UK media is reporting that the Supreme Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has appeared in court for the first tie since he was arrested last August. According to a BBC report:
December 9, 2013 The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has appeared in court for the first time since his arrest in August.
Mohammed Badie was seized along with other Brotherhood figures after the Egyptian army ousted the Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July.
Hundreds of Mr Morsi’s supporters were killed in clashes following the ousting.
Mr Badie, who is the movement’s General Guide, denied the Brotherhood had acted violently .
He is facing charges of inciting violence and murder over the deaths of eight anti-Brotherhood protesters outside the movement’s headquarters in Cairo.
Mr Badie was in court in Cairo along with other Brotherhood figures.
He asked why the death of his son and the burning down of Brotherhood offices were not being investigated instead.
Mr Badie was a prominent figure at the Brotherhood’s protest camps in Cairo, but went into hiding as the military-backed interim government increased its efforts to shut down the protests.
His 38-year-old son Ammar was killed in the protests.
In August 2013, the GMBDW reported that Egyptian authorities had arrested Dr. Badie.
A report by a London-based Arabic news provides some biographical detail about Dr. Mohamed Badie who it says is considered one of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders most loyal to the thought of Sayyid Qutb, one of the most important and most radical ideologues in the history of the Muslim Brotherhood:
Muhammad Badi (67 years old) has been able to keep his membership of the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Bureau for 17 years as he is considered to be one of the most loyal leaders to the organization of Sayyid Qutb. According to the Arab Scientific Encyclopedia issued by the Egyptian State Information Service in 1999, Badi is one of “the greatest 100 Arab scientists.” Badi is the founder of the High Veterinary Institute in the Arab Republic of Yemen. Badi was born on 7 August 1943 in Al-Mahallah al-Kubra (in the Nile Delta), attended the Veterinary Medicine College in Cairo in 1960, graduated in 1965, and was appointed a lecturer at the Veterinary Medicine College in Asyut University in the same year. In 1959 Badi met Dr Muhammad Sulayman al-Najjar, member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, who invited Badi to join the Muslim Brotherhood, and Badi agreed. The new general guide was sentenced in a number of cases, the most famous of which was a 15-year imprisonment in 1965 in the military case that included among the sentenced the fundamentalist leader Sayyid Qutb; Badi spent 9 years in prison on the basis of that sentence, and then he returned to his post at Asyut University, after which he was transferred to Al-Zaqaziq University, and then he traveled to Yemen, and from there he returned to Bani-Suwayf University.
(Source: London Al-Hayah Online in Arabic — Website of influential Saudi-owned London pan-Arab daily. URL: http://www.daralhayat.com)
An Al-Jazeera report confirms that Dr. Badie was a follower of Qutb:
Born in 1943 in the Nile Delta town of Mahalla el-Kubra, Badie was jailed for nine years in the 1960s after being accused of membership of a Brotherhood paramilitary cell that allegedly planned the overthrow of the government. He later became responsible for ideological education in the group. In the case for which Badie was jailed, thousands of Islamists were convicted and imprisoned while influential radical Islamist thinker Sayid Qutb was executed. Although disowned by some Brotherhood members for his radical views, Badie and others in the movement continued to embrace Qutb, who advocated armed struggle to impose Islamic law.
Some of Dr. Badie’s exxtremiost statement have included:
- Predicting the end of the United States
- Asserting a “U.S,/Zionist conspiracy” in the secession of South Sudan
- Praising radical Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Sayyid Qutb
- Denouncing peace efforts with Israel and said that “jihad is obligatory” for Muslims.
In July 2010, our predecessor publication reported on the election of Dr. Badie as the new Supreme Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.