Society

International community must engage with Muslim Brotherhood, says Rudd

Kevin Rudd has urged the international community to engage with the Muslim Brotherhood as Egypt prepares for the election of a new government.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia, who spoke in Cairo over the weekend, said he believes it is important for the Islamic political group banned by ousted president Hosni Mubarak to be included in talks from the beginning.

"It's in our collective interest to not cause the Muslim Brotherhood and others who will be a political force in the future shape of democratic politics in Egypt for them to conclude that from day one they've been shunned from the West," said Rudd in an interview with The Australian.

"We must engage: let us see what that produces. We proceed, I think, openly but cautiously."

His call directly opposes the stance of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who insisted he will hold talks with opposition figures, but “will not engage with the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Rudd explained that his view of the Muslim Brotherhood was "evolving," and that the challenge now was to "understand its modern face."

Assad Elepty, an author of Faith Freedom International, has blasted Rudd's stance, labelling his position as "a slap on the face to the Coptic community."

"It is impossible to fathom on what basis Mr Rudd wants to engage the Muslim Brotherhood. His "let's give it a go and wait and see approach” is absolute lunacy," Elepty wrote in a letter to the former Australian Prime Minister.

"The Muslim Brotherhood does participate in political activity and the democratic process, not because it has accepted the principles of Western democracy, but rather because the democratic process can be exploited to establish an Islamic regime which will then render democracy unnecessary," he continued.

A referendum on constitutional change will be held on March 19 by Egypt's military leaders, with a parliamentary election in June and a presidential poll six weeks later.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 and is the world's largest and most influential Islamist organisation.

The controversial group which considers the Qur'an as the law, announced it will establish a political party under the name "Freedom and Justice" in the lead up to Egypt's elections.

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