Before the revolution, Ahmed Ossama, a 35-year-old electrical engineer by training, made a conscious decision to pursue personal glory and to drop his dreams for his country.
He remained an active member in the Muslim Brotherhood but with no passion, as he had already lost hope that his organization or any other group would overturn the regime's tyranny.
"The young Muslim Brotherhood members and I used to wonder how we could change our country, lift injustice and establish a respectful country based on freedom," remembers Ossama. "Yet we could not find any answer, because the Muslim Brotherhood's teachings did not tell us anything but how to improve oneself and call on others to improve themselves.
"The Muslim Brotherhood's teachings do not bear any belief in revolutions … The [group] had no clear idea about how to bring about change," he adds.
Feeling unable to alter reality, Ossama sought to escape it by seeking opportunities to pursue a PhD in Britain or acquire immigration status in Germany or Australia. But as soon as he heard of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fleeing Tunisia in the wake of an unprecedented uprising, his hopes for change were resurrected.
"Tunisia was the turning point," says Ossama. "I was jumping and crying hysterically when I heard that Ben Ali had left. A taboo was broken. I never thought these [leaders] could leave."
Less than two weeks later, Ossama took to the streets with thousands of Egyptian youths to reproduce the Tunisian model. With Hosni Mubarak stepping down, Ossama dropped his plans for flying westward and explored ways to contribute to building a new democratic order. However, achieving this end through the nation's oldest Islamist organization was no longer conceivable.
"I stopped believing all assumptions that the group was conveying to us. I no longer believed that the people were not ready for change, that the regime was too strong to challenge …" says Ossama.
Ossama belongs to a faction of Muslim Brotherhood youths who felt emancipated after the revolution, rebelled against the group's old guard and chose to pursue a different political path. They take it upon themselves to represent a more moderate version of political Islam that recognizes equality and freedom for all Egyptians and also respects conservative social values.
"Eighty percent of the Egyptian people are religious. They fast and pray, watch television, go to theaters, walk by the Nile corniche, fall in love and get married," says Ossama. "We wanted to represent this [majority]."
They see themselves as the missing link between hardcore Islamists and secularists, and as the representatives of the vast majority of Egyptians. They dub their movement "the mainstream current."
"Some Salafis want Egypt to become Like Saudi Arabia, and some liberals want Egypt to become like the United States. … I don't want Egypt to be like the Saudi society nor the American society," adds Ossama.
To market their model, some young brothers have chosen to establish their own political party under the name of Al-Tayyar al-Masry, or "The Egyptian Current." But Ossama chose a far less conventional path. He thought it would be more efficient to spread the message through a presidential candidate who can best represent this school of thought.
“A [presidential] campaign is a smart marketing tool. It reduces all you want to say in the profile of one person. You would not need to talk too much about this mainstream current if you have Dr. Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh," adds the mastermind of the reformist Brotherhood leader's campaign.
Along with another young Muslim brother, Ossama, who has is master's degree in business, had approached Abouel Fotouh to convince him to run for president so they could spread their ideas through him. The 60-year-old physician, who has been known for his full espousal of democracy and freedom of thought, belief and equality between Muslims and non-Muslims, heeded the demand.
In May, Abouel Fotouh announced he would run for president as an independent, defying the Muslim Brotherhood’s decision not to engage in the presidential poll.
Bringing Abouel Fotouh to the presidency is not the campaign's main goal, says Ossama. Publicizing "the mainstream current" is the real issue, he adds.
A few weeks after Abouel Fotouh made the announcement, he was dismissed from the organization, and many of his young supporters were interrogated by their immediate leaders in the Muslim Brotherhood. Ossama chose to sever ties with the organization by resigning in July.
Yet these tensions did not stop the campaign from growing. In less than a year, Abouel Fotouh’s campaign has already recruited thousands of volunteers and opened around 30 headquarters nationwide, according to Ossama.
So far, Abouel Fotouh has established himself as one of the few plausible potential nominees who are set to field their candidacies between 10 March and 8 April. His unequivocal criticism of the military performance coupled with his moderate religious discourse has earned him the support of many non-Islamist revolutionary factions. In December, his name echoed across Tahrir as thousands of protesters demanded that he form — along with Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog — a national salvation government and hence force the generals to return to the barracks.
"If we had chosen to form a party, it would have taken us six or seven years to form a support base, but the campaign is a shortcut. You bring a lot of supporters in a short period of time," argues Ossama, who is in charge of promoting Abouel Fotouh’s relations with foreign countries.
ElBaradei's recent withdrawal from the presidential race is expected to shift more votes in favor of Abouel Fotouh.
"All ElBaradei's supporters who want a civil state and adopt a revolutionary line of thought have already shifted to Abouel Fotouh," says Ossama in a confident tone.
In the meantime, Abouel Fotouh still stands in the category of Islamist candidates, so he can easily appeal to the larger electorate, which has proven to be quite biased toward Islamist voices.
The parliamentary poll showed that "people will eventually vote for a religious nominee or someone who tolerates religion. They will prefer an Islamist, and this will work in [Abouel Fotouh's] favor," contends Ossama.
Throughout the years, Ossama had moved from the right end of the political spectrum of political Islam to the left end. Influenced by his Salafi father, Ossama had joined Salafi student groups when he first enrolled in Ain Shams University in the mid-1990s. Back then, he did not have the same executive look. Instead of his current black goatee, he had a long beard that could easily identify him as a Salafi. Later, he was recruited by Muslim Brotherhood student groups.
"Deep inside me, I am still a very religious person, thank God. … However, I became more open to accepting others. I do not dismiss anyone because he looks or thinks differently," he says.
Now, as he sees himself standing on the left end of the Islamic political spectrum, Ossama relates his paradigm shift to his travels to the West, which taught him to accept differences.
"I have been to different parts of Europe on work assignments and I realized that the world is too big and we should accept each other," says Ossama.
Besides his political activism, Ossama runs a family business that imports automotive spare parts and industrial equipment, among other goods, from Germany, Japan and Turkey.
His work-related trips had also allowed him to explore more closely the Turkish model of the ruling Justice and Development Party, which is widely celebrated of a successful example of liberal Islamism.
Ossama would not deny his appreciation of the JDP model, but he criticizes the party's inability to spread a Muslim lifestyle in Turkey.
"Erdogan's model has its flaws. It only focuses on politics," he says. "When I walk around in Istanbul, I feel the city is more influenced by Western culture. … Erdogan belongs to the Islamic culture, but this culture is not well manifested in the society."
Ossama is married to a dentist and has four children. Now, his personal ambition of acquiring a PhD is put on hold until Egypt becomes a civil democratic state.
"My main priority now is to complete the revolution and see the transition [to civilian rule] take place," says Ossama.
