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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

HORROR: They might hold free elections in Egypt

19th Century French and British Imperialists share a toast over
the corpses of their new North African subjects.  We are still bombing
Libya.  Has anything really changed?

The West believes in free elections . . . just as long as the "approved" candidates win.


Your Editor watches with interest how the Western nations react in horror that Egypt might hold free elections.  For 180 years the nations of the West have either colonized North Africa or used their money and power to buy influence with the Dictators ruling these nations.  The fact that Egyptians might want to choose for themselves what direction to take is an alien thought.  The West is bombing Libya to this day trying to select which faction is allowed to rule.

The West is in fear that Egyptians might rule themselves.  Why?

There are Muslim democracies in Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia.  Somehow the world manages to go on.  The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt might win or come in 2nd or 3rd.  Who knows? 

1st Battalion Scots Guards disembarking at Alexandria on 12th August 1882:
almost one month to the day after the Royal Navy's bombardment of the city.
The people of Egypt no longer had to worry about government.  The
British would take care of that for them. 

Here is a radical thought direct from our Federalist Founding Fathers  -  how about minding our own business.  What other peoples do peacefully inside their own borders is not our affair.

Leaving peaceful peoples alone to manage their own affiars.  I know these are "radical" thoughts to modern Americans.  But Egypt has managed their own affairs for some 8,000 years now.  I suspect they can work out their own problems.

The Egyptian commission for political parties has officially registered the Freedom and Justice Party created by Muslim Brotherhood to run in the upcoming parliamentary polls, the Islamist movement said on its website, RIA Novosti reported.

The new party, which claims to be secular and completely distinct from the Muslim Brotherhood, is hoping to win around half of the parliamentary seats in the polls scheduled for September.

"The Freedom and Justice Party is officially recognized as of today (on Monday) after meeting all requirements stipulated by the New Parties Law," the committee said in a statement carried by the Egyptian Gazette website.

In order to soften its hard-line Islamist image, the party has appointed a Coptic Christian as vice president and invited Christians and women to join its ranks, although it emphasized strict adherence to Islamic values as the core of its political doctrine.

Last month, the party announced that it had about 9,000 founding members.

Royal Navy sailors tour the Egyptian batteries at Alexandria
after the bombardment of the city in July 1882

The Muslim Brotherhood, created in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna, was banned in 1954 for its alleged involvement in the attempted assassination of President Gamal Abdul Nasser.

After renouncing violence in the 1970s, the movement, although still outlawed, became a major political opponent of President Hosni Mubarak. The group was legalized four month after Mubarak was ousted as Egypt's leader amid large-scale opposition protests in February.

Although the group has said it would not take part in the upcoming presidential elections, two of its leaders, Abdul Munim Abu al-Futuh and Sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail, have already announced their intention to run for president.

Freedom and Justice Party to contest up to 50% of seats

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood revealed its plan on Saturday to contest up to 50 per cent of the parliament in the next polls, but will not field a candidate for the presidency, dpa reported.

Following a meeting of its decision-making consultative council, the group said it had decided to contest "45 to 50 per cent" of parliament's 508 elected seats in September's scheduled elections.
Egyptian supporters of Manal Aboul Hassan, one of the
Muslim Brotherhood candidates for the 2005 Parliamentary
election in Egypt. 

The Brotherhood also approved a program for their Freedom and Justice Party, which they set up after the January 25 uprising that forced former president Hosny Mubarak and his government out.

Mohamed Morsy, a spokesperson and a member of the group's guidance bureau, will head the party.

"It is not a theocratic party. It will be a civil party," Morsy told reporters, adding that the party will be "independent from the Brotherhood but will coordinate with it".

Egypt's constitution bans parties based on religion or class.

"The council stresses that it will not nominate a candidate for presidential elections of the Republic, and will not support any member of the group who runs for office," the group said.

Egypt's presidential elections are scheduled for November.

The Muslim Brotherhood ran its candidates as independents in previous elections. In 2005, they won nearly a fifth of the total in the People's Assembly, making them the largest opposition bloc in the lower house of parliament.

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