Arab West Report Egyptian press summaries and media research for dialogue

Subtitles:


*What no one said at the party of political hypocrisy and ideological contradictions.


*Milad Hanna was the star of the iftar; he attacked the national dialogue describing it as futile.


*Brotherhood members applauded Sonallah Ibrahim loudly, in a way that aroused the astonishment of the participants.

The annual iftar of the Muslim Brotherhood was held on 6 November 2003 at the Heliopolis Hotel and was attended by Lieutenant General Saad Al-Deen Al-Shazli, Soune Allah Ibrahim, Milad Hanna, Gihan Al-Khalafawy and Hady Khisro.


The discussions that took place following the iftar focused on the chief concern of the Brotherhood nowadays, which is their exclusion from the dialogue with the ruling National party.


The Brotherhood tried to make use of the presence of leading figures of the Wafd Party and Nasserist Party. They made an effort to get declarations from them stressing the right of the Brotherhood to take part in the national dialogue. The Brotherhood actually managed to get what they wanted in the speeches of Muhammad Elwan, member of the Supreme Council of the Wafd Party, and Hamid Mahmoud, vice-chairman of the Nasserist Party. Some participants went the distance in playing the hypocrite, to the extent that one wonders how those people possibly see the Brotherhood this way while belonging to other parties.


Dr. Milad Hanna was the star of the iftar dinner with his speech, which not only attacked the national dialogue [sponsored by the ruling Democratic Party], which he described as futile, but crossed the red line in calling for change in the regime. Milad added that it was his personal wish to see a president of Egypt living among us whom we could call a "former" president.


The loud applause Sonallah Ibrahim received when he mentioned in the introduction to his speech his rejection of the government and the prize of the Conference on Novels aroused the astonishment of participants, due to the ideological conflict between Ibrahim’s stances and those of the Brotherhood.