CAIRO: A dispute in parliament over choosing a speaker dissolved into a shouting match on Monday during the opening session of Egypt's first freely elected parliament. It was not until nightfall that Saad el-Katatni, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) was chosen as the official speaker by a vote of nearly 400 to fewer than 100. The Muslim Brotherhood's victory markedly demonstrated the group's transformation from an outlawed opposition group to the country's most prominent political movement. The Brotherhood won nearly half of the legislative seats available during the first free elections since last year's ouster of Hosni Mubarak. The Society of the Muslim Brothers is one of the world's oldest and largest Islamist movements, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. Founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, by the late 1940s it had an estimated two million members. Its ideas have gained it supporters throughout the Arab world and influenced other Islamist groups with its “model of political activism combined with Islamic charity work.” Its most famous slogan, used worldwide, is “Islam is the solution.” After its struggle for 84 years against monarchy and dictatorship, the Brotherhood has gained political power and the hope of democratic legitimacy as a result of Monday's vote. Its conquest, in the heart of the Arab world and the center of last year's regional uprising, has been arguably the closest that Islamists have ever come to governing an Arab country since their movement was born here 80 years ago. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/c6AqP Tags: Egypt parliament, featured, Muslim Brotherhood Section: Egypt, Latest News
