Project on Middle East Democracy

Project on Middle East Democracy
The POMED Wire


Understanding Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

February 9th, 2011 by Alec

Mohammed Morsi, from the Muslim Brotherhood’s media office,  said on Wednesday that the Brotherhood was not seeking power and only sought to participate in the process and that the group would not be fielding a presidential candidate. Morsi also stated the group’s rejections of the “religious state” and further distanced the Brotherhood from recent statements made by Iran’s Ayatollah and Supreme Leader Ali Khameini that protests in Egypt were part of a wider “Islamic awakening” in the Middle East.

Jack Shenker and Brian Whitaker of The Guardian published an exclusive interview with Essam el-Erian, a senior Muslim Brotherhood leader, on Tuesday, outlining the history of the group and its stated political intentions in Egypt. Although the authors outline the Brotherhood’s previous history of violence, they say the group has long since renounced violence as a means to achieve its objectives. They claim that decades of repression and semi-illegal status have created a genuine concern within the organization for human rights issues, often agreeing in principle with European notions of the concept.  El-Erian was careful to stress however, that “each country has its own particulars” when it comes to human rights promotion, thereby excluding gay rights.  The go on to quote el-Erian, “an outspoken reformist,” that the group has no plans to run a candidate for the presidency nor even seek a majority in parliament, instead opting to seek out “wide coalitions” and support “unity” candidates for President.  Shenkar and Whitaker also argue that the Brotherhood itself is fractured between members who view “social evangelism” as the group’s main function and those who see political power as the ultimate goal.

Nina Shea, Senior Fellow and Director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, has seemingly remained skeptical of the Muslim Brotherhood, posting at the institute’s NRO Corner blog, that the group remains the likely winner in free and fair elections in Egypt, especially in parliament.  Shea also posted a report by Palestinian Media Watch on former Brotherhood director Mustafa Mashhur’s book Jihad Is The Way.  She states that the book itself reveals much of the Brotherhood’s true ideology that it keeps hidden from public view.


Posted in Egypt, Islam and Democracy, Islamist movements, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Islam |

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