«Alternate stream» .. a dissident from the «Brotherhood» destroy the constants of the group

Doaa Emam

In the summer of 2005, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood called Ali Abdulhafeez presented a vision of what he called the constitutional project of the Islamic world by comparing the constitutional system of the state in both Islam and modern Western civilization. He asked whether it is possible to create modern Arab Islamic societies that can be mingled with the modern secular system of the national state by spreading new concepts of the role of religion in public life?

Years of debate and studies between “Ali Abdulhafiz,” one of the second rank  leaders, and a group of university professors belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, and members of the guidance office on the need to reform the group from inside. Such debates ended to not accept that vision without giving logical reasons; which led to the departure of Abdulhafiz from the Brotherhood in 2007 with the rebel group on the group’s rigid ideology.

In early 2008, Abdulhafiz adopted the “Alternative Stream” project to develop the group’s rejected ideology, prompting him to announce a civil society bearing his ideas. He issued a book with the same title, criticizing the group, revealing some of its organizational secrets.

According to the book “Alternate stream” issued in 2007 and contains three chapters, the will of the Arab establishment began from the motives of Western development, namely the revolution and religious reform. As well as the interpretation of religion from the perspective of human rights, not the rights of God.

In another section of the book, Abdulhafiz identifies Islamic groups and streams as diverse as a group of conservatives who are concerned about anything that affects the stability of religion within the Muslim community.

He pointed out that the problem of fear to the public was signed by some of the scholars of the predecessor, which is the dominant discourse in the Muslim Brotherhood.

The ideas of Abdulhafiz, which the group met with ridicule, were represented in several demands. First, the group stopped the idea of representing identity. Identity is a universal sense that should not be confiscated by one team. Therefore, political reform should not be founded on the basis that there is a team of Islamists, and others not Islamists, and to reconsider the political theorization and political doctrine of all currents heritage.

He also demanded to refrain from saying that Hassan al-Banna (the founder of the group and its first guide) represents the great reference to the political work based on respect for identity. This work is characteristic of Egypt and the Egyptians before him, refusing to promote the idea that Al-Banna is the one behind establishing an organization or a party.

On the issue of the Caliphate, the author of “Alternate stream” believes that the civil state is the solution, stressing that the Islamic state was a civil state based on the Shura and the extension of sovereignty to the people. He described the caliphate as a “historical disease” and that the statement was a trade in religion and corruption of the minds. He pointed out that it originated in a special and rare circumstance, and raised the slogan of the return of the caliphate as a historical disease.