DEMOCRACY, PROTESTANTISM, NOW HOW ABOUT CAPITALISM?:

Egypt may allow first Islamist party (Magdi Abdelhadi, 10/08/05, BBC)

An Islamist party in Egypt - which says a Christian can be head of state in a Muslim society - may become the country's first legal religious party before the end of the year, if a court rules in its favour.

Founders of the al-Wasat party have been trying for nearly 10 years to get a permission to operate. The party has already had its application turned down twice.

The Egyptian constitution bans political parties with a religious agenda.

It has long been argued that religious parties may sow sectarian conflict.

But unlike other Islamist groups, al-Wasat has invited Copts (Egyptian Christians) to join its ranks.

The party manifesto also says a Christian can become head of state in a predominantly Muslim society - a radical departure from orthodox Islamist ideology. [...]

The party manifesto could become a vote winning formula by appealing to religious sentiments of broad sectors of Egyptian society without disenfranchising the Christian minority.

Most Egyptians are religious and that is why al-Wasat believes that both Christians and Muslims in Egypt share fundamentally the same conservative outlook.

Al-Wasat - which means moderate in Arabic - calls for the implementation of Islamic Sharia law - but it adopts a modern interpretation which gives women and Christians full citizenship rights and guarantees freedom of expression and belief.

[I]f al-Wasat gets its licence, and if it can win the trust of Egypt's Christian minority, it will be a dramatic breakthrough for political opposition in Egypt.

Islamists could at last have a platform that is legal and which seeks to offer a new balance between traditional Islamic values and secularism.

Isn't Egypt supposed to be not just incapable of liberalization but a place where we don't want such democratization?

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 8, 2005 9:17 AM