Egypt: Attempts to found new party for Islamists
Egypt, Politics, 8/20/1999

Egyptian Islamists have begun measures to found a new political party under the name of the El-Sharia Party (party of Islamic law).

The new party includes most of the members of violent Islamic groups, such as El-Jihad, Talea El-Fatah, and El-Gamaa El-Islamia, where these trends refused to deal with the factional system, claiming that the system doesn't fit the Islamic community.

Meanwhile, Mamdouh Ismael, one of the party's establishers (who was accused in 1981 of an assassination attempt against the late President Anwar El-Sadat before the actual assassination in October of the same year) stated that the new party aims at changing the current laws and applying Islamic Sharia completely, through peaceful work without resorting to violence.

Despite the fact that Egyptian law of political parties prevents founding parties on a religious basis, Ismael told ArabicNews.com that Islamic Sharia is the major source for laws according to the province of Egyptian constitution issued in 1971.

Previous Stories:
  Former members of al-Jihad and al-Gamaa groups seek to establish Egyptian party   (1/13/1999)
  Egyptian authorities release 760 reformed extremists   (12/9/1998)

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