The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty in cooperation with the Network of Arab Liberals (NAL) held a workshop on Sunday, July 13, 2008 in Cairo under the title "The Role of Liberal Opposition Parties – Challenges and Prospects".
The workshop was arranged in four sessions representing scholars and leaders from different Arab countries.

In an opening speech, Dr. Ronald Meinardus, the Regional Director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, confirmed that the foundation aims to raise awareness of the importance and necessity of supporting liberal thought and Liberal parties, liberal organizations and movements in the Arab world through academic research and training in order to achieve democracy and development in those countries.

The first session titled: "Opposition Parties and the Arab State" was moderated by Mr. Mohammed Tamaldou, Director of Union Constitutionnelle, Morocco) and The President of the Network of Arab Liberals.
Mr. Tamaldou introduced Dr. Mohammed Nour Farahat, Professor of constitutional law, Zagaziq University, Egypt. Dr. Farahat presented the Egyptian legal and constitutional status of liberal parties, noted that Arab liberals are facing legal and constitutional constraints which weighed them down through ruling regimes that have severe restrictions on the formation of parties in general and liberal parties in specific as well as another challenge represented by leftist political parties, and Arab nationalist and Islamist strong movements that are trying to undermine the liberal presence in Arab countries.

Mr. Tamaldou then introduced Dr. Wahid Abdel Meguid, Deputy Director of the Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Al-Ahram, Egypt., explained that the majority of Arab countries prohibit party founding so we can not find real partisan plurality except in only seven or eight Arab countries like Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen and the Maghreb countries, and even within those few States we find very little between these parties can be categorized under the term liberal, finally stating that liberal and multiparty systems are merely just slogans for the international community.

The second session of the workshop was under the title "Liberal Opposition and the State in Egypt" was moderated by former Ambassador Nagui El Ghatrifi, senior member of the Egyptian Al Ghad Party and founding member of NAL. Ambassador El Ghatrifi introduced Dr. Mustafa El Fikhy, MP, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, National Democratic Party, Egypt. Dr. El Fiky affirmed at the beginning of his speech that he does not represent the National Democratic Party, but was there to talk about it as an observer. Dr. El Fiky said that liberalism and democracy in Egypt have two problems, the first is the relationship between religion and politics, where conflict between the state and the Muslim Brotherhood is significantly present and Secondly, the alliance of power and wealth and the intervention of businessmen in politics which led to corruption adding that the foggy notion of liberalism for citizens of Egypt and Arab countries is a reason to the lack of liberalism in our area.

The second speaker in the second session was MP Mohammed Moustafa Sherdy, Wafd Party, Egypt. MP Moustafa Sherdy discussed "Liberal Opposition in Parliament: The Experiences of the Wafd Party. MP Sherdy was keen to hold the ruling regimes in Egypt and other Arab countries responsible for the indecisiveness of the liberal opposition party in those countries, while referring to the imbalances and shortcomings in the party system in Egypt for the restricting discriminatory measures put by the regime that only serve the interests of the ruling parties and stifle opposition parties and liberal parties for they present a main source of crisis to the current regimes.

The third session titled: "The role of liberal opposition parties in Lebanon and Maghreb countries" was moderated by Mr.Saed Karajah, President of the Free Thought Forum, Jordan. Mr. Karajah introduced Dr. Camille Chamoun Director of External Relations, The National Liberal Party, Lebanon. Dr. Chamoun discussed the factors that weaken Liberalism in Lebanon mainly resulted from religious political communalism which threatened and prevented the stability of liberal values in the Lebanese political system, religious communalism also infiltrated political parties from within, and Lebanese liberals are suffering from the influence of militant religious groups.

The second presentation was by Dr. Hassan Ebiaba, Member of the Political Bureau, Union Constitutionnelle, Morocco. Dr. Ebiaba focused on the privacy and uniqueness of the Moroccan liberal experience that he thinks opened a new page for political activism 10 years ago and rebuilt a relationship between the regime, political parties, and the constitution in 1996 that started the current state of the Moroccan multiparty system while continuing to empower women through educating and organizing Moroccan women as well as fighting corruption, oppression and the violation of human rights through spreading human rights education in various stages in educational curriculums as well as the establishment of the Equity and Reconciliation Commissions which restore the rights of the citizen of Moroccan and compensate them for misery, oppression, torture and imprisonment that took place in the past, even the Moroccan government had to pay compensations for some of these damages estimated by billions of dollars under the supervision of international moderating organizations.

The fourth and last session was titled "The role of the liberal opposition forces in Jordan and Palestine" was moderated by Mr. Ibrahim Nawar, Member of Executive Board, Democratic Front Party, Egypt. Mr. Nawar introduced Ms. Wafaa Abdel Rahman, Founder and Director of FILASTINIYAT: Media for Women and Youth, Palestine, who stressed about the privacy of the Palestinian case and almost all political movements and organizations have the motivation to always struggle against the occupation, Ms. Abdel Rahman also stated that despite the growing influence of Hamas, the 20's of the past century founded the roots of liberalism that could be a good starting base for the establishment of liberal parties or liberal movements in the future if the political situation to get better.

The second speaker in the fourth session was MP Mohammed Arslan, Jordan. MP Arslan stressed on the great similarities between the situation of Jordan and other Arab countries, in terms of the absence of cultural liberalism as the control of the ruling regimes is weakening the party system with the spread of large spread of Islamization.MP Arslan added that Although liberalism is appealing to the Jordanian youth and several other sects in the Jordanian society Liberals still have a long way to go.