Mohammed Mahdi Akef

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Mohammed Mahdi Akef (Arabic: محمد مهدى عاكف) (born July 12, 1928) is the head of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egypt-based Islamic political movement. His title is "general guide" (Arabic: مرشد العام), although it is also frequently translated as "chairman".

[edit] Biography

Akef was born in 1928 in Kafr Awad Al Seneita –Aga - Dakahliya Province, in the north of Egypt. The year of his birth was the year the Muslim Brotherhood Movement was founded.

Akef obtained his Primary Certificate of Education at Al Mansoura Primary School, and obtained his Secondary Certificate of Education at Cairo- Fuad 1st Secondary School. He then joined the Higher Institute of Physical Education and graduated in May 1950, after which he worked as a teacher at Fuad 1st Secondary School

He first became involved with the Muslim Brotherhood in 1940, which was then led by Hassan al Banna.

Akef joined the Faculty of Law and assumed the responsibility of the camps in Ibrahim University (currently Ain Shams University) This was during the war against the British occupation in the Canal until the 1952 Revolution, after which he left responsibility to Kamaleddin Hussein , the then National Guard Chief.

The last Sections he headed in the Muslim Brotherhood before 1954 were both the Students Section and the PE Section at the Groups HQ.

He was arrested on 1 August 1954 and stood trial on charges including smuggling Major General Abdul Munem Abderraoof (one of the Army chiefs who spearheaded the ouster and expulsion of King Farouq), and was sentenced to death in absentia before the ruling was commuted to life imprisonment.

Akef was released in 1974 and was reappointed General Manager of Youth – a department affiliated to the Ministry of Reconstruction.

He then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to work as an advisor for the World Assembly of Muslim Youth and was in charge of its camps and conferences. He took part in organizing the biggest camps for the Muslim youth on the world arena; in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Australia, Mali, Kenya, Cyprus, Germany, Britain and America.

He assumed the position of Director of Islamic Centre in Munich.

He has been a member of the Steering Bureau (Guidance Bureau) of the Muslim Brotherhood, since 1987 until now.

He was elected Member of Parliament in 1987 for the East Cairo electoral constituency.

In 1996 he was court-martialed, charged with being head of the Muslim Brotherhood International Organization, and was sentenced to three years. He was released in 1999.

In 2005 he called the Holocaust a "myth".^[1]

[edit] Notes

^ "The leader of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood has joined Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in calling the Nazi Holocaust a "myth". Mohammed Mahdi Akef accused the West of attacking anyone who questioned that the Nazis killed some six million Jews." Egyptian Islamists deny Holocaust, BBC News, December 23, 2005.