Mohamed Soudan

Mohamed Soudan (born 1956) is an Egyptian politician who is a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood Organization and its now defunct political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). He was foreign relations secretary underneath previous president, Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted in June 2013 after massive opposition demonstrations. Following the 2013 Egyptian coup, Soudan fled to the U.K., where he has been living ever since.

An Egyptian court has sentenced Soudan, in absentia, to twelve years in prison.

Early life and education Soudan was born in Alexandria, in June 1956, and joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1979 following his graduation from the Faculty of Engineering at Alexandria University. He held various positions in the Brotherhood as he climbed the ladder through the years, and he played an integral part in forming the Freedom and Justice Party after Hosni Mubarak's early 2011 ousting. BBC reported: "The movement initially aimed simply to spread Islamic morals and good words, but soon became involved in politics, particularly the fight to rid Egypt of British colonial control and cleanse it of all Western influence.While the Ikhwan [Brotherhood] say that they support democratic principles, one of the group's stated aims is to create a state ruled by Islamic law, or Sharia. Its most famous slogan, used worldwide, is: 'Islam is the solution.'"One of the Brotherhood's most notable and famous theorists, Sayyid Qutb – labeled by The Washington Post as the Brotherhood's "intellectual godfather" – was widely understood to be one of the main inspirations for Osama bin Laden. Qutb's famous book, "Milestones", became a "classic manifesto of the terrorist wing of Islamic fundamentalism", according to The New York Times. Qutb also served as an inspiration to bin Laden's successor and current leader of Al-Qaeda, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who has frequently quoted Qutb in his own writings. The Egyptian government designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in December 2013. As of February 2017, the Trump administration was considering whether to designate the Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, stemming from the group's long history with violence. The group has links to terrorist actors and organizations including its Palestinian branch, Hamas, as well as Al-Qaeda.

Review of Brotherhood activities in the UK In 2014, World Media Services, publisher of the Brotherhood's Ikhwaan Press, set up a location in a nondescript London suburb, keeping a low profile given the Egyptian government's pursuit to arrest and sentence members of the organization.

Since Morsi's overthrow, the Brotherhood has been warring with the current government and President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, who declared that the Brotherhood is welcome to resume participation in the political scene, only under the conditions that "they decide to renounce violence."

Soudan commented on the Brotherhood's involvement in the conflict in a 2014 statement: "The Muslim Brotherhood and the Alliance did not and will not stop participation in the revolutionary movement – until the bloody military junta is fully defeated and completely ousted, and fair retribution is achieved."In a February 2017 press statement, somewhat contradictory to his earlier proclamation, Soudan said: "Violence has no place in the Muslim Brotherhood's chosen and established approach or in its ideology. We always condemn violence as a means to solve problems or stop oppressors."