Muslim Brotherhood Quits Egypt’s Constitutional Advisory Panel

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Source: NYT

The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group whose political party is leading in parliamentary elections here, on Thursday accused Egypt’s interim military rulers of attempting to undermine the legislature’s authority and interfering in the writing of a new Constitution.

The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party said it was withdrawing from an advisory council being formed by the military leaders, saying that the military was trying to give the new council a major role in writing the Constitution.

On Wednesday, a member of the military council told a small group of Western journalists that to limit the power of a potential Islamist majority in the new Parliament, the military planned to give the new advisory council and the military-led cabinet major roles in forming a constitutional assembly. Gen. Mohktar el Mulla of the military council contended during the briefing that the newly elected Parliament would not represent the will of the broader Egyptian public.

The military council’s new plan and the Brotherhood’s response mark the beginning of a new round in an escalating conflict between the two sides — the military, Egypt’s most powerful institution, and the Brotherhood, its strongest political force — over the drafting of the Constitution and the military’s future role.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/world/middleeast/muslim-brotherhood-quits-egypts-constitutional-panel.html

[On the Road]

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