CAIRO: It isn't a new concept for Egypt, where alcohol has largely been barred from being served across the country during Ramadan, but now the tourism ministry has said the ban on serving to Egyptian citizens during other Islamic holidays will also be enforced. The statement, published by the MENA news agency, from Tourism Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour that said Egyptians would not be allowed to drink in public on future Islamic holidays, and not just the holy month of Ramadan Egyptian Tourism Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour has decided that prohibitions on the serving of alcoholic beverages to Egyptian citizens would be applied on all major Islamic holidays and not just during the fasting month of Ramadan, has sparked a new sense of fear that the conservative Muslim Brotherhood and President Mohamed Morsi would attempt to curtail personal freedoms during holidays. The ban will now be applied to four other days of the year; the Islamic New Year, the holiday commemorating the Israa and Me'rag, Prophet Mohamed's birthday and the day of Arafa. Ironically, it is nothing new for any business owner. Waguih, who owns a number of cafes in the Zamalek neighborhood of Cairo, said that he stopped serving alcohol because of the red tape involved. But the new statement from the ministry “won't really change anything.” He told Bikyamasr.com that “we weren't allowed to serve to Egyptians on those days anyway, so I don't understand what is the point in making this public.” The tourism ministry, has however, not pushed for any such bans on foreigners in the country and said repeatedly that it would not. It comes on the heels of reports that the Muslim Brotherhood would curtail the tourism sector in Egypt, banning alcohol, bikinis from beaches and forcing women to veil. The Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) told Bikyamasr.com in a statement on Wednesday that they “hope to build a new united Egypt" and have “no plans to affect the current situation" when it comes to tourism. Still, worries abound, among both Egyptians and foreigners, over what the future for Egypt will bring. Earlier this year, the FJP, after winning nearly 45 percent of the now possibly dissolved parliament, said that tourists would have the freedom to wear whatever they chose, including bikinis, and that they would have ban alcohol or other foodstuffs. “The party regrets the decline in tourism and other economic activities as one of the repercussions of the January 25 revolution," said Ahmed Suleiman, Chairman of the Tourism Committee of the party, during a meeting organized by the Business Association and attended by representatives of the FJP and foreign tour operators, in January. He pointed out that the party would contribute to the redoubling of “the rates of tourism in the coming period," and that the situation of tourism and its present conditions “would remain the same as before the revolution and this sector will not be subjected to any changes as long as the FJP is represented in the parliament." Suleiman stressed the need to reactivate beach tourism as it is one of the “most popular aspects of tourism in Egypt." He said the FJP is already speculating tourism numbers, “taking a number of measures including the establishment of a series of museums along the Nile Valley to boost the cultural tourism traffic." He pointed out that monuments and statues currently in stores will be taken out and displayed in the order of dynasties, in each governorate of origin, respectively. He explained that the party`s vision is to make good use of nature reserves, medical and therapeutic tourism and conferences. At the same meeting, Ahmed el-Imam, a member of the “tourism boosting committee" of the FJP said the government, without mentioning the military junta by name, “is one of the main reasons afflicting tourism internally, and while Egypt has about 33 percent of the monuments of the world, the state is incapable of utilizing them in an optimum way," saying that the party aims at bringing 25 million tourists annually in the upcoming years.
