EGYPT: Head of the Egyptian opposition Muslim Brotherhood says constitutional changes will curtail freedoms of the individual

The head of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood has said that the constitutional amendments passed by Egypt's Parliament and due to be put to a referendum on Monday (March 26) target the Brotherhood and will undermine personal freedoms in the country. In an interview with Reuters, the group's head, Mohamed Mahdi Akef, reaffirmed that the group, along with Egypt's secular opposition groups, will boycott the referendum. The Muslim Brotherhood is likely to be hardest hit by the constitutional changes, which will prohibit political activity based on religion and thus appear to quash the group's long-standing hopes for legal standing as a recognized political party. Akef said the recent constitutional changes were the latest in a long line of steps the government has taken to contain the Brotherhood's activities. "We started with article 76 (which deals with presidential elections) and see what the constitutional experts said about it, calling it an insult to the law? The Brotherhood expressed their opinion about this article with some peaceful demonstrations, but 3,000 were arrested. That happened, but I wish to establish very clearly the link between what happens in Egypt and the fight against the Brotherhood on one hand and the global Zionist-American project that is trying to terminate Islam and Islam's principles and values and make sure Islam is always left behind, and not to allow it any revival, on the other. The Brotherhood, being promoters of a project of revival, are thus the ones targeted by this war," said Akef. The proposed amendments include an anti-terrorism clause which appears to grant police sweeping powers of arrest and surveillance. They would also allow the president to dissolve parliament unilaterally and would weaken judicial oversight of elections, which have been marred by complaints of widespread irregularities. The government already has many of those powers by virtue of an emergency law imposed in 1981 following the assassination of president Anwar al-Sadat, but Akef says enshrining them in the constitution is a step backwards. "The present constitution, with all its shortcomings, protects the freedom of the individual, of correspondence (expression) and protects the dignity of the home, and it protects people's money. But the new project has terminated all of that - it allows all of that to be abused - freedom of the individual, his deliberations, his correspondence, not to respect his domicile, not to respect his money. This is the amendment meant to contain the Brotherhood's activities," he said. More than 35 million Egyptians are eligible to vote in the Monday referendum, but observers say that in some previous referendums the turnout has been less than 10 percent. Political analysts say Egypt wants to stop the Brotherhood, whose members won 88 of 454 parliament seats in 2005 running as independents, before the group makes more electoral gains that could help it eventually mount a serious political challenge. Hundreds of Brotherhood members have been arrested in a government crackdown over the last few months that has also seen some of the group's financial backers arrested and their finances frozen.

ITN Source | March 26, 2007

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