Mohammed Refaat El-Saeed ( Arabic: محمد رفعت السعيد Muhammad Rifaʻatu s-Saʻīd, 11 October 1932 – 17 August 2017) was an Egyptian politician, scholar and writer. [1] [2] He served as the general secretary of the National Progressive Unionist Party (Tagammu). [1] [3] El-Saeed held two doctorates in history, and was a part-time lecturer at the American University in Cairo. [1] El-Saeed was a frequent contributor to al-Ahali, the Tagammu party organ. [1] [4]
During the 1940s and 1950s, El-Saeed was active in the Democratic Movement for National Liberation (Haditu) and was seen as close to the leader of the movement, Henri Curiel. [1] He was arrested in the 1958 crackdown on communist activities, and would spend four years in jail. [2]
When the Tagammu party was founded, El-Saeed served as its organizational secretary. [1] Within Tagammu, El-Saeed was identified with the tendency that he was willing to enter into compromises with the regime of Hosni Mubarak. [1] Notably, under his leadership Tagammu was the sole opposition party not to boycott the 1990 election. [5] In early 1995 Tagammu accepted the presidential nomination of El-Saeed to the Shura Council, the upper house of parliament. [6]
For El-Saeed, the tactical alliance with Mubarak stemmed from a desire to block the Muslim Brotherhood to advance its influence in Egyptian politics. [5] El-Saeed's consistent fierce opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood constitutes a key component of his political discourse and authorship. [4] He dedicated many of his written works to this subject (such as Contre L'Integrisme Islamiste in French). [1] [4] In response to his line on political Islam, he was placed in prominent positions on the death lists of militant groups. [1]
Within Tagammu, El-Saeed remained a controversial figure due to his links to Mubarak. [1] [2] [7] Some sectors of the party disagreed with his hardline stance against the Muslim Brotherhood. [4] Dissent in the party erupted again following the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, as 73 Central Committee members of the party resigned in protest of El-Saeed's leadership. In particular the participation of Tagammu in the 2010 elections was a bone of contention. [7]
El-Saeed died on 17 August 2017 at the age of 84. [8]