Supporters and opponents: a history of the Muslim Brotherhood’s second prison ordeal, 1954–1964

Abstract

This article studies the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) second prison ordeal in Egypt between 1954–1964. Based on a collection of prison memoirs written by Brothers, the article explores in three parts how the MB developed socially, intellectually, and organisationally in prison during the reign of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Beginning with the MB’s imprisonment in the aftermath of the President’s attempted assassination in 1954, the first part describes how the Brothers built a vibrant prison community for themselves within al-Wahat Camp. Against the backdrop of the Suez War in 1956, the second part demonstrates the debates that erupted among the Brothers on whether to support Nasser in the event of a war with Israel and the West. Following the Brothers’ ideological and physical separation between so-called Supporters and Opponents, the third part explores how an increasing antipathy towards Nasser developed among some of the Brothers in al-Mahariq Prison until their unexpected release in 1964. Thus, by acknowledging the prison institution as a crucial site for ideology-formation, this article ultimately seeks to explore not what state repression restricted the Brothers from doing, but what they managed to do in spite of it.