The Muslim Brotherhood

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The Muslim Brotherhood Page 27

by Alison Pargeter


  Indeed, this is the real success of the Brotherhood. It has managed to posit itself as the authentic voice that can bring Islam to the core of every aspect of life, including politics. It is this ‘authenticity’ that enabled the movement to reach out beyond the revolutions and beyond the realm of elitist politics and to touch the masses. For the time being at least, the Brotherhood has proved itself more in tune with the people than either its political rivals or its predecessors could ever hope to be.

  Acknowledgements

  This book would not have been possible without the generous support of the Smith Richardson Foundation, who funded the research, and I would like to thank Nadia Schadlow in particular for backing this project. I would also like to give special thanks to all those Ikhwani and others from within the Islamist community and beyond who have been willing to be interviewed for this project. Particular thanks go to Dr Kamal Helbawy, who offered me great assistance and support throughout the project and whose frankness has been invaluable. I would also like to pay special tribute to the Syrian brother Sheikh Mohamed Hasnawi who sadly died during the course of this project. Sheikh Hasnawi demonstrated a particular generosity of spirit, openness and humility and made me feel particularly welcome during my stay in Amman. Thanks also go to Dr Issam al-Attar and to Adnan Saad Eddine for their kindness and support and for their particularly enlightening insights into the Ikhwan’s history. Finally, I would like to thank Ahmed for his invaluable help with Arabic sources, for his comments on various drafts of the text and most of all for his enduring patience.

  Notes

  Introduction

  1 I use the term ‘Islamist’ here and throughout the text to mean those who engage in political activism articulated through an Islamic discourse. This does not necessarily mean those who espouse violence.

  Chapter 1

  1 ‘The Fruitful Tree, The MB Call’, on Ikhwanweb.com, 13 June 2007. See: http://www.ikhwanweb.com/Article.asp?ID=819&LevelID=1&SectionID=115

  2 Ibid.

  3 Mahmoud Abdelhalim, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun. Ahdath Sunat Al-Tareeq. Ru’iah Min al-Dakhil (The Muslim Brotherhood. The Events that Made History. An Insider’s Vision), Alexandria, 2004, Vol. 1, pp. 58–9.

  4 ‘Shahid Alla Aser, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun Kama Yrahm Farid Abdel Khaliq’ (A Witness in Time, the Muslim Brotherhood as Seen by Farid Abdel Khaliq), on Al-Jazeera, Episode 1, 7 December 2003. Available in Arabic on http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BF012F78-FC05-4E7B-839C-67E94CF195BA.htm

  5 Ibid.

  6 Richard P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, Oxford 1993, p. 297.

  7 François Burgat and William Dowell, The Islamic Movement in North Africa, Austin 1993, pp. 34–5.

  8 Ibid.

  9 T. Ramadan, Aux Sources du Renouveau Musulman, Lyon 2002, p. 362.

  10 N. Ayoubi, Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Arab World, London 1991, p. 90.

  11 Brynjar Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt: The Rise of an Islamic Mass Movement 1928–1942, Reading, 1998, p. 213.

  12 ‘Shahid Alla Aser, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun Kama Yrahm Farid Abdel Khaliq’. Episode 1, 7 December 2003.

  13 Ibid.

  14 Abdelhalim, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun. Ahdath Sunat Al-Tareeq. Ru’iah Min al-Dakhil, Vol. 2, p. 360.

  15 Muthakarat Dr Abdelaziz Kamel, Uthou fi al-Nizam al-Khass (The Memoirs of Dr Abdelaziz Kamel. Member of the Nizam al-Khass), July 2007. Available in Arabic on http://www.paldf.net/forum/showthread.php?t=120458

  16 ‘Shahid Alla Aser, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun Kama Yrahm Farid Abdel Khaliq’. Episode 1, 7 December 2003.

  17 Ibid.

  18 Quoted in Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, p. 203.

  19 According to Farid Abdel Khaliq, al-Banna went ahead and consulted with the party about the possibility of joining and subsequently decided to put the idea to the Ikhwan’s Guidance Office. However, not wanting to influence the decision unduly he asked Abdel Khaliq to put forward the suggestion, which was ultimately rejected, as if it were his idea. See ‘Shahid Alla Aser, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun Kama Yrahm Farid Abdel Khaliq’.

  20 See for example, Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt.

  21 ‘Shahid Alla Aser, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun Kama Yrahm Farid Abdel Khaliq’.

  22 See, for example Lia’s description of how al-Banna bypassed his own Administrative Council when he disagreed with a decision they had made to set the wages of an imam and a handyman in the movement’s mosque at a rate that al-Banna disapproved of and how he insisted upon the appointment of a Deputy of his choice. Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, pp. 61–2.

  23 Abdelhalim, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun. Ahdath Sunat Al-Tareeq. Ru’iah Min al-Dakhil, Vol. 1, p. 225.

  24 Ibid.

  25 Ibid.

  26 Ibid.

  27 Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, p. 251.

  28 This group included a number of senior members of the Ikhwan including Mohamed Ali al-Mughlawi, who had been the Ikhwan’s Secretary of the General Committee of Students and Workers, Mahmoud Abu Zayed Othman, who was the editor of the Brotherhood’s weekly newspaper, and Mohamed Izzat Hasan.

  29 See Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, p. 249.

  30 Other members of the Nizam al-Khass included Ahmed Hassanein, Mahmoud al-Sabah, Mustafa Mashour, Ibrahim Al-Tayib, Yousef Talat, Abdelrahman al-Sindi, Helmi Abdelhamid, Hosni Abdelbaqi, Said Sadeq, Ahmed Hijiazi and Mahmoud Asaf.

  31 Abdelhalim, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun. Ahdath Sunat Al-Tareeq. Ru’iah Min al-Dakhil, Vol. 1, pp. 178–9.

  32 Lia,The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, p. 178.

  33 Interview with Mehdi Akef, Cairo, May 2007.

  34 Dr Mahmoud A’asaf, Ma’ Imam Shaheed Hasan al-Banna (With the martyred Imam Hasan al-Banna), Cairo, 1993, p. 154.

  35 ‘Shahid Alla Aser, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun Kama Yrahm Farid Abdel Khaliq’.

  36 For example: in December 1945 a young nationalist, Huain Tawfiq, assassinated the Minister of Finance, Amin Othman Pashsa, who was widely accused of being a British agent.

  37 Kamel, Muthakarat Dr Abdelaziz Kamel, Uthou fi al-Nizam al-Khass.

  38 Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, p. 68.

  39 Abdelhalim, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun. Ahdath Sunat Al-Tareeq. Ru’iah Min al-Dakhil, Vol. 1 p. 288.

  40 Quoted in Dr Rifat Said, Al-Irhab al-Mutaeslim (Islamicised Terrorism), Cairo, 2004, Vol. 1, p. 182.

  41 Abdelhalim, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoun. Ahdath Sunat Al-Tareeq. Ru’iah Min al-Dakhil, Vol. 2, p.469.

  42 Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, p. 87.

  43 Quoted in Sayed Khatab, ‘Al-Hudaybi’s Influence on the Development of Islamist Movements in Egypt’, in The Muslim World, October 2001.

  44 Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, p. 88.

  45 Omayma Abdel-Latif, ‘Nasser and the Brotherhood’, in Al-Ahram, 27 June–3 July 2002. Issue No. 592. Available on http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2002/592/special.htm

  46 Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, p. 117.

  47 It did so by declaring that the Brotherhood was a political party and therefore subject to the law of January 1953 which had abolished all such entities.

  48 Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, p. 148.

  49 Barbara Zollner, ‘Prison Talk: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Internal Struggle’, in International Journal of Middle East Studies, No. 39 (2007).

  50 Interview with Ibrahim Ghuraiba, Amman, February 2007.

  51 Interview with Dr Issam al-Attar, Aachen, December 2006.

  52 ‘Al-Ariyan Ya Tahadath An-Nashad Al-Tayar al-Islami bil Jamiat al-Misria.’ (Al-Ariyan Speaks about the Establishment of the Islamic Current in Egyptian Universities), Ikhwan Online, 8 June 2004. Available in Arabic on http://www.ikhwanonline.com/Article.asp?ArtID=7008&SecID=270

  53 Al-Ariyan Ya Tahadath An-Nashad Al-Tayar al-Islami bil Jamiat al-Misria. (see fn 1, p. 37).

  54 Hossam Tammam, ‘Al-Murawa
ha Baina al-Hizb wa al-Jama’a … Kaifa yara al-Ikhwan Anfisahum’ (Oscillating Between Party and Jama’a … How the Ikhwan See Themselves), on Islamismscope, undated.

  55 Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, Shehadat Abul Futuah (Abul Futuah’s Testimony), on Islam Online, 15 July 2009. Available in Arabic on http://islamyoon.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=ArticleA_C&cid=124818730 0655&pagename=Islamyoun%2FIYALayout

  56 Ibid.

  57 Ibid.

  58 ‘Al-Ariyan Ya Tahadath An-Nashad Al-Tayar al-Islami bil Jamiat al-Misria.’

  59 Tammam, Al-Murawaha Baina al-Hizb wa al-Jama’a … Kaifa yara al-Ikhwan Anfisahum.

  60 Aboul Fotouh, Shehadat Abul Futuah.

  61 Aboul Fotouh, Shehadat Abul Futuah.

  62 Tammam, Al-Murawaha Baina al-Hizb wa al-Jama’a … Kaifa yara al-Ikhwan Anfisahum.

  63 Ibid.

  64 Mohamed Jamal Barot, Likaila Takoun Dawat Abi Al-Futuah Sarkha fi Waad. (So That the Call of Abu Futuah Doesn’t Become a Shout in the Valley), Al-Hewar, 12 December 2003. Available in Arabic on http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=19914

  65 For detailed accounts of the Brotherhood’s experiences in the unions and syndicates see Hesham Al-Awadi, In Pursuit of Legitimacy: The Muslim Brothers and Mubarak, 1982–2000, London, 2004; and Carrie Rosefsky Wickham, Mobilizing Islam: Religion, Activism and Political Change in Egypt, New York, 2002.

  66 Barot, Likaila Takoun Dawat Abi Al-Futuah Sarkha fi Waad.

  67 Interview with Youssef Nada, Campione, March 2007.

  68 Salah Abdul Al-Maqsud. Quoted in Al-Awadi, In Pursuit of Legitimacy: The Muslim Brothers and Mubarak, 1982–2000, p. 92.

  69 Ibid. p. 39.

  70 Quoted in Meir Hatina, ‘Restoring a Lost Identity: Models of Education in Modern Islamic Thought’, in British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, November 2006. Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 179–97.

  71 Tammam, Al-Murawaha Baina al-Hizbwa al-Jama’a … Kaifa yara al-Ikhwan Anfisahum.

  72 ‘Qusat al-Hizb al-wasat bayna al-watani wal Ikhwan.’ (The Tale of the al-Wasat Party between the National Party and the Ikhwan), on Assam Sultan, 3 September 2009. Available in Arabic on http://www.youm7.com/News.asp?NewsID=132880

  73 Quoted in parts one through eleven of serialised excerpts from Egyptian Al-Jihad Organisation leader Ayman al-Zawahiri’s book Knights Under the Prophet’s Banner, in Al-Sharq al Awsat, 2 December 2001.

  74 Abu Ala Ma’athi, Hikayati Ma’a Ikhwan Wakasat al-Wasat (My Story with the Ikhwan and the Tale of Al-Wasat), Al-Fajr, 1 January 2006. Available in Arabic on http://www.alwasatparty.com/modules.php?file=article&name=News&sid=285

  75 Issam Sultan, ‘Qusat al-Hizb al-wasat bayna al-watani wal Ikhwan’.

  76 Young Brothers. The Jerusalem Report, 18 April 1996.

  77 Salah ‘Abd al-Karim. Quoted in Joshua A. Stacher, ‘Post-Islamist Rumblings in Egypt: The Emergence of the Wasat party’, in The Middle East Journal, Summer 2002 Vol. 56 No. 3, p. 415.

  78 Sultan, Qusat al-Hizb al-wasat bayna al-watani wal Ikhwan.

  79 Ibid.

  80 Bjørn Olav Utvik, ‘Hizb al-Wasat and the Potential for Change in Egyptian Islamism’, in Critical Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp 293–306, Fall 2005.

  81 Ibid.

  82 Sultan, Qusat al-Hizb al-wasat bayna al-watani wal Ikhwan.

  83 These included Sabri Rida of the Port Said Engineers group, Dr Isam Hasan, Associate Professor of the Engineering Department of Cairo University, and Osama Ashraf Abd Al-Rahman, the treasurer of the Aswan Engineers Syndicate among others.

  84 Interview with Mehdi Akef, Cairo, May 2007.

  85 Sultan, Qusat al-Hizb al-wasat bayna al-watani wal Ikhwan.

  86 Barot, Likaila Takoun Dawat Abi Al-Futuah Sarkha fi Waad.

  87 Stacher, ‘Post-Islamist rumblings in Egypt: the emergence of the Wasat party’, p. 415.

  88 See, for example, Patrick Poole in ‘Symposium: The “Moderate” Muslim Brotherhood?’ in Front Page Magazine, 21 December 2007. Available on http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=B5E3F96C-FCD9-4D8D-BF40-ADE28BB2D168

  89 Dr Amro al-Shobki, ‘Mustakbal Jamat Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimeen’ (The Future of the Muslim Brotherhood), in Al-Ahram Strategic File, Year 16, No. 163, May 2006.

  90 Barot, Likaila Takoun Dawat Abi Al-Futuah Sarkha fi Waad.

  91 Michael Emerson and Richard Youngs (eds.), Political Islam and European Foreign Policy Perspectives from Muslim Democrats of the Mediterranean, Brussels 2007, p. 67.

  92 Muslim Brotherhood Initiative. On the General Principles of Reform in Egypt, 2004. Copy provided to author.

  93 Al-Shobki, Mustakbal Jamat Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimeen.

  94 The movement’s social base is comprised of a number of Islamic currents within Egyptian society including al-Azharites as well as apolitical religious groups such as Ansar al-Sunna and Jamiyat al-Sharia who rally around the Ikhwan and who can be mobilised when necessary.

  95 Dr Abdullah Nafisi (ed.), Haraka Alislamia: Ruiat Mustakablia, Iwarq fi Alnaqd Althati (The Islamic Movement: Future Vision. A Working Paper in Self-Criticism), Kuwait, 1989. Available in Arabic on www.alnefisi.com

  96 Al- Awadi, In Pursuit of Legitimacy: The Muslim Brothers and Mubarak, 1982–2000, p. 65.

  97 Tammam, Al-Murawaha Baina al-Hizb wa al-Jama’a … Kaifa yara al-Ikhwan Anfisahum.

  98 Nathan J. Brown and Amr Hamzawy, ‘The Draft Party Platform of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood: Foray Into Political Integration or Retreat into Old Positions?’, in Carnegie Papers, No. 89, January 2008.

  99 Interviews with Ikhwani figures in the UK, 2007 and 2008.

  100 Brown and Hamzawy, ‘The Draft Party Platform of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood: Foray Into Political Integration or Retreat Into Old Positions?’

  101 Ibid.

  102 ‘Jumping the Gun’, in Al-Ahram Weekly, No. 868, 25–31 October 2007.

  103 Brown and Hamzawy, ‘The Draft Party Platform of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood: Foray Into Political Integration or Retreat Into Old Positions?’

  104 Akef speaks on internal conflict, elections, and the future. Al-Masri Al-Youm. 25 October 2010.

  105 http://ww.moheet.com/show_files.aspx?fid=332988

  106 Ibid.

  107 Ibid.

  108 Ibid.

  109 Ibid.

  110 ‘Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Reportedly Picks New Leader’. Al-Hayat, 13 January 2010.

  111 Quoted in ‘Continuing on the Path of Qutb: Dr Mohamed Badei, the New Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood?’, Investigative Project on Terrorism, 15 January 2010.

  112 The regime’s obvious intention to contain the group was evidenced in part by its 2007 constitutional amendment removing a previous requirement that the elections be monitored by members of the judiciary

  Chapter 2

  1 Brynjar Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, Reading, 1998, p. 155.

  2 Dr Umar F. Abd-Allah, The Islamic Struggle in Syria, Berkeley, 1983, p. 94.

  3 Ibid., p. 92.

  4 Ibid.

  5 Ibid.

  6 Ibid.

  7 Ibid.

  8 Interview with Mohamed Hasnawi, Amman, February 2007.

  9 Interview with Issam al-Attar, Aachen, December 2006.

  10 Ibid.

  11 Interview with Issam al-Attar, Aachen, December 2006.

  12 Ibid.

  13 Interview with Adnan Saad Eddine, Amman, February 2007.

  14 Dr Hassan al-Huwaidi, naib al-musrhid al-am yekshif al-mujtamaa: Kusat al-Ikhwan al-muslimeen fi Suria…min an-nasha hata al-manfa (Dr Hassan Al-Huwaidi, the Deputy of the Supreme Guide reveals to Al-Mujtamaa: The Story of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria from the Beginning Until Exile), in Al-Mujatmaa, No. 1741, 3 March 2007. http://www.almujtamaa-mag.com/Detail.asp?InSectionID=1307&InNewsItemID=217090

  15 Interview with Mohamed Hasnawi, Amman, February 2007.

  16 Maktabat Wahba, Said Hawa hathihi tajrubati … Wa-hathahi shahadati (Said Hawa: This is my experience and this is my testimony),
Cairo 1987.

  17 Al-Kharta siassia suria 6 (The Syrian Political Map 6, Ismail Ahmed), in Al-Hewar, 26 June 2005. http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=39999

  18 Hanna Batatu, ‘Syria’s Muslim Brethren’, in Merip Reports, November–December 1982.

  19 Ibid.

  20 See: http://ahmedzaidan.maktoobblog.com

  21 Ismail Ahmed, Al-Kharta siassia suria 6’.

  22 Mohamed Jamel Barot, Yathrab al-jadida, alharakat alislamia alrahna (The New Yathrab, The Current Islamic Movement), London, 1994.

  23 Ibid.

  24 Barot, Yathrab al-jadida.

  25 Adnan Saad Eddine, Mesirat jama’at al-Ikhwan al-Muslimeen fi Suria (The Journey of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood), private publisher, July 1998.

  26 The exact nature of the events that prompted this confrontation is still unclear. According to some sources, a young man from Hamah was killed by the police in 1964 after he beat one of his teachers to death for speaking out against Islam. When he found out about the incident Hadid is alleged to have declared: ‘The boy was a Muslim and the teacher was a disbeliever! His blood is permissible! As for the Muslim, then his blood must be avenged!’ (Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, The Soul Shall Rise Tomorrow: The Story of Marwan Hadid, pp. 21–5. Available on http://forums.islamicawakening.com/showthread.php?t=2222). This allegedly provoked a major demonstration against the regime. However, other versions have it that the trouble began when a young schoolboy in Hamah erased the Ba’athist slogan in his classroom and replaced it with the words: ‘The Atheist Ba’ath are Against God!’ (‘A Cure for Sick Brothers’, Time Magazine, 1 May 1964). When the boy was sentenced to a year’s hard labour for his actions, a mob of young activists, led by Hadid, reportedly went into the streets. Whichever version is correct, the resulting demonstration against the regime prompted the security services to open fire on the crowd, forcing Hadid and his group to take refuge in the Sultan mosque.

 

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