Members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood tell Omayma Abdel-Latif that rumours regarding the appointment of the group's new deputy supreme guide are unfounded Muslim Brotherhood sources described news reports claiming that Khairy El- Shater -- an engineer and one of the group's senior members -- had been chosen as the group's deputy supreme guide as "baseless". Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly on Sunday, 55-year old El-Shater, a member of the group's ruling body (Guidance Bureau), said that news of his appointment to the group's second most important post was "untrue and fabricated by the media". Ma'moun El-Hodeibi, the brotherhood's supreme guide, also insisted on Monday that he had not yet selected his deputy, and that "it will not be a secret once it takes place." The London-based, Saudi-financed Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat had reported the appointment last Friday, claiming the group had shrouded the move in secrecy. The paper described El-Shater -- a British-trained computer engineer -- as belonging to neither the group's younger cadres, or its elder leaders. El-Shater, who has been arrested several times, is perhaps most commonly associated with the case popularly dubbed "Salsabeel", after the name of the computer company raided by security forces in the mid 1990s where hundreds of discs were found containing a database allegedly detailing the group's plans to "overthrow the government". The Al-Sharq Al-Awsat report appeared in the wake of a fresh round of arrests targeting some of the group's members. The arrests come at a time when the brotherhood's relationship with the government is at its lowest point in months -- primarily, it is believed, as a result of a meeting between senior brotherhood members and foreign diplomats in Egypt. Officials have described the meeting as proof of the group's attempts to present itself as an alternative to the regime, a claim that the group has repeatedly and vehemently denied. The news about El-Shater also comes in the midst of a debate over the group's leadership in general, exacerbated by the fact that -- six months after his ascension to the brotherhood's top position -- El-Hodeibi has yet to appoint a deputy. Observers say the group is suffering from a leadership crisis, reflected in the seemingly opposing ways its older and younger generations handle its affairs, as well as its relationship with the state. When El-Hodeibi came to the helm, there was widespread speculation that the deputy supreme guide position might be given to a member of the group's younger professional cadres, who actually make up the bulk of the brotherhood's rank and file. Amongst those considered the most eligible candidates were Abdel- Moneim Abul-Futuh, secretary-general of the Doctors' Syndicate, academic Mohamed Habib, Mohamed Ali Beshr, a senior member of the politburo, and El-Shater. Observers considered the 51-year-old Abul-Futuh to be the most likely candidate. When asked why it has taken the group such a long time to choose its second most important leader, El- Shater explained that according to a Brotherhood statute issued in 1982, there was no obligation to appoint a deputy supreme guide. "The statute says that the supreme guide may or may not appoint one or a number of deputies," El-Shater explained. "Even if the post remains vacant, the group has fixed procedures for succession." "We act in the open," El-Shater said, and "once this post is occupied, the group is obliged to notify the different branches." Currently, half of the brotherhood's 13-member General Guidance Bureau (known as Maktab Al-Irshad) -- the body responsible for formulating policies and running the group's activities -- are from the brotherhood's younger cadres.
