Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood presidential hopeful to “push for sharia”

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Muslim Brotherhood's candidate for Egypt's presidency, Khairat el-Shater, has pledged to press for the implementation of sharia (Islamic law) if elected, a Muslim think tank said on Wednesday, April 4, AFP reported.

Shater, whose candidacy for the May election sent political shock waves throughout the post-uprising country, said implementing the sharia was "his first and final goal," said the Legal Authority for Rights and Reform after meeting with him on Tuesday.

Shater, who stepped down as the Brotherhood's deputy leader to run, said "he would work to form a group of scholars to support parliament in achieving that goal," according to a statement on the group's website.

The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party calls for an "Islamic, constitutional and democratic" state, but not a "theocracy," which it defines as rule by religious men. The Muslim Brotherhood advocates an Islamist state achieved through peaceful means.

Shater is said to be “committed to the constitution and Article 2, which all Egyptians agree on."

The constitution was suspended by the military after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak last year. Article 2 stipulates that the principles of Islamic law are the main source of legislation.

But there is not universal interpretation of sharia. Many Coptic Christians, who comprise about 10 percent of Egypt's 80-million-strong population, worry about the growing power of Islamists in the country, but Shater's campaign official said he would guarantee them their rights.

Secularists and liberals are also concerned. Mainstream Islamic scholars say sharia, which stipulates punishments such as amputation for theft and stoning for adultery, offers Christians and Jews protection under an Islamic state. But they believe that only Muslim men can rule.