Muslims look to lay down law

Anticipating a strong presence in the new Egyptian parliament, ultraconservative Islamists have outlined plans for a strict brand of religious law, a move that could limit personal freedoms and steer a key US ally towards an Islamic state.

Egypt's election commission has announced only a trickle of results from the first round of parliamentary elections and said 62 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in the highest turnout in modern history.

However, leaked counts point to a clear majority for Islamist parties at the expense of liberal activist groups that led the uprising against Hosni Mubarak, toppling a regime long seen as a secular bulwark in the Middle East.

The more pragmatic Muslim Brotherhood is poised to take the largest share of votes, as much as 45 per cent. But the Nour Party, which espouses a strict interpretation of Islam in which democracy is subordinate to the Koran, could win a quarter of the house, giving it much power to affect debate.

A spokesman, Yousseri Hamad, said his party considers God's law the only law.

"In the land of Islam, I can't let people decide what is permissible or what is prohibited," said Hamad. "It is God who gives the answers as to what is right and what is wrong."

The Nour Party is the main political arm of the hardline Salafist Muslim movement, which espouses a strict form of Islam similar to that practised in Saudi Arabia.

Salafis, who often wear long beards and seek to imitate the life of the Prophet Muhammad, speak openly about their aim of turning Egypt into a state where personal freedoms, including freedom of speech, women's dress and art, are constrained by Islamic law, goals that make many Egyptians nervous.

Salafis object to women in leadership roles, citing Muhammad as saying that "no people succeed if led by women". However, when election regulations forced all parties to include women, Salafi cleric Yasser el-Bourhami relented, saying that "committing small sins" is better than "committing bigger ones" by which he meant letting secular people run the government.

In the end, the party put women at the bottom of its lists, represented by flowers since women's photos were deemed inappropriate.

This week, Salafi cleric and parliamentary candidate Abdel-Monem Shahat caused a stir by saying the novels of Egypt's Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, read widely in Egyptian schools, are "all prostitution".

Salafis are newcomers on Egypt's political scene. They long shunned the concept of democracy, saying it allows man's law to override God's. But they formed parties and entered politics after Mubarak's ousting, seeking to enshrine Islamic law in Egypt's new constitution.

By contrast, the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest and best organised political group, was officially banned under Mubarak but established a nationwide network of activists who built a reputation for offering services to the poor.

After Mubarak's fall, the group's Freedom and Justice Party campaigned fiercely, their organisation and name-recognition giving them a big advantage over newly formed liberal parties.

Stakes are particularly high since the new parliament is supposed to oversee writing Egypt's new constitution. Nine provinces have voted and two more rounds of voting, ending in next month, will cover Egypt's other 18 provinces.

- AP