Brotherhood reacts to Erdogan’s secular constitution

Egypt’s largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, has criticized Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call on Egyptians to adopt a secular constitution.

Mahmoud Ghuzlan, the spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood, considered Erdogan’s comments as interference in Egypt’s local affairs. He stated that the experiments of other countries should not be cloned, the Dubai-based Al Arabiya news network reported on Wednesday.

“Turkey’s conditions imposed on it to deal with the secular concept,” a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood said.

“A secular state respects all religions. Do not be wary of secularism. I hope there will be a secular state in Egypt,” Erdogan said in an interview with an Egyptian private satellite TV channel prior to his visit to Egypt.

It is generally believed that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has geared up for the November election in which its newly formed Freedom and Justice Party is looking forward to win half of the parliamentary seats.

The Brotherhood endured years of repression until Hosni Mubarak was ousted by a popular revolution in February after 30 years of autocratic rule.

Founded in 1928, the group has maintained strong support in Egypt’s Muslim society although it has been officially illegal since 1954.

Under the US-backed Mubarak regime, independent Muslim Brotherhood candidates won nearly one-fifth of Egypt’s parliamentary seats in the 2005 general elections.