Ikhwan: The Muslim Brotherhood
DEVELOPMENTS
During the spring of 2007, the Bush administration began expanding its diplomatic engagement with independently elected Muslim Brotherhood officials in Egypt. The Brotherhood (known as al-Ikhwan al-Muslimeen in Arabic), is an influential transnational Salafist movement based in Egypt with affiliates in an estimated 70-odd countries worldwide. In actions that seemed partly influenced by leading analysts’ recommendations, the United States government’s outreach to the Brotherhood renewed contacts that had not cultivated through non-covert channels since 2001.
After 2001, the Bush administration had taken this stance of non-engagement in part because the administration of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has upheld the legal ban initiated against the Brotherhood in Egypt in decades ago. But as the United States Government seeks to reinvigorate diplomatic partnerships in the region, leading analysts are pushing for enhanced engagement with politically moderate branches of Salafist Islamic movements. As the largest, oldest, and most influential Salafist movement in the world, the Muslim Brotherhood would be a focal point of such an engagement strategy.
BACKGROUND
In 1928 Egyptian primary school teacher Hassan Al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Initially the Brotherhood existed to oppose perceived rapid secularization of Egyptian society under British imperial rule, provide social and health services to Egyptian citizens, and restore Islamic rule to Egypt. The educational and social services the Brotherhood has provided in Egypt and elsewhere since its founding continue to be its greatest source of popular support. Most Brotherhood members are Salafists, adherents to a branch of Islamic thought that follows the fundamentals of conservative Sunni Islamic religious tradition by emulating the practices of Muhammed and his followers from the 7th and 8th century A.D.
Shortly after its founding the Brotherhood formed a paramilitary wing, named the Special Apparatus. In the early 20th Century, it was common practice for Egyptian political parties, on any point of the political spectrum, to have a paramilitary wing. The Brotherhood’s later rejection of its own members’ extremist beliefs spurred the formation of groups such as Hamas and Al-Qaeda, each originally comprised of leaders who left the Brotherhood’s ranks.
Officially, the Brotherhood’s messages on the use of violence as a political tool are mixed; in the 1970s, hoping to boost its political legitimacy in Egypt, the Brotherhood renounced its violent history, but a number of recent violent incidents in Egypt have been linked to the Brotherhood directly, through the Apparatus, or through splinter and dissident groups, recalling the Brotherhood’s violent past. In the 1950s, the Brotherhood worked closely with the Free Officer’s Movement, which secured independence for Egypt in 1952 and ushered in the leadership of President Gamal ‘Abd Al-Nasser. Under Nasser the group was initially allowed to operate freely. Accused of the 1954 assassination attempt on Nasser, the Brotherhood was then abolished by Nasser and thousands of its members were imprisoned, tortured and killed. The crackdown under Nasser’s regime against the Brotherhood and other Islamist organizations led some of its members to separate from the movement and form more radical and violent groups.
This pattern of cooperation followed by repression continued after Nasser’s death under Anwar Sadat’s presidency. Seeking an ally to strengthen his right-wing coalition, President Sadat freed imprisoned Brotherhood members. Eventually, he too turned against the Brotherhood, arresting thousands. As democracy was introduced to the region the Brotherhood embraced this political system, seeing in it an opportunity to obtain power and a platform from which they could advance their political agenda.
In 2005 parliamentary candidates affiliated with the Brotherhood, still banned but permitted to stand for election as independents, won 20% of the legislative seats, a surprising feat under circumstances of widespread government intimidation and voter fraud. Since then, the government has cracked down on the Brotherhood, jailing leaders and arresting thousands of members. In July, days before elections for four contested parliamentary seats, the Egyptian government detained thirty-nine39 Brotherhood members.
Differentiation between Brotherhood Factions
The Brotherhood now claims factions in many Arab states and throughout the Western world. Though springing from the same source, their policies and stances are varied. In Jordan and Egypt the Brotherhood in theory supports America and its democracy promotion efforts, which the Brotherhood believes would expand its political influence in these countries. But both organizations support Palestine, oppose the Iraq War and have repeatedly spoken out against the United States, in part catering to their domestic audiences. The Syrian Brotherhood is staunchly pro-American and supports U.S. Government efforts to remove leader Bashar Al Assad. In Iraq, the Brotherhood takes an active part in the new government and cooperates with the United States.
The Union des Organisations Islamiques de France (UOIF), as the Brotherhood is known in France, is seen as a moderate movement and French government ally. Though many feared Islamist involvement in the riots of 2005, French intelligence reported that not one participant was affiliated with the Brotherhood. In fact, the UOIF helped with government efforts to end the riots, often encountering violent resistance from fellow Muslims. Further, the UOIF acquiesced in French authorities’ decision to ban the hijab (head covering) in its universities. It has also refrained from participating in pro-Palestinian rallies and Iraq war protests. The UOIF’s cautious stance contrasts with its British counterpart, the Muslim Association of Britain, whose leaders, such as Sheikh Yusuf al Qardawi, advocate more controversial policies .
ANALYSIS
Last month, in what was likely his last presidential tour of the Middle East, President George W. Bush called for Arab governments to democratize and to allow opposition parties genuine participation in the political process.
Western analysts opposed to engaging the Brotherhood argue that engagement would condone the spread of Islamist terrorist actors and organizations. On the other hand jihadists, such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, a former Muslim Brotherhood member, condemn the organization for being too moderate and not supporting jihad.
As America continues to seek allies in the region, it is important to identify and engage moderate political movements. This will require the U.S. Government to view Islamist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood not as single-minded entities but as an association of affiliated groups with ideological differences, identify those affiliates and their representatives who are viable local and regional partners, and establish areas of cooperation with them.
While rhetorically and politically embracing democracy through participation in Egypt’s political process, there are still many questions regarding the Brotherhood’s true commitment to elements of liberal democracy. The Brotherhood in Egypt continues to function as a political force for social change in part through the charitable and social services it provides to the Egyptian people. It opposes the succession of Gamal Mubarak, President Hosni Mubarak’s youngest son, to the presidency. But its parliamentary members are opposed to recently proposed child rights legislation. The Brotherhood does not believe women or Christians should be allowed to become president, and its declared political platform last year included plans for a non-democratically elected religious council with veto power, reminding many of the Iranian Guardian Council. Yet the platform was opposed by more moderate Brotherhood members, whom some say were deliberately blocked by the government from participating in the drafting process, purportedly to ensure that a more extreme platform emerged than would have otherwise.
As the Egyptian government continues its crackdown on the Brotherhood, it runs the risk of inducing further radicalization by preventing Brotherhood members from participating in the political process. As in the past, this can lead members or defectors to pursue further acts of violence. While America may fear the rise of Islamist movements in Egypt similar to those in Algeria, Turkey and Gaza, it is important to differentiate between these potentially destabilizing institutions and their moderate affiliates. Through such distinctions the U.S. Government might continue to find opportunities to forge political partnerships in the region that build on its recent outreach efforts to the Brotherhood in Egypt.