VZCZCXRO9052
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHEG #2147/01 1920957
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 110957Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6088
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 CAIRO 002147 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR WATERS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KISL KDEM EG
SUBJECT: ELECTION PLATFORM OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD: 
POLITICAL ISSUES 
 
REF: A. CAIRO 1717 
     ¶B. 2006 CAIRO 6963 
     ¶C. CAIRO 1128 
     ¶D. CAIRO 144 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: In early June, the Egyptian Muslim 
Brotherhood (MB) released a 39-page platform in advance of 
the June 11 Shura Council elections, detailing the group's 
views on issues ranging from tourism to Copts. The MB 
document offers an unprecedented detailing of a consolidated 
MB position on a range of hot-button issues.  Embassy 
contacts report that leading MB members such as Gamal Heshmat 
have asserted that this platform will serve as the basis for 
a soon-to-be-released broader MB party platform.  The 
complete Shura elections platform can be found at the MB's 
English-language website, www.ikhwanweb.com.  This cable 
reports on the political aspects of the MB document, while a 
septel report focuses on the MB's stated economic policies. 
While the document consistently emphasizes the centrality of 
a full range of political and religious freedoms, it also 
signals a potentially contradictory commitment to more 
robustly implementing shari'a (Islamic law).  The platform 
takes a hard line on Israel, calling for severing all ties 
(signaling an implicit abrogation of the Camp David accords) 
and an economic boycott.  End summary. 
 
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ENCOURAGING NOISES ON FREEDOMS AND COPTS 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Recurring themes throughout the lengthy platform 
emphasize the centrality of freedom of faith, freedom of 
association and protest, freedom of speech, and the freedom 
to establish political parties through notification, rather 
than through the approval of the Political Parties Committee 
(as is currently the sole means by which to form a party in 
Egypt).  The platform stresses an egalitarian approach to 
Egypt's Copts, in an apparent effort to assuage Christian 
fears about the MB.  It asserts, "our Coptic brothers are 
part of the fabric of Egyptian society, and our partners in 
our homeland and its destiny.  They are equal to their Muslim 
brothers in all rights and duties, in assuming public offices 
based on professionalism and specialization ... Freedom of 
faith and worship is respectable to all.  Cooperation is a 
necessity." 
 
¶3. (U)  After declaring, "God created man free, and shari'a 
guarantees freedom for each man.  It has also pledged 
equality regardless of color, faith, gender, or ethnicity," 
the platform delineates a menu of freedoms, including, 
"freedom of faith, freedom of living, freedom to move, 
travel, and work, freedom to own a home."  It goes on to 
stress political liberties: "Everyone is free to practice 
basic political and social freedoms, as long as he/she is an 
Egyptian citizen.  These freedoms include freedom of opinion 
and expression, freedom of assembly and peaceful 
demonstrations, freedom of political action, freedom to form 
parties, the right of peaceful rotation of power through 
direct secret balloting, right to receive a trial before a 
civilian judge, not under Emergency laws."  In the midst of 
this positive language, the platform stipulates, "free 
expression should not contradict divine religions and human 
rights conventions."  The document also notes that "the 
penalty of imprisonment should be abolished from 
press-related laws" and that, "the blogging movement in Egypt 
should be supported as a window to free expression." 
 
-------------- 
VIEWS ON WOMEN 
-------------- 
 
¶4. (U) The platform states, "under shari'a, a women has equal 
rights to a man.  She has a full and independent financial 
identity, and the full right to deal with her property 
according to shari'a.  Even the differences between men and 
women under shari'a emerge from their different natures and 
social roles rather than discrimination."  The document 
advocates "increasing female voter participation" and 
"increasing the number of women elected to local councils and 
the parliament."  It also calls for "eliminating female 
illiteracy in rural areas," and the provision of legal 
protections and health insurance to female Egyptian farmers. 
 
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ISLAMIC STATE AS "CIVIL STATE," JUDICIAL 
INDEPENDENCE AND SHARI'A 
 
CAIRO 00002147  002 OF 003 
 
 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) The platform asserts, "the Islamic state is 
necessarily a civil state.  'Civil' rejects sacredness and 
the clerical identity of the state, but maintains an Islamic 
identity.  It is a state where the ruler and the nation 
integrate.  The nation elects its ruler and it has the right 
to hold him accountable and remove him if needed.  So, he is 
a civilian ruler in every regard."  Other concepts stressed 
throughout the platform are the necessity of abrogating 
Egypt's Emergency laws, the release of political detainees, 
and military courts being used only to try "military-related 
crimes or soldiers."  The platform offers a detailed 
wish-list of enhancements to judicial independence, including 
the passage of a new judicial authorities law, the use of 
civil judges (vice military) in all civilian cases, and the 
abolition of the state security prosecution.  In an 
indication of a focus on more robust enforcement of Article 2 
of the Egyptian constitution, the platform notes the need to, 
"amend laws and make them accordant with Islamic shari'a as, 
in compliance with Article 2 of the constitution, it is the 
main source of legislation." (Note: Article 2 of the 
constitution reads: "Islam is the religion of the state ... 
the principal source of legislation is Islamic shari'a."  End 
note.) 
 
¶6. (U) The platform states that full judicial supervision is 
essential to conducting free and fair elections in Egypt.  It 
notes that, "the party that wins the greatest numbers of 
votes in free, fair elections is the one that shall assume 
power and form the cabinet." With an eye to the looming 
presidential succession, the platform asserts, "succession to 
power should be through direct, free public ballot, under the 
full supervision of the judiciary."  The MB also calls for a 
two-term presidential term limit, and for "restricting the 
powers of the president because he is the representative of 
all Egyptians." 
 
------------------------------------ 
SOUR NOTES ON ISRAEL, AND "ILLNESSES 
IN EGYPTIAN SOCIETY" 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶7. (U) In contrast with previous public statements by MB 
leaders that the Camp David accords should be put to a 
national referendum (for example, the late 2006 comments by 
MB Deputy Supreme Guide Mohamed Habib, as reported ref B), 
the platform takes an unyielding hard line on Arab-Israeli 
issues.  It states, "the Zionist enemy wants more 
normalization of ties with the Arab states ... in order to 
fulfill their dream of establishing Greater Israel from the 
Nile to the Euphrates.  We therefore believe in the necessity 
of halting all forms of normalization and severing all ties 
with the Zionist entity, and to consider an economic boycott 
as the least of our duties regarding this issue."  The 
platform also calls on Arab and Islamic countries to, "work 
together to confront the challenge of the American plan to 
submit all Arab and Islamic countries to US domination - 
culturally, politically, and socially - and that calls for 
fragmentation of the region and re-drawing it in accordance 
with Zionist-American interests."  The MB advocates for an 
"immediate U.S. and British withdrawal from Iraq," and an 
Egyptian focus on cultivating Arab, African, and Islamic 
relations, as well as a broader international axis based on 
the non-aligned movement. 
 
¶8. (U) In a paragraph likely to unnerve more secular 
Egyptians, the platform notes that, "illnesses" have emerged 
in Egyptian society, including "material values and negative 
ethics."  The document stresses the need to rejuvenate the 
true "Egyptian personality," by "reviving good values and 
ethics emerging from deep faith in God .. maintaining ethics 
using all means possible (media, education, culture, and law) 
... urging people to abide by worshipping, adhering to good 
principles," and "clearing the media of all that contradicts 
the stipulations of Islam, morals, and common sense."  The 
platform, sounding a somewhat ominous note, asserts that, 
"there should be reconsideration of the current management of 
Egyptian cultural life, so as to be more harmonious with the 
Egyptian identity, in the face of threats of intellectual 
invasion and chaos ..." 
 
---------------------------------- 
EXPLAINING "ISLAM IS THE SOLUTION" 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (U) The platform poses the question "why is 'Islam the 
Solution'?," basing the query on the MB's decades-old 
 
CAIRO 00002147  003 OF 003 
 
 
recognizable slogan.  The detailed answer states: 
 
- "Because the Islamic approach has the potential for reform 
... Unique ethical values prevail, and every man wishes for 
his brother what he wants for himself ...." 
 
- "Because the Islamic system reinforces man's dignity 
without discrimination due to color, sex or faith." 
 
- "Because Islam establishes the Shura principle that 
respects the citizens will in selecting their representatives 
in all official institutions, whether in the executive 
branch, professional syndicates, or social societies.  Islam 
also stipulates the right of the people to hold their 
representatives accountable for their actions ...." 
 
- "Because Islam has Shari'a that constitutes a framework for 
progress and reform ...." 
 
- "Islam has to have a state that establishes, protects, and 
abides by its system, similar to the liberal solution that 
should have a state that establishes, protects and abides by 
its system ...." 
 
- "Islam rejects religious authority in its theocratic 
conception, which is wrongly understood by the West as ruling 
by divine right.  The state in Islam is a civil one, with the 
nation having a system and institutions based on the nation 
being the source of power ... The ruler's authority is based 
on a social contract between the ruler and the ruled that 
should be evaluated by the nation and its civil institutions 
..." 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) The issuance of the Shura elections platform allows 
the MB to counter long-standing criticism that there is no 
official platform that clarifies the group's policy views. 
While the document delineates a unified MB position on a 
variety of issues, it leaves many topics unaddressed (i.e., 
use of alcohol, wearing of the "hijab" (veil), building of 
churches, terrorism), and only shallowly touches on others 
(i.e., women's rights, tourism, foreign policy).   A fuller 
picture of the MB's views may emerge should the group issue 
its anticipated party platform, which is likely to be more 
detailed.  While the MB's Shura platform is reassuring on 
some topics, such as Coptic rights, many secular Egyptians 
will doubtless continue to be skeptical of the MB's 
credibility on such issues, troubled by the opaqueness of the 
MB's position on implementation of shari'a, and unconvinced 
of the group's commitment to abiding by the platform it has 
outlined. 
RICCIARDONE