Egypt’s Brotherhood group selects new leader

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CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s largest opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood has selected a new leader from the group’s conservative faction.

Mohammed Badie, 66, is the group’s eighth supreme leader since its foundation in 1928 and was chosen by the movement’s 30-member international council.

Badie succeeds Mohammed Mahdi Akef, who became the group’s first ever leader to step down and retire.

Badie pledged on Saturday to promote an Islam of “moderation and forgiveness” that “respects pluralism in the whole world,” in his acceptance speech.

The 80-year-old Brotherhood is the largest and best organized opposition movement in Egypt, holding a fifth of parliament’s seats, and inspiring the formation of similar groups around the region, including the Palestinian Hamas.