The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt ( Jamāʿat /al-Ikhwan/el-ekhwan al-muslimīn, ) is the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood,*Eric Trager, "The Unbreakable Muslim Brotherhood ", Foreign Affairs, September October 2011, p. 114–222. (full text not available for free on internet) with adherents estimated to number between 2 and 2.5 million.Atran, Scott (2 February 2011). "In Egypt today, the Brotherhood counts perhaps some 2 million adherents" "Egypt's Bumbling Brotherhood" . The New York Times Founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928, the group spread to other Muslim countries but has its largest organization in Egypt, despite government crackdowns in 1948, 1954, 1965, 1979, 1981 and 2013, after plots, or alleged plots, of assassination and overthrow were uncovered."'Shariah in Egypt is enough for us,' Muslim Brotherhood leader says" . Hürriyet Daily News, 23 May 2011Egypt global security.org
Following the 2011 Egyptian revolution, it launched a political party—the Freedom and Justice Party—to contest elections, which it described as having "the same mission and goals, but different roles" than the Brotherhood,Ian Black, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood poised to prosper in post-Mubarak new era , The Guardian, 19 May 2011 and agreeing to honor all Egypt's international agreements. The party won 42% of the seats in the 2011–12 parliamentary elections, and its candidate, Mohamed Morsi, the June 2012 presidential election. Morsi was overthrown after mass protests within a year, and a crackdown ensued that some have called more damaging to the movement than any "in eight decades". Hundreds of members were killed and imprisoned, including Morsi and most of the Brotherhood's leadership. Among the general Egyptian population, a "huge hostility" was felt towards the MB. In September 2013, an Egyptian court banned the Brotherhood and its associations, and ordered that its assets be seized; and in December the military-backed interim government declared the movement a terrorist group following the bombing of security directorate building in Mansoura. The Brotherhood denied being responsible for the attack and Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, an al-Qaeda-linked group, claimed responsibility. They also issued a statement condemning violence.
History
Under the monarchy
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, an Egyptian schoolteacher, who preached implementing traditional Islamic Sharia law in all aspects of life, from everyday problems to the organization of the government.Küntzel, 2002, pp. 17–19. Inspired by Islamic reformers Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida, he believed that Islam had lost its social dominance to corrupt Western influences and British imperial rule.
The organization initially focused on educational and charitable work, but quickly grew to become a major political force as well. (Sources disagree as to whether the Brotherhood was hostile to independent working-class and popular organisations, or supported efforts to create trades unions and unemployment benefits.A History of the Modern Middle East, William Cleveland, p.200) It championed the cause of poor Muslims, and played a prominent role in the Egyptian nationalist movement, fighting the British, Egypt's occupier/dominator. It engaged in espionage and sabotage, as well as support for activities orchestrated by Haj Amin al-Husseini in British Mandate Palestine, and up to and during World War II some association with Britain's enemy, the German Nazis,See: Ian Johnson, A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA and Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010); Matthias Küntzel, Jihad and Jew-hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11 (New York: Telos Press, 2007); Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Martin Cüppers, Halbmond und Hakenkreuz: Das 'Dritte Reich', die Araber und Palästina (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2006), and Klaus Gensicke, Der Mufti von Jerusalem und die Nationalsocialisten: Eine politische Biographie Amin el-Husseinis (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2007). dissemination of anti-Jewish and anti-Western propaganda.In addition to the studies listed in the previous note, see the detailed and richly documented analysis by Jeffrey Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2009).
Over the years, the Brotherhood spread to other Muslim countries, including SyriaKhaled Yacoub Oweis "Syria's Muslim Brotherhood rise from the ashes", Reuters (6 May 2012)."Syria Muslim Brotherhood Issues Post-Assad State-for-All Commitment Charter", ikhwanweb.com (The Muslim Brotherhood's Official English web site) (7 April 2012). Jordan, Tunisia, etc. as well as countries where Muslims are in the minority. These groups are sometimes described as "very loosely affiliated" with the Egyptian branch and each other.Syria's Muslim Brotherhood is gaining influence over anti-Assad revolt Liz Sly, The Washington Post, 12 May 2012
In November 1948, following several bombings and assassination attempts, the government arrested 32 leaders of the Brotherhood's "secret apparatus" and banned the Brotherhood.Chamieh, Jebran, Traditionalists, Militants and Liberal in Present Islam, Research and Publishing House, [1994?], p.140 At this time the Brotherhood was estimated to have 2000 branches and 500,000 members or sympathizers.Wright, Robin, Sacred Rage 1985, p.179 In succeeding months Egypt's prime minister was assassinated by Brotherhood member Abdel Meguid Ahmed Hassan, and following that Al-Banna himself was assassinated in what is thought to be a cycle of retaliation.
In 1952, members of the Muslim Brotherhood were accused of taking part in an event that marked the end of Egypt's "liberal, progressive, cosmopolitan" era – an arson fire that destroyed some "750 buildings" in downtown Cairo – mainly night clubs, theatres, hotels, and restaurants frequented by British and other foreigners."The Rebellion Within, An Al Qaeda mastermind questions terrorism. by Lawrence Wright" . The New Yorker, 2 June 2008
After the 1952 revolution
In 1952, the monarchy was overthrown by nationalist military officers of the Free Officers Movement. While the Brotherhood supported the coup it vigorously opposed the secularist constitution that the coup leaders were developing. In 1954 another unsuccessful assassination was attempted against Egypt's prime minister (Gamal Abdel Nasser), and blamed on the "secret apparatus" of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood was again banned and this time thousands of its members were imprisoned, many of them held for years in prisons and sometimes tortured.
One of them was the very influential theorist, Sayyid Qutb, who before being executed in 1966, issued a manifesto proclaiming that Muslim society had become jahiliyya (no longer Islamic) and that Islam must be restored by the overthrow of Muslim states by an Islamic vanguard, also revitalising the ideal of Islamic universalism. Qutb's ideology became very influential outside of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, but the Brotherhood's leadership distanced itself from Qutb and adhered to a nonviolent reformist posture.
Imprisoned Brothers were gradually released after Anwar Sadat became president of Egypt in 1970, and were sometimes enlisted to help fight Sadat's leftist opposition. Brethren were allowed to publish the magazine Al Dawa, though the organization remained illegal. During this time, more radical Qutb-inspired Islamist groups blossomed, and after Sadat signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1979, the Muslim Brotherhood became confirmed enemies of Sadat. Sadat was assassinated by a violent Islamist group Tanzim al-Jihad on 6 October 1981, shortly after he had Brotherhood leaders (and many other opposition leaders) arrested.
Mubarak era Again with a new president, (Hosni Mubarak), Brotherhood leaders (Supreme Guide Umar al-Tilmisani and others) were released from prison. Mubarak cracked down hard against radical Islamists but offered an "olive branch" to the more moderate Brethren. The brethren reciprocated, going so far as to endorse Mubarak's candidacy for president in 1987.John Walsh. Harvard International Review: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Perspectives on the United States, Vol. 24 (4) Winter 2003
The Brotherhood dominated the professional and student associations of Egypt and was famous for its network of social services in neighborhoods and villages. However, the government did not approve of the Brotherhood's renewed influence (it was still technically illegal), and resorted to repressive measures starting in 1992.
In the 2000 parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood won 17 parliamentary seats.Shenker, Jack; Whitaker, Brian (8 February 2011). "The Muslim Brotherhood uncovered" . The Guardian. In 2005, it won 88 seats (20% of the total compared to 14 seats for the legally approved opposition parties) to form the largest opposition bloc, despite the arrest of hundreds of Brotherhood members. It lost almost all but one of these seats in the much-less-free 2010 election, which was marred by massive arrests of both Brethren and polling place observers.Bayoumi, Alaa (29 November 2010). Egypt's winners and losers . Al Jazeera. Under Egypt's emergency law Brethren could only stand as independents, but were easily identified since they campaigned under the slogan – "Islam Is the Solution".
During and after the 2005 election the Brethren launched what some have called a "charm offensive". Its leadership talked about its "responsibility to lead reform and change in Egypt". It addressed the `Coptic issue', insinuating that the Brethren would do away with Egypt's decades-old church building-permit system that Coptic Christians felt was discriminatory.Osman, Tarek, Egypt on the Brink, (Yale University Press, 2010) p.101 Internationally the Brethren launched an English-language website and some of the Muslim Brotherhood's leaders participated in an Initiative to 'Re-Introduc[e] the Brotherhood to the West', "listing and addressing many 'Western misconceptions about the Brotherhood.'"
Seeing this campaign as a direct threat to its position as an indispensable ally of the west against radical Islamism, the Egyptian government introduced an amendment to the constitution that removed the reference to Islam as "the religion of the state", and would have allowed women and Christians to run for the presidency. Brotherhood MPs responded by walking out of parliament rather than voting on the bill.Osman, Tarek, Egypt on the Brink, (Yale University Press, 2010) p.102 In addition, the movement has also reportedly played into the government's hands, provoking non-Islamist Egyptians by staging a militia-style march by masked Brotherhood students at Cairo's Al Azhar University,YAROSLAV TROFIMOV. "Muslim Brotherhood Falters as Egypt Outflanks Islamists" . The Wall Street Journal, 15 May 2009Osman, Tarek, Egypt on the Brink by Tarek Osman, Yale University Press, 2010, 103 complete with uniforms and martial arts drills, reminding many of the Brotherhood's era of "secret cells".Jameel Theyabi (18 December 2006). Dar Al-Hayat
According to another observer:
after a number of conciliatory engagements and interactions with the West", the Brotherhood retreated into its comfort zone of inflammatory rhetoric intended for local consumption: all suicide bombers are 'martyrs'; 'Israel' regularly became 'the Jews'; even its theological discourse became more confrontational and oriented to social conservatism.Osman, Tarek, Egypt on the Brink, (Yale University Press, 2010) p.113