OnIslam, the Islamic Internet portal associated with Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, has reported that a top Qaradawi associate will soon announce his candidacy for the Egyptian Presidency. According to the report:
CAIRO – Prominent Muslim scholar Mohamed Selim Al-Awa will run for Egypt’s coming presidential elections. “Awa is expected to announce his decision in details in an address…next Saturday after he returns from abroad,” Ahmed Mostafa, coordinator of a campaign to urge the 69-year-old scholar to run for presidency, told Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper on Wednesday, June 15. A graduate of the Faculty of Law, Alexandra University, Awa is one of Egypt’s most acknowledged lawyers who specializes in constitutional law. His book Fil Nizam Al-Siyasi lil Dawla Al-Islamiya (On the Political System of the Islamic State) is one of the most comprehensive studies of the concept of the Islamic state and rule. Awa obtained two diplomas in usul al-fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and was appointed at the office of the prosecutor-general and then enrolled as a PhD student at Alexandria University. But he lost his job over allegations that he was a member of the then banned Muslim Brotherhood in 1965. Later, Awa gained a place at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, as a PhD candidate. He earned his degree in 1972 for a comparative study of systems of penalties in Islamic and Anglo-Saxon legal systems. Awa later moved to the Gulf where he helped establish departments of law at several universities before returning to Egypt in 1985 to teach constitutional law at Zaqaziq University. Emerging as a public figure who sought to apply Islam’s message to contemporary issues, Awa got involved in several public activities and debates as part of a long process of research into the meaning of state in the Islamic political thought. Awa authored several books tackling how to reform Islamic thought and institutions. For example, his book Azmat Al-Mu’assasa Al-Diniya (The Crisis of the Religious Establishment) offers a critical approach of the state of Egypt’s religious establishments — Al-Azhar, Al-Awqaf (Ministry of Religious Endowments) and Dar Al-Iftaa. His 1998 award-winning book Al- Fiqh Al-Islami fi Tariq Al-Tajdeed (Islamic Jurisprudence on the Path of Renewal) earned him the title of the Arab thinker of the year back then. He also served as the secretary-general of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS) from 2004 to 2010.
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The International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) was launched on July 11, 2004 in conjunction with a visit by Youssef Qaradawi to London for a meeting of the European Council for Fatwa and Research. The IUMS board of directors is comprised of many leaders of the global Brotherhood and is headed by Qaradawi, the most important leader of the Global Muslim Brotherhood.
A previous post discussed an interview with Al-Awa in which he accused Egyptian Coptic churches of storing weapons in their monasteries to be used against Muslims.