Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Dr. Rafiq Habib, Vice-Chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) said: "Arab Spring democracies are true examples of ‘democracy with Islamic Reference’. Even the elites and secular forces and blocs supporting them, including Christians, are promoting concepts derived from Islamic culture, not secular or political liberalism. In fact, those elites and liberals do not seem to be trying to advocate any secular or liberal ideas; but, indeed, help establish political Islam values??".

On his Facebook page, Habib added that seculars thus help establish a political system with Islamic reference, that is mainly based on inherited traditional culture, and that this means secular forces do not have any acceptable political ideas that can be successfully advocated for among the people.

"Secular forces took a negative attitude of the election results. So, now they’re talking about national consensus, reconciliation and representation of all the people – all of which are concepts based on inherited social-solidarity ideas common in the Arab-Islamic culture. All of which are also contrary to the norms of Western democracy, and contrary to the meaning of political competition and the purpose of political elections.

"So, we can say that, practically, no-one is trying to defend Western-style democracy, and no-one is trying to spread secular ideas. Therefore, what’s developing in Arab Spring countries, from the first moment, is ‘democracy with Islamic reference’ par excellence."