. Liberals and leftists vowed to boycott the assembly, and at least eight withdrew from it, accusing the Islamist parties of taking over the process.

The move came just days after the Brotherhood said it was considering putting forth a presidential candidate from its ranks, something it had promised not to do.

The rift between the once-underground group and the military burst into the open this weekend, with the Brotherhood issuing a scathing statement calling the military-appointed government a failure and raising concern over the credibility of the upcoming presidential election. The military council fired back Sunday, condemning the Brotherhood for “doubting” the institution and making “fabricated” allegations.

The Brotherhood and its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, were initially hesitant to challenge the military after the revolt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak last year. But the Islamist movement became emboldened after winning nearly half the seats in parliament in elections that ended in February.

Now, its leaders are going so far as to oppose the generals’ private requests for immunity from prosecution for accusations of killings and mistakes committed during Egypt’s political transition, something they were open to just two months ago. They are demanding the dissolution of the military-appointed government of Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri.

Some in the Brotherhood leadership are even ready to go after the military’s economic holdings. Brotherhood members are calling for various military industries, estimated at 5 to 45 percent of the nation’s economy, to be placed under parliamentary oversight and added to the national treasury. The military has fiercely resisted that prospect.

“There’s been a major shift in Egyptian politics,” said Shadi Hamid, an expert on the Brotherhood at the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center. “The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is entering its lame-duck stage. At this point, no one can stop the Brotherhood.”

The aged and increasingly unpopular generals are still in control of Egypt, a longtime U.S. ally considered a linchpin for Middle East peace. But the Brotherhood has been able to leverage its influence using the parliament, which is likely to become a key vehicle for channeling popular concerns, analysts said. Already, the military council has been forced to cave on several key issues amid public discontent.

Some analysts said the growing confrontation might endanger the political transition, with presidential elections less than two months away.

The Brotherhood, however, appears emboldened and ready to challenge the military. As the group consolidates power, it is increasingly willing to take up issues popular with its constituents but anathema to the ruling generals, said Marc Lynch, director of the Institute of Middle East Studies at George Washington University.

That includes questioning the continued acceptance of around $1.5 billion in U.S. aid, which mainly goes to the military. Although that money has helped forge a strong bond between Washington and Cairo, many Egyptians see it as a payoff for Egypt’s subservience.

Lynch said, however, that he expects the Brotherhood will stop short of outright confrontation and will instead try to maneuver the generals aside as quickly as possible without destabilizing Egypt.

Brotherhood leaders have portrayed themselves as pragmatists who will maintain the country’s peace treaty with Israel and focus on the country’s unemployment and poverty rather than social issues such as banning alcohol.

The Brotherhood’s more assertive stance has come after months of maneuvering through the murky military-led transition that followed Mubarak’s fall. Critics of the Brotherhood have accused the Islamist group of cutting backroom deals with military rulers to secure the organization’s rise to power and remaining quiet about military missteps and abuses when others protested.

“The Brotherhood is searching for power, and the military council is looking for a safe ticket out,” said Ibrahim Mohyeldin, a member of parliament from the liberal Free Egyptians party. “They have a deal.”

The Islamists have denied any such pact.

In the Brotherhood’s new headquarters in suburban Cairo, top officials made it clear that they now agree on little with the military council — the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF — other than the plan to transition to an elected president by the end of June. But they also remain cautious.

“We don’t have a honeymoon relationship with SCAF, as some people think, and we don’t have a tough relationship with them, either,” Mahmoud Hussein, the secretary general of the Brotherhood, said in a recent interview. “We praise them when they do something good, and we criticize them when they do something bad.”

But the criticisms are mounting. Mahmoud Ghozlan, the Brotherhood spokesman who just two months ago advocated immunity for the generals, said the group changed its position when it became clear the Egyptian people had rejected the idea. Ghozlan and Hussein signaled that the group intended to go after the generals’ previously sacred military production budget.

“When there are [military-owned] companies for water bottling, agricultural companies, petrol stations, food products, why should all those stay a secret?” Ghozlan said.

Liberals and leftists worry that the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups will leave them marginalized. They point to the Brotherhood’s huge role in the constitutional assembly, which will draft a document that will map out the role of religion, the executive and parliamentary powers and minority rights in the new Egypt.

“We are going to boycott this committee, and we are going to withdraw and let them make an Islamic constitution. We are going to continue struggling for a secular Egypt in the streets,” said Mohammed Abou el-Ghar, head of the Social Democratic Party, who was elected to the assembly but has resigned his post.

He noted that Brotherhood officials had said initially the committee would represent all Egyptians’ views. “But as you can see, there is no representation of secular Egypt,” he said.

The Brotherhood’s political wing denied the accusations on Sunday, calling the assembly diverse and representative.

At least 60 percent of the 100 assembly members are Islamists or have Islamist backgrounds. That reflects the role played by the parliament — where Islamists were elected to more than 70 percent of the seats — in choosing the members.

Inside the parliament building, Sobhi Saleh, a leading member of the Brotherhood’s political wing, walks with an unmistakable swagger. In a recent interview, he said the liberals and secularists who worry the Islamist ascendancy will cut them out should face the facts and work with the Brotherhood.

“After the revolution, the Brotherhood became a reality that no one can ignore,” he said.

Special correspondent Ingy Hasseib contributed to this report.

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Re: Egypt Revolts—Liberals, leftists resign from constitutional committee, citing Islamist usurpation

Posted by WMATAGMOAGH on Tue Mar 27 04:03:12 2012, in response to Egypt Revolts—Liberals, leftists resign from constitutional committee, citing Islamist usurpation, posted by Olog-hai on Tue Mar 27 00:59:31 2012.

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Egypt Revolts; Muslim Brotherhood names candidate for President of Egypt

Posted by Olog-hai on Sat Mar 31 18:38:21 2012, in response to Egypt Revolts; Muslim Brotherhood considers fielding candidate for President of Egypt, posted by Olog-hai on Fri Mar 23 01:37:12 2012.

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In U-turn, Egypt's Brotherhood names presidential candidate

By Marwa Awad and Sherine El Madany
Sat Mar 31, 2012 5:15pm EDT

CAIRO (Reuters) — Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, in a policy U-turn, on Saturday named its deputy leader and businessman Khairat al-Shater as its presidential candidate for a vote in May after initially pledging it would not run for the nation's top job.

The Brotherhood said it changed tack after reviewing other candidates in the race and after parliament, where its Freedom and Justice Party controls the biggest bloc, was unable to meet "the demands of the revolution", a reference to its mounting criticism of the ruling army's handling of the transition.

Given the Brotherhood's strong showing in the parliamentary election and its broad grass-roots network, the group's backing for a candidate could prove a decisive factor. Although analysts say name recognition may also play a role in this race that could help others such as former Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

Analysts said the move suggested the Brotherhood, on the brink of power for the first time in its 84-year history, was worried it could have that power snatched away after decades of repression at the hands Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted last year.

"We have witnessed obstacles standing in the way of parliament to take decisions to achieve the demands of the revolution," said Mohamed Morsy, head of the Freedom and Justice Party.

"We have therefore chosen the path of the presidency not because we are greedy for power but because we have a majority in parliament which is unable to fulfill its duties in parliament," he said announcing the decision to put forward Shater.

The move will worry liberals and others who are already fretting about the rising influence of Islamists after they swept parliament and now dominate an assembly writing the new constitution.

Shater, 61, submitted his resignation as one of three deputy leaders of the Brotherhood when he was picked as candidate, the group said. Like many members of the group that was banned under Mubarak, Shater spent years in jail. He is was freed shortly after Mubarak was toppled.

A Brotherhood member told Reuters that 56 of 108 members of the Brotherhood's shura, or advisory, council voted to pick Shater as the Brotherhood's candidate and 52 voted against it.

"Those who went against the candidacy of Shater at first changed their minds and supported him afterwards," said Mohamed Badie, the Brotherhood's leader.

"Breaching A Promise"

The group had said it did not want one of its members in the top office to avoid being seen as monopolizing power and alienating those who did not back the group in post-Mubarak Egypt. "We do not have the desire to monopolies power," the FJP's Morsy said after Shater's candidacy was announced.

But the decision to field Shater could draw criticism, particularly after the group expelled another member, Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, when he said he would run in spite of the Brotherhood's pledge not to seek the presidency.

"This is not only a breach of their promise, but deliberate defiance of the (ruling) Supreme Council of the Armed Forces," said a Western diplomat, adding the U-turn suggested the group was worried others could disrupt its rise to power.

"The Brotherhood are so close to power they can smell it, but they are so scared that someone else will snatch it from them," the diplomat said.

The ruling army council has pledged to hand power back to civilians by July 1 after a new president is elected, although analysts expect the generals to hold influence from behind the scenes long after that.

The Brotherhood has become increasingly critical of the government army-appointed Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri. The group wants to lead the formation of a new government based on their dominance of parliament. The army has rejected this and under the existing constitution has powers to form cabinets.

"The truth is that they are proving each day that power is their only goal," Ahmed Said, head of the liberal Free Egyptians Party told CBC TV, saying the Brotherhood appeared to have taken the decision when it found "that they can't control the government".

Shater was arrested in 2006, along with other senior members of the group, and jailed in 2007 by a military court on charges including supplying students with weapons and military training.

Jail terms can bar access to elected office for a period, but the Brotherhood said this would not derail his candidacy. "When Shater's name was considered, our lawyers said there is no legal obstacles facing his candidacy," the group's leader, Badie, said.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Tolba, Writing by Sherine El Madany; Editing by Edmund Blair and Alison Williams)

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Re: Egypt Revolts; Muslim Brotherhood names candidate for President of Egypt

Posted by Olog-hai on Sun Apr 1 00:18:37 2012, in response to Egypt Revolts; Muslim Brotherhood names candidate for President of Egypt, posted by Olog-hai on Sat Mar 31 18:38:21 2012.

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Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood nominates presidential candidate

By Ingy Hassieb and Leila Fadel, Published: March 31, 2012

CAIRO — Egypt’s most powerful Islamist organization on Saturday nominated one of its members for president, breaking a promise that it would not enter the race and angering critics who called the decision an attempt to control the country.

The Muslim Brotherhood announced at a news conference that Khairat el-Shater, the group’s top financier and arguably its most influential member, would be the candidate of its political wing, as a rift grows between the Islamist group and the country’s ruling military leaders.

The group recently said it was considering fielding a candidate in the May election only because it was concerned that former regime figures backed by the ruling military council would win if it did not.

The Muslim Brotherhood is the most powerful political force in Egypt, and its political wing won nearly half the seats in the newly elected parliament. But at least two other prominent Islamists are running for president, and the Brotherhood’s move could split the vote.

Since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak more than a year ago, the Brotherhood had said it would not nominate a candidate. When a progressive member of the organization, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, announced his intent to run last year, he was ousted from the group for breaking the rules.

Critics of the Brotherhood and some within its ranks said that nominating Shater, a business tycoon and the group’s top strategist, would chip away at the organization’s credibility.

Analysts also said that the move is potentially dangerous for the Brotherhood. The next year will be a difficult period of transition as Egypt moves from military to civilian rule, and the economy has continued to stagger. If Shater becomes president, the Brotherhood could be blamed for the growing economic woes and other problems.

“Everything is risky for them now,” said Issandr El Amrani, a prominent Cairo-based blogger and analyst. “I suspect they decided to do this because they want to maximize their ability to govern and were unable to find either a consensus candidate or a trusted proxy.”

The presidential election is scheduled to begin May 23, but the parliament has only just appointed the panel tasked with writing a new constitution, which would delineate the powers of parliament and the president. But even that is controversial, with non-Islamists angry about the number of Islamists on the body. The constitution will most likely not be completed by the time the president is elected.

Shater, who was imprisoned multiple times under Mubarak, resigned his post in the Brotherhood on Saturday to become the Freedom and Justice Party’s candidate.

“We affirm that the Muslim Brotherhood does not seek power in order to reach a position or to achieve wealth or status, but seeks to fulfill the purpose it was created and worked for in the past year, which is satisfying God,” said Mahmoud Hussein, the group’s secretary-general.

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