Gehad El-Haddad

Gehad El-Haddad (Arabic: جهاد الحداد; born c.1981) is an Egyptian political activist for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He acted as media spokesman for the Brotherhood from May 2013 until he was arrested on 17 September 2013.[1][2]

The son of Essam El-Haddad, a member of the Brotherhood's Guidance Bureau, Gehad El-Haddad grew up in Alexandria. He worked for the Industrial Modernization Centre and then the Clinton Climate Initiative. Afterwards, he volunteered for the Muslim Brotherhood Renaissance Project (Project implementation started while Morsi was in office).[3] In February 2017, as some reports emerged that the Trump administration was mulling designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organisation,[4] Gehad El-Haddad wrote an op-ed for The New York Times from his prison cell in Tora Prison in Cairo outlining that the MB was not a terrorist organisation but rather a peaceful socio-political organisation.[5] After writing the op-Ed, he was moved to a disciplinary cell in Scorpion Prison.[6][7]

On 25 October 2019, his brother Abdullah stated that Gehad had lost his ability to walk.[8]

  1. ^ ""الإخوان" تشكل لجنة من أعضائها للتواصل وزيارة المؤسسات والشخصيات الإعلامية | المصري اليوم". www.almasryalyoum.com.
  2. ^ Hersh, Joshua (September 17, 2013). "Muslim Brotherhood Spokesman Arrested In Egypt". HuffPost.
  3. ^ Nadine Marroushi, Renaissance man: Gehad El Haddad works as the Islamist project’s pragmatist, Egypt Independent, 31 July 2012
  4. ^ Baker, Peter (7 February 2017). "White House Weighs Terrorist Designation for Muslim Brotherhood". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  5. ^ El-Haddad, Gehad (22 February 2017). "Opinion | I Am a Member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Not a Terrorist". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  6. ^ "Jailed Brotherhood spokesman disciplined for New York Times article". Middle East Monitor. February 28, 2017.
  7. ^ "Egypt: End Gehad el-Haddad's solitary confinement and denial of medical care". Amnesty International Canada. May 28, 2018. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  8. ^ "Egyptian political prisoner Gehad el-Haddad has lost ability to walk, says family". Middle East Eye. 25 October 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2020.