May 17, 2012
FSM HOT TOPICS
Egypt's Islamists Gain Votes, Tunisian Leader Regresses
by THE GLOBAL MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD DAILY REPORT December 5, 2011
Global media is widely reporting that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has won 36.6 percent of the vote in the first round of elections, slightly less than the 40% that had been earlier reported. According to an AP report, the Salafi party captured 24.4%:
CAIRO — Islamist parties captured more than 60 percent of the vote in the first round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, according to partial results released Sunday.
The Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, garnered 36.6 percent of the 9,734,413 valid ballots cast for party lists. The Nour Party, a more hardline Islamist group, captured 24.4 percent of the vote, according to figures provided by the High Election Commission.
The partial results only give an indication of how the new parliament will look like, as two more rounds of voting in 18 of Egypt’s 27 provinces are yet be held in the multi-stage voting that will run through January.
The elections, which began Nov. 28, are the first since protests that forced authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak to step down on Feb. 11 after three decades in power and hand over control to a military council. Turnout of around 60 percent was the highest in the country’s modern history as few participated in the heavily rigged votes under Mubarak.
The early results indicate Islamist parties are set to control the majority of the parliament.
The new parliament, in theory, is tasked with selecting a 100-member panel to draft a new constitution. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has suggested that it will choose 80 of those members. The ruling generals have also indicated that the parliament will have no say in naming a new government.
The ballots are also a confusing mix of individual races and party lists, and the Sunday results only reflect the party list performance for less than a third of the 498-seat parliament.
The liberal Egyptian Bloc came in behind the two Islamist lists with 13.4 percent of the votes. Another liberal list, the Wafd Party, received 7.1 percent, while the moderate Islamist Wasat or Centrist Party took 4.3 percent.
It is not yet clear whether the Islamist parties will form one coalition inside the parliament, or the Brotherhood will seek to ally with the liberal forces against the more radical Nour Party.
The final shape of the parliament will not be announced before January. The next step in the complex process, a round of runoffs between individual candidates competing in the first round, is set to begin Monday.
Related posts:
- BREAKING NEWS: Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Wins No Seats In Parliamentary Elections
- BREAKING NEWS: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Withdraws From Parliamentary Elections
- Kurdish Muslim Brotherhood Wins Nine Seats In Parliamentary Elections
- BREAKING NEWS: Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Says It Leads In Election
- Muslim Brotherhood In Bahrain Expects To Win Seats In Parliamentary Elections
Moroccan media has reported that Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi was among the first of the Islamic scholars to congratulate the Justice and Development Party (JDP) on its recent parliamentary victory. According to a report in the Morocco World News:
The final results of the legislative elections in Morocco that resulted in the historic win of the moderate Islamist PJD with 107 seats in the parliament is still drawing much attention.
The Egyptian Islamic Scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi was among the first Islamic scholars to congratulate the PJD’s leaders for their victorious win.
The Doha-based Muslim scholar sent a formal letter to the PJD’s Secretary General Abdelilah Benkiran, the soon-to-be-appointed Head of Government, to congratulate him and urge him to continue his hard work to meet the aspirations of the Moroccan people who entrusted his party with the majority of votes.“In my name and the name of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, we congratulate the Kingdom of Morocco, its great people, its wise leadership with the highest expressions of congratulations and appreciation in the free and honest parliamentary elections after the recent constitutional reforms that we hope will be for the better for the people and the country,” Al-Qaradawi stated.
Al-Qaradawi also expressed that “it is with a great pleasure and joy” that he “received the news of the win of the Islamic Development and Justice Party.” “We would like to affirm to your blessed party to always look forward towards the interests of its nation in the light of the Quran, the tolerant teachings of the Sunnah and the Islamic Shari’a. We also hope that it will present the true image of our great tolerant Islam, and that it will be in accordance with the other loyal nationalist parties and the righteous people for a collaborative work to watch over the needs of the people, and to confirm to the Moroccan people that their trust was put in the right place, of which we are sure,” he added.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi has praised on several occasions the reforms that King Mohammed VI has been taking since his enthronement to guarantee more development and political socio-economic changes for his nation.
In June, African media reported on comments by Abdelilah Benkiran stridently objecting to freedom of religion and tolerance of homosexuality.
A previous post reported that in March, a JDP leader was one of the participants at conference that brought together an unusual and significant number of participants from the Global Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian Brotherhood, and other Islamist movements that also included Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of the Tunisian political party tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood that was victorious in recent elections there.
Qaradawi, a virulent anti-Semite is often referred to here as the most important leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood, an acknowledgement of his role as the de facto spiritual leader of the movement. In 2004, Qaradawi turned down the offer to lead the Egyptian Brotherhood after the death of the Supreme Guide. Based in Qatar, Sheikh Qaradawi has reportedly amassed substantial wealth through his role as Shari’ah adviser to many important Islamic banks and funds. He is also considered to be the “spiritual guide” for Hamas and his fatwas in support of suicide bombings against Israeli citizens were instrumental in the development of the phenomenon. A recent post has discussed a video compilation of Qaradawi’s extremist statements.
Related posts:
- Qaradawi Organization Congratulates New Somali President
- Jordan Muslim Brotherhood Congratulates Libyans; Wants Same “Struggle” in Palestine
- Iran Congratulates Youssef Qaradawi For Boycotting Religious Dialog Conference
- Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Congratulates Tunisia On Elections
- Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood Performs Poorly In Parliamentary Elections
The Point de Bascule blog has translated an article titled “Rachid Ghannouchi praises a Saudi scholar who advocated that the earth is flat.” The post begins
According to the Tunisian website BusinessNews.tn.com, Rachid Ghannouchi has recently written an article praising Adbulaziz Ibn Baz (Ibn Baaz) (1910-1999), a Saudi scholar known for advocating that the earth is flat. The article was published by the Saudi magazine Koll al Watan on November 14. BusinessNews.tn.com mentions other positions upheld by Ibn Baz in the past. Point de Bascule has translated this portion of the article:
Tunisie – Rached Ghannouchi devra-t-il passer le flameau ? (Tunisia – Will Rachid Ghannouchi Have to Pass the Torch?
(Translation PdeB) (…) “We hear that, while in exile, Rachid Ghannouchi has revised his strategy. Is it really the case? Since Ghannouchi came back to Tunisia, the Islamist movement claims to support democratic freedoms. It tries to get rid of its scarecrow image «wholly fabricated» by years of media blackout ordered by two Tunisian dictatorships. Ennahda changed its tune but can hardly convince. They have been unable, so far, to demonstrate their sincerity. By condemning certain gains made in modern Tunisia, some of Ennahda’s leaders are not reducing the suspicion surrounding the movement.”
“Ennahda’s leaders keep on making mistake after mistake. Their speeches are troubling and ambiguous. Let’s recall three of these statements that upset the crowds recently:
Souad Abderrahim criticised the fact that legal protection for single mothers was being discussed;
Hamadi Jebali promoted the establishment of a sixth caliphate;
Sadok Chourou advocated the charia-isation of the Tunisian Constituent Assembly.”
Read the rest here.
Rachid Ghannouchi (many spelling variations) is the leader of the Tunisian Islamist movement known as Nahda (aka Ennahda, Al Nahda) and can best be described as an independent Islamist power center who is tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood though his membership in the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and his important position in the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), both organizations led by Global Muslim Brotherhood Youssef Qaradawi. An Egyptian news report has identified Ghannouchi as a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood “abroad.” Ghannouchi is also one of the founding members of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi organization closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and dedicated to the propagation of “Wahabist” Islam throughout the world. Ghannouchi is known for his thinking on the issue of Islam and citizenship rights. Earlier posts reported on the return of Mr. Ghannouchi to Tunisia following his long exile in the UK. Other posts have detailed his extremist background.
It appears now that Mr. Ghannouchi’s party has been successful in the recent Tunisian elections, he has begun to make the rounds of the various Global Muslim Brotherhood organizations. An earlier post discussed the invitation by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) to Mr. Ghannouchi as an invited speaker to its December conference. The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, announced on Tuesday that it was hosting a special dinner for Mr. Ghannouchi.
Related posts:
- Rachid Ghannouchi Identified As Muslim Brotherhood Foreign Leader
- MIDEAST CRISIS: Rachid Ghannouchi Says He Will Return To Tunisia
- BREAKING NEWS: MPAC Will Host Rachid Ghannouchi At Special Dinner Tonight
- Rachid Ghannouchi To Speak To U.K. Muslim Brotherhood
- Rachid Ghannouchi Visits IHH Headquarters In Istanbul; Praises Necmettin Erbakan
Reproduced With Permission from The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report.
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