Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood forms party to contest elections

Saturday April 30, 2011 09:27:24 PM, IANS

Cairo: The Muslim Brotherhood, one of Egypt's prominent political forces, announced Saturday it would form its own party to contest up to half the parliamentary seats in the elections scheduled for September.

The Brotherhood's Shura Council (consultative council) decided at a meeting to form the Freedom and Justice Party, Xinhua quoted Mohammed Hussein, the group's secretary general, as saying.

The new party will be headed by Mohammed al-Mursi, a member of the Brotherhood's politburo, and the party will operate independently from the Brotherhood but will coordinate with it.

Long-time president Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down in February after anti-government protests rocked the capital city of Cairo and other places in the country.

The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic organisation, founded in 1928 in Egypt after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It opposes secular tendencies of Islamic nations and wants return to the precepts of the Quran and rejection of Western influences.

Since its inception, the Brotherhood has been banned or restricted many times due to allegations of political assassinations.
 

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Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge (left) wave as they leave Westminster Abbey.

(Photo: AP)