I.

Introduction

Muslim Brotherhood, international Islamic organization based in Egypt and working toward an increased Islamic role in government and society. Hassan al-Bannah, an Egyptian schoolteacher from a small town in the Nile Delta, founded the Brotherhood in 1928 as a small social club. Bannah sought the formation of an “Islamic System” that would gradually reform civic, social, family, and educational organizations, which he believed had been torn apart by Western secularism (nonreligiosity) and materialism. In their stead, he would re-create the unified Islamic community, or umma, that had existed centuries before. Bannah did not advocate the overthrow of governments, but he considered any person or group who opposed his goals to be an enemy. By linking his authoritarian credo to Egyptian nationalism, Bannah’s ideology inspired thousands of college students, young professionals, and others over the next two decades.

II.

Postwar Emergence

World War II (1939-1945) brought major changes to Egypt in the form of rapid economic growth and thousands of British troops, whose culture and behavior reinforced anti-Western sentiment among Egyptians. By 1948 the Brotherhood had an estimated 500,000 members and probably a similar number of sympathizers. By this time, the Brotherhood had also developed a so-called Secret Apparatus of guerrilla fighters, many of whom fought against Israel after Israel declared its independence in 1948.

Although Bannah’s approach was gradual, his results were radical from the government’s point of view. Fearing the Brotherhood was becoming a state within a state, the Egyptian government outlawed the organization and in 1949 assassinated Bannah. The Brotherhood revived in 1950, and some of its members ran in elections independently of the Brotherhood. In 1952 army officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser seized control of the Egyptian government and legalized the Brotherhood, only to ban it in 1954. The Secret Apparatus retaliated by trying to assassinate Nasser, who responded by imprisoning and executing many fundamentalists.

After Nasser’s crackdown and during the repression that followed, the Brotherhood entered a quiet period. But in 1974 the group reemerged, in part because President Anwar al-Sadat promoted the conservative Brotherhood to balance his leftist opponents. Although Sadat opened parts of Egypt’s economy to Westerners, many of the Brotherhood’s senior leaders did not oppose him, because by this time they had come to favor a more market-oriented economy. At the same time, however, the increased competition and other reforms hurt many Egyptians. Some of the disaffected young people embraced the writings of Sayyid Qutb, a Brotherhood writer whom Nasser had hanged in 1966. Qutb asserted that Egypt was in a state of pre-Islamic ignorance, or jahiliyya, and should be brought into a state of knowledge. Thus inspired, several young militants in the Egyptian army, with ties to a more radical group called Jihad, assassinated Sadat in October 1981.

III.

Role in Political System

During the presidency of Hosni Mubarak the Brotherhood began integrating more into Egypt’s political system. In 1984 and 1987 the group allied itself with existing political parties and won seats in parliament. In the late 1980s the Brotherhood won control of several professional syndicates. As the Brotherhood increased its role in politics, it struggled on the one hand to keep its base of radical followers, many of whom believed that participating in politics was a betrayal of Islam, while on the other hand trying not to alienate the government, which feared the Brotherhood was cooperating too much with radicals.

By the 1980s the Islamist movement had split into those who advocated the violent overthrow of secular governments in order to create an Islamic state and those who believed in peaceful, grassroots organizing as the most effective way to establish an Islamic society. The Muslim Brotherhood joined the latter, renouncing violence and focusing their efforts on organizing among the poor.

In the early 1990s, as radicals made violent attacks on Egyptians and foreigners, the government produced evidence that supposedly showed the Brotherhood had cooperated with violent Islamists. Mubarak used the revelations to repress the Brotherhood, but his campaign met with mixed success.

IV.

21st Century Gains and Repression

In the 21st century the Brotherhood continued to demonstrate its popularity and made inroads in political life. Egyptian elections in 2000 were the first to be supervised by Egypt’s independent judiciary. Although the Muslim Brotherhood was banned from participating as a legal party, its members, running independently or with other parties, won 17 of the 444 contested seats in the legislature.

In subsequent parliamentary elections in 2005, the Brotherhood won an unprecedented 88 seats in parliament, or about 20 percent of the seats, its largest gain since participating in the political process. Again, the Brotherhood’s candidates had to run as independents because of the ban. After the elections state security services reportedly arrested and sometimes tortured members of the Brotherhood. Islamist leaders claimed that the arrests were motivated by the government’s desire to curb opposition in parliamentary elections in 2007. Many of those arrested were likely contenders in the elections, according to the Brotherhood’s leader.

In 2007 Mubarak pushed for the passage of a referendum that would amend Egypt’s constitution to give the president the unilateral power to dissolve the parliament. The constitutional amendments also reconfirmed the ban on political parties based on religion and limited the role of judges in monitoring elections. In March the referendum passed overwhelmingly, but opposition parties and human rights organizations charged that the outcome was tainted by voter fraud.

The Brotherhood is active in several other countries of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as countries of South Asia and Southeast Asia, and it is accepted to varying degrees by governments. In 1982 members of the Brotherhood were largely responsible for an antigovernment uprising in the Syrian town of Ḩamāh. President Hafez al-Assad crushed the uprising, leaving at least 5,000 people dead. In Sudan the Brotherhood took an active role in the 1989 military coup that replaced Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi with General Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The Brotherhood was rewarded with a major role in al-Bashir’s government. In Jordan the Brotherhood has long used nonviolent means to achieve political power. In addition to holding several seats in Jordan’s parliament, the Brotherhood supports many of the country’s medical clinics and schools.