The Movement of Muslim Brotherhood - Coursework Example

due: International Security Muslim Brotherhood Muslim brotherhood is derived from The Society of Muslim brothers, an international Islamic organization founded in 1928 (Borgeson and Valeri 23; Al-Mahdy par 3; Duncan par 5). Tracing back to its roots, the movement began as a Pan-Islamic movement interested in religious and social activities that affected the Muslim community in Egypt. Approximately by the end of the Second World War, the movement had an estimation of two million members worldwide (Bruce 99; Hellett 138). This evidence in growth was easily identified through the establishment a big number of regional branches within the country as well as thousands of societies dealing with charitable and social services. Muslim brotherhood was founded in the city of Ismailia (Mura 62-5). The Suez Canal Company was instrumental in the formation of the movement as they supported it through constructing a mosque that served the headquarters in Ismailia. Al-Banna strongly believed that the modernized Islam did not have any influence con the social structures existing in the society. Instead, Muslims had been absorbed by Western influences that corrupted their minds and ways of life. The society established a number of service provision facilities among them educational institutions, hospitals and clinics, mosques, Islamic centers and sports clubs. The momentum of its growth could also be measured by the increased number to over ten thousand of Palestinian army volunteers. Interestingly, its ideas were widely supported and gained the audience throughout the Arab world. The movement significantly influenced other existing Islamic groups with its strong combination of political activism and Islamic benevolence (Mayer 114). Beliefs Muslim brotherhood strongly believes lay its foundation on using Islamic Sharia as the reference in regards to managing and keeping check of the affairs of the state and the society. Additionally, these principles operate towards unifying Islamic countries and states, most importantly Arab states by fighting to liberate them from foreign dictatorship. Democracy and freedom of speech and press exists to be a number of ideologies carried forth by the brotherhood spokesman. The movement has widely promoted political pluralism, freedom of movement, expression, assembly, and peaceful demonstrations. The movement further believed in the abolition of exceptional courts and replacing them with an independent judiciary and the establishment of able bodies that could provide credible results from a national election. By critically analyzing the nature of issues and line of thought presented by the movement, it is indeed evident that Egypt was suffering from monarchy and dictatorship, an aspect that could only be replaced by democracy propagated by the strong movement. Perhaps the movements’ democratic nature can be extracted from the fact that in Egyptian history it has maintained to be the first democratically elected government. The movement also considered political reforms as the best tools towards the creation of natural paths for other kinds of reforms. This line of thought traces its roots from its founder Al-Banna, who was influenced by two Islamic reformers, Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida (Paulo 184). The formation of the group was also influenced by Sufism, a mystical Islamic belief through which Muslims use direct experience of divine love and knowledge from God to seek the truth (Carl 180). Therefore, this concept explains why the founders based their point of reference on the Quran and Sunnah to guide the political and social organizations that God had set for man. According to the brotherhood, Islamic governments were obligated to form political and religious leadership models that were centered along Muhammad, their successor. As stated by the founder and leader, Muslim brotherhood aspired to reclaim an Islam dominated empire from Spain all through to Indonesia (Davidson 97-8). The movement strongly opposed Western colonialism and preached the peacefulness and just fullness as the truth nature of Islam. Most importantly, the eradication of poverty and corruption would be eradicated according to Islamic teachings and the Sharia Law that guides the day to day activities of Muslim brethren. The organization fights against women and gender obstacles such as conducting campaigns against loose behavior, segregation of either gender in education as well as dancing (Wendell 126). Ideally, the Muslim brotherhood is an established movement that has provided a platform for members to create political parties. Its spread to almost all Arab countries has seen the formation of Islamic Action Front in Jordan and Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt among others. The parties operate independently from the mother movement (Fuller 138). Motto and Goals Muslim brotherhood was established under the notion of promoting Islamic ideologies and teachings to the society. Most importantly, their stated goal insists on instilling Sunnah and Quran teachings as the only reference when bringing together the Muslim community into one family, as well as state (Kull 167). Initially, Muslim Brotherhood practiced the motto, “Believers are but Brothers”. As advancement continued, the motto was stretched out into the Catchphrase "God is our objective; the Quran is the Constitution; the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; death for the sake of God is our wish.” (Helbawy 65). The brotherhood frequently uses the slogan “Islam is the Solution”, "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Quran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope. Allahu Akbar!” is another commonly used slogan (Rubin 62). A clear look at the movements’ logo, the words “And Prepare” extracted from the Quran is inscribed (CorpusQuran.com verse 8:60). These mottos and slogan are a clear representation of the founders’ principle idea of basing the existence of the society on teachings extracted from the Quran and Sunnah. Financing As a large movement, Muslim brotherhood gets money to finance its activities from its members as they are all required to allocate some portion of their income. A number of these contributions originate from members who work in oil-rich regions as well as Saudi Arabia (Mintz and Farah par 3-4). The movement started as a charitable, religious and social organization confined to preaching Islam and setting op numerous service provision charitable facilities within Egypt. By 1936, Muslim Brotherhood’s influence had grown to the extent that they began opposing British rule. The organization was even accused by quite a number of Egypt nationals for instigating violent killings to oppose the British occupation of Egypt (Chamieh 140) History and Issues Surrounding the Movement Originally, the founders based their ideologies on spearheading education and charitable work. However, as with time, the interests of the group intensified towards political creeds such as advocating secluded classes of people who had been denied several rights as part of the society. The movement grew strongly and played a critical role in shaping the spirit of nationalism in Egypt. Their role of promoting Islamic concepts into the society at large significantly moved towards re-establishing links between tradition and modernity (Rutherford 99). The years preceding 1949 were characterized by raised political temperatures and tension in Egypt (Bradley 49). Being a major player in the society, Muslim brotherhood took to the forefront and officially denounced political violence that was put to an end by the assassination of the then Egyptian Prime Minister by a member of the movement (Mitchell 68-9) i. Brotherhood and the Arab-Israeli War The defeat of the Arab World during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War ended up in the dissolution of the movement and its members arrested. The movements’ activities during the Post-World War II period led to its disbandment in 1948 and arrested of thirty-two leaders following bombing and assassination attempts (Chamieh 140). Events leading to the formation of Israel were supported by the expiry of the British mandate on the midnight of 14th May 1948, through which, Jews proclaimed the independent state of Israel. Arab states army got involved in the conflict and turned the civil war into a full-scale Arab-Israeli war. Years later in 1952, members of the movement were accused of masterminding the Cairo Fire whose end results was the damage of 750 downtown buildings in Cairo that were frequented by British nationals and other foreigners (Wright par 4). The same year, Egypt’s monarchy was overturned by Free Officers Movement, a group of nationalists’ military officers whose cell was hidden within The Society of Brotherhood. After the revolution, the then Egyptian and ‘free officers’ with their Leader Gamal Abdel Nasser accused the Brotherhood for an attempt against his life and ganged up against them. He retaliated by arresting and imprisoning a huge number of its members. He also tortured and threw them into concentration camps to suffer and die. His acts resulted to Brotherhood expulsion from Egypt to seek sanctuary in Saudi Arabia (Commins 152). After the Egyptian change of the political nature following the death of Abdel Nasser in 1970s, the Brotherhood found its way back into Egyptian politics under the invitation of the then president Anwar Sadat (Kepel 83). This also saw the release of its members who were held captives in prisons. Since then, the group has been tolerated in the Egyptian political temperature. A number of arrests and threats of disbandment existed until the 2011 revolution. ii. The Egyptian Revolution of 1952 Records reveal that Muslim Brotherhood was implicated in the attempted assassination of Egypt’s’ president during the 1952 Egyptian Revolution. The nature of its existence and activities were critically probed and proved that its members supported the revolution. This resulted to its disbandment and repression. One ought to note that the movement had been dispersed in some countries among them Syria who accused its members of supporting the Hama massacre. The Arab revolutionary wave of 2010 propelled triumph for the Brotherhood. However, two years later, reverse efforts to crack down Islamists and the members (Ibish par 3-5). The legality of the movement was initiated in 2011 during Hosni Mubarak’s removal from power. Interestingly, historical records reveal that the brotherhood operated its activities illegally for decades. Positioned as a strong political organization in Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood embarked on democracy and won a number of elections thereby being the first democratically elected political party in Egyptian elections (Wade par. 5). The illegal existence of the movement poses a number of questions about its unlawful organization and operations as a charitable organization and the basis upon which the group operated with. It is not propaganda that the movement, formed on ‘charitable’ basis was indeed dishonest in conducting its activities. Events after successfully winning the 2012 elections were however not quite impressing as its own democratically elected leader Morsi was a year later overthrow by a military initiated coup due to civil unrest in Egypt. This period was seen by a number of countrywide demonstrations over Morsi’s resignation with protestors complaining of poor and harsh economic conditions. Lately, the movement has developed radical acts among them the December 2013 attack on police headquarters in Mansoura. The attack is deemed to have been carried out by its Sinai based group Ansar Bait al.Maqdis who claimed full responsibility (Mitchell 70). This forced Egyptian authorities to declare the movement as a terrorist group. iii. Muslim brotherhood and Nasser Gamal ‘Abdal al-Nasser never entertained any operations of the Muslim brotherhood during his leadership. In fact, despite the numerous attempts tom kill him, he continued to capture and cause body suffering to any member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Those who were lucky to escape from the torture cells had no option other than going into hiding. One of the lucky prominent people who went into hiding after undergoing lot of torture was a famous editor of Society’s newspaper and fictional writer Sayyid Qutb, who is also renowned for writing Social Justice in Islam one of the famous books that is believed to contain the ideologies of any Islamic socialism. Qutb earned lot of respect among the Muslim Brotherhood, and he even went ahead and made Islamic Quran interpretation of the detentions and torture imposed by Nasser (4)5)(6).Later, due to political differences within Nasser regime, he was captured and coerced to confess, for several months before, being executed together with two other Brothers. Even after his death, the Muslim continued to use his ideologies as their blueprint although to others the ideologies were controversial (Kepel 34-7; Carré 76). iv. Muslim brotherhood and Sadat When Anwar al-Sadat took over, there he immediately changed leadership policies. Unlike Nasser, who focused in political liberation, Sadat emphasized on the liberation of the economy. He not only closed down the torture cell but also began to free the previously imprisoned Brothers gradually. However, the Muslim Brother as an organization continued to be illegal. The Brotherhood Movement failed to give Sadat its allegiance and was hesitant to impose any governing law. The movement continued to thrive and reorganize its leadership especially after the death of Hudaybis. Umar Talmasani took over and became the face of the Brotherhood Organization. Although the organization was illegal during Sadat reign, critics argued that his leadership failed to take a clear position especially due to the economic differences that existed. In fact, most of the successful business men who enjoyed free trade joined the organization (Kepel 72; Wickham 96-7). The Movement wanted recognition and application of shari’a law. Sadat government initiated the consultation that led to changing the constitution, into a more harmonized one. However, the government rejected the Movements demand to have their operations recognized and its member to contest for the leadership position although some other minor requests were accepted (Carré 109-110; Kepel 124-5). The impact of the Movement in the leadership and Egypt politics remained controversial among the many scalars especially after the defeat by Israel war in 1967.Unfortunately, Sadat’s economic approach led to a sharp rise to the cost of living. This led to a series of demonstrations mostly organized by groups of students in consultation with Muslim brotherhood members which the government police tried use force to stop. This triggered a bitter relationship government and Muslim Brothers. (Carré 115; Kepel 127-130). The Brotherhood leaders continued to preach against terrorism and were against any revolutionary attempts. Some militant youth groups like Al-Jihad, which continued to get stronger every day led to the assassination of Sadat. The Brotherhood movement blamed the government for the failure to recognize and allowed them in the government which could have helped stop and even prevent extremism and radicalization of the youth. They also blamed the government for using excessive force on the youth and other opposition parties including the Muslim brotherhood (Carré 113; Wickham 114). Egyptian 2011 Revolution and Morsi’s Presidency The Egyptian revolution of 2011 culminated in Mubarak’s removal from power and the legalization of the Muslim brotherhood. The movement emerged to be the most powerful political group that formed the Freedom and Justice Party that won half of the Egyptian parliamentary seats in the 2011 general elections (Wade par 4).In addition, Mohammed Morsi, its presidential candidate won the 2012 presidential elections. However, the presidency was short-lived as civilian mass protests against his rule engulfed the region in less than a year from the period he took over the presidency, actions that prompted military action to overthrow his government. Under the Freedom and Justice Party of 2011, the movement rejected women presidential candidacy. At the beginning of the revolution, a mixture of tension and cooperation between the movement and the military were spotted. More importantly, both the parties agreed on the need for a constitutional referendum, an idea that was opposed by Egyptian liberals. As a result, there was growth in concerns about the deal and support between the military and the Association of Muslim brotherhood (El Rashidi 45). However, the movement denied any secret meetings and involvement with the military. The movement faced criticism for failing to notice what had happened to the military rule in 2011 and watched the suffering of fellow Muslim brethren at the hands of the military that went unpunished. The dissolution of parliament in 2012 acted as a major event that propelled the brotherhood to presidency despite numerous discouraging remarks linking it to a foreign power (Davidson 97-8). One of its own leaders Mohammed Morsi won the 2012 presidential election defeating a former military officer and the Prime Minister. Before the formal and final announcement of the results, the movement declared its win and took began demonstrations in fear that the former military officer would be announced the winner by the electoral body. The announcement of Morsi as the official leader created unrest and tensions all over Egypt (Davidson 101). After Morsi had taken over, serious public opposition arose prompting him to grant himself unlimited powers on the grounds of protecting the nation from Mubarak’s left-over structures. He also introduced a draft constitution that opponents regarded to as an Islamists revolution. These acts prompted the 2010 Egyptian protests that were characterized by thousand of civilian protests in the streets of Cairo. Protestors also condemned Morsi of persecuting journalists, supporting brotherhood gangs to attack non-violent demonstrators and permitting unlawful detention without judicial review (Mitchell 69). His rule was more like exceeding the former regime to suppress the civil society Division in Egyptian politics was created and divided among his opponents who believed that Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood was determined to monopolize power. On the other hand, his allies believed that the opposition was fighting towards destabilizing the country to overturn the leadership. Events leading to his resignation were precipitated by the formation of a rebellion movement that campaigned to collect signatures calling for Morsi’s resignation was launched. In addition, the growth in the number of protestors against as compared to those in support for the government forced him to step down (Davidson 99). Egyptian rule was then taken over by the Armed forces. General Abdel announces the suspension of the constitution and ordered fresh elections. He also ordered a crackdown on all brotherhood followers by declaring a state of emergency that would last for one month. This resulted to retaliation efforts by members of the movement leading to death of police forces and civilians, as well as the loss of property (Mitchell 68). Most of the members were arrested and detained. By the end of 2013, the Egyptian court ordered the group outlawed and seized its assets including the main newspaper of the Freedom and Justice Party. The Support of Muslim Brotherhood in other Countries The movement grew popular and multiplied to almost all parts of the world. However, much of its concentration was felt in West Asia and major parts of Africa. The organization has won its representation in many political and state affairs through parliamentary seats and political parties. For example, in Kuwait, the brotherhood got a parliamentary representation through Hadas and in Yemen, Islah. This section will briefly look into countries that supported its activities. i. Bahrain The movement was represented by a political wing in the country. After the 2002 parliamentary election, its wing garnered eight out of forty seats in the Chamber of Deputies thereby making it to be the largest political party (House 156). Despite that fact that the party has widely supported government sponsored legislation and economic issues, its leaders accuse the government of intending to offer Muslims the option and right to change religion through the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This culminated to conferences aimed at diffusing tensions between Muslim branches. The U.S government also supported such inter-faith dialog talks by inviting prominent clerics to her country (Kepel 124). ii. Jordan The convergence of the Transjordanian and the West Bank Palestinian sections of the Jordanian public modeled the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan (House 158). The association of Muslim Brotherhood was officially registered in 1945. Its leader, Abu Qura originated from Egypt and was sent to Jordan to study extensively and spread teachings of the Egyptian Brotherhood founder, Iman Al-Banna. Jordanian authorities supported the existence of the Brotherhood even as they considered banning a number of political parties. The Brotherhood was thus allowed to operate in accordance to the Jordanian Monarchy. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Transjordan offered volunteers in both Egypt and Syria to help Palestine in its war against Israel. Following the defeat and weakening of Palestine, both Transjordan and Palestinian brotherhood merged and shifted its main concern to provision of social and charitable services as its additional roles (Fuller 39). This system was compatible with the political system as Sharia Law was practiced without force, a component under which the movement was formed. Internal pressures from the group saw the election of a new leader, Khalifa, who established close ties with Palestinian Islamists (House 150-60). Khalifa established the brotherhood as a committee and thus allowing its spread to many parts of the country. The group began embarking in radicalization efforts especially through supporting the Syrian branch that trained rebel forces (Leiken & Brooke 110). On the other hand, the Jordanian section formed the Islamic Action Front political party that garnered the largest parliamentary seats. iii. Israel and Palestine Al-Bannas brother left for Palestine in 1935 to mandatory establish Muslim Brotherhood. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the ensuing Palestinian refugee crisis, more Palestinian Muslims were encouraged to join the group. The groups’ activities after the West Bank mainly remained to be social and economic in contrast to the situation along the Gaza strip in Egypt (Shadid 658-70). 1950’s and 60’s introduced a new wave in the Brotherhoods’ goal of bringing up an Islamic through reorganizing societal structures and religious education instead of fighting with Israel. This goal absorbed its rebellious nature making it loose presence and popularity. This is hindered by several of factors among them the creation of an Islamic Center in 1973, the merger of branches in the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan and the Islamic Revolution in Iran continually offered continued prosperity strength to the brotherhood. The movement increased its concentration in Palestine by avoiding being dismantled like other militant groups (Abu-Amr 7-19) iv. Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia acts as the most financial influencing factor that propelled the growth of Muslim Brotherhood. However, division between the two erupted during the Gulf war, and enmity took over during Morsi’s elections. The movements’ first impact was felt during the mass movement of its supported into Saudi Arabia during Nasser’s clampdown. During that period, the illiteracy and economic levels in Saudi Arabia required Arab-Muslim teachers for its newly created school system (House 156). Even though Saudi Arabia and Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamic brands differed, the latter agreed to obey orders from the ruling family and not involve themselves with religious and doctrine matters. On the other hand, they took control of the Intellectual arena methodically through publishing books. The political situation in Saudi Arabia did not allow any existence of formal organization. Despite this, the movement managed to be enjoined in the Saudi social systems and played key roles in government ministries (Kepel 173). Particularly, a notable number of them took control of the Saudi Arabian education system (House 156). Conclusion Records show that the Muslim brotherhood movement was born in Egypt, and it still thrives to date. However, one ought to note that in its early days when Naser was in power the organization was not condoned in all its activities. The Movement operated silently, and any member found by the government was imprisoned and tortured. In all their operations, the Muslim Brotherhood strongly believes that all the answers to the problems is Islam. The main objective of the movement, which has many followers, is to ensure that all Islamic states are democratically governed. It is also evident that the Muslim Brotherhood has recently created unrest in a number of Arab countries. Its members activities in 2011 at the Egyptian embassy in Amman where the leader and other allies swore to overthrow all leaders in the Arab communities who were allied to foreign nations acts as a major examples of the nature of its existing activities. Works Cited Abu-Amr, Ziad. "Hamas: A Historical and Political Background",Journal of Palestine Studies 22 (4): 5–19 Al-Mahdy, Amin. "The Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian State in the Balance of Democracy”, Metransparent. 2005. Web.07 Dec, 2015. Borgeson, Kevin and Valeri, Robin. Terrorism in America. Jones and Bartlett Learning, 2009. 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