Dr. Essam el-Erian is one of the most prominent symbols of the Muslim Brotherhood and has been linked to much of the events within it. Erian was imprisoned several times on charges of belonging to the once-illegal Brotherhood, and was even forbidden from travelling until the January 25 Revolution. Erian is now vice president of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. If the Brotherhood wins the majority of seats in the next parliamentary elections, he may become head of parliament «Youm7» invited Erian to discuss various issues and the questions on everyone's mind regarding the Brotherhood and the upcoming parliamentary elections. Do you think that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is serious about politically isolating former National Democratic Party members and officials of the former regime? Who do you think must be not allowed to run for office? I do not think they are very serious about applying political isolation for moral and political reasons. Morally because they have to be objective and not give different treatment to all the parties and candidates, and politically because they believe that the nation that was able to topple a dictatorial regime is well able to face the remnants of the regime and chose the right candidates. Some believe that the SCAF has not isolated the remnants of the regime because they feel they are the only ones able to face the rising Islamic trend – what are your thoughts regarding this? I do not think that's true. You can never accurately predict what is going to happen in Egyptian political life. In 2005, only 6 million people voted while 18 million people voted in the referendum this year. How do you view the current electoral system? I think that one of the most important tasks of the next parliament and government after their formation is restructuring Egyptian political life and reviewing all legislation. Many parties encountered problems, especially those that asked for closed party list elections. I think that somehow, the number of parties should decrease to around 10, and that electronic voting should be implemented at some point. Alliances The Freedom and Justice party entered into the Democratic Alliance with the al-Wafd party. You separated, and it has been said that this separation is purely for appearances sake. What do you have to say to that? There was no agreed upon scenario. Al-Wafd is an old and venerable party, and saw that, in order to preserve its reputation, it had to run alone. Also, they have a lot of candidates who they want to run that would have been at the expense of other parties in the alliance. Also, al-Wafd wanted no former National Democratic Party (NDP) candidates that ran in 2010, so that was another reason for the decision to separate and facilitate things for all parties. Are you satisfied with the final shape of the Democratic Alliance's lists? Yes. It is comprised of 12 parties, including the new Centrist Party, our old allies the Amal (Labor) Party, the new Ghad party, which is a liberal party, along with several parties that appeared after the revolution. This alliance is one of the biggest achievements in the history of Egyptian alliances. I think our biggest challenge will be the provinces. Do you think that the electoral alliances are built on falsehoods because they are founded on the basis of electoral interests? I disagree with this perception, because the Muslim Brotherhood has fostered alliances since 1987. In 1987, we had a joint program of 10 points with the Labor Party. In 1995, there was no political alliance, but there was a Coordinating Committee Democracy with political and professional associations and a joint program. In 2005, there was a 20-point program of with The National Front Party. Now we have an alliance and a joint program based on two months worth of meetings. You were in jail the night of January 28. Who opened the prison? Prisoners and their families opened the door of cell number two where I was located in Wadi el-Natron prison. All night I watched fights between prisoners and prison guards. I can safely discount what was said about the prison guards opening the doors. If anything, they fought hard to restore order. Muslim Brotherhood and the Law Many people wonder about the form of the state under the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood? Egypt will only be governed by Egyptians in accordance with popular will, no matter what their political affiliation. I have reservations regarding the words "Egypt under the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood." Egypt is on its way to becoming a democratic state, and it will become the right of the Egyptian people to change their rulers in a democratic way. If that is not the case, then they will revolt again. Is it to unearth the Islamic Sharia? People's perception of Islamic law must evolve and change. Sharia is not only penalties and punishments, but is a law with human values, which other nations have applied. We must stop seeing it in such a negative way and reassure our Christian brothers that they have nothing to fear. For example, will the State ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood allow an unveiled woman to remain unveiled? No one can impose anything on anyone. I will tell you something strange about the subject. There are two countries in the Middle East that impose the veil: Iran and Saudi Arabia. And two countries prevent it: Tunisia and Turkey. Yet, despite that Egypt, which neither prohibits or imposes it, has the highest numbers of veiled women. If anyone tries to impose something on other people then their understanding of Islam is flawed. Meaning that the Brotherhood would not form special task forces to impose Islamic law like in Saudi Arabia? No, because that is the duty of every human being within the limits of his authority and mandate of the public. But many fear that multiple readings of Islamic law and each school says it speaks in its name? There is always talk in the name the Constitution and the law. Why can't a man speak to the believer and speak to him in the name of faith and commitment to what you do wrong. What is the logic governing coalitions with the Muslim Brotherhood? The prevailing logic is that the Brotherhood have voting power and popularity. We are strong enough not to seek coalitions. What is your position of the parties that came out of the mantle of the Muslim Brotherhood, such as the center and the Renaissance? The relationship between us is of mutual respect and not conflict. One of the advantages of the revolution is that many people of similar mindsets appeared on the political scene. Public relations What is the nature of the communication between you and the American administration? There are no secret contacts. I remember I declined an invitation to visit the US when I was a deputy in the People's Council. People from the U.S. Embassy visited me in my office at the Medical Association and gave me a book by Thomas Friedman, and they continued to contact us via the Egyptian administration. The only announced visit was of an American security official, but nothing else after that. Though we have only been visited by an American official once, we visit and have been visited by countless European officials and they have the same foreign policy in the region and in Egypt. Are there American fears of Egypt turning into a religious state like Iran? This is an illusion. Besides, the religious doctrine in Egypt and Iran are very different, in addition to the different nature of the revolution in Iran. In Iran the clerics and politicians led the revolution, then bloodshed happened followed by the eventual rise of the clerics. The revolution in Egypt was the revolution of the people, and no one can claim that it was owned or led by anyone You are accused that you do not have a vision for managing tourism. Are you afraid to lose votes from the 6 million employed in this sector? I would like to make it clear that under the former regime, the rate of return of tourists to Egypt as almost non-existent. The rate of return of tourists in a country such as France is 20 times. This is despite having everything available to them in Egypt. They do not return because there is nothing to encourage them to return. Tourists are less likely to return for fear of harassment, not because they cannot drink wine and wear a swimsuit. This is not what this entire sector is about, and the rumors that are being spread about what I perceive tourism to be are unfounded. The Coalition of Islamic parties accused the Freedom and Justice party of ruining the Democratic Alliance because of its desire to gain the largest share of seats of their owners. What is your response? This is not true. I want to clarify something, which is that the brothers in Islamic parties have declared at the outset that they would support the Freedom and Justice party, as being the one with greatest experience. How much will each party of the coalition parties pay for their media campaign for the elections? We did not ask for specific sums of money, just asked all parties to contribute in-kind contributions, such as contributing costs of conferences and advertising in publications. The Muslim Brotherhood has been accused of striking deals with the military, abandoning the idea of boycotting the elections, and signing the parties agreement document in light of deals struck with the military. This is not true. We were at the forefront of the popular movement, pressuring the SCAF to comply with the demands of the revolution. We always stressed the need for elections as quickly as possible. Other political forces were advocating a boycott and as their allies we had to support them. The purpose of threatening a boycott was so that the SCAF would amend article five and to agree to politically isolate former regime figures. Sure enough, the SCAF complied with our demands. We have struck no deals with anyone, and our allegiance is to the nation and to God. Ahmed Abu Baraka, legal advisor to the Freedom and Justice party, said that the former regime stole 400 million EGP (U.S. $67 million) from the Brotherhood and that the brotherhood has billions of pounds worth of funding which no one should be allowed to ask about. What do you have to say about this? This statement is not true, with all due respect to Abu Baraka. I will repeat again that we did not win elections through our funds and that we spent less money than our adversaries but still managed to win. If you succeeded in the parliamentary elections, will you stand for the presidency of the People's Assembly? This talk is premature and cannot be discussed until elections are over. Will you give up the Muslim Brotherhood slogan “Islam is the solution?” “Give up” is a hard word, since this is the Brotherhoods slogan. The parties ideology is Islamic, and we can't really give it up. But we will adhere to the law, though I do not perceive this as a discriminatory or religious slogan, but it rather expresses our political identity.
