Rafik Habib ( ar, رفيق حبيب; born in 1959) is an Egyptian political researcher, and analyst, sometimes described as a

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

intellectual. He serves as Senior Director for IT & Decision Support of CEOSS, an Egyptian, development organization.

Biography

Habib was born in 1959 in Minya,

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...

. He was the son of Samuel Habib, an evangelical pastor of a mega-church who served as president of the Evangelical Denomination in Egypt for many years, from 1980 to 1997. In 1982, Habib graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology at

Cairo University Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...

. In 1988, he received his PhD in Psychology from

Ain Shams University Ain Shams University ( ar, جامعة عين شمس) is a public university located in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 1950, the university provides education at the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels. History Ain Shams University was fou ...

. He said his first interaction with the Muslim Brotherhood was in 1989 when he began researching Islamist movements. He was instrumental in the founding of the

Al-Wasat Party The al-Wasat Party ( ar-at, حزب الوسط, Hizb al-Wasat), translated in English as the Center Party, is a moderate Islamist political party in Egypt. The party withdrew from the Anti-Coup Alliance on 28 August 2014. A court case was broug ...

, a moderate centrist, Islamist party, founded in 1996 and in July 2011, he was appointed deputy chairman of the

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...

's Freedom and Justice Party, which confused a lot of people given that he is Christian. He was criticized by many for backing the Muslim Brotherhood. The Orthodox Coptic Pope, Pope Shenouda described him as being "an insurgent Protestant" and other people said he had converted to Islam. He resigned from the position in December 2012- he was one of several advisers to Egyptian President

Mohamed Morsi Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 2012 2012 Egyptian protests 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

. In 2014, he predicted there would be a counter-coup. He maintains a personal homepage where he posts his views with links to his articles published to a website called

Scribd Scribd Inc. is an American e-book and audiobook subscription service that includes one million titles. Scribd hosts 60 million documents on its open publishing platform. The company was founded in 2007 by Trip Adler, Jared Friedman, and Tikhon ...

References

External references

Rafik Habib webpage (in Arabic)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Habib, Rafik 1959 births Living people Cairo University alumni Egyptian people of Coptic descent Coptic Christians from Egypt Coptic politicians Ain Shams University alumni People of the Egyptian revolution of 2011 People from Minya Governorate Egyptian politicians Egyptian writers