Abu El-Fotouh: Caliphate is a Political Concept

Dr. Abdel-Moneim Abu el-Fotouh, member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Executive Bureau, in an interview aired on the satellite Dream T.V. channel, stated that the Islamic Caliphate, is a political and not a religious concept. It is a sort of a federation of Muslim States in a system of integration and cooperation in economic and political fields. All Muslim peoples, and not the MB alone, seek to achieve this kind of integration and federation.

On the question of “citizenship”, it is very clear in the thought of Muslim Brothers. Citizenship, he said, is the basis for rights and duties in the country and Copts are part of Egypt. Indeed, the first Copt to enter the People’s Assembly (Egypt’s parliament) on party lists was included on the list of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in the 1987 legislative elections.

Muslim Brothers, Abu el-Fotouh stressed, are against an aggression by a Muslim State against another Muslim State and they were the first to condemn the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.

Muslim Brothers, Abu el-Fotouh stated, do have a clear program and they announced in March 2003 an initiative for political reform (Muslim Brothers’ Initiative for Political Reform).
On the occasion of the latest legislative elections in Egypt, they distributed the Muslim Brothers’ Reform Program.

Election of the General Guide of the MB, he emphasized, takes place every six years and is conducted in free, fair and democratic elections.
Under the current political climate, we cannot proceed to organize open internal elections, given the fact that the last time we announced our intention to hold elections for the Guidance Bureau- the top executive office- the Egyptian regime imposed a security clampdown on us and arrests and detentions of Muslim Brothers are continuing.