Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood calls for civil disobedience
Thu Jun 30, 2005
Mohammed Habib, deputy supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood speaks in Cairo during an inaugural meeting of the National Alliance for Reform and Change to which the Brothers invited all of the country's political forces.(AFP/Khaled Desouki)
CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood movement called for nationwide civil disobedience as a means of increasing pressure on President Hosni Mubarak to end his 24-year rule.
The banned but tolerated group made the call during an inaugural meeting of the National Alliance for Reform and Change (NARC), a grouping of activists of various political persuasions united in their desire to see Mubarak step down.
The Brotherhood had invited all of the country's political forces to join the newly formed alliance, but only the centre-right Wafd party sent a representative to the event attended by about 1,000 activists.
"The Wafd party is honoured to join this alliance," party delegate Mohammed Alwan told participants. He added that his party supported the Brotherhood's call for civil disobedience to force Mubarak out of office.
"We are not weak, but the government is exploiting our differences," said Magdy Hussein, former editor of the banned Al-Shaab newspaper, mouthpiece of the Islamist-oriented Labour party.
The weight of the new alliance remains limited, with only 19 MPs in the 454-seat parliament, four of them from the legal Wafd party.
The remaining 15 are part of the bloc controlled by the banned Muslim Brotherhood but all of them entered the house as independents, including the only deputy from the Labour party, whose activities have been suspended.
Nasserist activist and founder of the still unregistered Al-Karama party Hamdeen Sabahi said he sympathized with the Brotherhood initiative, although he declined to be part of the new movement.
"The Brothers are the big force that the Egyptian street is in dire need of," he said.
The meeting was chaired by the Brotherhood's deputy supreme guide Mohammed Habib.
Hundreds of Brotherhood supporters were arrested during a May crackdown that followed a wave of street protests. Most of them have since been released.
Habib said the new alliance would have a general secretariat and committees.
The 77-year-old Mubarak has yet to announce if he will seek a fifth six-year term in elections scheduled for September, Egypt's first contested presidential polls.
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