COMMENT: Despite claim­ing they had no designs on the pres­i­den­cy of Egypt (in the wake of the over­throw of the Mubarak regime), the Egypt­ian Mus­lim Broth­er­hood will indeed be field­ing a can­di­date in the upcom­ing pres­i­den­tial elec­tions, although the prospec­tive can­di­date claims he is act­ing on his own ini­tia­tive. He is alleged­ly at odds with the Broth­er­hood because of his announced can­di­da­cy.

While this may be a real point of fric­tion between the group and Dr. Fatouh (the can­di­date), the pos­si­bil­i­ty that the group and Fatouh may be prac­tic­ing plau­si­bil­i­ty deni­a­bil­i­ty is one to be con­sid­ered.

“Islamist Leader Pur­sues Egyp­t’s Pres­i­den­cy” by Matt Bradley; Wall Street Jour­nal; 5/13/2011.

EXCERPT: A pop­u­lar reformist leader in Egyp­t’s Mus­lim Broth­er­hood said he will run for pres­i­dent, in a move that rais­es the pos­si­bil­i­ty that Islamist politi­cians could dom­i­nate the coun­try’s pres­i­den­cy and its par­lia­ment.

The announce­ment by Abdel Mon­eim Aboul Fotouh, the 59-year-old head of the Arab Doc­tors’ Union and a mem­ber of the Broth­er­hood’s leg­isla­tive Shu­ra Coun­cil, marks a break with the group’s lead­er­ship.

The orga­ni­za­tion months ear­li­er promised not to field a can­di­date in the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, in order to quell con­cerns that Islamists sought to take pow­er in the wake of the rev­o­lu­tion that top­pled Pres­i­dent Hos­ni Mubarak in Feb­ru­ary.

On Thurs­day, the Broth­er­hood dis­tanced itself from Dr. Aboul Fotouh, sug­gest­ing he could be sus­pend­ed from the orga­ni­za­tion because of his can­di­da­cy if he does­n’t resign first. He has said he will run as an inde­pen­dent.

At the fore­front of his reformist stance are his calls for a com­mit­ment to sep­a­rat­ing the Broth­er­hood’s work as a reli­gious orga­ni­za­tion from its polit­i­cal activ­i­ties. Some mem­bers, par­tic­u­lar­ly youth­ful activists, have said Free­dom and Jus­tice isn’t ade­quate­ly inde­pen­dent from the Broth­er­hood.

Dr. Aboul Fotouh’s deci­sion to run for pres­i­dent wor­ried mod­er­ate Egypt­ian Mus­lims and the coun­try’s Chris­t­ian minor­i­ty, who have anx­ious­ly watched the recent polit­i­cal rise of Islamists and have been shak­en by months of vio­lent sec­tar­i­an clash­es. Sec­tar­i­an riots on Sat­ur­day killed 15 peo­ple and wound­ed sev­er­al hun­dred in an impov­er­ished Cairo sub­urb. . . .