CAIRO, January 9 (IslamOnline.net) - Tens of thousands of Egyptians paid last respects to the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood group Friday, January 9, as debate over who is to take over the helms of the banned group began.

The mosque - in Raba’h El-Adawyah district, Nasr City in northeast Cairo - from where worshippers moved to lay Mamoun El-Hodaibi in the final resting place was rather a military barracks.

A large number of security forces and masses thronging on from separate areas of the country turned out to pay the 83-leader a last farewell, in what has been an emotionally- difficult scene.

Hodaibi had been admitted into one of the Egyptian capital’s hospitals to undergo some medical checks on his ailing colon. Hours after returning home, he passed away around dawn Friday.

The funeral procession swept rather slowly (AFP)

Thousands of the group’s members failed to show up at the funeral, as the loss of the guide-general - in good shape until very recently - came rather unexpected.

Hodaibi took up the office less than 14 months earlier, after the fifth spiritual leader breathed his last in November 2002.

The funeral procession swept rather slowly to the car that had taken him to the family’s graves in Qalubiya governorate, near Cairo.

Queues of cars lined up for the procession, blocking traffic in the area, with microphones blaring it out that the moderate and personable leader of the outlawed group is now dead.

The news made headlines in national papers, with the official Middle East News Agency - unprecedentedly - publishing a profile of the deceased leader and interviewing the spokesman of the banned group.

El-Hodaibi filed a law suit against the government to return to his post as head of the Court of Appeal after dismissal when he was detained from 1965 till 1971.

Even though the case came out in his favor, the Egyptian government maneuvered till 1981 when he reached pension age.

Sources in the group said that the government had prevented many members to show up for the funeral and closed most roads leading to the area to better control the situation.

Khayrat Al-Shater, a member of the group’s General Guidance bureau, ruled out a rapprochement with the authorities, calling the ideas of Hodaibi “moderate and satisfactory”.

The debate on the succession of Hodaibi is now in full swing, as some analysts predict the transition would not be as easy as the group members wish or expect.

“There will be different - yet contradictory - views over who is the best to take up the post,” said Diaa Rashwan of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

Rashwan referred to the different generations within the group, saying it would be much better to select a successor quickly.

“But this will be difficult since the absence of a prominent personality from the old guard to make it to leadership,” he said.

Security was tight (AFP)

The website of Muslim Brotherhood said that Mohamed Helal, 83, is to work as acting guide-general until a new leader is elected for the post within two months, a move that came in accordance with the bylaws of the group.

Helal said the regulations allow the choice to be based on consultations among members in Egypt and worldwide.

“The principle of consultations is long established since the creation of Muslim Brotherhood, as it first practiced by Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) more than 14 centuries ago,” he said.

Helal was born in 1921, the same year as the deceased Hodaibi, and attended the same Faculty of Law. He joined the banned group in 1943, and marked a record of detentions beginning in 1948 for two years. He also spent six years in prison from 1965.

Other members of the group put up confidence to stress the smooth transition of leadership, saying that all options are open and no one has been handpicked for the post.