Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Research Articles

The Evolution of a Social Movement: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Path Between Political Ambition and the Rejection of Armed Struggle

This article examines the evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, tracing its transformation from a social movement into a political party. This study investigates the conditions and dynamics that compelled the organization to engage in the political sphere and its efforts to distance itself from armed strategies. It explores the factors that have driven these changes and offers insights into potential future trajectories, especially in the context of the challenges faced by the Brotherhood following the military coup on 3 July 2013. Employing theoretical frameworks from studies on the transformation processes of similar movements and utilizing a process tracing methodology and in-depth interviews, the article seeks to understand how both historical and contemporary contexts have shaped the Brotherhood’s evolution and strategies. The findings suggest that, much like during previous periods of repression, the Brotherhood is likely to endure the current crisis and sustain its organizational presence. However, in doing so, it is expected to temporarily withdraw from political engagement. The article posits that, after completing this period of exile and resuming its activities in Egypt, the Brotherhood will likely continue as a social movement, stepping away from political involvement for a significant period.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Jāhiliyya? The Struggle over Sayyid Quṭb’s Legacy among Jordanian Muslim Brothers

Abstract The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Sayyid Quṭb (1906–66) is perhaps the most famous Islamist intellectual of the twentieth century, mostly because of his radical ideas. In academic literature, Quṭb’s controversial views—especially his use of the term ‘jāhiliyya’—are equally dominant and it is also because of this that Muslim scholars allied to the Egyptian state have criticized him. To deal with the Egyptian state’s repression of Islamists and its vilification of Quṭb as emblematic of the danger they supposedly represent, several Egyptian Brothers have tried to salvage Quṭb as a martyr for the cause, but have apologetically portrayed his ideas as moderate. This article analyses how Jordanian Muslim Brothers, who participate in a far more inclusive political environment, have interpreted Quṭb’s works (especially the concept of jāhiliyya), and what this tells us about Quṭb’s legacy.

When Religion Takes the Stage: How the Coup Regime Instrumentalizes Religion in Securitizing Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

This study explores the strategic deployment of religion by the Egyptian military regime as a legitimizing tool for the 2013 military coup and ensuing rule. Central to the analysis is the role of the Egyptian Dar al-Ifta, a pivotal state religious institution, in securitizing the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates. While multiple frameworks exist to dissect regime preservation tactics, the research harnesses securitization theory to illuminate these strategies. Grounding the arguments in the foundational works of Juha Vuori in nondemocratic contexts, it contends that the Egyptian military regime tactically utilized religious institutions to securitize its adversaries and enriches the extant literature by integrating securitization principles within the Egyptian context and emphasizes underexplored narratives from the Global South. Moreover, it seeks to bridge a research gap on the nexus between religious institutions and individual actors and delves into the intricate interplay between religious and political discourses by examining speeches and statements infused with religious rhetoric for legitimization.

A movement in exile: the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s survival action frames in the post-coup era (2013–2023)

ABSTRACT On August 14, 2013, the Egyptian security forces raided the Rabaa and al-Nahda sit-ins, marking the largest mass killing in modern Egyptian history. The massacre, aimed at targeting the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood – henceforth MB – did not end its existence; rather, it recast it as a movement in exile striving for organisational survival. Drawing on interview materials, MB media outlets, and a process tracing of key international and regional events unfolding between 2013 and 2023, this article explores the interactive relationship between exile politics and the MB’s survival action frames from a framing perspective. By mapping four successive phases highlighting its organisational trajectories to pursue survival, the article contends that the MB’s survival action frames result from the interactive relationship between failed mobilisation tactics and changes in the MB’s hosting environment which together affected and sustained intra-movement divisions. Following shifts in exile politics and inefficient mobilisation tactics to face the post-2013 Coup, the MB’s survival action frames included the organisational recentralisation of a demobilised and inactive movement and the re-setting of the group’s priorities amid unresolved leadership strife.

Is the Muslim Brotherhood a Sect?

This article proposes the novel understanding of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood as a sect, going against the grain of the existing literature, which posits it as a political group, a social movement, or a religious movement (or some combination of all of the above). The sectarianisation occurs within the group via ideological build-up, organisational tactics, and internal socialisation of behaviour. The group is also a sect by constituting its unique identity in opposition to external actors. To make the argument, the analysis draws on the statements of key figures within the movement’s history, such as its founder Hasan al-Banna, as well as a range of interviews with current and ex-members. My argument has two main consequences for our understanding of sectarianism in general and the Brotherhood in particular. First, sectarianism is a process of sectarianisation that operates beyond the state and at lower levels, such as groups and individuals. Second, the Brotherhood is not a mere victim of the sectarianising practices of the state. Its sectarianisation is partly of its own making.

Revisiting post-Islamism a decade after the Arab Spring

The Arab Spring uprisings marked a watershed moment in regional politics, significantly impacting Islamist movements in terms of strategies, ideologies, and organizational structures. Accordingly, this paper examines whether these dramatic events strengthened or weakened the post-Islamist evolution of traditional political Islam movements, focusing on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (E-MB) and the Tunisian Ennahda Movement Party (EMP) as case studies. The proposed hypothesis is that the Arab Spring has variably influenced Islamists. In Egypt, it initially weakened the post-Islamist turn of the E-MB. However, owing to the 2013 coup and subsequent repression, the E-MB was politically excluded and weakened, creating a vacuum that was filled by various forms of less political or non-ideological forms of Islamic activism. The Tunisian Islamists had a different story. The Arab Spring seems to have strengthened their transition to post-Islamism. In its tenth conference, the EMP declared its exit from political Islam, adopting the new concept of Muslim Democracy. Even after the presidential takeover in July 2021, which resulted in the political exclusion of the EMP, the Work and Achievement party that defected from it maintained clear post-Islamist features.

An In-Depth Analytical Study Of The Works Of Sayyid Qutb: Ideology, Influence, And Legacy

Sayyid Qutb, born in 1906 and executed in 1966, was a prominent Egyptian writer, educator, and Islamic theorist. He played a significant role in shaping modern Islamic thought and was a key figure in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood during the 1950s and 60s. Qutb’s writings, particularly his most famous book “Ma‘âlim fî al-Tarîq” (Milestones), published in 1964, became central to the ideology of Qutbism. In “Milestones”, he critiqued contemporary societies, arguing that despite their technological progress, they lived in a state of “Jâhiliyyah” (ignorance), disconnected from true Islamic principles. Qutb advocated for a resurgence of Islam through jihad to restore a purer form of the faith. His works have greatly influenced modern Islamic movements. After being convicted of plotting to assassinate Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Qutb was executed in 1966. His writings, including “Fî Ẓilâl al-Qur’ân” (In the Shade of the Qur’ân), continue to impact debates on Islamic governance and the role of religion in political life.

Naqshbandīs and the Muslim Brotherhood: Diaspora and the Rise of the Political Islam in Modern Turkey

Abstract The secularizing reforms of the republican elites in modern Turkey encountered Islamic resistance orchestrated by Naqshbandīs, who were declared enemies of the regime, repressed, and banned. The literature on how Turkish Islamists and the Naqshbandiyya have responded to republicans predominantly deals with either how they withdrew into a sort of diaspora or how they submitted and/or adapted to the republican regime. The consensus has been that Naqshbandīs played a role in inhibiting the infiltration of radical Islamic ideologies in modern Turkey. However, there is a lacuna in the literature on the Naqshbandī diaspora outside Turkey and its cooperation with transnational Islamic movements in building networks of resistance to secularism. Addressing this gap, this paper argues that some Naqshbandīs evaded republican surveillance and bans by creating an Egypt-based diasporic community, developing an Islamic cadre intended to eventually re-Islamize the Turkish state, its politics and society. Based on the memoirs and biographies of the prominent figures of the diaspora in Cairo, the study uncovers the connection between the Naqshbandiyya and other Islamic transnational movements, principally the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, at the ideological and institutional levels from the 1920s to the 1980s, to show how this cadre emerged and subsequently shaped the character of Islamism in modern Turkey.

Ideology, organisation, and path dependency: The use of violence among Egyptian Islamist movements

Does ideology prevent social movements from resorting to violence? Structuralist, organisational, or political economy theories are widely agnostic on the relationship between ideology and the use of violence. In contrast, this article argues that founding ideologies indirectly shape social movements’ long-run decisions regarding the use violence, primarily by influencing the kind of individuals who join the movement to begin with. A path dependency develops as new members reinforce the initial ideology, as individuals who might tip the ideological-organisational equilibrium towards utilising new tactics join other organisations instead. Over time, ideology morphes from being initially an endogenous factor into an exogenous constraint how the group can behave. The article compares the mainstream Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB), al-Jama‘a al-Islamiyya (IG) and the Jihad Organisation (JO), studying individual biographies, the groups’ recruitment patterns and their corresponding ideologies. The article thereby explains why the MB, with some minor exceptions, remained committed to non-violent activism, in contrast with the JO that resorted to violent means only and the IG that applied both violent and non-violent means. In the conclusion, the article addresses cases in Algeria and Madagascar to indicate the relevance of this argument beyond Egyptian Islamist movements to future comparative work.

Zaynab al-Ghazālī al-Ǧabīlī, a Female Activist and Writer in Favour of the Islamic Cause From the Formative Years to Her Imprisonment Under the Regime of ʿAbd al-Nāṣir (1917-65)

Zaynab al-Ghazālī (1917-2005) was an activist of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the founder of the Muslim Women’s Association, a religious preacher and a prolific writer. The article seeks to trace the evolution of al-Ghazālī’s activism and her political ideas, starting from the formative years (1917-48) until her imprisonment under the regime of ʿAbd al-Nāṣir (1964). The article is expected to make an original contribution to the existing literature by presenting al-Ghazālī’s thinking beyond her conception of women and by relying on the analysis of a group of articles written on theMagazine of the Muslim Women(Maǧallat al-Sayyidāt al-Muslimāt) between 1951 and 1957, which has remained so far unexplored.

Political alignments and popular mobilization: the ascension strategies of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (1936-1949)

Resumo Este estudo investiga as dinâmicas externas da Irmandade Muçulmana, que contribuíram para o aumento de sua popularidade no Egito. A partir da análise de documentos secretos redigidos por autoridades diplomáticas britânicas, disponibilizadas em The National Archives, em Londres, foram reunidas informações sobre como a organização islâmica operava nos bastidores políticos entre 1936, quando surgem os primeiros relatos sobre o grupo, e 1949, ano em que seu fundador e líder foi assassinado. Alianças com atores poderosos, cisões e aproximações entre forças dominantes na política egípcia e a ingerência britânica em assuntos locais foram alguns dos elementos explorados pela liderança do grupo para aumentar sua influência e ascender como importante força política. Observou-se que, em geral, a Irmandade Muçulmana utilizou sua popularidade como moeda de troca com a classe política e se tornou um pilar de apoio ao status quo.

Victor J. Willi, The Fourth Ordeal. A History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, 1968–2018

Victor J. Willi, The Fourth Ordeal. A History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, 1968–2018

Anti-colonial connectivity between Islamicate movements in the Middle East and South Asia: the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamati Islam

ABSTRACT With almost every part of the Muslim world having suffered from European colonisation, the roles and relations of Islamicate movements in anti-colonial history cannot be ignored. And yet, despite intellectual overlaps, mutual opposition to British colonialism, and a shared spiritual worldview, little has been written within postcolonial studies on the historical relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Jamati Islam in South Asia. I explore the link between both movements as an example of anti-colonial connectivity that transcended territory. Though disconnected by geography and language, both groups were nevertheless tied by the deep connection of a shared belief system and the common experience of British imperialism. In particular, I argue their theology was not incidental but fundamental to both their anti-colonialism and their connectivity. I consider how that connectivity and solidarity evolved through time and shifting locations, reflecting the rich inheritance not just of post-colonies, but also of diasporic communities in the imperial metropole, inhabiting liminal spaces of unbelonging who often found community via these transnational movements. The purpose of the article is a recovery of history and a recognition of (at times overlooked) anti-colonial struggles and solidarities that do not fit neatly within disciplinary postcolonial norms.

The Presence of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Media Space of Turkey to Maintain Political Participation after the Events of the Arab Spring in Egypt

After the collapse of the ongoing 2011–2013 policy, the Egyptian movement “Muslim Brotherhood” was banned in many countries of the world including some member countries of the League of Arab States (LAS): Syria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and several others. On the contrary in Turkey which borders Syria the Brotherhood received support in particular access to the media and made it possible to continue to broadcast the ideas of the organization. This paper discusses the features of building the communication strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood in the period after the Arab Uprising and the overthrow of President Mohammad Morsi in Egypt on July 3, 2013. There is no political party in Turkey that would openly represent the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood, however, some members of the leading Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partısı; AKP), including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, provided the Brotherhood various forms of support including providing asylum to wanted members of the organization and access to the television and radio stations. Even though the Egyptian government charged the Brotherhood’s members in absentia, some of them were allowed to openly meet in Turkey and speak out against the Egyptian government. The Turkish media space has become a platform for broadcasting ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood, which found itself isolated in the Arab media and the Internet. The Turkish government has contributed to the development of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s outreach activities which is seen as a shift in the political participation not only of the organization itself but of Islamists in general. Taking advantage of the favorable political environment in Turkey the Brotherhood attempted to challenge the legitimacy of the new regime in Egypt by creating their own television channels on Turkish television as evidenced by the results of the content analysis presented in this paper.

The Muslim Brotherhood: From the Caliphate to the Modern Civic State

The Muslim Brotherhood plays a prominent role in the politics of many Muslim countries as one of the largest Islamist groups. As a politico-social movement, the Muslim Brotherhood has gone through many tactical and ideological shifts over the past 90 years since its founding in 1928. Studying these shifts and the reasoning behind them can help us to understand the behaviour of certain groups. This paper studies one of the major shifts in the discourse of the movement, from the advocacy for restoring the Caliphate to the call for a modern civic state, despite the idea of the Caliphate having been one of the core motives behind the founding of the Brotherhood. This paper traces the change in Muslim Brotherhood discourse of the Caliphate through a thick analysis of the writings and statements of the prominent leaders of the group, starting with Brotherhood’s founder, al-Banna, and progressing to the leaders of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. This paper examines this shift’s degree of significance and its underlying rationale. Instead of addressing changes collectively, each change is considered individually to gain further insight into the incentives driving the major shift under study, namely the overhaul of the political discourse of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in so far as shifting from adopting the caliphate to the modern civic state. This shift in the Caliphate discourse is approached singularly, opening room for exclusive explanations that are unique to the altered concept. While a wholesale approach that treats changes as a collective succeeds in explaining the changes within some social and political movements, it ignores substantial factors and elements that are advantageous for profound understanding of the case in question. The shift in the Caliphate discourse, though it was not significant in practice, is useful in suggesting an alternative method for the justification of tactical and ideological shifts of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Brief Synopses of New Arabic-Language Publications

Brief Synopses of New Arabic-Language Publications

Editor's Note

While many young members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood became politically disengaged in the wake of the 2013 military coup, others resorted to violence. Drawing upon fieldwork conducted in 2016/17, this article investigates the forces of radicalization among younger Brotherhood members after the coup. Rather than there being a positive correlation between repression and radicalization, I argue that the majority of rank-and-file movement members remained inclined against radicalism due to the effects of state repression, organizational schism, and transformative personal experiences.

Why Were They Not Radicalized? Young Members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Aftermath of Egypt's 2013 Military Coup

While many young members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood became politically disengaged in the wake of the 2013 military coup, others resorted to violence. Drawing upon fieldwork conducted in 2016/17, this article investigates the forces of radicalization among younger Brotherhood members after the coup. Rather than there being a positive correlation between repression and radicalization, I argue that the majority of rank-and-file movement members remained inclined against radicalism due to the effects of state repression, organizational schism, and transformative personal experiences.

The Fourth Ordeal: A History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, 1968–2018

The Fourth Ordeal: A History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, 1968–2018

Hassan Al-Banna and His Modern Political Islam

Since the foundation of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, the movement has had a formidable political perspective combined with Islamic teachings. Regrettably, a critical aspect of political Islam rarely occurs or is inadequately addressed in Egyptian politics. The collapse of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt had, of course, influenced the Islamist movements around the globe. It also highlighted the battle between modern political Islam and the state. Egypt, however, is the most influential Islamic country worldwide, but it is also an unacceptable state for Islamist movements and political Islam. Thus, this paper politically investigates to understand what Hassan al-Banna founds in modern political Islam? And it answers a fundamental question; why political Islam has failed in Egypt, albeit the Muslim Brotherhood has been practising politics for more than 90 years. The paper ascertained that modern political Islam had failed due to the failure of the Muslim Brotherhood, not the structure and context of modern political Islam ideology.