RECOMMENDED READING: “One Man Fits All”

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Egyptian journalist and political analyst Fady Salah has published an article titled “Aboul Fotouh: One Man Fits All” which looks at the history of contradictory statements made by former Egyptian presidential candidate, Dr. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh (aka Futuh). The article begins:

Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh
Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh

Fady Salah | April 26, 2013 On the eve of Mubarak’s departure, Al-Jazeera : ‘The army should form a new ‘patriotic’ government led by a ‘patriotic’ figure, be it Omar Suleiman or Ahmed Shafiq or any other ‘patriotic’ figure to lead the transitional period.’ said Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, then a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB).

April 2012, Al-Jazeera : ‘Omar Suleiman led negotiations with the political forces that betrayed the revolution during its peak, in order for Mubarak to remain in power. I am against the candidacy of anyone who worked with the former regime because the least they have done is remain silent before the corruption of Mubarak.’ said Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, then a leading MB figure and a possible presidential candidate.

April 2012, Al-Mehwar: ‘The Muslim Brotherhood is my precious home that I am honored to belong to… I would only resign if I decide to run for the presidency. However, this resignation would be an administrative and not an ideological one, as no one can change his principles and ideologies.’ said Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a leading MB figure and a possible presidential candidate.

May 2012, CBC: ‘The Muslim Brotherhood is nothing but a tool to reach the aim of moderate Islamic rule. Those who hurt me the most were in fact members of the Muslim Brotherhood.’ said Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, presidential candidate and a former leading figure of the MB.

Read the rest here.

According to a bio in the Egyptian Independent, Dr. Aboul Fotouh is an Egyptian physician who is a syndicate leader in the Arab Doctors Union. He is also a former leader since his student days in the Jama’a al-Islamiya, the Egyptian terrorist group whose spiritual leader was cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman– the so called “Blind Sheikh” now imprisoned in the US for his role in the 1st World Trade Center bombing. When former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat released Muslim Brotherhood leaders from prison in the 1970’s, these same leaders approached Dr. Aboul Fotouh and persuaded him and his peers to join the flagging Brotherhood where he eventually rose to a leadership position. 

Dr. Aboul Fotouh was a member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau from 1987 until 2009 until he was expelled from the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau in what was said to be a fraudulent poll and in July 2011 was expelled from the Brotherhood entirely in connection with his decision to run for Egyptian President. At that time, Dr. Aboul Fotouh said that he had consulted Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi before deciding to run for the presidency while Qaradawi told a Qatari newspaper “I will vote for Abul-Futuh.” In May 2012, shortly before the election, UK media reported that Dr. Aboul Fotouh was “moving to the right” in comparison with said to be his earlier “moderate” positions. However, despite this notion that Dr. Aboul Fotouh was a moderate forced to the right by the presidential campaign, analyst Eric Trager has written an analysis on both the extremist positions of  Abol Fotouh as well as the incessant description of him as “moderate” by leading U.S. media. Trager’s article begins:

But American media has had a tough time acknowledging the dispiriting truth that Egypt’s presidential race is now a contest between theocratic Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi and Abol Fotouh on the one hand, and autocratic former Mubarak regime officials such as Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafiq on the other. Instead, the country’s major newspapers have gone out of their way to designate a hero. The Wall Street Journalthus whitewashed Abol Fotouh as “relatively liberal,” while The New York Times dubbed him a “liberal” outright. Any judicious reading of Abol Fotouh’s record would contradict these characterizations.

Read the rest here.

In addition to Trager’s analysis, Dr. Aboul Fotouh has had an even longer history of extremist statements. Shortly following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, he accused the U.S of plan to “enslave the Arab nation”:

‘This war is not a crusade, but Islam is definitely a target, not as a religion, but as a strong catalyst for resistance and struggle,’ said Abdel-Moneim Abul- Fotouh, a leading member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and deputy secretary-general of the Arab Doctors’ Federation. ‘Islam is perceived as the strongest obstacle to US plans to enslave the Arab nation,’ he added.

 In 2006, he continued along the same lines advising support for “a Hezbollah-Iranian agenda than an ”American-Zionist” one”:

Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, a member of its guidance office, said that the United States had invaded Iraq to divide Muslims and that it was better to support a Hezbollah-Iranian agenda than an ”American-Zionist” one. ”Which one is more dangerous to the Muslim world?” he said in an interview, before attacking ”the regimes who tremble before Iran. They are weak and tattered regimes who don’t acknowledge the will of their people.” When pressed, though, a vague ambivalence emerges. ”Iran would be at the end of our list of enemies, even though it’s not an enemy,” he said. ”Let’s combat the American danger on the region before we ‘compete’ with Iran.”

 In October 2006, U.S. media reported that Abul-Fotouh was one of two  Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders denied U.S. visas  to speak an a conference at NYU. (See Note below)

 For an official bio of Dr. Aboul Fotouh go here.

(Note: “NYU IN ISLAM FUROR – NO VISAS FOR SPEAKERS” The New York Post October 20, 2006)

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