The Muslim Brotherhood

Leader Mohammed Badie

Founded 1928
Ismailia, Egypt
Headquarters Cairo, Egypt
Ideology Sunni Islamism
Religious Conservatism
Economic liberalism
[1]
Political position Right-wing
International affiliation Muslim Brotherhood
Party flag
Website
www.ikhwanonline.com
(http://www.ikhwanonline.com/)
www.ikhwanweb.com (http://www.ikhwanweb.com)
Politics of Egypt
Political parties
Elections
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Muslim Brotherhood (Arabic:
gammat al-iwn/al-ikhwan/el-ekhwan al-muslimn,
IPA: [elexwn]) in Egypt is a Sunni Islamist religious,
political, and social movement.
[2]
It is, or was, considered the
largest, best-organized political force in Egypt,
[3][4]
estimated
by different sources to have 2 million
[5]
or 2.5 million
adherents/supporters.
[3]
Founded in Egypt by Hassan
al-Banna in March 1928, the group spread to other Muslim
countries but has its largest, or one of its largest, organizations
in Egypt despite a succession of government crackdowns in
1948, 1954, 1965, and 2013 after plots, or alleged plots, of
assassination and overthrow were uncovered.
[6][7][8]
Following the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, it first had great
success. It launched a civic political partythe Freedom and
Justice Partyto contest elections, which it described as
having "the same mission and goals, but different roles" than
the Brotherhood,
[9]
and agreeing to honor all Egypt's
international agreements.
[10]
The party won almost half the
seats in the 201112 parliamentary elections, and its
candidate, Mohamed Morsi, won the June 2012 presidential
election.
[11]
However Morsi was overthrown after mass
protests within a year
[12]
and a crackdown ensued that some
have called more damaging to the movement than any "in
eight decades".
[13]
Hundreds of members were killed or
arrested, and Morsi and most of the Brotherhood's leadership
were imprisoned. In September 2013, Egyptian court banned
the Brotherhood and its associations,
[14]
and ordered that its
assets be seized.
[15]
The military-backed interim government
declared the movement a terrorist group following the
December 2013 Mansoura bombing.
[16]
The Brotherhood
released a statement on 8 April 2014 condemning
violence.
[17]
1 History
1.1 Under the monarchy
1.2 After the 1952 revolution
1.3 Mubarak era
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1.4 2011 revolution and Morsi
1.5 Post-2013 Egyptian revolution
2 Leadership
3 Beliefs
3.1 Stated platform and goals
3.2 Political strategy
3.3 Political viewpoints
3.4 Relations with non-Muslims
4 Organization
4.1 Supporter levels
4.2 Offices and organs
4.3 Social services
4.4 Muslim Sisterhood
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Under the monarchy
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, an Egyptian schoolteacher, who preached
implementing traditional Islamic Sharia law in all aspects of life, from everyday problems to the organization of
the government.
[18]
Inspired by Islamic reformers Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida, he believed that Islam
had lost its social dominance to corrupt Western influences and British imperial rule.
The organisation initially focused on educational and charitable work, but quickly grew to become a major
political force as well. (Sources disagree as to whether the Brotherhood was hostile to independent
working-class and popular organisations,
[18]
or supported efforts to create trades unions and unemployment
benefits.
[19]
) It championed the cause of poor Muslims, and played a prominent role in the Egyptian nationalist
movement, fighting the British, Egypt's occupier/dominator. It engaged in espionage and sabotage, as well as
support for terrorist activities orchestrated by Haj Amin al-Husseini in British Mandate Palestine, and up to and
during World War II some association with Britain's enemy, the German Nazis,
[20]
dissemination of anti-Jewish,
and anti-Western propaganda.
[21]
Over the years, the Brotherhood spread to other Muslim countries, including Syria
[22][23]
Jordan, Tunisia, etc. as
well as countries where Muslims are in the minority. These groups are sometimes described as "very loosely
affiliated" with the Egyptian branch and each other.
[24]
In November 1948, following several bombings and assassination attempts, the government arrested 32 leaders
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of the Brotherhood's "secret apparatus" and banned the Brotherhood.
[25]
At this time the Brotherhood was
estimated to have 2000 branches and 500,000 members or sympathizers.
[26]
In succeeding months Egypt's prime
minister was assassinated by Brotherhood member, and following that Al-Banna himself was assassinated in
what is thought to be a cycle of retaliation.
In 1952, members of the Muslim Brotherhood are accused of taking part in an event that marked the end of
Egypt's "liberal, progressive, cosmopolitan" era an arson fire that destroyed some "750 buildings" in
downtown Cairo mainly night clubs, theatres, hotels, and restaurants frequented by British and other
foreigners.
[27]
After the 1952 revolution
In 1952 the monarchy was overthrown by nationalist military officers of the Free Officers Movement. While the
Brotherhood supported the coup it vigorously opposed the secularist constitution that the coup leaders were
developing. In 1954 another unsuccessful assassination was attempted against Egypt's prime minister (Gamal
Abdel Nasser), and blamed on the "secret apparatus" of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood was again banned
and this time thousands of its members were imprisoned, many of them held for years in prisons and sometimes
tortured.
One of them was the very influential theorist, Sayyid Qutb, who before being executed in 1966, issued a
manifesto proclaiming that Muslim society had become jahiliyya (no longer Islamic) and that Islam must be
restored by the overthrow of Muslim states by an Islamic vanguard, also revitalising the ideal of Islamic
universalism.
[28]
Qutb's ideology became very influential outside of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, but the
Brotherhood's leadership distanced itself from Qutb and adhered to nonviolent reformist posture.
Imprisoned Brothers were gradually released after Anwar Sadat became president of Egypt in 1970, and were
sometimes enlisted to help fight Sadat's leftist opposition. Brethren were allowed to publish the magazine Da'wa,
though the organization remained illegal. During this time, more radical Qutb-inspired Islamist groups
blossomed, and after he signing a peace agreement with Israel in 1979, became confirmed enemies of Sadat.
Sadat was assassinated by a violent Islamist group Tanzim al-Jihad on 6 October 1981, shortly after he had
Brotherhood leaders (and many other opposition leaders) arrested.
Mubarak era
Again with a new president, (Hosni Mubarak), Brotherhood leaders (Supreme Guide Umar al-Tilmisani and
others) were released from prison. Mubarak cracked down hard against radical Islamists but offered a "olive
branch" to the more moderate Brethren. The brethren reciprocated, going so far as to endorse Mubaraks
candidacy for president in 1987.
[29]
The Brotherhood dominated the professional and student associations of Egypt and was famous for its network
of social services in neighborhoods and villages.
[29]
However, the government did not approve of the
Brotherhood's renewed influence (it was still technically illegal), and resorted to repressive measures starting in
1992.
[30]
In the 2000 parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood won 17 parliamentary seats.
[31]
In 2005, it won 88
seats (20% of the total compared to 14 seats for the legally approved opposition parties) to form the largest
opposition bloc, despite the arrest of hundreds of Brotherhood members. It lost almost all but one of these seats
in the much-less-free 2010 election, which was marred by massive arrests of both Brethren and polling place
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observers.
[32]
Under Egypt's emergency law Brethren could only stand as independents, but were easily
identified since they campaigned under the slogan 'Islam Is the Solution'.
[33]
During and after the 2005 election the Brethren launched what some have called a "charm offensive." Its
leadership talked about its "responsibility to lead reform and change in Egypt." It addressed the `Coptic issue',
insinuating that the Brethren would do away with Egypt's decades-old church building-permit system that
Coptic Christians felt was discriminatory.
[34]
Internationally the Brethren launched an English-language website
and some of the Muslim Brotherhood's leaders participated in an Initiative to 'Re-Introduc[e] the Brotherhood to
the West', "listing and addressing many 'Western misconceptions about the Brotherhood.'"
[34]
Seeing this campaign as a direct threat to its position as an indispensable ally of the west against radical
Islamism, the Egyptian government introduced an amendment to the constitution that removed the reference to
Islam as 'the religion of the state,` and would have allowed women and Christians to run for the presidency.
Brotherhood MPs responded by walking out of parliament rather than voting on the bill.
[35]
In addition, the
movement has also reportedly played into the government's hands provoking non-Islamist Egyptians by staging a
militia-style march by masked Brotherhood students at Cairo's Al Azhar University,
[36][37]
complete with
uniforms and martial arts drills, reminding many of the Brotherhood's era of 'secret cells'.
[38]
According to another observer:
"after a number of conciliatory engagements and interactions with the West", the Brotherhood
retreated into its comfort zone of inflammatory rhetoric intended for local consumption: all suicide
bombers are `martyrs`; `Israel` regularly became `the Jews`; even its theological discourse became
more confrontational and oriented to social conservatism.
[39]
Two years later the Egyptian government amended the constitution, skewing future representation against
independent candidates for parliament, which are the only candidates the Brotherhood can field. The state
delayed local council elections from 2006 to 2008, disqualifying most Muslim Brotherhood candidates. The
Muslim Brotherhood boycotted the election. The government incarcerated thousands of rank-and-file Muslim
Brotherhood members in a wave of arrests and military trials, the harshest such security clampdown on the
Brotherhood "in decades."
[36]
2011 revolution and Morsi
Following the 2011 revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, the Brotherhood was legalized
[6]
and emerged as
"the most powerful"
[40]
and "most cohesive political movement" in Egypt.
[3]
Its newly formed political party
won two referendums, far more seats than any other party in the 201112 parliamentary election,
[41]
and its
candidate Mohammed Morsi won the 2012 presidential election. However within a year there were mass
protests against his rule
[42][43]
and he was overthrown by the military.
[43]
In the JanuaryFebruary 2011 uprising itself, the Brotherhood remained "on the sidelines",
[3][44][45]
but even
before it was officially legalized
[46]
it launched a new party called the Freedom and Justice Party.
[47]
The party
rejected "the candidacy of women or Copts for Egypt's presidency", although it did not oppose their taking
cabinet positions.
[48]
In its first election the party won almost half of 498 seats in the 201112 Egyptian
parliamentary election,.
[41]
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In the first couple of years after the revolution, critics speculated about both secret collusion between the
Brotherhood and the powerful (secular oriented) military,
[40][49][50]
and a looming showdown between the
two.
[51]
The Brotherhood and the military both supported the March constitutional referendum which most
Egyptian liberals opposed as favoring established political organizations.
[52]
It was said to have stopped the
"second revolution" against military rule
[53][54]
by remaining uninvolved during violent clashes between
revolutionaries and the military in late 2011,
[55]
and protests over the thousands of secretive military trials of
civilians, (unless fellow Islamists were being prosecuted).
[56]
Egyptian author Ezzedine C. Fishere worried that the Brotherhood had
"managed to alienate its revolutionary and democratic partners and to scare important segments of
society, especially women and Christians. Neither the Brotherhood nor the generals showed
willingness to share power and both were keen on marginalising the revolutionary and democratic
forces. It is as if they were clearing the stage for their eventual showdown."
[51]
While the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) dissolved the parliament dominated by the
Brotherhood and other Islamists.,
[57]
the Brotherhood won the presidential election, defeating Ahmed Shafiq, a
former military officer and prime minister of Mubarak.
[58][59][60][61]
Within a short period, serious public opposition developed to President Morsi. In late November 2012 he
'temporarily' granted himself the power to legislate without judicial oversight or review of his acts, on the
grounds that he needed to "protect" the nation from the Mubarak-era power structure.
[62][63]
He also put a draft
constitution to a referendum that opponents complained was an Islamist coup.
[64]
These issues
[65]
and
concerns over the prosecutions of journalists, the unleashing of pro-Brotherhood gangs on nonviolent
demonstrators; the continuation of military trials; and new laws that permitted detention without judicial review
for up to 30 days,
[66]
and impunity given to Islamist radical attacks on Christians and other minorities
[43]
brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets starting in November 2012.
[67][68]
During Morsi's
year-long rule there were 9,000 protests and strikes.
[69]
By April 2013, Egypt had "become increasingly divided" between President Mohammed Morsi and "Islamist
allies" and an opposition of "moderate Muslims, Christians and liberals". Opponents accused "Morsi and the
Muslim Brotherhood of seeking to monopolize power, while Morsis allies say the opposition is trying to
destabilize the country to derail the elected leadership".
[70]
Adding to the unrest were severe fuel shortages and
electricity outageswhich evidence suggests were orchestrated by Mubarak-era Egyptian elites.
[71]
By 29 June the Tamarod (rebellion) movement announced it had collected more than 22 million signatures
calling for Morsi to step down.
[72][73]
A day later somewhere between 17 and 33 million Egyptian protesters
demonstrated across Egypt urging Morsi to step down
[43]
A lesser number demonstrated in support of him.
[74]
Post-2013 Egyptian revolution
On 3 July, the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, announced President Mohamed
Morsi's removal by the 2013 Egyptian coup d'tat, suspension of the constitution. Brotherhood supporters staged
from sit-ins throughout the country, setting up camps and shutting down traffic.
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The crackdown that followed has been called the worst for the Brotherhood's organization "in eight
decades".
[13]
On 14 August, the military declared a month-long state of emergency and commenced raids to
remove the camps. In retaliation Brotherhood supporters looted and burned police stations and dozens of
churches.
[75]
Violence escalated rapidly, lasting several days and resulting in the deaths of 638 people and injury of some
4000.
[76][77]
By 19 August, al Jazeera reported that "most" of the Brotherhood's leaders were in custody.
[78][79]
On that day Supreme Leader Mohammed Badie was arrested,
[80]
crossing a "red line", as even Hosni Mubarak
had never arrested him.
[81]
On 23 September, a court ordered the group outlawed and its assets seized.
[82]
Two days later security forces
shuttered the main office of the newspaper of the Freedom and Justice Party, and confiscated its equipment.
[82]
Muslim Brotherhood criticized the decision of seizing it's assets and MB linked charities saying that Seizing of
Muslim Brotherhood linked charities helps the Coptic Church keep Muslims away of their religion considering
it a war on Islam.
[83]
Some question whether the military and security services can effectively crush the Brotherhood. Unlike the last
major crackdown in the 1950s, when Egypt's "public sphere and information space" was tightly-controlled, the
Brotherhood has a larger and broader international presence beyond the reach of Egypt's government to sustain
itself.
[84]
Otherssuch as Hussein Ibish and journalist Peter Hesslerbelieve its "unlikely" that the Brotherhood will
return to political prominence" soon, because of its aggressive but incompetent performance while in power.
[85][86]
According to Hessler, the group antagonized the powerful entrenched government institutions, the news
media and millions of non-supporters, acting "with just enough aggression to provoke an outsized response",
while not having nearly enough military resources to defend itself against that response.
[85]
It no longer leads the
opposition to the coup, and has even lost its "religious credibility", such that "at mosques, even staunch
opponents of the coup told me that they wouldn't vote for the Brotherhood again."
[85]
Hussein Ibish believes the Brotherhood is being challenged by the Salafi movement, and is undergoing a crisis so
severe that "what ultimately emerges from the current wreckage [may] be unrecognisably different" from the
traditional Brotherhood.
[86]
A day after the 2013 Mansoura bombing, the military-backed interim government declared the Muslim
Brotherhood movement a terrorist group
[16][87]
despite the fact that another group, the Sinai-based Ansar Bait
al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility for the blast.
[88][89]
On 24 March 2014 An Egyptian court sentenced 529
members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death,
[90]
an act described by Amnesty International as "the largest
single batch of simultaneous death sentences we've seen in recent years [] anywhere in the world."
[91]
On 15
April 2014, an Egyptian court banned current and former members of the Muslim Brotherhood from running in
the presidential and parliamentary elections.
[92]
Murshid ("supreme guide" or "General leaders" (G.L.)) of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt have been:
Founder & First G.leader : Hassan al-Banna
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2nd G.L : Hassan al-Hudaybi
3rd G.L : Umar al-Tilmisani
4th G.L : Muhammad Hamid Abu al-Nasr
5th G.L : Mustafa Mashhur
6th G.L : Ma'mun al-Hudaybi
7th G.L : Mohammed Mahdi Akef
8th G.L & Current Leader: Mohammed Badie
Stated platform and goals
The Brotherhood itself describes the "principles of the Muslim Brotherhood" as including firstly the introduction
of the Islamic Shari`ah as "the basis controlling the affairs of state and society;" and secondly work to unify
"Islamic countries and states, mainly among the Arab states, and liberating them from foreign imperialism". It
denounces the "catchy and effective terms and phrases" like "fundamentalist" and "political Islam" which it
claims are used by "Western Media" to pigeonhole the group, and points to its "15 Principles" for an Egyptian
National Charter, including "freedom of personal conviction... opinion... forming political parties... public
gatherings... free and fair elections..."
[93]
In October 2007, the Muslim Brotherhood issued a detailed political platform. Amongst other things it called for
a board of Muslim clerics to oversee the government, and for limiting the office of the presidency to Muslim
men. In the 'Issues and Problems' chapter of the platform, it declared that a woman was not suited to be
president because the post's religious and military duties 'conflict with her nature, social and other humanitarian
roles.' While underlining 'equality between men and women in terms of their human dignity,` the document
warned against 'burdening women with duties against their nature or role in the family.'
[94]
Political strategy
In his writing, Hassan Al-Banna outlined a strategy for achieving power of three stages:
the initial propaganda stage (preparation),
the organization stage (in which the people would be educated by the Muslim Brotherhood), and
finally, the action stage (where power would be taken or seized).
[95]
Political viewpoints
The Brotherhood's self-description as moderate and rejecting violence has created disagreement among
observers.
[96]
A Western author, (Eric Trager), interviewing 30 current and former members of the Brotherhood
in 2011 and found that the Brethren he talked to emphasised "important exceptions" to the position of
non-violence, namely conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Iraq, and Palestine.
[3]
Trager quotes the
former Supreme Guide Mohammed Mahdi Akef as telling him
We believe that Zionism, the United States, and England are gangs that kill children and women and
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men and destroy houses and fields. .... Zionism is a gang, not a country. So we will resist them until
they don't have a country.
[3]
Trager and other have also noted the MB's use of the honorific "sheikh" to refer to Osama bin Laden.
[3][97]
While the Brotherhood differs with bin Laden and al-Qaeda, it has not condemned them for the 9-11 attacks
because it does not believe they were responsible. A recent statement by the Brotherhood on the issue of
violence and assassinations condemned the killing of "Sheikh Osama bin Laden" by the United States, saying:
"The whole world, and especially the Muslims, have lived with a fierce media campaign to brand Islam as
terrorism and describe the Muslims as violent by blaming the September 11th incident on al-Qaeda."
[96]
However, according to authors writing in the Council on Foreign Relations magazine Foreign Affairs: "At
various times in its history, the group has used or supported violence and has been repeatedly banned in Egypt
for attempting to overthrow Cairo's secular government. Since the 1970s, however, the Egyptian Brotherhood
has disavowed violence and sought to participate in Egyptian politics."
[98]
Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East
editor, calls the Brotherhood "conservative and non-violent".
[99]
According to the Israeli-affiliated media-watchdog group Memri, the Arabic language (but not the English
language) website of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has displayed much anti-Semitic and anti-Israel content.
A report by Memri found articles engaging in Holocaust denial, praising jihad and martyrdom, condemning the
Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, calling for the destruction of Israel, and condemning negotiations with
non-Muslims to regain lands lost by Islam. A "common motif" of the website is Antisemitic conspiracy theories
warning Muslims against "the covetous and exploitative nature of the 'Jewish character'".
[100]
On 13 March 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood released a statement opposing the UN declaration 'End Violence
against Women' on the grounds that it would "undermine Islamic ethics and destroy the family", and "would
lead to complete disintegration of society".
[101][102]
In the book Secret of the Temple, written by Tharwat al-Khirbawy, a former member of the Muslim
Brotherhood of Egypt, Khirbawy "explores the ideology of Mursi and the small group of leaders at the top of the
movement, examining their devotion to Sayyid Qutb, a radical ideologue executed in 1966 for plotting to kill
president Gamal Abdel Nasser."
[103]
The book has been "dismissed by Brotherhood leaders as part of a smear
campaign."
[103]
Relations with non-Muslims
Talking to television channel France 24 shortly before he was elected president, Mohammed Morsi stated: "The
majority of the people are Muslims and the non-Muslims, our brothers, are citizens with full responsibilities and
rights and there is no difference between them. If any Muslim says anything other than this, he is not
understanding Sharia."
[104]
However after he became president critics complained that attitudes of and actions by Brotherhood leaders
concerning non-Muslims changed. In late April 2013 a fatwa issued by a member of the MB general guide's
office -- 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Barr (who is often referred to as the movement's mufti) -- forbade Muslims from
greeting Christians on their Easter holiday,
[105]
explaining that Easter and resurrection were contrary to the
Muslim faith. "Jesus did not die and was not crucified, but rather Allah gave him protection from the Jews and
raised [Jesus] up to Him... which is why we do not greet anyone for something we strongly believe is wrong.
..."
[106]
The Israeli-affiliated media-watchdog group Memri quoted Coptic and opposition leaders attacking the
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fatwa and noting that in the past MB leaders and even Al-Barr himself had not only allowed but practiced the
greeting of Christians on Easter. Columnist A'la Al-'Aribi in the daily Al-Wafd attacked the fatwa as "politics
disguised as shari'a..." Al-Barr's previous "view reflected the position of the MB at that time but now that
circumstances have changed [and the MB is in power], he has changed his position..."
[106]
Another article in newsobserver.com noted President and former MB official Mohammed Morsi "has done little
to assuage concerns" of Christians by being "slow to condemn the latest round of sectarian violence" in April
2013, not attend the naming of the new Coptic pope, and having no plans to attend Coptic Easter services an
annual custom of the former Egyptian President.
[107]
In August 2013, following the 3 July 2013 Coup and clashes between the military and Morsi supporters, there
were widespread attacks on Christian Coptic churches and institutions. USA Today reported that "forty churches
have been looted and torched, while 23 others have been attacked and heavily damaged". The Facebook page of
the Muslim Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice Party was "rife with false accusations meant to foment hatred
against Copts", according to journalist Kirsten Powers. The party's page claimed that the Church had declared
"war against Islam and Muslims". Despite the Christians relatively minor role in the campaign against President
Morsi, the page justified the attacks by saying: After all this people ask why they burn the churches. Later it
posted: "For every action there is a reaction" and "The Pope of the Church is involved in the removal of the first
elected Islamist president. The Pope of the Church alleges Islamic Sharia is backwards, stubborn, and
reactionary."
[108][109][110]
On 15 August, nine Egyptian human rights groups under the umbrella group "Egyptian
Initiative for Personal Rights", released a statement saying,
In December Brotherhood leaders began fomenting anti-Christian sectarian incitement. The
anti-Coptic incitement and threats continued unabated up to the demonstrations of June 30 and,
with the removal of President Morsi morphed into sectarian violence, which was sanctioned by
the continued anti-Coptic rhetoric heard from the groups leaders on the stage throughout the
sit-in.
[109][111]
The Brotherhood applies a highly selective membership process which gives its "internal cohesiveness and
ideological rigidity" and is unique among Egyptian political/social organizations in its "breadth" and "depth" of
networks.
[3]
The long (typically at least four and a half years) and closely monitored membership process is
thought to have prevented infiltration by state security during the presidencies of Anwar Sadat and Hosni
Mubarak.
[3]
Its structure bears some similarity to a similar Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, in having a
hierarchical organization where many supporters do not reach the level of full members. Potential members are
recruited by recruiters who do not at first identify themselves as Brothers to prospective members.
Estimates of the Brotherhood's membership and supporters vary between 600,000 and 100,000. According to
anthropologist Scott Atran, while the Brotherhood has 600,000 dues paying members in Egypt it can count on
only 100,000 militants in a population of more than 80 million Egyptians.
[112]
The New York Times describes it
as having drawing on "support from hundreds of thousands of members and millions of affiliates and
sympathizers throughout" Egypt.
[113]
How unified and powerful the Brotherhood is, is disputed. Former deputy chairman, Muhammad Habib has said,
"there are fissures" in the Brotherhood, "and they may be to the very core. There is concern among the younger
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members that the leadership does not understand whats going on around it."
[50]
Another high-ranking member,
Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, who was recently expelled from the Brotherhood, warned of the possibility of "an
explosion."
[50]
Other observers (Eric Trager) have described the Brotherhood as "Egypt's most cohesive political
movement, with an unparalleled ability to mobilize its followers ..."
[3]
According to journalist Kareem Fahim, following the 2013 crackdown, group has "fallen back on the
organizational structure that sustained it for decades" when it was banned.
[113]
He reports that the Brotherhood
is "becoming more decentralized, but also more cohesive and rigid".
[113]
Supporter levels
muhib ("lover" or "follower"). The lowest level of the Brotherhood is the muhib. One is typically a muhib
for six months, but the period can be as long as four years. A muhib is part of an usra ("family") which
closely monitors the muhib's piety and ideological commitment, working to "improve the morals" of the
muhib. An usras meets at least once a week and "spends much of its time discussing members' personal
lives and activities." The usra usually has four or five members and is headed by a naqib ("captain").
muayyad ("supporter"). A muhib graduates to muayyad after confirmation that the muhib prays regularly
and possesses basic knowledge of major Islamic texts. This stage lasts from one to three years. A muayyad
is a nonvoting member of the brotherhood. Their duties include carrying out tasks such as preaching,
recruiting, teaching in mosques assigned to them by superiors. They also follow a "rigorous curriculum of
study", memorizing sections of the Quran and studying the teachings of Hasan Al Banna, the founder of
the Brotherhood.
muntasib ("affiliated"). This process lasts a year and is the first step toward full membership. As one
Brother put it, a muntasib "is a member, but his name is written in pencil." A muntasib continues to study
Islam (hadith and Tafsir) and now tithes the brotherhood, (typically giving 5% to 8% of their earning).
muntazim ("organizer"). This stage typically lasts another two years. A muntazim must continue
memorizing hadith and complete memorization of the Quran and "can assume a lower-level leadership
role, such a forming an usra or heading a chapter" of usras.
ach'amal ("working brother"). This final level is reached after the subject loyalty is "closely probed." An
ach'amal can vote in all internal elections, participate in all of the Brotherhood's working bodies, and
compete for higher office within the group's hierarchy."
[3]
Offices and organs
Murshid ("Supreme Guide"). Head of the Brotherhood (and of its Maktab al-Irshad)
[3]
Maktab al-Irshad ("Guidance Office"). Maktab al-Irshad consists of approximately 15 longtime Muslim
Brothers including the Murshid, who heads the office. Each member of the office oversees a portfolio on
an issue such as university recruitment, education, politics, etc. The office execute decisions made by the
Majlis al-Shura and passes down orders through a chain of command, consisting of "its deputies in each
regional sector, who call their deputies in each subsidiary area, who call their deputies in each subsidiary
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