Tensions flare among Egypt Islamists
2013-02-18 21:08
Cairo - President Mohamed Morsi's decision to fire a hard-line
Islamist as an adviser has laid bare rivalries between Egypt's two biggest
Islamist groups as parliamentary elections approach.
The sacking of Khaled Alameddin of the Salafi Nour Party
on Sunday has led his movement to step up criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood
that propelled Morsi to power, narrowing the already slim chances of the two
movements working together in the election.
Alameddin broke down in tears during a news conference on
Monday, saying he had been accused of abusing power. The presidency has yet to
issue a statement on why Alameddin was dismissed.
"I formally demand an apology from the president. I
won't accept an apology less than that," Alameddin said.
Another of Morsi's advisers from the Nour Party, Bassam
El-Zarka, announced his resignation at the news conference, apparently in
solidarity with Alameddin.
The Nour Party, which emerged from the ultra-conservative
religious movement Daawa Salafiya, came second to the Muslim Brotherhood in
Egypt's last parliamentary elections, the results of which were overturned by a
court ruling last June. New elections are due to begin in April or May.
Since the last legislative vote, the two movements have both
co-operated and clashed.
Nour backed a Brotherhood rival, Abdel Moneim Abol
Fotouh, in the first round of the presidential election. But it swung behind Morsi
in the second-round run-off against Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak's last prime
minister.
Mursi employed several Nour Party members as advisers.
The groups co-operated to drive through an Islamist-tinged constitution
approved in a December referendum, deepening a national divide between
Islamists and their opponents.
Widening differences
But in recent weeks the Nour Party has sought to distance
itself from the Brotherhood, whose popularity has been dented by a deepening
economic crisis and a stand-off with political rivals who say it wants to
monopolise the institutions of state.
The Nour Party did not take part in a pro-Morsi rally
called last Friday by another hard-line Islamist party.
"The Brotherhood has become more radioactive from
the Nour Party's standpoint now," said Shadi Hamid, director of research
at the Brookings Doha Centre.
"They [Nour] want to present themselves as the pure
Islamic alternative."
Nour has sought to defuse tension between Morsi's
presidency and Egypt's liberal and leftist opposition, an apparent attempt to
burnish its image as a responsible, mature political player.
The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has
poured cold water on the initiative.
The FJP, which won about 40% of seats in the last
elections, said last week it aimed to secure an outright majority in the next
parliament.
Nour Party spokesperson Nader Bakkar said Alameddin had
been dismissed without proper investigation, and took a stab at Morsi over
accusations that his family had recently benefited from connections by securing
state employment for one of his sons.
A media furore over the appointment of Omar Morsi at a
firm affiliated to the civil aviation ministry forced him to forgo the job on
Sunday.
Hamid at the Brookings Doha Centre said there was no
"natural affinity" between the two Islamist groups. "There has
always been a tense relationship," he said.
