Ibrahim Mounir, Deputy Guide and Acting General of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Secretary General of the International Organization, was born in 1937 and passed away on Friday, November 4, 2022 at the age of 85, and the group considers him one of the most prominent men of the call.

He was arrested and imprisoned in his youth, before leaving the country and settling in London.

He participated in the establishment of several Islamic centers and was the Secretary-General of the International Brotherhood.

He was sentenced in absentia to prison terms during the era of the late President Hosni Mubarak and under the regime of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

He assumed the duties of the acting general guide of the Brotherhood in 2020 and called for adherence to peaceful action.


Birth and upbringing

Ibrahim Munir Ahmed Mustafa was born on the first of June 1937 in the city of Mansoura, the capital of Dakahlia Governorate (120 km northeast of Cairo), and moved young to the Imbaba area in Giza Governorate.

Study and scientific training

He joined the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University in the fifties of the last century, and after graduating he joined the work for a period in the agricultural institution.

Ibrahim Mounir was a spokesman for the group in Europe and a general supervisor of the "Brotherhood Message" website (Al-Jazeera)

Political and practical experience

Mounir became acquainted with the Muslim Brotherhood early in his youth, and got involved in the organization’s activities, only to be arrested in 1965 in the case known as “The Revival of the Muslim Brotherhood,” or “The Sayyid Qutb Organization,” and was sentenced to death, before the sentence was commuted to 10 years in prison. .

After his release from prison in 1975, he traveled to Kuwait, and after 5 years he obtained political asylum in Britain.

In Britain, he co-founded a number of Islamic centers, such as the Islamic Unity Forum in London, and worked as a director at the Islamic Charitable Society for Humanitarian Relief, the Solidarity Fund and the Renaissance Foundation.

He was elected by the Brotherhood's Shura Council in January 1995 as a member of the Guidance Bureau from abroad, then he was chosen as the Secretary of the International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood, and as a spokesperson for the group in Europe, and a general supervisor of the "Brotherhood Message" website.

In 2009, he was chosen as the third deputy to the general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood at that time, Muhammad Mahdi Akef.

Mounir assumed the duties of the acting general guide of the Brotherhood in September 2020, after the arrest of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ezzat, the first deputy guide in August 2020, to be the first to run the mother Brotherhood from outside the country of origin.


Trials of three systems

Munir's trial in 1965 was neither the first nor the last, as he had an early record in prosecutions in Egypt, and was sentenced to 5 years in prison in 1955, when he was 18 years old.

In 2009, the regime of the late President Hosni Mubarak brought him to trial in absentia before the Supreme State Security Court, in the case known as the "International Organization of the Brotherhood Case", on charges including money laundering and fundraising abroad for the benefit of a banned group, and a 5-year prison sentence.

On July 26, 2012, the late President Mohamed Morsi issued a general amnesty for him, and it was published in the Official Gazette, Issue 30, 2012.

In September 2021, the Public Prosecution in Egypt referred him (in absentia) - along with 25 others, including the leader Mahmoud Ezzat and the head of the Strong Egypt Party Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh - to trial in Case No. 1059 of 2021 felonies before emergency state security.

Munir faced charges of “taking the leadership of a terrorist group that aims to use force, violence, threats and intimidation at home for the purpose of disturbing public order.” He was sentenced to life imprisonment on May 29, 2022.

His name periodically appeared on the Egyptian lists of persons and entities accused of "terrorism".


Leadership Responsibilities

Ibrahim Mounir announced after assuming responsibility for the Brotherhood in 2020 that the group would not make a deal whatsoever with the regime of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, but on March 20, 2021 he confirmed that the group, as part of the opposition, would not refuse dialogue with the regime if that would facilitate the detainees’ conditions and improve conditions of the people.

And he ruled out, in statements on July 29, 2022, that the group would engage in a new power struggle in any form after it was ousted from power in 2013.

He stressed that violence and the use of weapons are completely unacceptable and outside the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.

internal disagreements

The period of Munir’s assumption of responsibility for the group witnessed the emergence of internal disputes between the Brotherhood’s leaders to the public, and at the end of his first year in charge, Munir issued a decision on October 10, 2021 to arrest 6 of the group’s leaders and refer them to investigation, headed by the group’s Secretary-General, Mahmoud Hussein.

The group opposing him issued a statement declaring that the "General Shura Council" withdrew confidence from him and relieved him of his duties as charge d'affaires and deputy to the guide.

Munir responded with a video recording in which he accused a number of the group's leaders of trying to control it through the media, and without understanding the group's internal regulations, and vowed to the group's members "to heal the ranks and move towards the goals."

his death

Ibrahim Mounir died at dawn on Friday, November 4, 2022, at the age of 85, in the British capital, London, where he spent the last 40 years of his life.

The Muslim Brotherhood called him one of the most prominent men of the call, and one of the group’s flags.