Background from
Wikipedia:
Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya renounced bloodshed in 2003,[27] and in September 2003 Egypt freed more than 1,000 members, citing what Interior Minister Habib el-Adli called the group's stated "commitment to rejecting violence."[12]
Following the 2011 Revolution, Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya established a political party, the Building and Development Party. In August 2011, it presented 6,700 proxies (signatures) to the Egyptian political parties' committee on behalf of its party. In a statement the Gamaa said that any legislation drafted in Egypt after the revolution must refer to the sharia of God, “who blessed us with this revolution. We believe that the suffering we endured during the past years was due to neglecting religion and putting those who don't fear [God] in power.” It also stated that "Islam can contain everyone and respects the freedom of followers of other religions to refer to their own sharia in private affairs."
The Building and Development Party contested the 2011-2012 elections to the People's Council, the lower house of the Egyptian parliament, as part of the Islamic Alliance which was led by the salafi Al-Nour Party. It gained 13 seats: 12 in Upper Egypt and one in Suez.
Egypt Independent reports:
Jama'a al-Islamiya hinted Friday that it may be willing to resort to violence in order to see Sharia adopted in the latest draft of the constitution from the Constituent Assembly.
The group called on Egyptians to collect funds for what it described as a battle against “secularists and liberals.”
Jama'a al-Islamiya leader Mohamed Salah is a member of the Jurisprudence Commission for Rights and Reform, which is comprised of a number of Islamist figures, including Khairat al-Shater, deputy supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Salah said during a conference in the Ain Shams neighborhood that Egyptians should “support Islamic Sharia in the Egyptian constitution,” and that “Jama'a al-Islamiya will fight for the application of God’s law, even if that requires bloodshed.”
He called on Islamist movements to organize mass demonstrations to “trap secularists inside the place where the Constituent Assembly holds its meetings, so that everyone knows that the people want an Islamist [state].”
He also demanded that President Mohamed Morsy issue a decree to “defeat the schemes of liberals to reject the law of God.”
He stressed that the referendum on the constitution in its current form is forbidden by Islam, calling on the Egyptian people to “[wage] jihad and fight in support of Sharia.”
Assem Abdel Meguid, leader of Jama’a al-Islamiya’s political arm, the Construction and Development Party, said that “the conference is the first step to announce the rejection of the second article [of the constitution] in its current form.”
He noted that the next step would be mobilizing millions for jihad with their lives and money in the battle to support Sharia.
Just another day in that liberal democracy known as Egypt.
