Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

In an effort to break the West’s cycle of sidelining Egypt’s popular Muslim Brotherhood and support democracy in the country Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere met with MB members following the ouster of Mubarak who had continued to demonize the group and stem their activities during his rule.

According to Stoere the approach by Western governments smacked of double standards concerning the MB labelling it as deficient. He stated that he believed it was appropriate that the MB be among the groups that the West meets with and that they should be taken into account.

In an interview by Reuters Stoere stated that although there were some fundamental differences of views when it comes to a number of issues the purpose is to understand changes in Egypt. He continued that if the West was to effectively support democratic change in Egypt, than excluding the MB which is highly representative is a poor starting point.

Views differed where British Prime Minister David Cameron, did not meet the group explaining  his policy alleging that  young people should see there was an alternative to what he described as an extreme Islamist opposition.

Stoere’s views were different as he asserted that there was a deficiency of the Western approach to the whole region. He warned against a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in the West’s approach to different groups in this region stressing this approach was indirectly victimising groups.

He emphasized the significance of breaking the cycle of double standards by the West when it came to discussing democracy adding that through discussion and open dialogue with the MB its position on Egypt's future would be clarified.

 The FM ended his interview stressing that he believed the diversity was larger than that kind of unipolar interpretation relayed by the West asserting that the uprising against Mubarak had illustrated that the MB was a group with strong nationalistic characters.