The crisis inside the Egyptian MB has deteriorated between two factions of the extremist organization: Istanbul front led by Mahmoud Hussein, the former Secretary-General of the movement and the London front led by Ibrahim Munir, the acting ideological frontman. Talaat Fahmy, the official spokesman for the Hussein Front, has confirmed the decision of the front and the General Shura Council to dismiss and relieve Mounir from his position. Fahmy has declared the Front’s rejection of the decision to appoint Osama Suleiman as an official spokesman, stressing that the Shura Council run by Hussein is the supreme authority entrusted with managing the group.
Fahmy has revealed that recently, the Shura Council convened officially and took a decision to release Ibrahim Mounir from duty, and to inform him of the council’s decisions and the percentages of those who approved, opposed and abstained from the decision.
The spokesman said that the decision to withdraw confidence and relieve the deputy guide from his duties in the authority of the General Shura Council was made because he is the one who elects the guide and the Guidance Office and he has the right to terminate any of the memberships, in addition to the fact that Ibrahim Mounir was assigned the position of the guide through the Council and the council decided to withdraw this assignment.
Fahmy confirms that Mahmoud Hussein was not the one who submitted a request to relieve Mounir from duty to the council, rather the request was from other members and the council discussed this request and agreed with the majority. He adds that the Shura Council meets periodically and manages the affairs of the group and takes decisions by forwarding, after consulting and asking all members of the General Shura inside the country and abroad.
According to Al Arabiya Net, sources have reported that Hussein’s front cancelled a press conference that had been planned to be held in an Istanbul hotel a few days before officially announcing the dismissal of Mounir and the appointment of his successor on instructions from the Turkish authorities. The sources have also confirmed that peace initiatives between the two fronts mediated by some leaders of the Union of Muslim Scholars, founded by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, took place during the past few days, and all of them failed.
Furthermore, the sources have revealed that the reconciliation initiatives included maintaining the privileges allocated to Mahmoud Hussein and his front members, including keeping the group’s residential building located in the Fatih district of Istanbul named after him, as he seized it and transferred its ownership to his properties. The same is for the two cars allocated to him and the car he bought for his son with $100,000 of funds obtained from the group. The initiatives also included recognizing Mounir’s decisions, preserving the group’s entity, which Hussein rejected, especially since Mounir demanded in return that the Turkey office and the group’s investments in it to be handed over, knowing that the Turkey office and the investments are actually supervised and managed by Brotherhood leader Medhat al-Haddad, a member of Hussein’s front.
Hussein’s Front refused to hand over Watan TV channel, owned by the organization, which broadcasts from Istanbul to Jabhat Mounir, as well as MBOnline website, the group’s official website, supervised by Talaat Fahmy, the media spokesman, and some other media platforms. The front also refused to hand over the management of the group’s subsidiaries in Africa and Somalia, real estate companies, lands, schools and hospitals owned by the group in North African countries. It did not also deliver the file of detainees in Egypt and the expenses of their families, as well as study expenses for students affiliated with MB in universities in Malaysia, Turkey and Turkish Cyprus.
