Egypt's Moslem Brotherhood was stunned by criticism from al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawaheri over its participation in parliamentary elections, according to a report Saturday by Asharq al- Awsat newspaper. Brotherhood spokesman Essam al-Erian told the Pan Arab daily that al-Zawaheri, whose latest video tape was aired by al-Jazeera satellite channel Friday, was the only person not to view the Moslem Brotherhood's participation in December's elections positively.Egyptian-born al-Zawaheri, regarded as al-Qaeda number two after Osama bin Laden, implied in the tape that the Brotherhood was being toyed with by the Egyptian regime and the United States by being allowed to achieve its biggest win ever in the elections in which it took 20 per cent of the seats. He pointed to the Brotherhood's past electoral losses the experience of Algerian Islamists in the early 1990s, suggesting that Islamists would always be blocked by domestic and foreign powers from taking power via the ballot box. Al-Zawaheri's comments come at a time when plans by the extremist Hamas organisation to run in Palestinian legislative elections later this month have renewed the controversy over whether Islamist groups should be allowed to participate in elections.
Al-Erian charged that al-Zawaheri's criticism put the al-Qaeda man in the ranks of the ultra-secularists, and voices in the regime and the West that attacked the Brotherhood's participation in the elections. Opponents of Islamists' participation in elections say that a win by any such group would mean an end to democracy and the suppression of minority and women's rights. Proponents of allowing Islamists to stand in elections say that such groups' popularity would inevitably be reduced by a large win because participating in government requires making compromises and take specific stances - in effect doing away with the vague positions that win such groups their broad followings.
'What's strange is that al-Zawaheri did not know about the warning from the European Union, the United States and (Israeli Premier Ariel) Sharon against Hamas in the Palestinian legislative elections,' al-Erian continued. The EU said in December that it might halt its aid to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas wins the elections. 'We are waiting to see where al-Zawerhi stands,' al-Erian added.