In his second week of office the Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide Mohamed Badei appointed three hardline conservatives to leading positions, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Mohamed Badei, the newly-elected supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood took a major step towards restructuring the Islamist movement on 27 January when he appointed three of the group's old guard leaders as his deputies. Mahmoud Ezzat, 67, a Brotherhood hawk widely thought to have engineered the coup against reformists in the 27 December Guidance Bureau elections, was until last week the group's secretary-general and gatekeeper of its financial secrets. Ezzat was replaced on 21 January by Mahmoud Hussein, professor of civil engineering at Assiut University and previously chairman of the group's human resources development. Ezzat, who is a graduate of Cairo University's Faculty of Medicine, belongs to the outlawed movement's faction of hardliners who are faithful devotees of Sayed Qotb, the Brotherhood's master ideologue and theoretician of Islamist Jihadism, executed by late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser's regime in 1966. Ezzat replaces Mohamed Habib, a reformist who served as the former supreme guide Mahdi Akef's first deputy since 2004. Resigning in protest on 31 December, Habib publicly accused the old guard of violating the Brotherhood's regulations to secure Badei's selection. Rashad El-Bayoumi, another hardline Qotbist, is Badei's second deputy. Born in the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag and now an associate professor of geology at Cairo University, El-Bayoumi has headed the Brotherhood's student section since 1995. Badei's third deputy is Gomaa Amin, the Brotherhood's historian who hails from Alexandria. Ezzat, El-Bayoumi and Amin all spent a decade in detention under Nasser. Released in the mid-1970s by president Anwar El-Sadat they have since exercised a stranglehold over the Arab and Islamic world's most influential opposition group. The hardline faction that they, along with Badei, represent, opposes any opening up of the movement or democratisation of its decision-making process. Ex-deputy Habib's resignation revealed the deepening power struggle between the conservatives, mostly in their 70s and 80s, and a younger generation from the 1970s who have called for transparency, respect of electoral rules and closer integration with mainstream politics. Ammar Ali Hassan, a researcher on Islamist movements, believes Ezzat to be the main beneficiary of last week's changes. "After engineering the coup against the reformists last month Ezzat is now the Brotherhood's second in command, serving as a kind of shadow supreme guide," says Hassan. "El-Bayoumi and Amin are both considerably older than Ezzat and live outside Cairo. Ezzat is in Cairo, at the heart of things, from where he will ensure the old guard remains firmly in command." Hassan also believes Ezzat is positioning himself to become the Brotherhood's next supreme guide. The appointment of Ezzat, El-Bayoumi and Amin, says one Brotherhood source, should not be seen as evidence of a planned conservative takeover. "Brotherhood traditions dictate that the candidates who secured a high number of votes in the supreme guide elections be appointed deputies to the winning candidate... This was the case in 2004, when Habib came second to Akef and was appointed his first deputy." Other sources suggest the influence of Ezzat, El-Bayoumi and Amin will be counterbalanced by the appointment of reformists Mohamed Morsi, an ex-parliamentarian and a professor at the University of Zagazig's Faculty of Engineering, Mohamed Saad El-Katatni, the Brotherhood's current spokesman in parliament, and Essam El-Erian, a member of the Guidance Bureau, as the movement's media spokesmen. Hussein Ibrahim, a Brotherhood MP, told Al-Ahram Weekly : "Morsi, El-Katatni and El-Erian enjoy close relations with most Egyptian opposition forces and media people and are in favour of coordinating with the small but active secular opposition. Their appointment is clearly designed to refute suggestions that the new supreme guide has no interest in opening up to mainstream politics." "Morsi, El-Katatni and El-Erian will act as Badei's media consultants and advise on developing the public image of the group ahead of the next parliamentary elections." In a clear bid to counter his characterisation in the media as a leader lacking any political vision Badei held a meeting this week with several leading opposition figures. They included Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science at Cairo University and a leader of the campaign against inheritance of power; Mustafa Kamel El-Sayed, a professor of political science at the American University in Cairo, Hossam Tamam, a researcher on Islamist movements, and Rafiq Habib, a Copt who also researches Islamist movements. Following the meeting Nafaa told journalists that, "Badei showed interest in resuming coordination with secular political forces ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections." "We did not discuss the issue of Gamal Mubarak inheriting power from his father though we did agree more meetings should be held in the future and that a larger number of political figures be invited." "The Muslim Brotherhood," said Nafaa, "is strongly against Gamal Mubarak inheriting power. It could be a major player in the campaign launched against such inheritance."
