Will Egypt’s Islamists ban alcohol?
Egypt’s most conservative Islamist political party would ban alcohol from the country if it wins a parliamentary majority, reported Ahram Online, a division of the state-funded newspaper.
A spokesman for the ultraconservative Nour Party, which won second place during the first phase of Egypt’s legislative elections, said the Salafist movement would prevent Egyptians and foreigners from buying alcohol inside the country.
Foreign tourists, however, could legally consume alcohol brought with them from overseas, said Nader Bakar, a Nour Party spokesman.
Bakar went on to say that the Nour Party would establish a chain of hotels that would function in compliance with Islamic Law, while banning beach tourism, which, he said, “induces vice.”
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which won around 40 percent of the recent vote, previously stated that it would not ban alcohol in the country, according to Ahram.
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But the Associated Press reported Monday that at least one candidate on the ticket of the nation's most organized Islamist political movement had other ideas.
"Tourists don't need to drink alcohol when they come to Egypt; they have plenty at home," a veiled Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Azza al-Jarf, told a cheering crowd of supporters on Sunday across the street from the Pyramids.
"They came to see the ancient civilization, not to drink alcohol," she said, her voice booming through a set of loudspeakers at a campaign event dubbed "Let's encourage tourism." The crowd chanted, "Tourism will be at its best under Freedom and Justice," the Brotherhood's party and the most influential political group to emerge from the fall of Hosni Mubarak.