If Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini were alive today, he would celebrate the expansion of his Islamist vision. As evidenced by the latest version of the Muslim Brotherhood’s recently released political party platform, the late Iranian leader’s dream of spreading the ideology of Islamic revolution is gaining ground in Egypt.

The draft is just that — a draft still open to adjustment, reflecting ongoing debate within the Brotherhood itself about its stances before it publishes the final version of the platform. Still, the preliminary programme that it outlines doesn’t herald the democratic values the Brotherhood has claimed to hold in previous public statements.

Instead, it calls for the adoption of a “Civic Islamic State.”

The Muslim Brotherhood, established in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, has been outlawed by the Egyptian government since 1954. Today, it packages itself as a moderate organisation, and its members hold 88 seats (about a fifth) in the Egyptian parliament as independents. Still, having gone since 1928 without releasing any official party platform, the Muslim Brotherhood has escaped an honest and critical review. In publishing this draft, it missed a golden opportunity to prove its pro-democratic stance.

The Brotherhood’s consistent call for a purely Islamic state can only mean the marginalisation of secular opposition voices. Also alarming is that the draft document would discriminate on the grounds of gender and religion by denying women and members of Egypt’s Christian Coptic community the right to run for presidential office.

The rise to power of a Muslim Brotherhood based on this new party platform could spell disaster for Egypt’s already tenuous relations with Israel. In an interview,

Mohamed Habib, the Muslim Brotherhood’s second-in-command assured his followers that the Brotherhood would not recognize the “Zionist entity” or “unjust” international treaties, in reference to the peace treaty signed with Israel in 1979.

Many people used to believe that the Muslim Brotherhood was simply a political movement using religion to gain support and present itself in contrast to the ruling National Democratic Party, but now it appears that the inverse is true. The Muslim Brotherhood is a religious movement using politics to spread its values and beliefs.

In the wake of 9/11, many analysts have called on the American administration and policymakers to engage with so-called moderate Islamists in the Arab world. Egypt is in desperate need of new political blood. With the dictatorial nature of Mubarak’s 26-year rule and the recent sentencing of several editors in chief, the Egyptian people want a viable alternative. But the Muslim Brotherhood’s new platform dispels the hope that it could be the lifeline Egypt needs to start becoming a true liberal democracy.

Egyptians, lacking a vibrant and diverse political arena, are left to choose between the devil they know and the devil they are now beginning to know. — The Christian Science Monitor