Along with key Muslim Brotherhood leaders, like Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and strongman Khairat El-Shater, Mohamed El-Kassas was imprisoned under the rule of ousted president Hosni Mubarak. At the time, El-Kassas was a keen member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which he saw as a force aiming to undo injustices imposed on society. But expelled from the group due to his demands for internal reform in the wake of the revolution, El-Kassas established The Egyptian Current Party. Today, he sees a “large gap” between what is on offer under Brotherhood rule and what the people want, “judging by the demands of the revolution.”

Excerpts

• In a way, I am not surprised by the performance of President Mohamed Morsi. I met him several times during my days with the Muslim Brotherhood and never thought he enjoyed any exceptional skills for leadership.
   
• During the 18 days of the revolution, and despite the hesitant stances of its leadership, the Muslim Brotherhood were truly and really integrated in the wider pot of all opposition forces. Today, this association with national political forces, in the large sense of the phrase, is truly missing — unfortunately.
   
• The image of the Muslim Brotherhood is suffering a great deal, but this is the fault of the leadership and not of the group at large. It is the leadership that has sunk too deep into miscalculations.
   
• The situation now is very bad; we are living under a regime that is simply unattached to realities and that has no vision to help fix the many problems that the country is suffering, essentially due to years of corruption and dictatorship under the rule of Mubarak.
   
• The fact that Morsi had to run the second round of the presidential elections against Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister of Mubarak, granted Morsi the support of a wide national coalition. Unfortunately, it did not take Morsi a very long time in office to lose this support.
   
• The main fault of Morsi rule is that the president, or rather the Muslim Brotherhood, decided that they would opt for "empowerment" over everything else; they wanted to make sure that they are in control from above rather than work to gain the wide support of people.
   
• Today, Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood stand all alone, or almost, in the face of daunting socio-economic and of course political challenges. Whatever happens in the next few weeks and months will influence the fate of the Muslim Brotherhood as fundamentally as it will influence the presidency of Morsi and its fate.
   
• The only way out of the current fix is to go back to the spirit of the revolution: to work together to serve a common purpose. I am not sure that the Muslim Brotherhood will opt for this path. I am afraid that the Muslim Brotherhood already put the revolution behind their back and are now determined to walk the path alone.
   
• I am afraid that the rule of Morsi is threatened; it is a threat that comes almost fully from within the regime that is not listening to what the people are saying.
   
• I am hoping that we will not go through a process of toppling an elected president, because this would be the beginning of an endless political confrontation ... What we need to see today is a consensual political resolution to the current crisis ... It seems to me increasingly clear that early presidential elections might be our only safe way out.
   
• We have to say that the dilemma in which we are living is not just about the poor performance of the ruling political power, although the blame goes essentially there. We are also faced with a very divided and hesitant opposition bloc that is still pulling its act together. The opposition needs to go beyond criticising the regime. It needs to offer a vision.
   
• The political situation is simply ignitable. We all know that if things got out of hand we might see the army coming back to the political scene. Counting on the army to assume a political role was one of the bigger mistakes that was made after the revolution toppled Mubarak. We don’t need to keep making the same mistakes.