Muḥammad Mahdi ‘Akif
| Role box |
| - Supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood (since 2004) |
| Education, Career and Personal Background |
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Muhammad Mahdī cĀkif was born in Daqahlīyah province, Egypt, in 1928. In 1950 he graduated from the Higher Institute of Physical Education and afterwards worked as a teacher at a secondary school. In 1951 he joined the Faculty of Law and led the students of the Ibrāhīm (now cAyn Shams) University in the resistance against the British occupation in the Suez Canal area until the 1952 revolution.
For further career see "Political/Religious Involvement". |
| Membership |
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- The Muslim Brotherhood (involved since 1940s, leader since 2004)
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| Political/ Religious Involvement |
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In 1940 Muhammad Mahdī cĀkif became involved with the Muslim Brotherhood.1 In August 1954 he was arrested and stood trial on charges of helping in the escape of Major General cAbd al-Muncim cAbd al-Ra'ūf, a top member of the army who supervised the expulsion of King Fārūq from Egypt. Mahdī cĀkif was sentenced to death but the ruling was commuted to hard labor imprisonment. He spent twenty years in jail. After his release in 1974 he became general director of youth at the Ministry of Reconstruction.
cĀkif then left for Riyadh, where he worked as an advisor for the World Symposium for Muslim Youth and became responsible for its international camps and conferences. He took part in organizing the world's largest youth camps in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Australia, Mali, Kenya, Cyprus, Germany, Britain and the United States. In 1987 he was elected to the Egyptian parliament, the People's Assembly, and during the same year he became a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's leading group, the Guidance [Irshād] office. He served in parliament till 1990 and ran for parliamentary elections again in 1995 and 2000, but failed to make it back into the People's Assembly. cĀkif was brought before a court martial in 1996 on charges of being responsible for the Muslim Brotherhood's international organization and received a three-year jail term. In January 2004 he was appointed the supreme guide, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as well as the organization worldwide. He is the seventh Supreme guide in the history of the Muslim Brotherhood. cĀkif has also worked 20 years with the Islamic Center in Munich, Germany2 [RNSAW, 2001, 7, art. 3]. Influential leader Observers have noted in Egyptian newspapers that the Muslim Brotherhood has become more politicized since Muhammad Mahdī cĀkif took over the leadership and that he has more open opinions and seems to have a deeper faith in reform than his predecessor [2005, 53, art.13]. He was the first supreme guide to state publicly that the Muslim Brotherhood is a political group [AWR 2004, 5, art. 6]. Just after taking the position as supreme guide he announced that he was willing to establish a political party if the government would allow it [AWR 2004, 3, art. 5]. He also announced that he accepted Coptic members of the Brotherhood and expressed his readiness to hammer out an alliance with Nasserites and Communists, if the need arises. One of his key issues has been to democratize Egypt, and the group of Muslim Brothers elected for parliament in 2005 has been an influential opposition to the ruling regime.4 |
| Involvement in Arab-West/ Inter-Cultural and Inter-Faith Relations |
| In accordance with the general line of the Muslim Brotherhood cĀkif rejects Western interference in Egyptian (and other Muslim countries) affairs.
In an interview published on Islam Online in March 2004, the year he was appointed Supreme Guide, he commented on the US 'Greater Middle East Initiative', an initiative to promote democracy. He stated that reforms built on such foreign proposals are unacceptable. "Our understanding of democracy depends of the criteria approved by Islam - namely values of justice, equality and consultation - unlike what Americans are trying to convince us," he said.5 In response to the success of Hamās in the January 2006 legislative elections, he said that the Muslim Brotherhood would help Hamās prove itself as a model of Islamic democracy. Hamās should be supported and presented to the whole world as a model of moderate Islam. [AWR 2006, 5, art. 18] In 2005 Muhammad Mahdī cĀkif described the Holocaust as a myth and was hence criticized for Holocaust denial. Soon he publicly said that his description of the Holocaust as a myth did not mean that the Holocaust never took place. A statement issued by his office clarified that cĀkif's remarks were only meant to send a clear message regarding the West's position on democracy and the Palestinians. His deputy explained that the supreme guide wanted to say that the U.S. administration was using only one eye, not both eyes, when it come to the Jews, implying that the Holocaust is misused as an excuse to justify unfair treatment of the Palestinians. [AWR, 2005, 52, art. 13] He said that the West does not want an uprising of the Muslim world because it wants Israel to remain the most powerful country in the region. [AWR 2005, 53, art. 13] |
| Additional Information on other issues ____________________________________________________________________ |
| Footnotes
1) http://www.ikhwanonline.com/Article.asp?ID=19530&LevelID=1&SectionID=214 |
| References: |
| Biographical references: - RNSAW/AWR - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Mahdi_Akef (Also the biograpphy of Muhammad Mahdī cĀkif in Arabic wikipedia has been consulted. There is consistency between the two editions.) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_denial - Shehata, Samer and Joshua Stacher: "The Brotherhood Goes to Parliament", Middle East Report, 240, 2006 (http://www.merip.org/mer/mer240/shehata_stacher.html) - http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-03/04/article04.shtml - http://islamicvalley.com/prod/about.phtml |
| Further Reading: |
| Contact Information: |
| Not known |
| Comments: |
| - In further internet research be aware that his name is usually transliterated in a simple way: Mohammad/Muhammad/Mohammed/Mohammad Mahdi Akef.
- Reliable information on when Mahdī cĀkif became involved with the Muslim Brotherhood is needed. The biography sources differ on this issue. According to Wikipedia he became involved in 1940. At that time he was 12 years old. It seems more likely that he entered the group in 1948, what is claimed by Islam Online. However, none of the information has been either verified or proven false. - Among biography sources there are contradictions in reasoning the 1954-1974 imprisonment of Mahdī cĀkif. Arabic newspaper sources [AWR 2005, 53, art.13] and Wikipedia reports that he was charged for helping the escape of a top member of the army who supervised the expulsion of King Fārūq. However, according to an Islam Online article the reason was "a failed assassination attempt on the life of late Egyptian President Jamāl cAbd al-Nāsir in Alexandria, in 1954." |
| Hidden files: |
| Nationality: Egyptian |
| Mia Ulvgraven, December 2006 |
Emerging Perspectives on Intercultural and Interreligious Relations
Dialogue Across Borders is a database of summary translations of Arabic newspaper articles with references to their sources about intercultural and interreligious relations, focusing primarily but not exclusively on Muslim-Christian relations. The database also contains articles with editorial analysis and interviews on the subject.