Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi is widely assumed to be Egypt's president in waiting. He is, believe many, a man with a date with destiny. According to a large number of Egypt's Copts, Al-Sisi saved them from the doomsday scenario of Islamist rule. Yet some Salafi figures insist he is an Islamist candidate, a man who is clearly influenced by Islamic laws and history. His opponents — mainly but not only the Muslim Brotherhood whose rule he cut short on 3 July — brand him a “traitor” for turning against Mohamed Morsi who appointed him minister of defence, and a “murderer” responsible for hundreds of deaths during the bloody dispersal of the Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in August. Officers who served with or under him say he is a man who loves and carefully manages power. “When Morsi removed Field Marshal [Hussein] Tantawi [weeks after his inauguration in the summer of 2012] the army was angry. The only reason the armed forces decided to swallow the insult was because we knew Al-Sisi would be our commander. Forget about Morsi, we never recognised him at all. We knew Al-Sisi would act when the time was right,” said a 32-year old officer. Supporters working on Al-Sisi's presidential bid say he is smart, patient and resourceful. “He declines to be pushed to make a public appearance now that he is officially a presidential candidate and he asks very detailed questions on every idea that is presented to him,” said one member of his campaign team. Foreign diplomats who have met with him say he is “soft-spoken to the point of being cunning” and “courteous without ever being warm”. “He spoke with [European Union Foreign Affairs Envoy Catherine] Ashton for over two hours, using translators for his words and not for hers. He spoke at length in general terms but revealed absolutely nothing about either his presidential programme or his intentions towards the Muslim Brotherhood or any other political opposition force,” said one Cairo-based foreign diplomat. A FAST-TRACK CAREER: Born on 19 November 1954, Al-Sisi's military career, which began in 1977, has been marked by discipline, discretion and ambition. These qualities, combined with his socially reserved style and understanding of the US where he did postgraduate military studies, persuaded Hosni Mubarak to select him as head of military intelligence in 2010 after he was strongly recommended for the post by his mentor Tantawi. A year later, after reputedly visiting Tahrir Square several times in civilian clothes and holding private meetings with opposition and revolutionary figures, including some from the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Sisi had a long tête-à-tête with Tantawi. According to sources close to both men Tantawi had not wanted Mubarak to depart but was convinced his political choices, particular the political succession scheme for his son Gamal, had distanced him from the people. Both men, they say, concluded it was impossible to save Mubarak's presidency. “In his heart Tantawi wanted to save Mubarak. Al-Sisi was very worried about how things would develop. It was clear to both men on by 3 February 2011 that Mubarak had to be offered an exit and soon,” says one informed intelligence source. Much of the decision-making, says the source, was influenced by then intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and by key members of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) of which Al-Sisi was the youngest member. “He was known by other members of the SCAF as very ambitious but he kept very good relations with everyone and never acted as Tantawi's favourite. He observed hierarchies and gracefully bowed to seniority and age,” said a source with inroads to SCAF. A religious man — as is his family — Al-Sisi maintained limited social contacts within the army. His circle was restricted to a handful of close friends, supposedly equally religious men such as Mahmoud Hegazi, a relation by marriage who succeeded Al-Sisi as head of the military intelligence when Morsi appointed Al-Sisi minister of defense. Hegazi then became chief of staff when Al-Sisi departed the army to stand as a presidential candidate. The limited scope of Al-Sisi's personal relations has contributed to the air of ambiguity that surrounds him. He is a man around whom anecdotes may abound, but they are hard to verify. Ambiguous is the way many 25 January Revolution figures who met with Al-Sisi, Hegazi and other SCAF members immediately after Mubarak's ouster describe the man set to be the next president. “He sits there and he seems to be listening and thinking, not talking much but calculating something or other. He comes across as a calculating — conniving even — man who you cannot place exactly. At least that was what we thought at the time,” said one revolutionary figure who met with Al-Sisi several times in the early months of 2011. This ambiguous nonetheless managed to impress Morsi enough to choose him as his minister of defence, “partially because of his observing Muslim forms but also because of his reserved life-style, his hard-work and understanding of the US and of the region in general”, a Muslim Brotherhood member of the presidential team explained at the time. Al-Sisi is an orthodox figure. He knows the entire Quran by heart and fasts every Monday and Thursday, something that endeared him to Morsi who did the same. Al-Sisi's wife and daughter are veiled, as are his daughters-in-law. He refrains from attending social gatherings where alcohol is served or women dressed in a manner that might be deemed inappropriate. One of the most common stories associated with Al-Sisi is that his wife, during the 1990s when he was serving as military attaché to Saudi Arabia, decided to wear the full face veil. “Morsi really liked this religious side of Al-Sisi. He was convinced that although he was never a member of the organisation Al-Sisi was at heart a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, putting great weight on the influence of an older member of Al-Sisi's who was associated with the group,” said the same presidential source. Al-Sisi's supporters say he never attempted to conceal from Morsi exactly what his position was. He regularly, say his allies, reminded Morsi that even though he was religious he had no affinity to any organisation — not the Muslim Brotherhood or any other. It is a narrative Morsi's close associates do not deny. They insist, however, that the context of these conversations is what counts: “an ambitious army officer who at a young age became chief of the army and whose ambition eventually made him turn against the elected president in the search of personal glory.” After Morsi's ouster Al-Sisi and his associates repeatedly said he was not planning a political career or eying the top executive seat. Within months, however, suggestions began to circulate that maybe Al-Sisi would have to bow to the public's demand and put himself forward as a candidate since he had both the support of the people and of state bodies which had never accepted Morsi as president. The Muslim Brotherhood believes the whole thing was orchestrated by Al-Sisi and his associates. His supporters insist he is merely accepting destiny, arguing that it is not something he wanted and he would far rather have remained head of Armed Forces, especially after securing an agreement that he would remain in post for eight-years. Sadat or Nasser: In an audio leak of an interview last summer the editor of an independent newspaper asked Al-Sisi whether he had ever dreamed of becoming head of the Egyptian armed forces. The then chief of army replied “the armed forces or something bigger” — only for the interviewer to ask “you thought you would be at the throne of Egypt?” Al-Sisi replied that he had been inspired by a vision in which he saw himself carrying a sword with the words “No God but God and Mohamed is the Prophet of God” written on it in blood. In the same dream he also received a promise from late president Anwar Al-Sadat that he would be president of Egypt. Al-Sisi made no references in the interview to how Sadat used the Islamists to combat the influence of socialists and other leftists and how they then turned on him to avenge his peace treaty with Israel. Within weeks Gihan Al-Sadat was quoted as saying that she recognised some political resemblance between her husband and the man she hoped would be Egypt's next president. It was not a comparison Al-Sisi's campaigners chose to play on. They opted instead for Gamal Abdel-Nasser, the popular Egyptian leader who embarked on a head-on confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood. Via a series of highly questionable judicial processes many Brotherhood leaders were imprisoned and others executed following an alleged attempt on Nasser's life. Al-Sisi, say sympathisers, risked his life by acting against Morsi following nationwide demonstrations calling for an end to Muslim Brotherhood rule. Both Nasser and Al-Sisi had to confront the Muslim Brotherhood, they say, and both had to opt for tough legal measures — what human rights activists describe as gross violations — to counter Islamist schemes. Some even argue that when Al-Sisi removed Morsi to save the nation from the evils of Muslim Brotherhood rule he was making a huge sacrifice — carrying his own cross — to save the country. Nasser is not only associated with his confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood. He is remembered for his close association with the rights of the poor and the cause of social justice and for supporting the role of women in society, whether such principles will be advocated by Al-Sisi or not remains to be seen once the electoral programme is out. Feminists are particularly waiting to see a line in the programme that would help them overcome the association of Al-Sisi with the virginity tests that women activists had to undergo after having been arrested by military police in Tahrir Square in the spring of 2012 “to decide if they were honourable”. Championing the Palestinian cause and promoting the call of Arab Unity are also of closely associated with Nasser. It is not yet clear if they will be priorities for Al-Sisi. Attempts to draw a parallel between Nasser and Al-Sisi have been an orchestrated effort in which state-run Radio and TV channels have acted as the cheerleaders, airing Nasser's speeches as well as the patriotic songs of Abdel-Halim Hafez that formed the music track to the Nasser era. It is very much an open question whether Al-Sisi, whose electoral programme is still being debated among advisors, campaigners and military associates, will turn out to be Nasser's successor. It is, after all, hardly likely to please his key supporters from the business community, and is also likely to fail to impress revolutionary quarters who fear Nasser's refusal to condone any opposition and also question Al-Sisi's ability to deliver the key demands of the 25 January Revolution. Freedoms, they say, have already been unacceptably compromised by a raft of repressive laws, including the controversial demonstration law, and security practices that have allowed the detention of activists on the flimsiest of allegations. But Al-Sisi is expected to become Egypt's next president with or without the support of Egypt's revolutionaries. Only when he rules is Al-Sisi, who has made no more than a handful of public appearances, likely to reveal his true colours.
