“We don't worry about these things. It's normal for some to leave. We'll wait to see what the future brings them and whether they form political parties and how they fare,” Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Vice Chairman Essam Al-Erian told Time in October 2011 following a wave of resignations by MB leaders. A year later, following the announcement on the part of a number of former MB members that they plan to establish an Islamist organisation to rival the MB, his remarks to the US periodical have come back to haunt him. The Revival Construction and Development (RCD) Association will be dedicated to proselytising work. Kamal Al-Helbawi, formerly a senior member of the MB, says the new society will seek to resuscitate the correct image of Islam and will not involve itself in the political fray. It will focus on education, development and Islamic call or daawa. Since it will not be a political organisation, its members will be free to choose their political affiliation and vote for whichever party they wish. Members will also be able to cooperate with any other proselytising society, including the MB, although they will be required to remain morally and practically committed to the new association. Al-Helbawi stresses that RCD will be dedicated to the teachings of the MB's founding father, Hassan Al-Banna, and by extension will oppose the manipulation of religion for political purposes. The founders of the RCD are currently in the process of formulating the new association's charter and securing an official licence. The MB continues to operate without licence. Its activities and finances are not subject to any form of public scrutiny. Officially at least, the Muslim Brotherhood welcomed news of the association. Leading MB member Ahmed Abu Baraka said his organisation had no objections to cooperating with the new society or any other association that serves Egypt and the Islamic calling. He explained that the Muslim Brotherhood was built on the idea of embracing all Islamic ideas because “it is a Sunni Salafi calling, a Sufi entity, a political organisation, an athletic society, a cultural and academic league, an economic company and a social idea.” He stressed that, contrary to the claim of the breakaway members, the MB does not confine its proselytising activities to the political sphere. The period following the 25 January Revolution saw more resignations and schisms than at any time in the MB's 80 year history. They were motivated by differences in opinion or a refusal to toe the line dictated by the Guidance Bureau and its Shura Council. Foremost among the breakaway members are Al-Helbawi, former deputy supreme guide Mohamed Habib and lawyer Mokhtar Nouh. Habib told Al- Ahram Weekly that the chief aim of the new association is to dedicate itself to religious concerns which the MB has neglected in favour of partisan politics. He said that the new society will stay clear of politics and focus exclusively on matters of faith. Al-Helbawi was for many years the MB's official spokesman in Europe. Banned from Egypt for 23 years, he returned following Mubarak's ouster. A year later he resigned from the group during a live television broadcast following the announcement by the Guidance Bureau that Khairat Al-Shater would be the group's candidate in the presidential elections. During the broadcast he said that the group's breaking of its pledge not to field or support a candidate reflected confusion and inconsistencies within the Guidance Bureau and expressed fears that these would sow dissension among Muslim Brotherhood youth in particular. “When trust is broken between the leadership and those it leads, the causes must be identified and removed in order to restore confidence,” he said. Lawyer Tharwat Al-Kherbawi, who has since written his memoirs; Abul-Ela Madi, who founded the Wasat (Centre) Party, and Ibrahim Al-Zaafarani, who questioned the integrity of the last elections of the supreme guide, are other prominent defectors. Ten other members split off from the MB to form Al-Tayyar Al-Masry (the Egyptian Current) Party. They include Islam Lutfi and Abdel-Rahman Khalil who were both active in the revolutionary coalitions that formed after 25 January and who, in so doing, violated a MB decree that the only party members could join was the group's own FJP. Ibrahim Al-Zaafarani, who had served on the MB's Shura Council in Alexandria, tendered his resignation to Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie after 45 years of membership of the organisation. In his letter of resignation he wrote: “I lived in the Muslim Brotherhood for 45 years until the beginning of 2010. This was after the election of the Murshid and elections to the Guidance Bureau. I had many objections to the [MB's] charter which needed to be developed. I submitted a memorandum concerning what took place in those elections. A year passed without my receiving an answer to my memorandum. Nor have I seen any substantial change since the January Revolution. According to the evidence I see there has been no separation between the FJP and the proselytising, social and educational work of the Muslim Brotherhood. Indeed, it is the MB Shura Bureau that appointed the FJP founders' legal representative, clearly signalling that the party is subordinate to the MB organisation.” The story of Abul-Fotouh's departure from the MB is ironic in a way. He was dismissed for having disobeyed Badie's injunction against fielding or supporting a presidential candidate. The organisation then reversed this decision and fielded a candidate itself. Many had initially believed Abul-Fotouh was the Muslim Brotherhood's “secret candidate” and that his dismissal and the MB's declaration that it would not back him were a smokescreen. Had they consulted the history of the Muslim Brotherhood they would have realised that there is no return for members who have been expelled. After the Muslim Brotherhood nominated Al-Shater for the presidency, and then Morsi after Al-Shater was disqualified, a broad array of supporters rallied behind Abul-Fotouh, ranging from moderate Islamists to liberals, including some supporters of Mohamed Al-Baradei and a number of Copts. He also received the backing of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya in the first round of the presidential elections. Abul-Fotouh subsequently founded the Strong Egypt Party. Still in its formative stage, the new association has stirred speculation regarding its impact on the political arena and on Islamist proselytising. There is a general consensus among observers that the RCD will be hampered by the lack of the huge organisational base the MB has built up over the decades. Yet even as a refuge for those who have incurred the displeasure of the mother organisation, the MB, it could yet prove a very large pebble thrown into stagnant water.
