Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Analyst: Past Wafd affiliations with MB proved successful

Internal differences within the Wafd Party has had Kamal Zakher, coordinator of the Front for Secular Copts and Wafd Party member submitting his resignation to the party this week with allegations that the party is moving towards a greater understanding with the Muslim Brotherhood.

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Internal differences within the Wafd Party has had Kamal Zakher, coordinator of the Front for Secular Copts and Wafd Party member submitting  his resignation to the party this week with allegations that  the party is moving towards a greater understanding with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Zakher's resignation comes in response to a series of incidents including the visit by Sayed el-Badawy the Party leader to the Brotherhood in July. Zakher has viewed the party’s recent affiliation with the MB us unacceptable stressing that the 90-year-old Wafd party has adhered to advocating broadly liberal politics since its inception; he added however that he has no problem with an Islamic ideology but believed  that it should not be part of an avowedly liberal party. He insisted that he would not return unless there were guarantees that there would be no Islamization of the party.

Al-Badawy, however, has maintained that, “there will not be any association with the Brotherhood in the coming elections." Likewise the MB group has reiterated that they have not collaborated with other political opposition for the upcoming elections and any collective work currently under way pertains to the call for political reform and constitutional amendments to benefit all Egyptian citizens.
Diaa Rashwan, political analyst with the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, argues with Zakher’s opinion stressing that he doesn't see the party's move as part of a wider tendency towards Islamization. Rashwan continued that any association with the Muslim Brotherhood does not necessarily mean a change in ideology.

He highlighted however that former Wafd Party leader Foad Serag Eldeen had worked closely with the Brotherhood in prior  elections proving the experience extremely successful.