90 YEARS OF ENDURANCE: MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

90 YEARS OF ENDURANCE: MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

The 90 years of existence of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is an endurance matched by very few political parties of the world. What are the forces behind the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood?

The Muslim Brotherhood’s struggle with the Egyptian state due to its active involvement in reform and politics since its foundation in 1928 should have eliminated the organization from the political scene a long time ago — yet it has persisted for 90 years. This should prompt us to contemplate the reasons behind its endurance. Surprisingly, the organization, although currently malfunctioning, is still vibrant among many of its members.

The Muslim Brotherhood is still functioning according to its internal rubrics and mechanisms. It is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, ensuring it that has outlived many other progressive political entities that have been established and effaced in that time. The relationship between the Egyptian state and the Brotherhood has gone through many difficult phases and it is presently in the most challenging period since its foundation. Nevertheless, to claim that the organization has been eliminated entirely is certainly an overstatement.

The current marginalization of the Muslim Brotherhood from Egyptian politics does not mean that it has dwindled. While the repressive measures applied by the Egyptian state vis-a-vis the Brotherhood over the past few years have certainly weakened the organization, they have not altered its members’ allegiances and beliefs, which continue to spread silently across Egyptian society. The Muslim Brotherhood has always relied on three main pillars, which have succeeded in maintaining the vitality of the organization.

Islamic ideology has been the backbone of the Brotherhood, managing to sustain its members and sympathizers for almost a century with smooth handovers from one generation to the next. Placing Islam as the core value and overall theme of the organization has helped to evade the kinds of political debate that all political parties engage in. This proposition has strengthened the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood’s second active dimension is its organization, not in terms of hierarchy, but in terms of functional organization — it works by erasing any individual ambition or egoism. The markedly individualistic behavior that is common in our society does not exist among members of the Muslim Brotherhood; the organization works to attract the middle-class mainly, ignoring the elite (who often aspire to taking on superior roles). Each member of the organization is called upon to serve Islam. In reality, this translates into serving the Brotherhood with no expectation for personal reward.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s third supporting pillar is an external one that consists of simply highlighting the Egyptian state’s failure to uplift the masses from poverty. The ineffectiveness of government projects and the irresoluteness of efforts to fight corruption and reduce bureaucracy are easily exploited issues. These have bolstered the Brotherhood, which has has been criticised for refraining from developing an alternative economic program of its own, claiming that the application of Islam will solve our challenges.

The strengths of the Muslim Brotherhood are often counteracted with various fabricated and weak measures offered by the Egyptian state and by other political parties. The state provides Egyptian society with preachers that are not sufficiently convincing and that keep their audiences at a distance, and our political parties are established to serve their presidents, not to engage citizens effectively. Meanwhile, the state’s political affiliates tend to be dominated by opportunists rather than by citizens who want to serve their country.

In fact, the tools used by the Egyptian state to combat the Muslim Brotherhood have been benefiting the organization at the expense of justice. The Egyptian government should always remember that “political Islamists” garnered roughly three-quarters of Egyptians’ votes in the 2012 parliamentary elections. Correctly assessing the magnitude of the political Islam factor is better than underestimating it. In addition, religious politics has served the Brotherhood substantially better than the Egyptian state.

Egypt does not have sound political entities capable of replacing the Muslim Brotherhood’s role by effectively engaging millions of citizens. Egypt’s regime is extremely obsessed using all means to fragment and weaken the Brotherhood. The current policy of assuming that the Muslim Brotherhood has been eliminated, spinning propaganda that the economy is doing well and that Egyptian citizens support the state blindly is a fragile one that won’t last. Continuing to pursue this beleaguered policy will only bring the Muslim Brotherhood back to power sooner or later.

(Revised and adapted from Mohammed Nosseir)