Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimeen: the Muslim Brotherhood

Military Review, July-August, 2003 by Youssef H. Aboul-Enein

Like Al-Banna, Qutb's message left an important legacy for militant groups. Muhammad Faraj, another member who split off to become a founding ideologue of Gamaa al-Islamiyah, was, like Qutb, influenced by repression and corruption. In 1982 Faraj published Al-Farida al-Ghaiba (The Missing Obligation), referring to Jihad. Faraj writes that abandoning the holy war led Muslims to their plight. He characterized Hosni Mubarak's government as a neo-colonialist regime that had rejected as futile Ikhwan's efforts to work with the regime.

Relations between the Ikhwan and Egypt's regimes have been rocky, ranging from Nasser's suppression to Sadat's liberalism before Camp David but suppression after and finally, to complete suppression under Mubarak. The Ikhwan have also been influenced by Arab Afghans and have been a militant political voice of Islam in Egypt. Gamaa al-Islamiyah (The Islamic Group), established in 1979, and Al-Jihad loosely pursued the organization's militant agenda. To say the three are firmly connected would be an overstatement; they operate individually and collaborate occasionally when the political opportunity warrants.

Ikhwan Ideologies

The Ikhwan, which has successfully infiltrated elements of the Egyptian Army and police, has also been successful in controlling lawyers', pharmacists', engineers', and doctors' unions in Egypt. The organization also recruits technical university specialists, which has been made easier by Mubarak's complete suppression of any political expression in the universities. In the 1950s and 1960s there were a variety of student unions that have disappeared under Mubarak's regime. Students are turning to the Brotherhood to express their discontent with government policies and the economy. (10) In The Messages of Imam-ul-Shaheed Hassan Al-Banna, Al-Banna characterizes the Ikhwan by highlighting the following principles that unite organizations modeled on the original Egyptian version: (11)

* Following the Salaf, a complete rejection of any action or principle that contradicts the Sunnah and Quran.

* Striving to implement the Sunnah in every aspect of public life. The Egyptian court system has been used successfully to bring suit against intellectuals and writers deemed heretics. The most famous case was that of Abu Ziad, an Islamic scholar, who was declared an apostate by the Court of Cassations. He was forced to divorce his wife and after repeated threats, he fled to the Netherlands. A climate created by the Ikhwan may have stimulated another tragedy, the 1994 stabbing death of Egyptian Noble Laureate Naguib Mahfouz.

* Increasing Iman (religiosity) by focusing on the purity of hearts.

* Working toward Islamizing the government and assisting in this goal outside the borders of Egypt within the Islamic world.

* Forming sports clubs and commiting members to a life of physical fitness.

* Enhancing the knowledge of Islam and the Shariah among Egyptians and others.

* Establishing a sound economic infrastructure through contributions of its members to sponsor Islamic schools, healthcare, and other projects.