One of the two front-running candidates (along with Amr Moussa, 75, a former
foreign minister under Mubarak and most recently secretary-general of the Arab
League), Fotouh, 61, is a doctor and former member of the Muslim
Brotherhood, whose political party took nearly 50 percent of the seats in
parliamentary elections and is the best-organized political force in the
country. He
served for 25 years in the Brotherhood’s leadership body
before being expelled last year when he defied the group’s leaders to
run for the presidency.
Fotouh is described as a reformist member of the organization,
and as such has received support from younger Brothers, even though the
Brotherhood is putting forth its own candidate, Mohammed Morsi. Fotouh is
viewed as more liberal than the
other Islamists in the race, prompting comparisons to Turkey’s Recep Erdogan. That would be
the same Erdogan who proclaimed that “there is no moderate Islam,” who advised
Turkish immigrants in Europe that “assimilation is a crime against humanity,”
who has taken an increasingly bellicose stance toward Israel – and who is a
favorite of Obama in the Middle East.
In addition to some Muslim Brothers, Fotouh has also received
support from ultra-fundamentalist Salafis, who are competing with the
Brotherhood. Since the Arab Spring revolution, the Salafis won nearly a quarter
of the parliamentary seats, surprising the unprepared Brothers with their
strong showing.
Now, in response to the success of Fotouh’s campaign and his
Salafi backing, the Brotherhood has ramped up its religious rhetoric to draw
Salafis to Morsi’s support. At a recent rally near Cairo University, speaker
after speaker cast Morsi as the only true Islamist candidate and the one who
would ensure the implementation of sharia. The clear message is that Fotouh
is not Islamic enough.
They need not be concerned about that. An avowed radical in his youth, Fatouh helped
found the terrorist organization Al-Gama’a Al-Islamiyya, which now endorses his
candidacy, and spent five years in Mubarak’s prisons alongside such figures as
al Qaeda’s Dr. al-Zawahiri. Newsweek points out that some Egyptians are casting
a suspicious eye on his split from the Brotherhood, and are accusing Fotouh of
downplaying his Islamist tendencies.
The Washington Institute’s Eric Trager, who interviewed him
last year, said that “the notion that Aboul Fotouh is some kind of progressive
is farcical.” Said Sadek, a
political sociologist at the American University in Cairo, says electing Fotouh
would be the equivalent of establishing a theocratic state. “He didn’t renounce
the ideas of the Moslem Brotherhood even when he was jailed by Mubarak,” says
Sadek . “You’re telling me he’s different now?”
GLORIA Center Middle East expert Barry
Rubin notes that the Obama administration is unconcerned about Aboul
Fotouh’s aggressively Islamist comments – for example, that Israel is racist, an
enemy of Egypt, and an illegitimate occupier – as mere “campaign rhetoric.” The
assumption is that the reality of governance will make a moderate out of Fotouh, as it does for American politicians.
Rubin points out that similar wishful thinking about extremists has never
played out that way historically in the real world.
In
an interview last year, Aboul Fotouh apparently betrayed himself as a 9/11 “truther”;
he was quoted as claiming about the 9/11 attacks that “It was too big an
operation… They [the United States] didn’t bring this crime before the U.S.
justice system until now. Why? Because it’s part of a conspiracy.” Needless to
say, it doesn’t bode well for Egypt-U.S. relations to be dealing with an Arab
conspiracy theorist.
In
an al-Jazeera interview, Fotouh called for the Brotherhood to work toward
full legalization and transparency, but he claims that he is “against the
Muslim Brotherhood’s participation in party politics. The Brotherhood should
not become a political party nor should it have a political party.” At the same
time, he also believes that “none of the Brotherhood’s goals or their practices
are illegitimate. In fact, their aims and their methods are very much
legitimate.”
Questioned in the interview about what kind of state Egypt
would be under his leadership, Fotouh played up his liberal side:
First, Islam does not recognize a
theocratic state… A civilian state according to Islamic thought must have a
constitution written by the people which defines the roles and responsibilities
of all authoritative bodies. You can call this a modern state, a civilian state,
a democratic state...
Asked how such an Islamic state would relate to its
Christian or atheist citizens, he replied that an Islamic state embraces all
its citizens, and said an Egyptian Christian would enjoy the same rights and
responsibilities as a Muslim: “There is no difference. Islam does not
discriminate based on gender, religion, color, and the new constitution must
not either.” On a radio show, one of
the hosts identified herself as Christian and asked about the second-class
status of her people in Egypt; he responded vaguely, “Nations rise only if
there is justice. Otherwise there will be no development.”
About Egypt’s relation with Israel, he replied that his
country would maintain its treaty with Israel, “but it will be revised. The articles in it which are in Egypt’s interests
will be kept, and those that are detrimental to Egypt’s interests will be taken
out.” So much for compromise.
As Egypt’s election date
arrives, Western observers are optimistic that Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh’s
moderate nature will prevail – just as they once were optimistic about the
moderate nature of the Arab Spring.
(This article originally appeared here on FrontPage Mag, 5/23/12)
