By Amira Howeidy The drama began to unfold when Rifaat El-Said, secretary-general of the leftist Tagammu Party, broke the news of mass resignations from the illegal Muslim Brotherhood during a talk show aired by an Arab satellite television station. El-Said claimed that seven out of the nine members of the Brotherhood's political bureau had walked out, causing a major split in the group's ranks. The news was immediately denied by the bureau's members as well as the Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, Mustafa Mashhour. "No such thing ever happened," Mashhour told Al-Ahram Weekly. "These are sensational allegations intended to tarnish our image." According to sources close to the Brotherhood, the political bureau has been locked in a conflict with the Guidance Council for the last five years. The bureau is second to the Guidance Council in the Brotherhood's hierarchy. It plays the executive role of charting the organisation's political action that is decided by the Guidance Council. The conflict between the two bodies reportedly worsened following the death of Supreme Guide Hamed Abul-Nasr in 1996 and his succession by Mashhour. Since then, the political bureau's chief, Saleh Abu Roqayek, increasingly disagreed with the policies of the Guidance Council and subsequently resigned. He was succeeded by Hamed Abdel-Maged, a political science professor at Cairo University. According to the sources who requested anonymity, Abdel-Maged threatened to resign two months ago. Although the sources could not confirm that he had actually walked out, they insisted that "serious divisions exist within the Brotherhood, basically between the political bureau and the Guidance Council." Speaking to the Weekly, Abdel-Maged denied that he or other members of the political bureau had resigned. "There are differences, of course, but they are healthy differences that enrich political action," he said. According to informed sources, the problems within the Brotherhood are caused by the generation gap between the "old guard" on the Guidance Council and the young Turks of the political bureau. Mashhour and Maamoun El-Hodeibi, the two key Brotherhood players, are over 75, while the bureau's members are in the late 30s and early 40s. The "generation conflict" became public knowledge at the beginning of 1996 when a group of young Brotherhood members made a bid to establish a political party called Wassat (Centre) without the knowledge or approval of the Guidance Council. Mashhour and Hodeibi at the time criticised Wassat's would-be founders as a "handful of young people who want to be in the news, at any price." The disagreement degenerated into a series of public accusations and counter-accusations between the old guard and the young Turks. According to the sources, Mashhour fears a repeat of the same confrontation with members of the political bureau. Abul-Ela Madi, the leading Wassat frontman, said there had been resignations and that they were not limited to the political bureau. "A significant number" of Brotherhood members have walked out and joined the Wassat, which has so far failed to get a licence to operate as a political party, he said. "There is a serious problem inside the Brotherhood and it will only get worse," Madi added. The sources said members of the political bureau are angry with the Guidance Council for failing to take action against Moukhtar Nouh, former treasurer of the Bar Association, who is facing charges of financial malpractices. The bureau members argue that they should have been consulted over the problem, insisting that Nouh should no longer be allowed to act as a "frontman" for the Brotherhood. Nouh decided to "solve" the problem by himself by declaring support for the government's candidate for the post of the Bar Association's chairman in the coming elections. The sources claimed that a deal was struck whereby Nouh would rally the support of Brotherhood members for the government candidate in return for dropping the charges against him. "This angered the bureau members who rejected the deal because it threw the Brotherhood's political agenda into jeopardy," a source said. But the Guidance Council would neither interfere nor allow the political bureau to take action. To put pressure on the Council, the bureau threatened to resign and leak the information to the press, a source said. So far, the strategy appears to have worked. Mashhour has met twice with the political bureau, promising to take its demands into consideration. Although the crisis appears to have been contained, sources believe it may re-erupt any time. Brotherhood elections, due before the end of the year, could provide the platform for a new crisis. Members of the bureau charge that there were some irregularities in the last elections, held in 1994. "When they drew attention to past violations, this created further sensitivities," a source said. According to Diaa Rashwan, managing editor of the State of Religion Report, issued by the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, the generation conflict could threaten the very existence of the Brotherhood. "The old are getting older and their mentalities differ widely from those of the younger generations," he said. According to Rashwan, "This year marks the Brotherhood's 70th anniversary. Unless they reach agreement on a new method to keep them going, there won't be anything called the Brotherhood by the turn of the century."
