A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Friday, March 27, 2009

Jordanians, Syrians among Candidates for MB Supreme Guide?

A follow-up story in today's Al-Masry al-Youm (Arabic version here)(English version here) to the announcement that non-Egyptians would be considered in choosing the Muslim Brotherhood's next Supreme Guide: according to this story, nine candidates are being considered: five Egyptians, two Jordanians, and two Syrians. (I give both the Arabic and English versions because the paper's English-language translations are sometimes a bit rough.) The five Egyptians are named as the First and Second Deputy Supreme Guides and the Secretary-General, Head of the Political Bureau, and a member of the Guidance Council. The second Deputy Supreme Guide is in prison, which may be an obstacle.

I think the announcement that Jordanians and Syrians are under consideration may in part be an attempt to emphasize the international nature of the movement and to encourage those branches of the Brotherhood (especially the Syrian one, which is suppressed). If elections are held for the office as promised, Egyptian members would most likely support one of the Egyptian candidates.

There is another pubic relations aspect to all this: by emphasizing the existence of multiple candidates and the intention to hold elections for the office, the Brotherhood emphasizes its own internal democratic processes in contrast to those of the state, where the 2005 Presidential elections were nominally competitive but in fact there was never a real question about the winner.

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