A reconciliation initiative launched by Egyptian figures in exile known for their sympathy with the Muslim Brotherhood was quickly buried after it threatened a split within the Alliance in Support of Legitimacy and Against the Coup. The alliance includes several Islamist groups opposed to the forced removal of Mohamed Morsi. The nearly dozen figures who signed the so-called Brussels Document include Mohamed Mahsoub, Deputy President of the Al-Wasat Party and a minister under Morsi, former liberal presidential candidate Ayman Nour, Muslim Brotherhood leaders, journalists and university professors. Coming two weeks before presidential elections on 26 May, with the Brotherhood's bête noire, former Defence Minister Abdel-Fatah Al-Sisi, likely to be the winner, the document was the first sign the Brotherhood and some of their allies were ready to accept the new order in return for an end to the 10-month crackdown against them. The inclusion of non-Islamist figures as signatories appears to be an attempt to justify the document's claim to be seeking to build a wider national alliance to “restore the goals of the 25 January, 2011 Revolution and the democratic process”. While adopting a hard-line against the transitional authorities in Egypt the signatories presented 10 key principles that form “a comprehensive political project for the stage following the end of the terrorist coup, and the removal of the military dictatorship regime”. What the document did not do was call for Morsi's reinstatement. Since his removal 10 months ago the anti-coup alliance has repeatedly demanded the reinstatement of Morsi, recognition of the 2012 constitution and the Shura Council, the now dissolved upper house of parliament controlled by the Brotherhood and its allies. In late December, in the wake of bloody clashes and a series of terrorist attacks, the government designated the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation, making it almost impossible for the group to reintegrate into the political process. Civilian parties that opposed Morsi and supported the 30 June protests that led to his removal also reject any calls for reconciliation with the Brotherhood as long as it insists on denying the new order and continues to claim Morsi's removal was a military coup and did not come at the request of the people. They say they had expected an apology to the Egyptian people, and recognition by Brotherhood that it betrayed the goals of the 25 January Revolution by seeking to rule the country alone. The 10 principles included in the Brussels Document state that Egypt “be administered on the basis of consensus building, pluralism, the return of the national army to its barracks, an agreed strategy for reconciliation and justice, empowerment of the young, the supremacy of the law, the rights of citizenship, dependence on honourable citizens to rebuild state institutions, reviving civil society, giving priority to human security, ending corruption, national independence and restoring Egypt's regional and international role”. On 9 May, two days after the release of the Brussels Document, the Muslim Brotherhood issued a vague statement confirming that it was not against the institutions of state but was committing to democratic values and the non-involvement of the army in politics. The statement made no reference to the reinstating Morsi. The announcement of the Brussels Document, and the vague language used in the Brotherhood's statement, provoked dismay within the anti-coup alliance. Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, a key member of the alliance, and Al-Jihad Group, both issued statements criticising the document for failing to demand the reinstatement of Morsi. “Giving up our demand to reinstate Morsi creates confusion and sends the false message that we are ready to give up the fight for legitimacy in which thousands of martyrs have been killed by the bloody coup authorities,” Gamaa Al-Islamiya leader Safwat Abdel-Ghani said in a statement. A statement issued by Al-Gamaa's political wing, the Reconstruction and Development Party, on 17 May, said it would have preferred the principles included in the Brussels Document had been declared in Egypt, following consultations with other members of the Anti-Coup Alliance. Mohamed Abu-Samra, Secretary-General of the Islamic Party, the political wing of Al-Jihad group, also expressed reservations on including non-Islamist figures in the Brussels Document, saying Islamists were the ones who paid the heaviest price in the confrontation against the authorities following Morsi's removal. The deathblow to the Brussels Document came from none other than the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, during a recent trial. Badie, arrested shortly after the 14 August bloody dispersal of sit-ins held by Brotherhood supporters to protest Morsi's removal, faces dozens of charges in different trials. On 14 May he told lawyers and others attending his trial that he had a brief message to deliver on behalf of former president Morsi. “The president has sent you a message: our revolution is peaceful, and our only path is Jihad until we reach victory or die as martyrs. He is also telling you he is coming back soon, despite the wishes of the infidels.” On the same day the Brotherhood released a statement saying that while it valued the principles listed in the Brussels Document, and the figures that signed it, it believes that “restoring the democratic process clearly means respecting the will of the Egyptian people as it was reflected in several elections which the world described as fair, topped with the return of the first democratically elected civilian president”. Facing a public, and a majority of political parties, unwilling to accept any reconciliation talk, and the hard-line stand of Badie, the Brussels Document is unlikely to go anywhere. Any similar initiatives will now have to wait for the results of the upcoming elections, and the first moves of the next president.
