Is Egypt ready for a secular party?
Attempts to establish a secular party are springing up in Egypt, but can the country accept what this party preaches?
CAIRO — Every now and then, activists and politicians raise the idea of starting a secular party in Egypt. But faced with controversy, they quickly reconsider their proposals due to political unrest and security concerns in the country.
Such efforts date back to the era of former President Hosni Mubarak, stirring controversy over whether a secular party would violate the successive Egyptian constitutions and whether it impugns religious beliefs. However, a current attempt may be the most important to date. Supporters claim they have been collecting signatures to launch the Egyptian Secular Party, but say they are facing wide criticism in the media.
Bahaa el-Maghawry, a political science professor at Cairo University, told Al-Monitor, “The general political and social atmosphere in Egypt is still against the establishment of a purely secular movement,” despite some analysts’ predictions that Egyptians would refuse a religious government after the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood. Columnist and former parliament member Mustafa Bakri asserted in his TV program, “My Responsibility,” which aired May 1 on the satellite channel Sada el-Balad, that the party contradicts the state’s constants, notably Islamic law. He described the party’s founders as collaborators and crazy people.
Ali Gomaa, a former grand mufti of Egypt, also slammed the secular party concept May 4 in his CBC TV show, “Allah Aalam” (“God Knows”).
