Islamist media is reporting that Mahmoud Izzat, a long time Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader, has been selected as the group’s new acting Supreme Guide. According to the Middle East Online report:
August 26, 2015 There are no differences between members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the organisation will remain peaceful, the group’s Deputy Supreme Guide Ibrahim Munir said yesterday.
Arabi21 reported Munir saying: “What happened was a type of administrative arrangement which was carried out following the incarceration of the Supreme Guide Mohamed Badei and the other senior aides.” Adding that Mahmoud Izzat was chosen to be the group’s acting supreme guide.
“Unlike what is claimed by mass media, there are different views [among the MB leaders and member]and this is natural; especially in the light of the current hard times,” he told Arabi21.
Efforts are being exerted internally to bring the different views together at the Egyptian and international levels. “Meetings and discussions will continue until we have a united vision,” he said.
He revealed that a “comprehensive review” of the events which took place in Egypt since 2011 is being carried.
“The outcome might see the light very soon,” he said. “If we are able to announce them to the public, we will,” he added, “if not, we will keep it among a very small and internal group until it is appropriate to make it public.”
Regarding the Egyptian authorities’ crackdown on the Brotherhood, Munir said: “We will remain peaceful. The Muslim Brotherhood has been peaceful since 1948 and will remain so until it achieves victory. Skipping this pathway means issuing a death sentence for the group.”
Mahmoud Izzat is known to have been the Muslim Brotherhood’s Deputy leader at one time and described by one analyst as a“ senior traditionalist.” Another source reports that Izzat, along with other Brotherhood leaders, spent about 10 years in Egyptian prisons and since their release in the mid-1970s “have exercised a stranglehold” over the Brotherhood.