Al-Hayat has reported that an Egyptian court has legalized a moderate Islamist political movement (“Egypt: Judge Qubtay Grants Islamist Party a License by Decree“). Under Egyptian law, political organizations have to have a license to operate, and the country’s largest Islamist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, is still denied one. This decree means that the New Center Party, led by Abu Ala Madi, an engineer, is the only legal Islamist party in Egypt. The article notes that this decision overrules a decision by the state Council for Party Affairs.

The party, associated with what in Egypt is referred to as al-wasatiyya (wasat means “middle”), has been working for the past decade for recognition. The party was founded in 1996, and the article reports that the list of party founders includes former members of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as Christian Copts and women. Al-Quds Al-Arabi also has an article on this, and it notes that the Council for Party Affairs had rejected three previous applications – 1996, 1998, and 2004 (Al-Hayat only specifies the first two).

This decision is potentially very significant for Egypt, as the Egyptian government’s repression of all opposition for the past half century has created an environment in which radicals can flourish. I am not in favor of legalizing Wahhabi-influenced Islamist parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood. The MB only recently converted to the idea of gaining power through peaceful means, and the difference between its ideology and that of al-Qaeda is more one of degree than of kind. Yet I am convinced that the only final solution to militant Islam is mainstream Islam, and from what I have read the Wasat/Center Party qualifies for that designation. We will have to keep a close eye on Wasat and on Kifayya, the more secular Egyptian opposition movement which (by the way) is planning protests over unemployment on Thursday (the link is in Arabic, but something to look out for).

Contributed by Kirk H. Sowell at Window on the Arab World, and More!