Brotherhood’s appeal begins to wane in Egypt

[Valin]

The Financial Times:

 

Borzou Daragahi in Cairo

4/10/13

 

To become the youngest president of the students’ union in the college of law at Cairo’s Ain Shams University, Mohamed Shaker did not have to do much. He just presented himself to fellow students as an opponent of everything the Muslim Brotherhood had done and stood for during its months of dominating campus and national politics.

 

“I put up signs saying, ‘The presidency, parliament and shura [consultative council] are enough! At least leave us the universities’,” the energetic 20-year-old boasted. “‘No to the Brotherhood,’ was our slogan.

 

Across Egypt’s campuses and in some professional associations, the once formidable electoral prowess of the Muslim Brotherhood shows signs of waning in a trend that could have an impact on parliamentary elections due this year.

 

After overwhelming wins in student union elections last year, the Brotherhood looks likely to have a drastically reduced influence on campuses. Results compiled by the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, an Egyptian rights group, also show the Brotherhood and other Islamists likely to lose elections for the national students’ union.

 

(Snip)