Muslim Brotherhood Claims Victory in Egypt Elections
- Religion Today
- Updated Jun 18, 2012
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The Muslim Brotherhood declared early Monday that its candidate, Mohammed Morsi, won Egypt's presidential elections this weekend, though the official results won't be published until Thursday, CBN News reports. However, Egypt's ruling military council took steps to keep control of the country whether Morsi or his opponent, former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, wins the election. On Sunday, the military rulers issued a temporary constitution and gave themselves control over the legislature, the budget and who will draft the new constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood accused the military of mounting a coup and warned that it did not recognize the dissolution of parliament or the military's interim constitution -- pointing to a potential power struggle between the Brotherhood and the military. "If the president will be a Muslim Brotherhood, there will be a clash between the army and the president," said Zvi Mazel, former Israeli ambassador to Egypt. "So wherever you look, no matter what angle you look there are problems -- very important problems, very heavy problems legally and politically. The first objective of the Muslim Brothers is to have more missiles, more equipment, and more weapons against Israel." Mazel also warned that the Brotherhood's goals spread far beyond Egypt: "They want one and only one thing: to make Egypt Islamic and then to go into all the other countries and to make a kind of caliphate and even go to the United States and Europe."