Egypt: Islamist Party Picks New Leader

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/world/middleeast/egypt-islamist-party-picks-new-leader.html

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Egypt’s largest ultraconservative Islamist party elected a new leader on Wednesday after the previous one broke away to form his own political group, following months of infighting. Younis Makhyoun, a 58-year-old cleric and trained dentist, was selected in a consensus vote to lead the Salafi Al Nour party, one of several religious parties to take root after the 2011 Egyptian uprising. His election comes just two months before President Mohamed Morsi is expected to call for new parliamentary elections, and Al Nour’s new leader said the party’s mission will be “to purify all laws from whatever violates Islamic Shariah law.” Mr. Makhyoun was on the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly that wrote Egypt’s new Constitution, a document that passed by a wide margin in a national referendum but was widely condemned by critics as failing to ensure individual rights.