American University in Cairo AUC Knowledge Fountain Theses and Dissertations 2-1-2016 The role of the Muslim Brotherhood the post January 25 Egyptian political system Hessa Al Khalifa Follow this and additional works at: https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds Recommended Citation APA Citation Al Khalifa, H. (2016).The role of the Muslim Brotherhood the post January 25 Egyptian political system [Master’s thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/557 MLA Citation Al Khalifa, Hessa. The role of the Muslim Brotherhood the post January 25 Egyptian political system. 2016. American University in Cairo, Master's thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/557 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by AUC Knowledge Fountain. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of AUC Knowledge Fountain. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Role of the Muslim Brotherhood the Post January 25 Egyptian Political System Hessa Al Khalifa Al Khalifa 1 Table of Contents Chapter 1…………………………………………………………… 2 Chapter 2…………………………………………………………….13 Chapter 3…………………………………………………………….26 Chapter 4…………………………………………………………….62 Chapter 5…………………………………………………………….80 Bibliography……………………………………………………..…. 98 Al Khalifa 2 Chapter 1 1.0 Introduction The Muslim Brotherhood has been an active element of Egyptian political life since its founding in 1928 by school teacher Hassan al-Banna. The Muslim Brotherhood, also known as al-lkhwan al-Muslimun, has helped shape Egypt’s political scene for decades. The Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology is popular with the masses and contributes to its strength as a grassroots movement. It is also the largest and most influential Islamist group in the Arab region due to its years of political and charitable participation which started in the Egyptian society and then branched to the Arab region. The Muslim Brotherhood’s philosophical foundations reflect the thinking of its founder, Hassan al-Banna, whose firm devotion to the Qur'an and the Sunnah resulted in his finding of the society of Muslim Brothers with the initial goal of mass education on matters such as the Sunna and Quran. Hassan al-Banna observed immorality during the colonial era as a result of the actions of the British soldiers in Ismailya such as prostitution and alcohol which affected the view of al- Banna and led his call for the end of colonialism. Al-Banna commented saying, “I believe that my people, because of the political stages which they have passed through them, and under the impact of western civilization… materialist philosophy and franji traditions, have departed from the goals of their faith” (Mitchell, 6). These observations of society under British rule resulted in his decision to create a group dedicated to leading people back to their faith through counseling. This group was created as a reaction to the developments al-Banna observed in society, which makes it a reactionary movement. Its initial involvement in contemporary politics was observed in the interwar period where they organized demonstrations against colonial rule in Egypt. Another Al Khalifa 3 issue the Brotherhood was deeply involved in during the interwar period was the issue of Palestine. The Brotherhood organized efforts to raise funds to support the Arab Strike in Palestine (Mitchell, 17). The Muslim Brotherhood’s participation was also observed in the 1952 Revolution, where they participated with President Gamal Abdel Nasser to over throw the monarchy. The Brotherhood supported Nasser through mobilizing protests in support of Nasser and the coup. The Brotherhood also tried to participate in the state in the post-coup Egypt, but was ultimately sidelined by the regime. After an attempt to assassinate Nasser, which would later be blamed at the Brotherhood, the populist president banned the group, imprisoning and persecuting and tortured many of its members such as Sayid Qutb. The group became banned under Nasser and continued to be banned during the era of his successor President Anwar Sadat, at first he continued the brutal policies of his successor, although he gradually eased the restrictions placed on the group by freeing some from prison and by allowing the group to resume its activities despite still being illegal. One of the members which were jailed, Sayid Qutb and would write a book transforming the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood; his book called for jihad against rulers because of their corruption. This group, which supported violence, would splinter away from the Muslim Brotherhood and influence jihadists for generations to come. After Sadat signed the Camp David Accords, the Muslim Brothers would soon find themselves involved in paramilitary activities in which a group would successfully assassinate him. These politically oriented paramilitary activities lead President Hosni Mubarak to revert to the tactics of Nasser to help be rid of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mubarak, using legal tools, such as the state of emergency kept a tight rein on the political and charitable activities of the Muslim Brotherhood. The mass popularity of the Muslim Brotherhood would threaten the regimes of Al Khalifa 4 Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak and eventually lead to the Brotherhood maintaining its illegal status, its members being persecuted and forcing them into the underground. In its operations as an underground movement, the Brotherhood was able to build a solid network of charitable institutions that dually functioned as a political apparatus. Its popularity, due to its continuous participation in social charity, created wide appeal in the impoverished class who were ignored by the government, solidifying its status as the most organized grassroots movements. Its continuous participation in the social sphere and running in elections as independent candidates made impossible for authoritarian regimes to completely eradicate despite their best efforts (Filiu, 98). The Muslim Brotherhood was more than just a socio-political movement, it was “a political organization, an athletic group, acultural-educational union, an economic company, and a socialidea” (Mitchell, 14). The lack of, what is in their view as the proper application Islam in state, has caused them to continuously try to rebel against the state. As a result of years of authoritarianism, mass demonstrations from all segments in society succeeded in toppling the Mubarak regime in 18 days. Despite their initial reservations to participating in the mass demonstrations, the Muslim Brotherhood significantly to the success of the January 25 Revolution and to subsequent state building initiatives.While no one movement can claim to be the cause behind the 2011 Revolution, several movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood, compiled their efforts, and put aside their ideological differences in order to get rid of Mubarak’s authoritarian regime. The initial 18 days of the Egyptian Revolution brought together young liberal protesters and the Muslim Brotherhood, and this unlikely alliance was believed by many at the time to be the result of the Arab Spring, having inspired likeminded demonstrators in neighbouring countries such as Syria and Libya to stage their own protests (New York Times, 6). Due to the Muslim Al Khalifa 5 Brotherhood being the “largest and most sustained opposition movement” (Brown, 207),with an unmatched ability to organize its followers to support a given agenda, were in the position to take advantage of the power vacuum take hold of power, the final aspiration for a revolutionary organization (Sharp, 20). This study will look into how the evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood since its establishment has affected its recent political activities. In particular, the thesis will analyze the actions of the Muslim Brotherhood under Mubarak’s regime so as to explain its eventual political success in the post Mubarak Egypt as well as its eventual failures in institution building in the post January 2011 Egypt. It is my contention that the Muslim Brotherhood’s state building initiatives are employing the same authoritarian tools used by Mubarak. This work will attempt to add to the existing literature about the Muslim Brotherhood by exploring how despite the experiences gained by the group in organizing social services for masses and by their experience as opposition which ultimately caused their rise to power are also caused their mistakes in state building and their eventual ouster. This thesis adopts a comparative approach, as well as examining the retrospective and prospective political aspirations of the group. The comparative approach will be used in order to compare the actions of the Muslim Brotherhood from before the January 2011 Revolution with their actions after the January 2011 Revolution in order to establish common characteristics in their approach to state and society. The research method will involve a critical assessment of their decisions to understand their application of their ideology in a modern state. First, a literature review will be presented to provide a view of the different scholarly works and their opinions about the Muslim Brotherhood and the different analysis of the players, principles, and political circumstances, during the period preceding the January 25 Al Khalifa 6 Revolution and which eventually led to the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, to rise to power. This will then be followed by a presentation of the Egyptian case study and the Muslim Brotherhood experience through the use of specific events during the 25th of January Revolution and the transitional phase, which will help demonstrate the hypotheses that the Muslim Brotherhood had a significant role, that it subsequently used Mubarak’s method to hold on to power, and that the internal characteristics which untimely caused their rise to power also caused their mistakes in state building and the rise of opposition. The Muslim Brotherhood movement falls under the umbrella of the political Islam theory and whose movements which have been given a chance at state rule as a result of the Arab Spring.