There is a long history of antagonism between the Muslim Brothers and Salafis. Any accommodation between the two partners in political Islam has invariably been short lived. Since the declaration of the new roadmap on 3 July their relationship has been in free fall. The Salafist Calling, and its political wing the Nour Party, signed up to the roadmap in the hope of promoting itself as the acceptable alternative to the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing. While the Nour Party is regularly accused of catering to the current government's desire to portray itself as inclusive of the Islamist trend it argues that its real aim is to sustain an Islamist political presence in the face of the Muslim Brotherhood's refusal to acknowledge reality. The argument holds little water for the Brotherhood and its Internet activists who have sustained a steady assault. Brotherhood webpages accuse Salafi leaders of treachery and betrayal. Yasser Burhami, deputy chairman of the Salafist Calling, was recently prevented from delivering a lecture in Alexandria by Muslim Brotherhood hecklers shouting insults. The media affairs assistant to the head of the Nour Party became a target when Al-Jazeera, known for its Muslim Brotherhood sympathies, announced that Nader Bakkar had made a secret visit to the UAE after 30 June. The Qatari-based news programme cited British journalist Robert Fisk as its source for the story which insinuated Bakkar had secret relations with a country that fully supported Mohamed Morsi's ouster. Bakkar denies the report and has said he will take legal action against pro-Muslim Brotherhood news pages on Facebook. The Muslim Brotherhood is persisting in its campaign against the Salafist Calling. The FJP's Facebook page launched a broadside against the Nour Party for its conflicting positions on Article 219 of the 2012 constitution which defines what is meant by the term “principles of Islamic Sharia” in Article 2 as the “main source for legislation” in Egypt. The Nour Party once insisted it was participating in the committee charged with amending the 2012 constitution to ensure Article 219 was retained. The FJP webpage featured archived press reports to illustrate the party's shifting positions on this issue. It reproduced an official statement by the party, published in Al-Misriyoun newspaper, saying the party had agreed to join the Committee of Fifty solely to defend Article 219 and republished a Reuters report of 18 September quoting Youssef Makhioun saying the party would withdraw from the committee if it altered the constitution's so-called Islamic identify articles. Alongside these it reproduced a news item published by Al-Youm Al-Sabei on 18 September in which the Nour Party said it would abide by the committee's decisions should its members agree to any amendments of the disputed articles. Whatever the Brotherhood's gloss on what happened Article 219 is clearly the Nour Party's major concern. The party did agree to the removal of the article but only if the word “principles” was omitted from Article 2. When Church representatives argued the term should be retained the Nour Party's representative lashed out at them, accusing them of inflaming domestic tension and meddling in matters that have nothing to do with their religious or political concerns. Al-Azhar appears to have withdrawn from the fray in the face of upheavals in Al-Azhar and on its university campus since the beginning of the academic year. A number of news outlets cited remarks by representatives of the three Egyptian churches on the committee to the effect that they had warned against Article 219 and sought to “retain Article 2 [as originally worded] because it conforms with our principles”. Antonius Aziz, the Bishop of Beni Sweif, Fayoum and Minya, who represents the Catholic Church on the Committee of 50, was quoted as saying, “There is no dispute between the three churches and Al-Azhar over the fact that Article 219 does not express Islam, and we have warned against it.” A solution to the controversy over Article 219 appears as far away as ever. The Nour Party appears prepared to fulfil its threats to campaign against the constitutional amendments when they come to referendum if they do not satisfy its conditions with respect to the Islamic identity articles. The interim government hopes that the new constitution will pass with more votes than the original 2012 version, which was approved by 63 per cent of those who turned out. The final draft of the constitution is expected to be put to a plebiscite in late December or early January. The Nour Party's representative on the Committee of Fifty argues his party is being “very flexible but insists that if any of the constitutional articles pertaining to Islamic Law are touched our options will remain open.” Analysts believe campaigning for a “no” vote in the referendum will be a last resort given the Nour Party's determination to carve as large a space for itself as possible in the political arena. Meanwhile, Christian youth activists have warned that they will campaign against the constitution if it retains articles they regard as prejudicial and discriminatory. The fate of the constitution increasingly appears to be caught between threats from these two opposing camps. The Nour Party's position on the issue ultimately works in favour of the Muslim Brotherhood. If the Committee of Fifty does not reach a solution that pleases the “pampered” party, as some refer to the Nour Party, the Salafis, if they are to retain credibility, will be forced to pursue an option — demonstrations — in which Muslim Brothers will play a prominent role. This is one reason why the Nour Party is sustaining pressure to reach a consensus on the Islamic Law articles. The issue is central to the party's strategy of casting itself as the responsible Islamist player. We can expect further confrontations between the two Islamist camps, a likelihood heightened by Brotherhood's plans to stage a demonstration tomorrow (Friday, 15 November) under the banner “Ashura... Death to the pharaoh”. Ashura, or the Day of Atonement, is commemorated on the 10th of the Islamic month of Muharram, which this year falls on 14 November. According to Sunni tradition, the Prophet Mohamed ordered Muslims to fast on this day to commemorate God saving Moses and his followers from the armies of the Pharaoh by creating a path in the Red Sea. Salafis have begun to prepare “people's committees” to counter any outbreak of anarchy caused by the Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations. Some analysts have suggested the Salafis may even succeed in compelling the Muslim Brotherhood to refrain from demonstrating and show the proper respect for that occasion. But it also appears the Salafis are determined to prevent Shias from commemorating the day in accordance with their own rituals. Salafist groups are sworn to prevent the spread of Shia Islam in Egypt, which explains why their mobilisation of people's committees is concentrated in areas where there is believed to be significant Shia communities. It also helps explain Salafist opposition to ex-president Morsi who they believe encouraged that “threat” through his visit to Iran and meeting with then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Egypt. They were particularly agitated because of the arrival of Iranian tour groups in Egypt in the post-revolutionary period. Antagonism between the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood is a time bomb that could go off at any minute. There were moments when the antagonism receded — the two Islamist camps joined forces to promote the constitutional declaration in the March 2011 referendum — but it was never long before it re-emerged. In the 2011 parliamentary elections, instead of uniting in a single coalition, the two fielded separate electoral lists. Yet the two sides managed to keep their differences under wraps for a time, to the extent some observers believed they had struck up a parliamentary alliance. That belief was blown from the water when, during a dialogue of political forces that was aired live, Nour Party President Younis Makhioun accused the Muslim Brotherhood of seeking to “Brotherhoodise” the state. Some 13,000 government officials were from the Muslim Brotherhood, he claimed. Morsi's adviser Ayman Ali denied the charge and challenged Makhioun to produce the names of the supposedly Muslim Brotherhood officials. The two sides clashed again when the presidency dismissed Khaled Alameddin from his post as an adviser to Morsi for “moral” reasons. The Nour Party held a press conference in which it refuted the allegations and the party's Vice President Bassam Al-Zarka, who also served as a presidential adviser, resigned in protest. From then on tensions spiralled. The Salafist Calling and Nour Party refused to participate in the demonstrations organised by the Muslim Brotherhood in an attempt to counter the movement that the Tamarod campaign had set in motion. The participation of Nour Party Secretary-General Galal Mourra in the meeting which concluded with the announcement of the 3 July roadmap sealed the rupture. From then on the Nour Party would become one of the main targets of Muslim Brotherhood invective. The Islamist trend is heading towards a brutal showdown between its two largest camps — the Muslim Brothers and their current strategic ally Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, and the Nour Party which boasts a strong leadership and a popular base that, though it is regarded with suspicion by many ordinary Muslims and a majority of political groups, remains numerically significant. It is a conflict that is likely to play out in the street.
