(DNE/ Hassan Ibrahim)
Al-Nour party leader Younes Makhioun said on Saturday that his party had accepted the military’s interim roadmap to “prevent bloodshed and civil war in the country”.
In an interview on Al Hayah television programme, Makhioun said protests supporters of overthrown president Mohamed Morsi will “produce no good” as the “Egyptian people require stability”. Explaining why they Al-Nour supported the army after 30 June, he said: “The benefits of the movement were higher than what Morsi had planned.”
Al-Nour party leaders earlier made conflicting statements on whether they would agree on joining the 50 member constitutional drafting committee. The party previously expressed disapproval of the 50 member constituent committee, denying they would participate, only to later go back on this and announce their participation.
Makhioun said during the interview that the party decided that their “absence will lead to a disadvantages in the constitution. We want it to be a fair constitution by the inclusion of all factions.” By participating, they hoped to “defend the principles of the 25th of January revolution and preserve the Islamic identity within the revolution.”
The former dentist described the 10-member constitutional committee, responsible for the initial amendments of the 2012 constitution, as “a committee which wanted to eliminate the Arabic and Islamic identity from Egypt.” The party had previously denounced the decision by the 10-member constituent committee to delete article 219, which states that “principles of Share’a are the main source of legislation”. Makhyoun said: “Since June 30 it was as if someone used a microscope to delete all Islamic related articles.”
Regarding the party’s ambivalent stance on the current roadmap presented by the military Makhioun explained that the party “had reservations on the death of protesters and the unlawful arrests…after the killing of protesters at the revolutionary guard headquarters we decided to distance ourselves from the roadmap.”
Makhioun described the deaths of the Abo Zaabal prisoners inside a police truck as “horrendous”, asking: “How could 37 die while they are in the state’s custody?”
Al Nour party’s political alliances were also questioned, to which Makhioun responded: “Egyptian people are our allies because we as a party are not biased…our stances have always been evident as we do not have a hidden agenda.”
The interviewer, Sherif Amer, requested the party head to respond to claims that Al-Nour party was a “Trojan horse for the Muslim Brotherhood in the next Egyptian political phase.” Makhioun denied the accusation, saying: “We as a party have stood against the Muslim Brotherhood in many of their policies, our situations on the previous presidential plans were evident, the Muslim Brotherhood only heard themselves.” Makhioun affirmed that if “[the Muslim Brotherhood] had heard us they could have reached a better situation.”
