Muslim Brotherhood has new leader

Mohammed Badie faces struggle to unite Egypt's largest opposition organisation, while advocating 'gradual reform of country'.

Mohammed Badie speaks to reporters in Cairo on Saturday after his election as leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

CAIRO // The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, has chosen a conservative to become the new leader after the previous one stepped down amid deep internal divisions. Mohammed Badie, 66, a hitherto obscure figure within the group, faces an uphill task to resolve disputes within the Brotherhood and will struggle to further the organisation's national agenda, analysts say.

Mr Badie, a veterinary professor at Beni Souif University in upper Egypt, kissed the head and shoulder of his predecessor, Mohammed Akef, before giving his first speech as the group's eighth leader at a press conference on Saturday. "It's God's will that I shoulder this grave responsibility, without aspiring for it," Mr Badie told reporters, who crammed into the headquarters of the group's parliamentary members. "But it is God's will and responsibility that I have no option but to carry it out, seeking God's help and asking him for success," he said, after which senior leaders of the group began chanting "God is great" and "Thanks be to God".

Mr Akef, 81, announced in April last year that he will step down as leader after the end of his first six-year term, which expired on Thursday. "I'm going home," Mr Akef said with a big smile, as he was leaving Saturday's press conference, with members of the group jostling to kiss his hand. Mr Akef's departure represents the end of the generation of leaders who knew and worked with Hassan el Banna, who founded the group in 1928. Since its inception, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which now has 88 members in the 454-seat parliament, has inspired Islamic political parties and movements around the world.

It had originally been assumed that Mr Akef would be replaced by his first deputy, Mohammed Habib, who has been a member of the Brotherhood's ruling body, Maktab el Ershad, or guidance bureau, for the past 24 years, and who is a well-known figure, locally and internationally. However, Mr Habib, 66, and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, another prominent reformist and respected figure, were defeated in the guidance bureau's elections last month. The elections, the first to be held since 1995, brought in 16 conservative members.

Mr Habib submitted his resignation after last month's vote, casting doubts on its transparency and legality, and neither he nor Mr Aboul Fotouh attended Saturday's press conference. Mr Badie, previously an obscure figure within the group, was in charge of ideological education. He is believed by some to have been groomed by - and be a front for - Mahmoud Ezzat, the Brotherhood's most hawkish figure.

The new leader was jailed in 1965 under the regime of the late president Gamal Abdel Nasser after being accused of membership of a Brotherhood paramilitary cell that allegedly planned the overthrow of the government. He was tortured during his incarceration, while many of his colleagues were executed. He was released nine years later when the then president, Anwar Sadat, decided to open a new page with the Brotherhood, which renounced violence in the 1970s.

But Mr Badie was imprisoned again briefly in the 1990s under the current president, Hosni Mubarak, who has repeatedly vowed the Brotherhood will never be allowed to become a political party. Currently the party's members run for election and serve in parliament as independents. Despite being officially banned, the group has hundreds of thousands of members and supporters across Egypt and abroad. While Brotherhood members managed to grab 20 per cent of seats in the parliament in 2005, the constitution has since been amended to make it almost impossible for candidates belonging to the group to run.

In his speech on Saturday, Mr Badie signalled a non-confrontational approach towards Mr Mubarak's regime, stressed the group's rejection of violence as a means of political gain and committed himself to resolving the Brotherhood's internal divisions. "We believe in gradual reform, and that can't be achieved but through peaceful means and constitutional struggle, based on persuasion and dialogue, and not coercion," Mr Badie said.

"Therefore, we reject and condemn all forms of violence whether it be by the governments, individuals or groups. "Concerning our stance towards the regime in our country, we emphasise that the Brotherhood was never its enemy, while they keep squeezing us, confiscating our money and arresting our members." Analysts question what Mr Badie can do for the group. Khalil al Anani, an Egyptian expert on the Muslim Brotherhood, said Mr Badie's obscurity will work against him, especially in his efforts to heal internal divisions.

"He won't be able to amend the rift and make a balance between the conservatives and reformists in the group, and he won't be able to engage the disgruntled young members of the Brothers," Mr al Anani said. "Habib was better than Badie in all those respects, he is a huge loss for the group." Mr al Anani, the author of Brotherhood in Egypt: Age old struggle with time, said Mr Badie "does not have the courage" to confront the regime over its stance on the Brotherhood and will instead concentrate on resolving internal conflicts. This, he said, could weaken its role as the country's strongest opposition grouping.

"The most important question that the group under its new leadership has to answer is how do they see themselves? Are they a real political competitor to the regime or just a pressure social group?" said Ibrahim el Hodeiby, a researcher and former member of the group whose late grandfather, Maamoun el Hodeiby, was one of its leaders. "I don't have high hopes ... and I hope they will prove me wrong."