Mohammad Badie

Mohammad Badie is the General Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Badie has been a member of the Brotherhood since the 1960s and in 1965 he was arrested alongside Sayyid Qutub during Gamal Nasser’s purge of the Islamist opposition. He was released by Sadat and climbed the ranks of the Brotherhood joining the Executive Guidance Bureau in 1996. He is considered a moderate member of the conservative wing of the Brotherhood which opposes confrontation with the state. When he assumed leadership of the Brotherhood in 2010 he played a conciliatory role and mediated between conservative and liberal wings of the Brotherhood. During the revolution of January 2011, Badie was cautious about Brotherhood involvement in anti-government protests. After the overthrow of Mubarak, Badie supported the constitutional referendum proposed by the military government. Although he declared that the Brotherhood would not run a candidate for President in the 2012 elections, the Brotherhood nominated Mohamed Morsi who was eventually elected to the position. Badie denounced peace efforts in Israel and urged holy war following an Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas in November 2012.