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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.
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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
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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 .
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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
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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.
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