The Muslim Brotherhood Origins Efficacy and Reach

7/30/2019 The Muslim Brotherhood Origins Efficacy and Reach

1/9

raymondibrahim.com http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-muslim-brotherhood-origins-efficacy-and-reach/

Raymond Ibrahim

The Muslim Brotherhood: Origins, Efficacy, and Reach

World Watch Monitor

[Note: The following essay, commissioned and written nearly a year ago but only recently published, has, in

light o f the June 30 Revolution and ouster o f the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, been slightly updated with

additional bracketed text.]

The Muslim Brotherhoo d is the mos t important Islamic

organization in the world, with tentacles of inf luence

everywhere, both in the Islamic world but also in the

West, whereverits purposethe establishment o f a

Sharia-enf orcing caliphatecan be achieved. The

ef f icacy of this group can be seen in the fact that, less

than a century ago, when it was f ounded, it consistedof very few members; it was violent and eventually

crushed and o utlawed; to day in Egypt, a MB leader,

Muhammad Mors i, sits on the throne o f the Middle

East s most st rategic nation, ironically in the name of

democracy, where he is t rying to enable the tot ality o f

Sharia law in Egypt, even as many resist [and they have

succeeded, via the June 30 Revolution that saw the

oust ing of Morsi].

History and Approach

The sto ry of the Muslim Brotherhood, as with many

other stories dealing with Islamic importance, begins in Egyptwhich still serves as something of a

paradigm of the groups s trategies and approach in general. Hassan al-Banna (1906-1949), the son o f a

mosque imam and Sheikh of the Hanbali schoo l of law, f ounded the Muslim Brotherhoo d. Hassan

incorporated Suf i views, which tend to be more moderate and which teach, among o ther t hings, pragmatism

and patience. Of course, in an Islamic context pragmatism and patience can easily take on the f orm

of taqiyyaand tawriyaIslamic doctrines that instruct Muslims to deceive when it is perceived to be in

Islams interes tand may well explain how Banna came to develop the Muslim Brotherhoo ds way of

operating, to be discussed further below.

A school teacher and imam, Banna was reportedly very charismat ic and pivotal to the subsequent growth of

the movement, which, when he started it in 1922, consisted of only a handf ul of members but had

burgeoned to half a million in as litt le as litt le as ten years. Banna did one t hing that not only gave rise and

prominence to t he Muslim Brotherhood, but all Islamist organizations as wellincluding al-Qaeda, which is

currently headed by Ayman Zawahiri, a onetime Muslim Brotherhoo d member: he helped politicize Islam at a

time when it was seen at best as a personal matter, in much the same way modern-day Westerners view

religion.

To understand this, one must understand the history o f the Middle East . A f ew centuries af ter the chaot ic

times o f the Islamic conquests, Islamic law, or Sharia (etymologically related to the words meaning way

and road) was developed and held sway over Islamic lands, in this case Egypt f or centuries. Thus, in this

sense, Islam, f rom a historical point o f view, has in f act wholly permeated the po litics of Islamic law. For

example, courts were all ruled according to Sharia dictates; the caliph, again, according to Sharia, was

obligated to wage war, or jihad, on his non-Muslim neighbors; and so f ort h.
http://www.meforum.org/2538/taqiyya-islam-rules-of-warhttp://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/tawriya-lying/http://www.christiantoday.com/article/egypt.the.muslim.brotherhood.is.down.but.is.it.out/33072.htmhttp://www.raymondibrahim.com/http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-muslim-brotherhood-origins-efficacy-and-reach/http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/tawriya-lying/http://www.meforum.org/2538/taqiyya-islam-rules-of-warhttp://www.christiantoday.com/article/egypt.the.muslim.brotherhood.is.down.but.is.it.out/33072.htmhttp://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-muslim-brotherhood-origins-efficacy-and-reach/http://www.raymondibrahim.com/


2/9

However, a new thing happened in 1798: a Frenchmanan inf idel, Napoleoninvaded and conquered Egypt.

This heralded a new paradigmthat t he inf idel West (t hen and of ten now seen as Christendom) was

st ronger, and thus better, than the Islamic world. To appreciate t his idea fully, one must f irst understand

that , since the time of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, the veracity of Islam and its Sharia have been tied to

its temporal success, its ability to aggrandize and enrich its f ollowers with land and warbooty, including

slaves.

When Muhammad was just a prophet preaching to the Arabs, he spent a decade with nothing but a

handf ul of f ollowers. But when he styled himself as a warlord, attacking and plundering those who did notaccept him as prophet, and thereby acquiring many victories and even more war booty f or his growing

number of f ollowers, Arabians acquiesced to him and his message. Thus, f rom the start, the veracity o f the

prophet was tied to his military and temporal successes. The Islamic conquests, whereby Islams invading

armies conquered much of the Old Worldf rom India in the east to Spain in the westwere especial proo f

that the Islamic way, the Sharia, was t he right way. The Wests conquest and subsequent colonization

shook this paradigm to its core, causing the majority of nominal Muslims to turn to the West and essentially

westernize.

Accordingly, in the colonial era, and even when Muslims ruled Egypt, lots of ref orms were made, the jizya

was abolished, and political Islam los t its inf luence. Even if Islam was given f ormal respect, no self -

respecting Egyptian would invoke the Sharia as a way to govern people; they adopted and promoted

Western f ormsin governance, politics, and even dress and culture. In early 20th century Egypt, especially

in the cities, the hijab, or f emale veil, was a rare oddity. Today it is ubiquitous.

To appreciate this great change, cons ider the f ollowing anecdote. A rare video sho ws President Gamel

Abdel Nasser speaking bef ore a large assembly, and explaining to them how back in 1953 he wanted to

cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood, and met with its leader. According to Nasser, the very f irst demand

of the Brotherhoo d leader was f or the hijab to return to Egypt, for every woman walking in the st reet to

wear a headscarf . The audience erupted in laughter at t his, then, ludicrous demand; one person hollered

Let him wear it! eliciting more laughter and applause. Nasser continued by saying he told the Brotherhood

leader that if they enforced the hijab, people would say Egypt had returned to the dark ages (to morelaughter), adding that Egyptians should uphold such matters in the privacy of their own homes.

Such was the Egypt that Banna and others inherited. To overcome nearly two centuries o f westernization,

whereby mos t Egyptians knew litt le more about Islam than the f ive pillars, if that , Banna politicized Islam,

making it as it once was. However, he and his f ollowers eventually realized that their message would only

resonate if : 1) they took a grass- roo ts approach to mobilizing Muslimsan approach which inevitably took

longer, in this case decades, almost a century, but which as we are seeing has yielded great f ruit, and 2)

they instituted activism and propaganda, which eventually led to a complex, multi-layered organization, with

members f rom all walks o f life, f rom peasants t o prof essionals . The Muslim Brotherhood took advantage

of pre-exist ing Islamic organizat ionspoliticizing them, Islamizing them, and mobilizing them. Accordingly,many businesses, schools, and other organizations became attached to the Brotherhood, either formally

or inf ormally, as they continue to do to this day. Decades of this f urther f ueled by the groups humanitarian

work with laypeople, led to an immense sense o f loyalty to the group and always att racted new recruits .

No matter how humanitarian or social, Bannas message, and the Brotherhoo ds, was/is always couched in

Islamic terms. Whether talking about colonialism, health-related issues, education, or nationalism,

everything was art iculated through an Islamic f ramework, subt ly re-Islamizing the average Egyptians

worldview. Major themes always hammered out included the loss of the caliphate, the weakness of the

f ragmented Islamic world, and the need to revive the caliphate and enforce Sharia lawthe Islamic way,

which was and is always portrayed as the supreme guide to justice and fair dealing.

It is signif icant to no te that, though several General Guides o f the Muslim Brotherhood have come and

gone since Banna, the latters overall st rategy and tactics have generally remained f ixed, depending on the

vicissitudes of the t imes, and the MBs capacities and pos ition vis--vis its opponents. To be sure, and

perhaps inevitably, the MB, once it became relatively powerf ul, did engage in terror at tacks, especially


3/9

against the Nasser go vernment, and ended up being out lawed. Banna himself was killed by government

f orces in 1949.

Due to its popularity, the MB was briefly legalized again, but only as a religious organization, and then

banned again in 1954 due to its non-stop insistence that Egypt be governed under Sharia. Egyptian

of f icials were assassinated, with attempts o n Nassers lif e as well. The government retaliated swift ly,

out lawing the group, imprisoning and to rturing thousands of members, while others f led to sympathetic

nations, especially Wahhabi Saudi Arabia.

A f ew of the greatest MB leaders and agitators were also executed at this t ime. One member who was

executed under Gamal in 1966 is o f special note: Sayyid Qutbtoday known as the godfather of modern

Islamism. Perhaps no f igure has impacted the modern Islamist movement as this man, who wrote pro lif ically

and voluminously especially during his incarceration, producing two classics that are t oday s till staples of

any serious Islamist or jihadi: (in translation) In the Shade of the Quran (a multi-volume exegesis) and Sign

Posts, a short primer that very well captures the phase-by-phase approach of the Muslim Brotherhoo d, the

need to use both prudence and act o nly according to the reality on the ground, the chances of success.

While Qutb s tressed the need f or s tages, he also popularized the jihadi movement by arguing that the

Islamic world was not suf f iciently Islamic and thus needed a jihadi vanguard to overthrowjahiliyya, or the

pre-Islamic st ate of ignorance the Muslim world was currently in.

According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Three basic themes emerge f rom Qutbs writings. First, he

claimed that the world was beset with barbarism, licentiousness, and unbelief (a condition he called

ahiliyya, the religious term for t he period of ignorance prior to the revelations given to the prophet

Mohammed). Qutb argued that humans can choo se only between Islam and jahiliyya. Second, he warned

that more people, including Muslims, were att racted to jahiliyya and its material comfo rts than to his view of

Islam; jahiliyya could theref ore triumph over Islam. Third, no middle ground exists in what Qutb conceived as

a st ruggle between God and Satan. All Muslimsas he def ined themtheref ore must take up arms in this

f ight. Any Muslim who rejects his ideas is just one more nonbeliever worthy of destruct ion.

The inf luence of the Muslim Brotherhoo ds Qutbs writings cannot be underestimated, as they are quotedregularly by modern-day Islamists. Even al-Qaeda leader Zawahiri regularly quotes Qutb in his writings. Due

to Qutbs popularity with terrorists , the Brotherhoods leadership eventually distanced itself f rom him,

openly advocating instead a nonviolent ref ormist s trategy from within, which it has f ollowed ever since.

[Until the popular June 30, 2013 revolution that o verthrew President Morsi, which prompted the

Brotherhoo d to openly engage in violence and terror, seeing they had been exposed and have nothing to

lose.]

Due to the popularity of the MBthose many decades o f cultivating Egyptian society were not f or nothing

Nassers successor, Anwar al-Sadat, released a great many of their number f rom the prisons and

promised to institute Sharia in Egypt, leading to t he intro duction of the Second Article of the Egyptian

Constitution, which made Islamic law (Sharia) the principal source o f jurisprudence. (Ironically it is this

matter concerning the Constitut ion and how Islamic it will be that has created a major rif t in Egyptian so ciety

to day, with Muslim Brotherhood President Muhammad Morsiand all Islamist f actionspushing for an even

greater role f or Islam, and portraying as inf idels and apostates all who would resist.)

Even so , Sadats gesture to Sharia was not enough: af ter he s igned a peace treaty with Israel, the

Brotherhoo d and other Islamic groups constantly agitated against him and he was shortly thereaf ter

assass inated in 1981. In the Mubarak era the gro up was once again formally outlawed even as independent

members were allowed in parliament. But both containment and appeasement were too late: the revivalist

spirit o f Islam was in the air; banning or arresting individuals was not enough.

Accordingly, af ter nearly a century o f Islamic activism and propaganda by t he Muslim Brotherhood, the

Egyptian worldview that f or some generations had been emulating the West as the path to success has

diminished by degrees, decade af ter decade, slowly becoming more Islamic in orientat ion. With the 2011

revolt in Egypt, which started with moderates and secularists seeking true democracy, all Islamists were
http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report_Ch2.htm


4/9

released f rom the prisonsincluding Egypts current [now deposed] presidentand they now dominate the

lif e of the nation. For the first time, then, not o nly is the Brotherhood f ueling society fro m a grass- roots

level, but f rom a top-down approach.

Goals, Objectives, and Other Islamists

What is the ultimate goal of the Muslim Brotherhoo d? Although many Islamic groups have developed since

the inception of the MB, many of them born of it. Equally signif icant, by and large, all Sunni Islamic

organizationsincluding al-Qaeda and the Talibanwant the same thing the Brotherhood does: a Sharia-enforcing caliphate. They dif f er primarily on how this goal is to be achieved.

Consider the MBs slogan: Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law; the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is

our way; and death f or the sake of Allah is the highest o f our aspirations.

This credo represents a statement t hat even the most radical, jihadi Muslim would embrace, f or it captures

all the essentials of radical and jihadi Islam, the so rt of Islam practiced by terrorist organizations. Similarly,

the Brotherhoods English language website describes the principles of the Muslim Brotherhood as

including firs tly the introduction of the Islamic Sharia as the basis f or cont rolling the af f airs of state and

society; and secondly working to unify Islamic countries and s tates, mainly among t he Arab states, and

liberating them from f oreign imperialism. In other words, working to unite the Muslim world under acaliphate which it still openly insists is its ultimate goal. Indeed, not too long ago, Muhammad Badie, the

current General Guide of the Brotherhood [arrested August 19, 2013], openly declared that The Imam

[Bana] delineated transit ional goals and detailed methods to achieve this greatest objective, starting by

ref orming the individual, followed by building the f amily, the so ciety, the government, and then a rightly

guided caliphate and f inally mastership of the world.

This idea of transit ional goals and objectives f or every stage is captured very well by the Brotherhoods

vision and is very easily captured by the one word that appears under the Muslim Brotherhood banner of

two swords crossed over the Koran, preparea word taken f rom Koran 8:60: Andprepare against them

whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrorize the enemy of Allah and

your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. And whatever you

spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged.

In short, t he Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated to preparing the way f or the coming of the caliphatewhich,

if histo ry is any indicator, is much more problematic than any one, single Islamic state or terrorist

organization: all Islamic conquests of non-Muslim, most ly Christ ian lands occurred under caliphates,

including the Umayyad, Abbasid, and of course, the Turkish Otto man State.

Having explored so me of the history and doctrines of the Muslim Brotherhoo d, some relevant quest ions

are in order. First , comprehending the motives of the Muslim Brotherhoo d continues to be dif f icult f or

people in the West, whose epistemology for centuries has always separated the realm of religion f rom therealm of politics. Is the Muslim Brotherhood a political group, or is it a religious group? Such questions

plague the West. The f act is, it is bothf or in Islam, histo rically and doctrinally, Islam is po litics. The word

sharia simply means way, that is, the Islamic way of conducting aff airs. It governs every aspect o f the

believers lif e (in Islam, all possible acts are classif ied according to f ive categories: obligato ry,

recommended, permissible, not recommended, and forbidden). Muslim authorities are deemed legitimate or

illegitimate based primarily on whether they enf orce Sharia on society o r not. In f act, this has historically

been the grievance that the various Islamist and jihadi groupsbeginning with the Brotherhoodhave had

against the ruling governments and regimes o f their respective nationsthat they have not been enf orcing

Sharia law in society.

It bears repeating: the overarching goal of all Islamist and jihadi groups the world over is the establishment

of Allahs rule on earth. From its inception, this has also been the Muslim Brotherhoo ds goalhence the

reason it is heavily involved in politics. The primary disagreement more violent Islamists and jihadis have

with the Brotherhood has to do with tacticsnot t he overall vision which they all share: establishment,

enforcement, and then spread of Sharia law. Jihadis have long argued that, by (at least f ormally)
http://www.meforum.org/3151/muslim-brotherhood-world-mastership


5/9

disavowing violencethat is, jihadand instead participating in politics in order to achieve power and

implement Sharia, the Muslim Brotherho od has bet rayed the call to jihad. For instance, Ayman al-Z awahiri,

the current leader of al-Qaeda, was also a f ormer Muslim Brotherhoo d member when he was f if teenyears

old. However, he was soon lured by the call to jihad, abandoned the group, and joined more radical groups

in Egypt, including Al-Gama Al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Group) and Islamic Jihad.

Ayman al-Zawahiri is an interesting case in point concerning t he tactics o f the Brotherhood and its

detractors. Many years af ter he quit the Brotherhood in the late 1960s when he was a teenager, Zawahiri

wrote an entire book criticizing the Muslim Brotherhood. TitledAl Hissad Al Murr, or The Bitter Harvest,Zawahiri argued that the Brotherhood t akes advantage of the Muslim youths fervor by bringing them into

the f old only to s to re them in a ref rigerato r. Then, they steer their one-t ime passionate, Islamic zeal for

ihad to conf erences and elections. And not only have the Brothers been idle f rom f ulf illing their duty o f

f ighting to the death, but they have gone as f ar as to describe the infidel governments as legitimate, and

have joined ranks with them in the ignorant style of governing, that is, democracies, elections, and

parliaments.

Ironically, however, f or all his scathing remarks against them, time has revealed that t he Muslim

Brotherhoo ds strategy of slowly inf iltrating society by a grass-roo ts approach has been much more

ef f ective than Zawahiris and al-Qaedas jihadi terror [until, that is, f ellow Egyptians and Muslims saw them

f or what they were and overthrew them; in the West , however, subtle inf iltrat ion st ill works bett er than

terrorism and is st ill the preferred strategy]. The Brotherhoods pat ience and perseverance, by playing the

polit ical game, co-opt ing Western language and paradigms, f ormally disavowing violence and jihad, have

turned it into a legitimate player in the eyes of many, to the point that the U.S. government has become

support ive of it, even though it was o nce banned. Yet this does no t make the Brotherhoods goals any less

troubling. For instance, in July 2012, Saf wat Hegazy, a popular preacher and Brotherhood member [since

arrested f or incitement to terrorism], boasted that the Brotherhood will be masters o f the world, one of

these days. Likewise, according to Kamil al-Najjar, who lef t t he Muslim Brotherho od and is current ly living

under threat of death, They are trying to deceive the people and they have managed to deceive a lot of

Western politicians into believing in them. Their only aim is to control the world with Islam. They know they

cannot use f orce to convert the West, so t hey use deceit. Even Gamal al-Banna, the brother of the

f ounder of the Muslim Brotherhood, had harsh words f or the movement his brother f ounded, saying

it to tally rejects f reedom.

Egypts Salafiswho are identical to al-Qaeda and other radical Muslims in that they seek literally to

emulate the 7th century Muslim prophet Muhammed and the earliest Muslims, who were quite vio lent and

intolerantare another case in point. Released f rom the jails and now in parliaments around the Arab world,

f ollowing the Arab Spring, Salaf is represent the al-Qaeda-type Muslims who, while initially contemptuous

of the Brotherhoo ds political game of patience, have seen the rewards the Brotherhood has nonetheless

earned, and thus are also trying to moderate t heir approach, leading to some incongruous moments.

Thus, while the Salaf i Nour (Light) Party ran in Egypts elections , engaged in democracy, and otherwiseplayed the political game, they rarely hid the f act that they saw democracy and elections as a contemptible

means to o ne endSharia law. Thus, one Salaf i cleric appears on video telling Muslims to commit vo ter

f raud if they can to see that an Islamist candidate wins; another portrayed elections as a jihad, saying that

whoever dies during voting becomes a martyr. Unlike the Brotherhood, whose members have learned to

master the art o f taqiyya over the course of decades(dissembling has become almos t second nature to

them), the Salaf iswho share the same ideology as al-Qaeda (that is, that open Islam must be practiced

now, with f orce if necessary) have st ill not f ully learned to play the game, and are simply too honest

concerning their designs.

It is perhaps ironic that the Brotherhoods greatest opponents at the current time are not Western

governments or human rights groups but Egyptians themselves, including a great many Muslims. Western

analystshere I speak of those who understand the threat of the Muslim Brotherhoo dsometimes f orget

that , whatever the Brotherhoo ds goals are, to a great many of those Egyptians support ive of the group,

they see something entirely dif f erent. To them, Islam is goodness, and Sharia is just iceso what is so bad

about wantin to im lement Sharia, as the Brotherhood has lon maintained? This is wh Muhammad Morsi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTVBohQKfh4http://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/muslim-brotherhood-yes-we-will-be-masters-of-the-world/


6/9

received slightly more than 50% of Egypts vote (and that is with widespread allegations o f voter f raud).

Many Egyptians, used to the humanitarian side of the Brotherhoodas mentioned, like its Hamas

of f shoo t, the Brotherhood won many people over by its social programsdid not think of an overtly

Islamist agenda; or, if t hey did, to their minds an Islamist agenda meant goodness and justice not wholly

unlike in the Western sense (which of course many Muslims are st ill inf luenced by).

However, mere months af ter Morsi became president , he began replacing many key governmental and media

pos itions with Brotherhood members. Worse, he introduced a new Constitution t hat had a st rong Islamist

element. Many critics pointed out that the wording was always ambiguous, but in all cases, Sharia wasport rayed as t he ultimate arbitrator in several aspects. Accordingly, Egyptians ro se up against Mors i, in

protest af ter protestarguing that Egypt is not a Brotherhood organizat ion to be run like one. At one

point, the f orcef ulness of the attacks drove him f rom the presidential palace under the cover of dark.

Watching some of the videos o f average people in the streets is eye-opening. Many of them say things like

May I have died when I voted for you Morsi! and much more derogatory statements not f it to publish. The

main reason such Egyptians are disgusted with Morsi has less t o do with Islamism and more t o do with the

f act that Egyptians are s till suf f ering economically and socially, in f act even worse than under Mubarak.

Accordingly, Mors i is increasingly seen as more int erested in empowering his group and the Islamist agenda

than he is in the betterment of Egyptas well captured by the previous Brotherhoods General Guide who

once declared the hell with Egypt, indicating that the interest s o f Egypt are second to the interests o fIslam. [The last two paragraphs, written several months ago, have culminated in the June 30 Revolution and

oust ing of the Brotherhood.]

The Arab Spring

This leads to t he quest ions o f the Arab Springwhich was pivotally important f or t he empowerment of the

Muslim Brotherhood: What was it? Who was behind it? How and why did the Muslim Brotherhood most

benef it f rom it? All evidence indicates that the Muslim Brotherhood had very little to do with t he beginnings

of the January 25 2011 revolution of Egypt, which saw the oust ing of 30-years- long ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Indeed, in the early stages, the Muslim Brotherhoo d leadership f orbade young members f rom participating

in the revoltaltho ugh many did so anyway. There is even a video o f President Muhammad Morsi, in the

early stages of the revolution, mocking it, saying What do you think youll achieve?

The reason for this reticence was, of course, not because of any great love fo r Mubarak, but rather

because the Brotherhood likely thought that Mubarak would ultimately prevail, quash the revolution, and

then quietly target all those leaders who part icipated. The Obama administ ration seems also to have

shared this view, f or it originally expressed support f or Mubarak during the early days of the protest ,

though it later abandoned him.

The Egyptian Revolution, which followed the Tunisian revolution, was f undamentally a product o f the huge

f rustration of the average Egyptian, especially regarding the immensely poor economic conditions, where

many college graduates could not and cannot get a s imple jobcertainly not one to enable set tling down

and start ing a family, which, in Egyptian so ciety, is the norm. However, the only group outs ide the

government that was so well organized and prepared to exploit t he situation was the Muslim Brotherhood

the primary oppo sit ional group to the government f or decades. Many relatively new Egyptian secular

parties, f or example, complained that presidential and parliamentary elections were conducted t oo soon

af ter the fall of Mubarak f or them to properly mobilize and campaign. But t he Brotherhood was ready.

Moreover, as mentioned earlier, the idea of Islam as the immediate solution f or all of Egypts woes had

become very popular among especially the less educated Egyptianswho make up the majority of the

nation. Nor did the U.S. State Departments meddling help. As Andrew McCarthy put it, Hillary Clinton did her

part to help the Muslim Brotherhoo d, by pressuring the military to surrender power and portraying its delay

to proclaim a winner as clearly troubling words better reserved fo r the Muslim Brotherhoods anti-

democratic tactics.

The Muslim Brotherhoods Reach and Presence
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/raymond-ibrahim/did-the-muslim-brotherhood-really-win-the-presidency-in-egypt/http://www.prisonplanet.com/obama-administration-expresses-support-for-mubarak-as-protester-shot-dead-in-egypt.htmlhttp://www.copticsolidarity.org/cs-releases/1155-president-morsi-originally-mocked-egyptian-revolution


7/9

Both f ormally but especially informally, the Brotherhoods reach is immense. Two reasons account f or t his:

1) as the oldest and best organized Muslim organization, it has had ample time and experience to expand,

network, and propagate its message around the world and 2) the message it is propagating is usually not

seen by Muslims as a Brotherhood message but rather an Islamic message, hence its popularity and

appeal.

This is an important point t hat needs to be kept in mind as we explore some of the regions where the

Brotherhoo d is present and inf luencing so ciety. Because its goals are o ne and the same with all ot her

Islamistsresurrection of a caliphate and enfo rcement of Islamic lawit o f ten works in unison with otherIslamic organizations, making it especially dif f icult to determine when an organization is a Brotherhoo d

outf it and when it is s imply a likeminded ally. This phenomenon occurs also with jihadi organizat ions: all too

of ten individual jihadis are in the West conf lated with al-Qaeda, under the assumption that all who engage

in jihadi activities are al-Qaeda members. Yet o f ten the reality is t hat there is no af f iliationexcept, o f

course, in ideology and tactics. Likewise, although many Islamic organizations maintain close symbolic and

ideological t ies with the Muslim Brotherhood, t hey remain largely autonomous.

The heart o f the Muslim Brotherhood is also t he region it was born: Egypt, which represents the core o f

the movement. The second layer of presence and inf luence is the region nearest to Egypt, the Middle East ,

especially Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Jordan, Iraq, the PA terr ito ries, and even throughout the Arabian

Peninsula. The third and mos t recentand perhaps t he mos t importantregion is the West , Europe and

North America. Altogether, it is believed that the Brotherhood is present in some 70 countries around the

world.

We have already examined the Muslim Brotherho od in Egypt. As f or its next layer of presence and inf luence,

the Middle East , especially those countries closest t o Egypt, the f ollowing are some of the more important

areas where the Brotherhoo d is known to exist and operate. It is important to no te that, as in Egypt, many

of these Brotherhood af f iliates were f ounded in direct opposition t o the ruling regimes o f their respective

countries, port rayed as the moral, Islamic substitute f or t he secular, westernized, and, in short ,

corrupt ruling regimes:

Arabian Peninsula: many Brotherho od members, af ter being driven out of Egypt in t he 1950s and

af terwards, f ound sympathizers and asylum in the Gulf nations. Many of them sett led there, inf luencing

those societies, especially by agitating against the authorities. For example, in Saudi Arabia, Brotherhood

members f ormed the Awakening (Sahwa) group, which challenged the legit imacy of the Saudi crown. In

nations such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, Brotherhood members exploited the media presence

there, most notably Al Jazeera, to inf luence Muslims both in and beyond the region with t he Brotherhood

narrative and propaganda. [This has proven especially true af ter the June 30, 2013 revolution, as Al

Jazeera has unabashedly proven that it is t he Brotherhood's mouthpiece, distorting and manipulating news

f or the group's benef it.] Brotherhoo d members have also , as in Egypt, gained many seats in parliaments

throughout t he Gulf. For example, in Kuwait, through the Hadas movement; in Yemen thro ugh the Islahmovement; and in Bahrain through the Minbar party, which, since 2002, has been the largest elected party.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayefdenounced the Brotherhood, saying it was guilty of betrayal of pledges

and ingratitude and was the source of all problems in the Islamic world. On the other hand, many

Brotherhoo d members and their descendants who sett led in the Peninsula were themselves f urther

radicalized by Saudi Arabias ultra- Islamic, Wahhabi worldview, bringing it back with them to Egypt and their

ot her countries of origin. The Salaf is seem to be the hybrid result o f Egyptian Brotherhood mentality mixed

with Saudi Wahhabism. Again, this points to the symbiotic relationship that exists between all Islamic

groups, f or they are all ultimately roo ted in the same immutable sources: the Koran and the t eachings of

Muhammad, as captured in the Hadith, and relayed in the Sunna.

Iraq: under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi Islamic Partythe largest Sunni Islamic political party and a branch o fthe Muslim Brotherhoo dwas banned in the 1960s and forced underground for its religious agitat ions. It

reemerged so on af ter t he U.S. to ppled Hussein, and has since been a harsh crit ic of the U.S. while

simultaneously taking part in government and in the t ransitional process .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12823-2004Sep10.htmlhttp://www.raymondibrahim.com/from-the-arab-world/exposed-al-jazeera-airs-fake-brotherhood-injuries-and-deaths/


8/9

Iran: although a predominately Shia Muslim country, and the Muslim Brotherhoo d is Sunni in doctrine, it is

clear that t he Muslim Brotherhood, t he modern-day pioneers o f political Islam, have influenced the Shia of

Iran. For example, Nava Safari, who f ounded Fadaiyan-e Islam, an Iranian Islamic organizat ion active in Iran

in the 1940s and 50s, was highly impressed by the Muslim Brotherhood. From 1945 to 1951 the Fadain

assassinated several high level Iranian personalities and of f icials who they believed to be un-Islamic,

including ant i-clerical writer Ahmad Kasravi, Premier Haj Ali Razmara, f ormer Premier Abdolhossein Hazhir

and Education and Culture Minister Ahmad Zangeneh. Again, it must be st ressed that, even within the

Sunni-Shia divide, which is very real, much coo peration exist s, specif ically in the context of resurrecting a

caliphate and enf orcing Sharia. The prevailing logic is that t he greater enemy is the inf idel (U.S., Israel, etc.),

and that it is benef icial for all Muslims to work together for t heir subjugation. Then they may resume their

internal struggle for overall mastery.

Jordan: the Brotherhood is represented by t he Islamic Action Front, which was f ounded in the 1940s and

has deeply inf luenced segments of society through charity, propaganda, and indoctrination. At various

times, and under various leaders, it has vacillated between militancyof ten inf luenced by Palest inian

elementsand the Brotherhoods hallmark approach of patience and perseverance, working with the

Hashemite rulers. To be sure, during the 2011 uprisings, t he group became much more assert ive. Having

f ailed, it has now slipped back into the diplomatic course, calling for internal, peaceful reforms.

In North Af rica, west of Egypt, the Brotherhoo ds existence has again been positioned in the context o f

resisting secular/corrupt rulers, this time, the colonial powers themselves. For example, in Algeria,

Brotherhoo d members to ok part in the nations war of independence f rom France. Due to their calls f or

Sharia, they were eventually marginalized by the secular FLN party. In Tunisia, the Brotherhoo d has had a

st rong impact on that nat ions Islamist s, part icularly al-Nahda, which was f ormed in 1989 and was largely

inspired by the Brotherhood. Since the Tunisian revolution, al-Nahda has received widespread support, and

is the new governments most inf luential voice. In Libya, Brotherhoo d members have been present since at

least t he 1940s, when King Idris of f ered them ref uge f rom Egypt. Af ter Colonel Gaddaf i seized power, he,

like all other Arab leaders, seeing the threat of the Brotherhood, worked hard to eliminate them. However,

they maintained a presence there, and mos t notably were involved in the o pposit ion that overthrew

Gaddaf i.

PA Territories: Hamas, which maintains a militant, jihadi wing, is a Brotherhood of f shoot , f ounded during the

First Intif ada in 1987. Like its parent organizat ion, it quickly became popular with the Palest inian people in

large part because of its charitable services. And like its parent organization, o ver the years it has managed

to indoctrinate the average Palestinian Muslim through its propaganda. While Hamas is dedicated to the

elimination of the st ate of Israel, in f act this o bjective ties in very well with the overall objective of the

Muslim Brotherhoo d: the global resurrection of a caliphate. Af ter all, any number of Muslimsincluding

many inf luential Egyptian Brotherhood membersmaintain that t he seat of the caliphate must be

Jerusalem. Thus, even though an organizat ion like Hamas seems to be engaged in a dif f erent endeavor

the elimination of Israelin f act, this o bjective corresponds very well to Brotherhoo d objectives, and isseen as just one more necessary phase.

Syria: the Brotherhood has been present t here for decades and, af ter the Bath party to ok over in 1963, it

became the main Sunni oppo sit ion f orce against the Alawite Assad clan. Resonating with the Sunni majority

of Syria, the Brotherhood in many ways spearheaded a violent revolt against t he then President Haf iz

Assad. However, it was crushed in the 1982 Hama upris ing. Af terwards , the gro up was largely po litically

inactive in the country, although it maintained a strong support network therea perfect example of the

dif f iculties involved in determining who a f ormal Brotherhood af f iliate is, and who simply shares their exact

worldview, and thus is a natural ally and af f iliate. The ongoing uprisings against Assad have a strong

Brotherhoo d element, especially among the Islamist/Salaf i factions. A recent Washington Postarticle

describes the Brotherhood as playing a dominant role.

Sudan: the Brotherhoo d maintains a signif icant, though inf ormal, presence, and has played an important

role in the mass Islamization campaigns the Khartoum regime has carried out, o f ten in the context of

genocide. Brotherhood members make up a large part o f the current Khartoum regime, following the 1989
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/syrias-muslim-brotherhood-is-gaining-influence-over-anti-assad-revolt/2012/05/12/gIQAtIoJLU_story.html


9/9

coup dtat by General Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The National Islamic Front (originally the Islamic Chart Front )

which grew during the 1960s, with Islamic scholar Hasan al-Turabi becoming its Secretary General in 1964,

is a Brotherhood of f shoot.

As f or the third layer of the Muslim Brotherhoodits newest and perhaps most import ant layer o f presence

the West, in Europe, f ormerly Christendom, and home of the o riginal inf idel par excellence, the

Brotherhoo d has made great st rides in recent years, growing as it has with the large inf lux of Muslim

immigrants and their of f spring in Europe. It o perates o f ten under the umbrella of other Muslim

organizations, which appear innocuous, such as the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe, theForum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organizat ions, and the European Council for Fatwa and

Research. The group is also involved in sett ing up a vast and sophist icated network of mosques, schools,

and Islamic charities.

Russia: the Muslim Brotherhood is banned there.

United States: the Brotherhood is also in America, where, according to one captured document, the

Brotherhood understand their work in America is a grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western

civilizat ion f rom within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands so that Allahs religion [Islam] is

victo rious over all religions. Accordingly, the Brotherhood has f ounded and/or works under the cover of

several pro minent Muslim organizations in America, including the Council on American-Islam Relations

(CAIR), the Muslim Students Asso ciation (MSA), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Islamic

Circle of North America (ICNA), and the Muslim American Societ y (MAS).

With lot s o f f unding and organization, and a Western willingness to dialogue with Muslims, the Brotherhood

has naturally taken over, and received much legitimacy from European governments, convinced as they are

that , by giving the most prominent Muslim organizations much representation, Westerners are

demonstrat ing their to lerance.

The Muslim Brotherhoo d is the most organized of Muslim organizations ; its ultimate goalsestablishment

of caliphate and enforcement o f Shariaare shared with all Islamists ; its tactics o f patience and

perseveranceand of course dissemblinghave proven themselves more ef f ective than violent jihadi

tactics; and it is now widely described as a moderate organization (indeed, one U.S. of f icial absurdly

referred to it as a largely secular o rganizat ion) and it is thus seen as a legitimate player by many Western

governments. There is no doubt that the Brotherhood will continue spearheading the Islamist movement

around the world, gaining more and more recruits , both f ormal and inf ormal, as it edges closer to realizing

its ultimate goals.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/02/10/dni_james_clapper_muslim_brotherhood_a_largely_secular_group.html

The Muslim Brotherhood Origins Efficacy and Reach

Documents

Transcript of The Muslim Brotherhood Origins Efficacy and Reach