The Muslim Brotherhood
was founded in 1928 by Hassan
al-Banna, along with six
workers of the Suez Canal Company. Al-Banna was a schoolteacher, to promote
implementing traditional, religious, Islamic sharia law into government and a social
regression based on an Islamic ethos of altruism and civic duty, in opposition to what he
saw as political and social injustice and to British
imperial rule. The organization initially
focused on educational and charitable work, but quickly grew to become a major
political force as well, by championing the cause of disenfranchised classes, playing a prominent role in the
Egyptian nationalist movement, and promoting a conception of Islam that
attempted to restore broken links between tradition and modernity.
On December 28, 1948
Egypt's prime minister, Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha, was assassinated by Brotherhood member and
veterinary student Abdel Meguid Ahmed Hassan, in what is thought to have been
retaliation for the government crackdown. A month and half later Al-Banna
himself was killed in Cairo by men believed to be government agents and/or
supporters of the murdered premier. Al-Banna was succeeded as head of the
Brotherhood by Hassan Isma'il al-Hudaybi, a former judge.
In 1952, members of
the Muslim Brotherhood are accused of taking part in arson that destroyed some
"750 buildings" in downtown Cairo mainly night clubs, theatres,
hotels, and restaurants frequented by British and other foreigners "that
marked the end of the liberal, progressive, cosmopolitan" Egypt. The
Brotherhood supported the military coup that overthrew the monarchy in 1952,
but the junta was
unwilling to share power or lift martial
law and clashed with
the Brotherhood.
1954-1982
After the attempted
assassination of then-president Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser, in 1954, a member of the secret apparatus was accused by the
authorities of being the perpetrator of the attempt. Nasser then
abolished the Brotherhood and imprisoned and punished thousands of its members.
Many members of the
Brotherhood were held for years in prisons and concentration camps, where they were sometimes tortured, during Nasser's rule. In
1964 there was a minor thaw when writer Sayyid Qutb was
released from prison only to be arrested again along with his brother Muhammad in August 1965, when he was accused of
being part of a plot to overthrow the state—to assassinate the President and
other Egyptian officials and personalities and subjected to what some consider a show trial. The trial culminated in a death sentence
for Qutb and six other members of the Muslim Brotherhood and on 29 August 1966,
he was executed by hanging.
Qutb became the
Brotherhood's most influential thinker. He argued that Muslim society was no
longer Islamic and must be transformed by an Islamic vanguard through violent
revolution. To restore Islam from modern jahiliyya Muslim states must be overthrown. While Qutb's
ideology became very popular elsewhere, in Egypt the Brotherhood's leadership
distanced itself from his revolutionary ideology, adhering instead to a nonviolent reformist strategy, to which it has remained ever since.
Nasser's
successor, Anwar Sadat, became president of Egypt in 1970 and gradually released
imprisoned Brothers and enlisted their help against leftist groups. The organization
was tolerated to an extent, but remained technically illegal and subject to
periodic crackdowns. Eventually the Brotherhood was key in the assassination of
Anwar Sadat.
In the 1970s, a large
student Islamic activist movement took shape, independently from the
Brotherhood. Sadat himself became the enemy of the Brotherhood and other
Islamist groups after signing a peace agreement with Israel in 1979, and was assassinated by a
violent Islamist group Tanzim al-Jihad on October 6, 1981.
1982-2005
In the 1980s,
during Hosni Mubarak's presidency, many of the student Islamist activists joined the
Brotherhood. The Brotherhood dominated the professional and student
associations of Egypt and was famous for its network of social services in
neighborhoods and villages. In order to quell the Brotherhood's renewed
influence, the government again resorted to repressive measures starting in
1992. Despite mass arrests, police harassment and an essentially closed
political system, Brotherhood candidates have made strong showings in several
parliamentary elections.
Over the next ten
years the Brotherhood made repeated calls for a more democratic political
system. In 1997 Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mustafa
Mashhur told journalist
Khalid Daoud that he thought Egypt's Coptic Christians and Orthodox Jews
should pay the long abandoned jizya poll tax, levied on non-Muslims in exchange for
protection from the state, rationalized by the fact that non-Muslims are exempt
from military service while it is compulsory for Muslims. He went on to say,
"we do not mind having Christians members in the People's Assembly...the top officials, especially in the army,
should be Muslims since we are a Muslim country ... This is necessary because
when a Christian country attacks the Muslim country and the army has Christian
elements, they can facilitate our defeat by the enemy." According
to The Guardian newspaper, the proposal caused an "uproar" among
Egypt's six million Coptic Christians and "the movement later
backtracked."
In 2000, 15 MB
deputies were elected to the Egyptian parliament. A book detailing the record
of the MB deputies in the 2000-2005 Egyptian parliament (The Brothers in the 2000-2005 Parliament)
found its parliamentary leader Hamdy Hassan working vigorously to fight
cultural expression the Brotherhood felt was unIslamic and blasphemous, from
literature to beauty contests. Hassan accused the Minister of Culture (Farouk
Hosny) of leading what
Hassan called the `current US-led war against Islamic culture and identity`.
Another Brotherhood MP (Gamal Heshmat) took credit for forcing culture minister
Hosni to ban the publication of three novels on the ground they promoted
blasphemy and unacceptable sexual practices.
Comments
Terror
attacks came to the US in the 1970s with airline hijackings. The US had little exposure to the beginnings
of this terror movement from 1938 to 1948.
We did notice immediate attacks on Israel in 1948 that never stopped.
Just like
Karl Marx in the 1800s, fundamentalist Islam formed as an academic exercise.
Imams decided to take every word of the Koran literally. Imagine if the
Catholic Church had decided to stress celibacy and reject marriage. This war
has been sporadic, but has lasted almost 50 years.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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