reforms. and usually the reform file has always been deferred until such time as the arab israeli conflict is solved in light of its importance to the arab people and the jordanians. it's not justification for the deferral of reform in jordan. we would like to say that these calls find ears among decision makers in the west and it's not the case and thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, doctor. let's open it up. i'll take three or four questions at a time. i'm sure there are lots of them. please, make it a very short question. we really don't have time and address it to one of the participants, if possible.

please, sir. can ykuwaican yo can you wait for the microphone? >> i'm from morocco. i work with the world bank. my question is, as we see in the united states, the economy plays a major role in the elections. do you think the performance will be determined mostly on the progress that you will be able to accomplish in the economy regardless of all the other reforms? >> thank you very much. >> i'm from the philadelphia inquirer. i'd like to address my question to mr. dardry. you put forward a position for the justice party in egypt.

some of your leaders have said things that sound much less moderate than what you put forward. it was referred to when it was said that implementing sharia remains the number one objective. he has also talked about in the past the jihad against the zionists and your leadership has called in the past in 2007 for a sort of guardian council that would oversee all parliamentary laws and make sure they were in alignment with sharia. i know that they have still dropped that. but what i want to know is now that freedom and justice is the leading party, do they stand by what you said or are they closer to what your presidential candidate says? >> in the back.

yes, please, sir. >> thank you. i'm from algeria. in the election in 1991 after the algeria spring. unfortunately which was stopped by military and security. that was my question to the brother from tunisia and the one from egypt how you see the future relation between the civil society, the civilians and the military relationship based on -- are there any red line that the civilian and political system will have not to cross in order to continue with the democratic process? the same question go with the

monarchies. would the monarchy and military how would you see, really in morocco the king was really courageous. but how far do you see this situation going? based on the peerns that we had in algeria, it was a peaceful change, an attempt to a peaceful change that was stopped by military security establishment and their allies. so how will you see the future? it's a wonderful experiment. thank you. >> one more question maybe. yes. >> i want to thank you.

this is a wonderful event and it's an amazing day to have all of you here in washington and witness what's going on in the arab world finally. my two questions. the big question now is will they align with the newer party or with the secular parties? they have 50% to have more allies in the government and that's i think the big question. who would they align with? this would really determine the future of the transition of egypt. my second question, we heard a lot of abuses of the new constitution recently and there are lawyers who are trying to have the case against the king himself for abusing the new constitution. do you have any comments about

that? is it true and what is the government doing about this? thank you. >> all right. let's start. who wants to take the first shot. >> economically, i think that this is the most important challenge of the governments. because we can't afford answers to the youth problems maybe resolving unemployment issues and health and housing without real economic prosperity or real economic developments. and for this reason the government has put this issue as the second. after good government. because the main problem of economic development in our country is the lack of good

governance. we presented almost 25 measures related to enhancing the climate of investment in the country. and we succeed three weeks ago in developing a partnership between private sector and the governance. to launch huge reforms in investment environments, in the financial and legislative, institutional aid of the governments toward private sector in finding a new market, exporting the products and working with other companies in the international level and also starting work to revive many free trade agreements that we have it with many countries like the united states and to launch real investments on this level. beside this, we are working with

small business companies in the country. because we think that the leading and driving force of fighting poverty and fighting employment is to invest in small business. companies and enterprises in our country would develop a project on this level based on providing fiscal measures, working with them, reforming the educational system in order to create some complimentary between the market of jobs with the education system. so we have a program on this and working on it in close partn partnership with the private sector. the second question, one of the things that creates some specificity to the mo rock can

case is that we drafted the constitution before the election. before going to the election we drafted the constitution and the constitution has determined clearly powers, relationships, between different center of power. and has established and this is it's very important, the climate and the constitutional tools of cooperation between monarchy and the governance. after election, we succeed in implementing this and we have successful cooperation since almost four months. and this cooperation is based on the constitution. and also is based on an environment of confidence of trust that we succeed in developing it since the '90s.

when we started working in the political arena and participating election. and for this reason, as political party we decided in 1997 election and also in 2002 election and to limit our participation and the goal is we should enhance the confidence between us and the political needs. otherwise, we're going to repeat experiences that other countries see it and we should be so careful in building this confidence because it's the essence of the implementation of the constitution. the third question, please

quickly. we are going past time. >> limit the answers to one question. >> we are suffering from the old laws that has been developed in the prenew constitution era. though we are working to implement the new constitution many new laws has been drafted for example, the establishment of an ince pend, democratic counsel for press. we agree with the major editors and the journalists unions about new law on this level. we could do it quickly. this year the measure laws that we implement not only on the text, but also the experience of

the new constitution. >> i thank you for the statement you made at the end of your question. sometimes i think of it i was invited to california a few years ago to speak about islam in america. my host introduced me as we're really happy today to have a moderate muslim. and then after the presentation i asked him, why did you call me a moderate muslim? she said people here don't believe that muslims can be moderate. let me state it very clearly. i'm really han norred to be a student of the muslim brotherhood. what i tell you today is what i learn from the islam brotherhood. i am a product of the movement. i am not telling you something that i don't -- that is the platform i ran for election for. that is what we study in our

educational materials. this is our understanding. but it's very important two issues that you mentioned. you see we're still moving -- we're trying to move from being an opposition, a jailed opposition into people in power. so when you are in jail you have a jail mentality. when you are out there, you have a difference mentality. why should we have a guardian council? why don't we have a court that can decide for these matters. the two important matters you raised are sharia and jihad. i strongly encourage a dialogue around this because very important. i would like to encourage the muslims among you is to engage in a dialogue with nonmuslim friends within the american society that we can come to understand the sharia. sharia is the word that is not even in english because once it is translated into english it's

am buying ya. sharia means legal law. we're ruled by law. we have to have a law. you call it islamic, you call it secular, you call it this, you call it that. it is a different law. i emphasize that it is different. and it has been there for 1400 years ago. it was tried sometimes it succeeded produced a great civilization. sometimes it failed. the people failed to utilize it to produce a great civilization. it's human experience of understanding a divine text. it can produce the best alternatives. sometimes it does not produce the best alternatives. concerning jihad the same thing. what does jihad mean. just take it out of the arabic and give it the english translation. jihad, i am doing jihad sitting here under this pressure, under the question. this is an intellectual jihad. so jihad means exerting an

effort. if you study you're doing jihad. a muslim journey towards the universe, towards the other people. we don't look at it this versus this. sit not a black and white thing. i think we'll work with whom overwe have ap egyptian agenda. we will work with the liberals and if we can agree on some items, we will work. we're really trying to create a consensus. >> thank you.

>> a question from the brother from algeria. with respect to the military society and civil society, in new ticha, the military plays a democracy and taking part in the.com. and also preserving the territorial integrity of tunisia. therefore the military has no role to play in politics. military and the security forces don't even take part in elections. they cannot be candidates in elections and cannot even vote. and like all civil societies we

have a ministry of difference. but they do not play any role. i mean the role is limbed to the aspect. they cannot run for elections. they cannot vote. this is what happens in civil societies in the free world. of course, you've suffered from military coup from what happened in algeria. the military is a big problem. i believe even in egypt the military institution is a problem. if the military counsel continued to exist there would be no revolution in egypt. because if it continues to be as powerful, then the revolution would not have succeeded. as for the red lines for us in tunisia, red line for us is not violence. and any organization or any party that engages in violence

is red line. the law is above everyone and also torture for example. the human, the physical rights and integrity of the human being is important. we received reports after the revolution that there were instances of physical abuse and the government the results will be implemented strictly on all involved parties. and the head of government was very clear that any person that participates in torture in tunis will be held accountable. also there will be no return to

oppression and corruption. and therefore several issues and every revolution is followed by a period of security, uncertainty and chaos. but we continue to try to return to normal life and to solve problems and protests. and still there is impruchl in this aspect. program of the new government that will be introduced this week will also contribute to peace and security and also to encourage investment and return to normalcy in tunis. thank you. >> i can't see. is that dated? >> i don't see any woman.

>> if i look at the history of the middle east and north africa, i see very little democracy. as an american i am a bit confused what is the meaning of sharia. so i ask you can you please provide a vivid example where sharia law promotes democracy. thank you. >> it seems like autoof you have all experienced political repressions and you served 16 years in prison. you were in a prison for a long time. so may question is how did that -- what did that provide for you that time personally and as a political figure and how does that shape, i'm sure there

are many people like you coming from that. how does that shape the political landscape and what does that -- what kind of struggle do you personally go through as well as how does it shape your political you as a politician. the woman in red. >> i'm from egypt. i have a question for the jordanian representative. i know that jordan does not have sectarian issues that sometimes lead to sectarian violence as in egypt, i know that there is another set of issue idealogical or palestinian versus jordanian. and how does that impact the agenda of the muslim brotherhood and just garnishing their support. thank you.

>> thank you. you mentioned the issue of arab israeli relations. this is a matter for concern here in washington based on the muslim brotherhood's position. my question to you is if you were in government how would you deal with the peace treaty with israel, the general jordan israeli relations and how would you interact with the american led peace process, do we have a reason to be concerned? >>. >> translator: start with the

question. we believe that it's a sort of enrichment for our society. and perhaps it's one of the most distinctive characteristics of american society. we believe that the problem or the jordanian palestinian problem in jordan is just an illusion to hinder the reform process and it's not a real problem. the islamic movement is the biggest component socially and political that strikes a balance between the palestinians and jordanians fl jordan. and perhaps most other political parties are polarized towards one particular group. there are parties in which

there's a jordanian majority or palestinian majority. we believe that this is a very important characteristic of the islamic movement. it's usually fielded for example in yais that are predominantly jordanian. it fielded candidates who are of palestinian origin. and i believe this is a plus and not a con. also as respect to the other question, as muslim movement we don't have to have a problem with israel. our problem with israel is political and it relates to the occupation of palestine. the jews lived in all arab countries and continue.

and even in bahrain. that small country there are still jews living there. depicting the conflict between muslims and non-muslims is depletely wrong. if some of you don't know an attack by a muslim against a muslim is considered to be an individual attack. an attack by a muslim or jew is an attack on the prophet and it's not considered an individual problem. we believe this issue will be asked one day. and we say in government we will have very clear answers. we are advocates for peace and for rights for the palestinian people. the rights have been usurped and they were being denied of all peoples in the world to

establish a state that reflects its own palestinian identity. and this will be a decision to be taken by the jordanian people through its own election of its own representatives. and a government that will engage in foreign policy. this is the general framework of our policy. with respect to the private framework before we talk about anything, we talk about ending the aggression, israeli aggression against the palestinian people. and also the return of all the rights of the palestinian people and also the return of the displaced and the refugees based on the u.n. resolution 194.

and also to restore the rights of all the palestinians refugees. this is a very clear position that we as the muslim brotherhood adopt and all jordanians adopt and therefore ending the aggression is a precondition for any further action. >> to answer rumors regarding syria democracy. we say that the democracy as a vehicle regardless of it -- these are many such as judicial difference and the peaceful exchange of authorities and also the freedom of expression, all these mechanisms does not

contradict islam at all. but if we go to the writings or the use of -- we find these right things -- this new modern line with benefitting from western thought in a way that would not contradict the islamic thought. there is an elite group that represent the main pivot for the muslim movements for the brotherhood and hamas and justice and development in morocco. the reference for for all of

those scholars, this centrist -- the question is that democracy is a mechanism to development the principal under islam. this therefore means to the democracy does not conflict with islam. the second point that was mentioned by the newly is -- i spent 16 years in prison. six of them in isolation. i left my daughter at 2 years old. when i came out of prison she had already taken the baccalaureate degree. we have spent so many years under the