Zaw Yousuf Qaradawi.

The other candidates have included Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the brother of Qaradawi’s cousin and spiritual leader, Sheik Muhammed al-Qaradawi. There were also a number of Saudi religious scholars, including Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi and Sheikh Faisal al-Qaradawi, both of whom lost their election bids to Ahmad, the son of Sheikh Muhammed al-Qaradawi.

For his part, the younger Qaradawi has said that he respects the results of the vote but adds that by seeking a leadership role on behalf of all Muslims, he has put himself in the same boat as Ahmad and his fellow-electors.

“These issues can and should be settled at the time of the next gathering,” he added. “But, it is not for me to be the judge of the issues.”

Ahmad said it was not the right time for political discussion when the U.S. and other governments had declared their war on terror. Ahmad said the vote to decide the next head of the Muslim Brotherhood was meant to help people get to know each other.

“We want to keep the discussion civil until the time when the Brotherhood is in charge,” he said. “This time is different from every other time because the situation on the ground now is different from what it was in March of the year 2000.”

The American campaign to oust Qaradawi has been dominated by opposition from the U.S. itself. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met last week with members of the Muslim Brotherhood and has pressed the Brotherhood into submission, with both governments accusing the group of undermining regional stability.

Rice is known to be personally displeased with the Brotherhood’s refusal to join a reformist consensus that would unite Egypt’s Islamist parties, leaving them in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies.

Sheikh Ahmad’s run for Muslim Brotherhood leadership appears to be the latest step in the political struggle between Egypt’s Islamist and secular leaders and the United States.

Ahmad has been criticized more than once before. In a 2006 interview with The National on the occasion of a massive rally of thousands of supporters inside Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Ahmad attacked U.S. policies as a foreign policy “solution to the Arab spring.”

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