[1] He was part of the Iron Guard along with Captain Mustafa Kamal Sidqi and Anwar Sadat which was composed of the supporters of King Farouk.
[4] Rifaat was appointed acting minister of religious affairs in February 1959 when Ahmad Hassan Bakoury resigned from the post.
[6] Rifaat was named as the minister of state and labour in August 1961 to the cabinet led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.
[13] In 1976, he co-founded the National Progressive Unionist Party with Khaled Mohieddin, another member of the Revolution Command Council, known as Free Officers Movement.
[17] However, later he became one of the fierce critics of the Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim whom he regarded as having connections with both Western imperialism and Communism.
[18] Rifaat described Al Asifa people or the Fatah members as elite and excellent revolutionaries on 3 August 1966, but he also added that their operations should not be "a threat to Israel’s survival.