By Salah Eissa Despite dire legal and political consequences, the Muslim Brotherhood is intent on brandishing "Islam is the Solution" as its campaign slogan. Young Brotherhood members, and some veterans, don't seem too attached to the slogan. Some point out that it is bound to embroil candidates in legal wrangling, for it flouts the law on the exercise of political rights. Instead, they suggested an alternative slogan, "Together for Reform". Their views were ignored. Muslim Brotherhood candidates have gone on using posters carrying the slogan. The only thing is that they posted the slogan separately from their names for plausible deniability. Incensed by their actions, the prosecutor-general instructed the police to arrest Brotherhood supporters who may have put up the posters. Some legal experts claim that the slogan is perfectly legal. They argue that it is in harmony with Article 2 of the constitution, which says that Islam is the religion of the state, and Article 47, which safeguards free expression. According to them, the ban on religious slogans doesn't apply in this case, as "Islam is the Solution" is mainly a political and not a religious slogan. What these experts appear to overlook is that Article 5 of the constitution prohibits all political activities that rest on religious grounds. Banning the Brotherhood slogan relies on the letter of this article as well as the spirit of the constitution. Any dispute in this regard can only be resolved through recourse to the Supreme Constitutional Court. It isn't in the advantage of the Muslim Brotherhood to keep raising this slogan. If you may recall, when 88 Brotherhood members were in parliament for five years, none of them cared to propose a law to implement this particular slogan, or to explain to the nation how Islam can resolve the problems of the country in the third millennium. The fact that the Brotherhood keeps fighting for a slogan that it cannot explain or implement is itself hard to explain. This week's Soapbox speaker is the editor-in-chief of Al-Qahira weekly newspaper.
