Islamic intellectual, Mohamed Seleim al-Awa, announced he will run for the next presidential elections as an independent candidate in his weekly meeting on Saturday. Meetings are held in the Culture and Dialogue Assembly. Al-Awa's decision was strongly welcomed by his supporters and attendants. Al-Awa said he decided to take the step after consulting his friends, politicians and thinkers in Egypt and abroad. He clarified the campaign was adopted by Egyptian youth and prompted him to take the decision, despite his desire to wait issuing of the law of organizing the upcoming presidential elections. The potential presidential candidate said he will adopt the Egyptian Islamic civilized project. He called many times before for such a project that will achieve the interest of Egyptian citizens without excluding any parties. Egyptian vice president of Al-Wast Party, Essam Sultan, announced his Party's support for Dr. Awa and say, "We are in the heart of the moderation school for which Awa calls. It is our project and objective, so we will support him." Awa's decision raised controversy among Egyptians intellectuals, especially Islamic intellectuals who hesitated before announcing his decision. Many experts refused Awa's decision, they believe there is a need for his enlightened role as a moderate Islamic intellectual. Others believed such a step is a political tactic of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) to access power. Chairman of Al-Ahram translation and publishing center, Dr. Waheed Abdel Magid, said it is better for Awa to keep his position as an Islamic intellectual in the Islamic world. He ruled out that the MB pressured him to run for the next elections especially since they decided not to offer a presidential candidate in the next elections since February 8. Abdel-Magid advised Awa to back away from his decision. Egyptian poet, Abdel-Moniem Ramadan, believes Awa's decision is an MB tactic, through which they can gain power in Egypt. Ramadan expected the MB pressured the Islamic expert to take the decision. He added the ascent of Awa to power, as an intellectual, could lead to a so-called republic of philosophers. Ramadan questions why people should vote for Awa, as a philosopher, and questions Awa's promises he could honor if he gets into power. On the other hand, a number of activists established a page on Facebook to support Dr. Awa and collect a required number of signatures for his nomination for Egypt's presidency. More than 25,000 joined the official page supporting Awa's electoral campaign, while signatures reached to about 4,000. Awa's support campaign included an introduction of Dr. Awa, his ideas, his career positions, and his writings discussing political regime of the Islamic state. His other writings included Egypt's political and constitutional crisis, Egypt's crisis of religious institutions, Islamists and issues of woman. The campaign also included a media channel on Youtube, where they gathered videos of different meetings, held by Dr. Awa. The campaign opened the door for volunteers to participate to support the potential presidential candidate. Arabic here Arabic here
