[Al Arabiya Latest] Egypt's main opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, has appointed Mohammed Badie, a conservative figure, as its new leader, his predecessor announced on Saturday.Badie, a veterinary professor at a southern university, was "chosen by consensus by members of the consultative council," Mohammed Akef told a press conference in Cairo.
| They elected a dog doctor?!? How times have changed. |
| Just remember their hatred of us is driven by poverty ... |
| A vet in Cairo is still mostly going to deal with violated herbivores, which is a road to desperation and despair. |
It also has affiliates in other Muslim states, some with official status. Egypt's Brotherhood leader is in theory the movement's chief on the international front but groups in other countries are autonomous in practice.
The choice of Badie, the group's eighth supreme guide since it was founded in 1928, signals a return to a less high-profile public role than in the last poll when the Brotherhood's supporters fielded 160 candidates, analysts say.
Born in 1943 in the Nile Delta town of Mahalla el-Kubra, Badie was jailed for nine years in the 1960s after being accused of membership of a Brotherhood military cell that allegedly planned the overthrow of the government.
He was later responsible for ideological education within the group.
| Presumably he now approves of the latest publications addressing MB concerns around jihad, taqfirs, itjihad, and related subjects. |
Akef resigned last year before the end of his term in office in protest after conservative members of the Brotherhood politburo opposed a promotion for Essam Erian, who is associated with the group's reformist wing. The conservative wing has been seen to consolidate its control in subsequent politburo elections, in which the group's deputy chief Mohammed Habib and reformist leader Abdel Moneim Abul-Futuh lost their seats.
Analysts say the new leadership team and a campaign of arrests by police were likely to encourage a shift away from public life.