The oath taken last week by the new chief of the General Intelligence Service has aroused wide controversy, reports Mohamed Abdel-Baky Egyptians were stunned last week when watching the newly appointed chief of the General Intelligence Service (GIS), Major-General Mohamed Raafat Shehata, swear allegiance to President Mohamed Mursi while taking his oath of office on television. The change in the wording of the oath, as well as its being broadcast on television for the first time in five decades, stirred controversy over the message Mursi wants to deliver to the public by this action. On 19 September, state TV aired footage of Shehata taking the oath, and this was followed by a message on twitter by spokesperson of the presidency Yasser Ali regarding the wording of the new oath. "I swear by the greatness of Allah and his Holy Book to be loyal to the Arab Republic of Egypt and to be loyal to the head of the republic and the General Intelligence Service," Shehata pledged before President Mursi. During the broadcast, Shehata put his hand on the Holy Quran while swearing the oath. Senior state officials, among them the vice president, have never previously sworn on the Holy Quran, and the gesture has sparked a war of words between the Muslim Brotherhood and the country's secularist opposition. Before being officially appointed as head of the service, Shehata temporarily replaced Major-General Mourad Mowafi, who was retired in the wake of last August's terrorist attack in Sinai which left 16 Egyptian soldiers dead. Shehata's name first came to public attention in 2011, when he helped broker the deal between Hamas and Israel that led to the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. He started his career in the GIS as head of one of the service's bureaus in the provinces and was then promoted to deputy chief of the GIS. He served in London for two years before working for a brief period at the Institute of Strategic Studies in Egypt, where he was responsible for many international issues, making him an expert on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Shehata's appointment did not take place without opposition, and general Sameh Seif Al-Yazal, a retired senior GIS official, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the oath Shehata took was different from the ones taken by previous service chiefs over the last five decades. While admitting that the wording of the oath, especially the part about loyalty to the president, already existed, Seif Al-Yazal said the use of the Holy Quran while taking the oath was unusual. "I believe this to be a move towards lending Egypt an Islamist character," Seif Al-Yazal said, speculating that in future all new ministers and officials may also be required to swear on the Holy Quran. A senior aide to President Mursi denied that the president had ordered new wording of the oath taken by the GIS chief. "Swearing to be loyal to the president and putting the hand on the Quran while taking the oath has been a tradition observed by all those who have held the post of head of the intelligence services since the time of late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser," said Mohamed Refaa Al-Tahtawi, presidential chief of staff, in a statement. He added that the procedures for taking the oath by the GIS chief differ from those used by government ministers, governors and their deputies. Seif Al-Yazal said that none of the 17 intelligence service chiefs who had preceded Shehata had appeared on TV while taking the oath. For decades, the name of the GIS chief was only known to senior state officials and the editors-in-chief of state newspapers. However, the late Major-General Omar Suleiman, who served as GIS chief from 1993 to January 2011, broke this taboo. Human rights activists voiced their concerns over the apparent change in procedures, asking what the oath would be if the next director of the intelligence services was not a Muslim. "This move of changing the oath is just the first step in the Muslim Brotherhood's plan to tighten its grip on state institutions and change the country's identity. It is a clear indication of an intention to Islamise Egypt," said activist George Ishak. Ishak added that officials in democratic and civil states do not use holy books when taking their oaths of office, and that its use in Egypt could constitute a threat to national cohesion. Brotherhood officials denied being involved in the controversial oath taken by the new intelligence chief. "The group was not involved either in nominating the GIS chief or in the procedures of his appointment. It is the president's decision," Mahmoud Hussein, secretary-general of the Brotherhood, said. He added that if the Brotherhood had really planned to "Brotherise" the state, it would have chosen one of its own members to lead the GIS.
