Free Republic

A month ago, the Nour Party, the largest political group to emerge from the ultraconservative Salafist movement, was seen as Egypt’s kingmaker when it dramatically joined the military-led ousting of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. They then proceeded to shape the interim government, vetoing a nominee for Prime Minister in the first week after Morsi was removed from power.

Egypt’s newly appointed interim prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi is to offer ministerial posts to members of the Muslim Brotherhood and to the hardline Islamist Nour Party, state media said on Tuesday. “There is no objection at all to including members of those two parties in the government,” a presidential spokesman said. The announcement followed el-Beblawi’s appointment as prime minister in a transitional government, as the authorities sought to steer the country to new parliamentary and presidential elections. Adli Mansour, acting head of state since massive demonstrations ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi out of office last week, also appointed former UN...

(Reuters) - Egypt's president and other Muslim leaders should demand the U.N. criminalize contempt of religion after the release of an anti-Islamic film and cartoons which demonstrate growing racism, said the leader of the biggest ultra-orthodox Islamist party. Despite doctrinal and political differences with President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist Nour Party played a key role in supporting it during presidential elections in June. Led by Emad Abdel Ghaffour, it now ranks as the second-largest party in parliament and plays a formidable force in Egypt's new politics. "We call for legislation or a resolution to criminalize contempt of Islam...

CAIRO—Leading Egyptian political parties will back a senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) for the assembly's speaker, with another Islamist group and a liberal party taking the deputy posts, an FJP official said on Monday. The prime task of the new parliament, the first elected since an uprising swept Hosni Mubarak from power last year, will be to pick a 100-strong assembly to write a new constitution. Liberals fear that sweeping gains by Islamists in elections will put faith-based parties in the driving seat and lead to more religious strictures. Islamists insist they want an...