The announcement of the composition of President Mohamed Morsy's team of advisers Monday stirred controversy, with opponents denouncing its overtly Islamist tone. Nearly two-thirds of posts in the presidential team appointed by Morsy are held by Islamists, either independent or affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafi-oriented Nour Party. Reviewing the resumes of the new assistants and advisers reveals that 14 out of the 21 names declared have Islamist sympathies. The team members consist of four assistants and 17 advisers, and represent various Islamist factions, as well as independent figures. The four assistants include political science professor Pakinam Sharqawi, who will act as the presidential assistant for political affairs; Coptic writer Samir Morkos, who will act as the presidential assistant for democratization; prominent Brotherhood member Essam al-Haddad, who will serve as the presidential assistant for foreign affairs and international cooperation, and Nour Party leader, Emad Abdel Ghafour, who will work as the presidential assistant for national dialogue. The team also includes 17 advisers — various public figures who include media host Amr El Leithy, secular journalist Ayman al-Sayad and nationalist writer Sekina Fouad. The formation includes three members of the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Bureau: Essam al-Erian, acting chairman of the group's Freedom and Justice Party; Mohie Hamed, a member of the group's Sharqiya branch; and Haddad. It also includes Coptic writer and activist Rafik Habib, the only Copt who holds a senior position in the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's political arm, as well as Omaima Kamel, the party's secretary for women's issues. Salafis are represented in the formation by Abdel Ghafour, Nour Party secretary Bassam al-Zarqa and Khaled Alam Eddin. Eddin is a marine science professor who had refused the post of environment minister in the current Cabinet amid tensions over power sharing between the Brotherhood and Salafis. There are also two Islamist-leaning academics — Sharqawi and Seif Abdel Fattah, professor of Islamic political thought. Islamic thinker and former presidential candidate Mohamed Selim al-Awa was also named in the presidential team to handle issues of transitional justice, in addition to Ahmed Omran and Ayman Ali, both known for their Islamist orientations. Islamist domination aside, critics also expressed concerns over the large number of advisers and the obscurity of their powers. Sharqawi told the German news agency that “the coming days will bring more clarity as of the distribution of roles of each member of the team.” She added that those roles would be set out in detail after Morsy returned from his China trip. Asked to what degree the new presidential team was able to address problems stemming from Hosni Mubarak's presidential legacy, which did not take into account professional advice, Sharqawi said, “It is a heavy legacy. We are here talking about a manifold state body where corruption had been legalized, and our mission would be to motivate its workers to build a modern democratic state.”
