The Egyptian Islamic Labour Party ( ar, حزب العمل الإسلامي, Ḥizb al-ʿamal al-islāmī al-Masri), previously the Socialist Labour Party ( ar-at, حزب العمل الإشتراكي, Ḥizb al-ʿamal al-ishtirākī), is an Egyptian Islamist political party. The party was suspended, but it later joined the Democratic Alliance for Egypt during the 2011-2012 parliamentary election, where it had gained 1 seat in the

People's Assembly of Egypt The Parliament of Egypt is the bicameral legislature of the Arab Republic of Egypt. It is composed of an upper house (the Senate) and a lower house (the House of Representatives). The Parliament is located in Cairo, Egypt's capital. Under t ...

History and ideology

The party established on 9 September 1978 by Ibrahim Shoukry and others. It was originally a

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

party. The party is the successor of the Masr Al Fattah Movement, which was founded by Ahmad Hussain in 1933. Since 1986 the party has undergone a major ideological change turning into an Islamist party. In 1987 the party formed an alliance, called Tahaluf, with the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

and the Socialist Liberals Party. This change was first demonstrated in the party's fifth conference in 1989 which was entitled "Reform from an Islamic perspective". The party platform calls for: * Establishing an economic system based on the

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

Shari'ah Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...

. * Protecting the national industries. * Equal distribution of investments among the Egyptian governorates. * Achieving unity between Egypt,

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

and

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

. * Liberating the occupied Palestinian lands. * Promoting ties with developing countries.

1990 elections

The party and a few others abstained from the election because of an amendment to the 1972 Electoral Law forbidding unified lists, with the Socialist Labour Party attempting to combine with the

in hope to change the

's view on Islam in a more leftist way, but this plan failed when they were suspended in 2000. The

and the Labour Party still remain great allies.

Sadat's suppression of the party

Before the party was anti-Mubarak, it opposed

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

heavily through its newspaper and constant protests; this led to most of the head of the party being arrested, which in turn triggered the party's fall in the 1980s.

2000 suspension

On 20 May 2000, the Egyptian committee for political parties' affairs (the committee responsible for authorizing the formation of political parties in Egypt) decided to freeze the activities of the Labor Party and suspend its newspaper '' al Shaab''. The committee referred to Article 17 of the political parties law, which enables it to suspend the activities of a party, as a means of stopping any decision or act by a party that is contrary to the higher interests of the country. The committee attributed its decision to the split within the party ranks, with one group led by Hamdi Ahmad, a member of the party’s executive committee, and the other led by Ahmad Idris. The committee, in its decision, referred to the official complaint brought by those members concerning the selection of a new party chair. The two party members also asked for ''Al-Shaab'' to be suspended from publication and a freeze to be put on the party’s bank account. Labor Party chairman Ibrahim Shoukry described these demands as illegal.

The split

The Islamic Labour Party was split in June 2011 when some of the leaders of the party created the Arab Unification Party in June 2011.

2011–Present

The party became part of the Anti-Coup Alliance following the

2013 Egyptian coup d'état The 2013 Egyptian coup d'etat took place on 3 July 2013. Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led a coalition to remove the democratically elected President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, from power and suspended the Egyptian constitut ...

Lawsuit against Islamic parties

The ''Egyptian Islamic Labour Party'' is one of the eleven

Islamic parties Below are lists of political parties espousing Islamic identity or political Islam in various approaches under the system of Islamic democracy. Islamic democracy refers to a political ideology that seeks to apply Islamic principles to public p ...

targeted by a lawsuit in November 2014, when an organization named ''Popular Front for opposing the Brotherhoodization of Egypt'' sought to dissolve all political parties established "on a religious basis." The Alexandria Urgent Matters Court however ruled on 26 November 2014 that it lacked jurisdiction.

References

{{Egyptian political parties

External links

alShaab
Labour's party official newspaper currently suspended but is still published online.

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights Annual report; Violations of Human Rights 2000–2001; part 9: The right to establish parties, associations & unions. 1978 establishments in Egypt Islamic political parties in Egypt Islamic socialist political parties Labour parties Nationalist parties in Egypt Political parties established in 1978 Socialist parties in Egypt