Demonstrators gather next to a concrete block barricade during confrontations outside Cairo's security headquarters on Monday, as clashes continued in the Egyptian capital in the wake of deadly soccer violence and amid calls by activists for civil disobedience in Egypt. [Marco Longari / AFP]

Editor's note: China Daily reporter Li Lianxing traveled to Cairo to talk with leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood about their plans for the future of the country and its relationship with China.

CAIRO - Egypt will not be "Islamized" by leaders of the Islamic political party, a senior official from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood told China Daily.

The country will embrace a full democracy after the presidential election in June, said Mahmoud Ghozlan, one of the supreme leaders of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and a spokesman for the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).

"An Islamic country is not a religious country understood in the same way as the Middle Ages in Europe," he told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

"In medieval times, European priests were closely related to corrupt politics. They cooperated with political leaders and not with the poor. They could even burn anyone who was against them. But in Egypt, Islamic parties are not God, but people who can make mistakes. They are supervised by the people and can be changed if in a wrong direction."

The FJP was established last March after the ousting of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and is under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

After a three-phase vote in late 2011 and January, the FJP won a dominant 47.2 percent, 235 seats, in the People's Assembly election. It was followed by the ultra-conservative Nour party and New Wafd Party with 24.3 percent and 7.6 percent respectively.

The Islamist parties now control around two-thirds of the seats in the assembly, and the FJP has become Egypt's most powerful political force after decades of suppression.

Egypt's presidential election is scheduled for April, and the winner will be announced in June. Regardless of who wins, challenges will remain for all Egyptians, Ghozlan said.

Western countries, especially the United States, have been hoping the Arab world's largest nation would one day be "liberalized" and "democratized", adopting a pro-Western diplomacy. However, the sweeping victory of Islamic powers, including the FJP and Nour party, have tested their nerves again.

In a wider context, Islamist powers are experiencing a political revival in the region. Tunisia's Islamist party Nahda, persecuted under the previous government, regrouped immediately after the fall of Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011 and won more than 40 percent in the October vote for the constituent assembly. Morocco and Libya are both seemingly giving way to Islamist-leaning parties.

The main feature of an Islamic country is to manage the state under religious morality and virtues, which is not against modern civilization and human rights, according to Ghozlan.

There have been concerns that the implementation of Islamic Sharia law might lead to weaker human rights, but Ghozlan refuted the notion, saying it's a product of misunderstandings toward Islamic values from the West.

"It was most Egyptians' request to add Sharia law elements into the 1971 constitution," he said. "Its main functions are planting morality and virtues in peoples' hearts to let them be good, while organizing the relationship among people in all fields including politics and the economy."

He said the victory in the parliamentary election is "great" as the Brotherhoods' dedication to the Egyptian people has been approved.

"The Brotherhood has an 83-year-old history, and we fought with various things in the past, from British colonialism, to Israel conflicts, governmental corruption and the authoritarian regime," he said. "But the hardest time for us was the fight with the authoritarian regime that so many people were sacrificed under authoritarianism."

"Our efforts and dedication have been trusted by our people because we are from the people, we know Egyptians' pains, hopes, demands and their sacrifices," he added.

The Brotherhood has assured the first president of the new government will not come from its party, to ease domestic and outside concerns that the party would control all institutions in the country and Egypt might be thoroughly Islamized. But they didn't promise that the second one would not come from the FJP.

To prove its determination, the Brotherhood earlier decided to expel its reformist Islamist and potential presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh from the group. Although it has claimed it does not support Fotouh, he still has a wide influence among young members of the Brotherhood.

Foreign policy

According to Ahmed Diab, who is on the FJP's highest administration board and a member of the newly elected Egyptian parliament, China and Egypt have enjoyed a long and sound friendship, and the party attaches great importance to ties with China.

"We need to learn the development experiences from China. For instance the successful example of special economic zones in China," he said.

Diab told China Daily that he is recruiting more Egyptians who can speak Chinese and understand the culture to help build the relationship.

"Security is still the priority to ensure and then to revive the delayed and stagnated economy under Mubarak," he said, adding that building a real democratic country is also a challenge and target for the new government.

"The development needs support from the people. Egypt has so many talents and resources, and we need a strong mind to combine them to create the future," he said.

Diab said there should be dialogue and communication between Islamic Egypt and the Western countries, rather than conflicts.

"If the people really were afraid of Islam, we, as an Islamic party, would have not been elected by the people during last year's election, which was probably the cleanest and freest election in Egyptian history," he added.

Meanwhile, Ghozlan said the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt attaches great importance to the relationship between the new government and the United States, and expects a normal and equal relationship with mutual respect.

"The US is the most advanced country in the world, and a good relationship with the new government is vital to Egypt's development," Ghozlan said.

"Non-intervention in civil affairs is a bottom line when dealing with the US for the new Egyptian government," he said. "We can't subject to the US just because they give us aid."

The Obama administration is undergoing a historic policy shift toward Egypt, and it seeks to establish closer ties with the Muslim Brotherhood once viewed as "irreconcilably opposed to US interests", according to the International Herald Tribune.

The paper also said the policy reversal indicates the administration's acknowledgement of the Brotherhood's repeated assurances that the new government, though dominated by Islamist power, will be a modern democratic one that "respects individual freedoms, free markets and international commitments, including Egypt's treaty with Israel".

Ghozlan prioritized Egypt's relationships with the world and put Arab countries at the top of the list, saying based on its geography and type of government the new Egyptian government should reinforce and develop its ties with Arab countries in all aspects.

He said Egypt should develop ties with other Islamic countries, African countries, developing countries and Western countries, in that order.

Though Ghozlan showed a conspicuous grievance toward Palestine, he said Egypt would continue playing its role in resolving the conflicts between Palestine and Israel due to its pivotal geographic position.

China Daily