The Muslim Brotherhood’s decision to expel reformist Islamist and potential presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh from the group was dismissed by many younger Brothers as a flawed move.
“I personally believe it is a wrong decision,” Ahmed Osama, a 34-year-old Brotherhood member and the official spokesman of Abouel Fotouh’s campaign, told Al-Masry Al-Youm. “I believe it will have more of a negative impact on the Muslim Brotherhood than on Abouel Fotouh.”
After weeks of unequivocal warnings, the Brotherhood's Shura Council announced the decision to expel Abouel Fotouh for violating the group’s decision not to field a presidential candidate. In February, the group sought to reassure that it had no intention to control all state institutions; it pledged not to nominate a candidate from within its ranks or contest a majority of parliamentary seats.
But in May the 60-year-old doctor announced his intention to run. He affirmed that his candidacy would be independent from the Brotherhood and marketing himself as a candidate for everyone.
“I’m not concerned I am not concerned with this absurdity; I’m a candidate for all Egyptians,” Abouel Fotouh told reporters a few hours after the group made the decision. “I will get all the votes of the Muslim Brotherhood, on top of them the vote of dear brother Mohamed Badie.”
For several weeks, Brotherhood leaders reiterated that they would not support Abouel Fotouh’s candidacy and vowed to dismiss any Brother running for president. However, many young Brothers did not comply with the group’s orders; hundreds volunteered to campaign for Abouel Fotouh.
“We do not care about this decision and we will move ahead with our campaign,” said Osama, who claimed earlier that his membership was frozen because of his decision to campaign for Abouel Fotouh.
Belonging to the generation that resurrected political Islam in the 1970s, Abouel Fotouh is credited with reinvigorating the Brotherhood at that time. Disillusioned with President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s left-leaning, secular project after the 1967 defeat, thousands of middle class university students sought refuge in religion. They formed Jama'a al-Islamiya on Egyptian campuses, seeking to spread Islamic values nationwide.
The proliferation of these student-led groups coincided with the release of Brotherhood leaders from Nasser’s jails after Anwar Sadat came to power. In an attempt to revive their ailing organization, Brotherhood leaders approached prominent Islamist student union leaders, including Abouel Fotouh, and invited them to join the organization. Upon joining, Abouel Fotouh recruited thousands of fellow young activists, who eventually brought the group back to life.
In recent years, Abouel Fotouh rose to the fore as a prominent reformist figure in the now 83-year-old organization. His views on democracy, freedom of belief and expression, and the rights of religious minorities and women had set him at odds with the group’s conservative leaders. In 2010, its hawks succeeded in sidelining him by excluding him from the group’s Guidance Bureau in an allegedly fraudulent poll. But he did not cease criticize group’s political outlook and insist that it should disengage from politics. His ideas found appeal among many of the group’s younger members.
“I believe this decision is one of the group’s historic and fatal mistakes,” said Nabil Abdel Fattah, an expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, in reference to the expulsion decision. “It proves that the group doesn’t accept internal diversity between reformists and the youth on one hand and the extremist and intransigent current that runs the group on the other.”
According to Mahmoud Hussein, secretary general of the Brotherhood, Abdel Fattah’s argument that the dismissal reflects the group’s intolerance of reformists is untrue; it reflects the Brotherhood’s commitment to its promises, he said.
“We keep our words and respect our decisions,” he said. “The decision not to field any presidential candidate is in the best interest of Egypt. And the interests of Egypt are above interests of the group.”
In fact, the Brotherhood has been careful not to risk a backlash by monopolizing power. This fear seems to have shaped the group’s discourse and tactics, as it has sought to reassure the west, Copts and secularists that it has no intention of controlling state institutions. “We cannot turn a blind eye to the Gazan and Algerian scenarios. When Islamists there reached power quickly, the military establishment turned against them,” the influential Brotherhood leader Khairat al-Shater told a local paper in April when asked why the group would not field a presidential candidate.
But expelling Abouel Fotouh will exacerbate the divide between leaders and the groups younger members, predicted Abdel Fattah.
Since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak, ideological and generational feuds within the group have made headlines. Young Brothers have become vocally critical of their leaders, accusing them of dogmatism and conservatism. They demanded a larger role for their generation within the ranks of the organization, the development of a more sophisticated political outlook and full separation between the group’s proselytizing and political activities. So far, the group’s leadership has ignored most of these demands.
“This decision is a message to the youth as well as to the leaders and anyone who thinks of doing something different,” said Osama, who did not rule out the possibility that the group will expel young Brothers involved in Abouel Fotouh’s campaign. In May, Osama told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the group has already questioned some of them.
Sameh al-Barqy, a 37-year-old Brother, also expressed disenchantment with the dismissal of Abouel Fotouh, but contended that his expulsion might, on the contrary, serve his campaign.
“This decision will not influence [Abouel Fotouh]; he is a national figure and many different [political] forces respect him,” said Barky, who provides occasional consultancy to Abouel Fotouh’s campaigners. “I believe this will make more Egyptians sympathize with him and make him more popular.”
The group has also decided to accept the resignation of Mohamed Habib from the Shura Council. Unlike Abouel Fotouh, who was expelled, Habib remains accepted as “an ordinary Brother” who holds no administrative position, according to a statement on the group’s website.
Habib was also considered a moderate voice within the group. Like Abouel Fotouh, he has been marginalized since early 2010 and was similarly excluded from the Guidance Bureau in the same election that Fotouh lost.
Habib told Al-Masry Al-Youm that he resigned because he does not want to hold a senior position in the group. “I have been member of the Shura Council for 24 years. Now, we have to give the chance to the youth and younger generations.”
Although he did not support Abouel Fotouh’s candidacy for fear that the west and non-Islamists might see it as a maneuver by the Brotherhood to hijack the presidency, Habib voiced sorrow over his dismissal. “I’m sad that this has happened,” he said. “This decision will cause disturbance within the group… Abouel Fotouh has his own fans… and the youth are attached to him.”
Abouel Fotouh is not the only Islamist to announce his intention to run for the presidency. Last month Hazem Abou Ismail, a Brother also known for dissent, announced his intention to run, but the group's offical leadership has not yet decided how to respond. On Saturday, controversial Islamic intellectual Mohamed Selim al-Awa also declared his intention to run.
All the presidential hopefuls are waiting for the law on presidential elections to be issued before applying to become official candidates.
