The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, is eyeing a Coptic thinker as a potential vice chairman for its nascent political party, an Egyptian independet news website said Wednesday. Masrawy website quoted Brotherhood sources as saying that Rafiq Habib, a Christian intellectual, might fill the post of deputy chairman for foreign affairs within the group's newly-established Freedom and Justice Party. The report pointed to earlier statements by the party's chairman, Mohamed Morsy, who said he was looking for a Coptic deputy. Mohsen Rady, a senior Brotherhood leader, said that 15 percent of the party's founders are not affiliated with the group, and that those include a number of Copts including Habib. On Tuesday. the Muslim Brotherhood commenced the official procedures to establish its party by obtaining applications from the Parties Affairs Committee. The rest of the documentation will be submitted by Wednesday, according to Ahmed Abu Baraka, a party founder, who added that the signatures of 9000 party founders would be delivered to the committee. Abu Baraka also said the party has concluded amendments to its platform and regulations. The Freedom and Justice Party rejects the candidacy of women or Copts for Egypt's presidency. But the Brotherhood says it will not discriminate between Muslim and Christian party members, and will not differentiate between males and females.
