Paradigm Shift or Tactical Manoeuvre: Rethinking the Islamists

Khalil al-Anani argues that, with the entrance of Islamists into the political arena during and after the Arab Spring, “we need to rethink the Islamist question in a manner that transcends the styles of praise or ridicule that typified our approach and shaped our awareness for several decades.”  In making this point he is quite right: Islamists in politics require a more considered analysis than was necessary for purely religious movements, largely excluded from the public square.  For this, we have a few historical examples of how Islamist parties have functioned in elections and (in parliament though not in government) such as the Jamaat-e Islaami in Pakistan.  Fortunately, we now also have contemporary examples from which to draw conclusions in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Kuwait.

Al-Anani makes some important observations about the changes in Islamist discourse wrought by their electioneering and, in the case of the aforementioned countries, especially Egypt, their rise to power:

1) A shift from talking exclusively about religious solutions to practical problems, to engaging with voters through the use of more pragmatic rhetoric attuned to the present conditions.  He cites the example of the MB’s political party, the Freedom and Justice party (FJP – حزب الحرية والعدالة‎ , Ḥizb Al-Ḥurriya wa Al-’Adala), adapting the slogan ‘We bring the good to Egypt’ (نحمل الخير لمصر) as an alternate to the Brotherhood’s previous one of ‘Islam is the solution’ (الإسلام هو الحال).  Some would argue that the FJP are merely there to ‘market’ Ikhwani ideology, hence the adaption or moderation of the language used.

2) A shift from talking in mosques (and at rallies), to debating in parliament.  This involves not just a change in the nature of the issues discussed, but also a shift from sermons and speeches (which are traditionally monologues) to dialogue and debate.  Both spaces also have different customs for behaviour within each of them: not only is speech subject to less restriction in parliament, but it is also has to be accountable to the general public who may watch the debates live on TV or comment on Facebook.  Whilst there are certainly taboos in mosques, there is little or no public scrutiny, except perhaps in the case of the ‘live’ Friday sermon.

3) A shift from religious to secular authority, where religious figures respected for their Islamic knowledge are subjected to careful scrutiny on entering the public sphere.  It remains to be seen how this will affect the public’s perception of and reaction to policy inspired by the Qur’an and Sunna.

4) A shift from the solidarity expressed in private to a rivalry based on each party’s success at implementing its respective policies.  In the case of Egypt, it will be interesting to note the future role that Islam will play in the revised constitution and how this will impact on the relationship between the two largest parties in parliament: the FJP and the Salafist al-Nour party.

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Participation NOT Confrontation!

Participation not confrontation (مشاركة لا مغالبة).  This is the slogan adopted for the Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary election campaign 2010, in which Brothers, standing as independents much as they did in 2005, will contest 30% of the seats up for grabs in the Majlis ash-Shaab.  The decision to contest the elections was announced today by the Supreme Guide, Muhammad Badie (you can read his speech here).

Expect the results of the election to be used by both sides (supporters and detractors of the MB) as a litmus test for the relative success or failure of political Islam.

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Carnegie’s Egyptian Election Site

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace have set up a micro-site to cover the upcoming Egyptian parliamentary and presidential elections.  It’s very informative; even if it does sanitise the Brotherhood to a certain extent, and there’s an intriguing interview with Dr Essam el-Arian (the reform-minded Brother much-loved by Western commentators sympathetic to the movement), conducted back in May, posted there.

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al-Qaradawi: Egypt’s a nightmare…may Allah save her!

Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the some-time spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist ideologue, has broken his heretofore conspicuously-observed silence  on the trials and tribulations surrounding the appointment of the MB’s 8th Supreme Guide, Muhammad Badie, in an interview with Egypt’s al-Shorouk newspaper.  This is the first time that al-Qaradawi has tackled the thorny issue of ledership election since al-Shorouk reported last November his assertion that the failure to promote the reformist Essam el-Erian to the organisations’s Guidance Bureau was a ‘betrayal of da’wah, the MB and the Ummah’  made on his own website.  al-Qaradawi wrote a letter to al-Shorouk, which they duly published, opting for a more conciliatory approach towards the conservatives within the MB amidst the furore that his widely-reported comments had made.

I’ve included a summary of the main points dealing with the Brotherhood below:

– Muhammad Badie should be the Supreme Guide of ALL the Brothers; making use of reformists Muhammad Habib and Abdul Moneim Abul-Futouh.

– Gamal Mubarak should announce his withdrawal from the presidential race.

– Egypt must have a true democracy to regain its place in the world.

– The tribulations of the Ikhwan are over now that the election of the Supreme Guide has taken place [he refused to say any more].

– Badie should make it his business to protect the cause of reform and renewal and not to become a prsioner of any one school of thought.

– Praised the ‘balanced’ and ‘reasonable’ nature of Badie’s acceptance speech and urged him to continue in this vein if he wants to see change with regard to the Egyptian state and its apparatus.

– Essam el-Erian and the rest of the brothers should assist Abul-Futouh and Habib after their ‘demotion’ in the elections. 

H/T MEMRI

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Muslim Brothers Choose Their New Supreme Guide

According to reports (عربي English), Dr Muhammad Badie, a veterinarian and self-professed conservative once imprisoned for 9 years, has been elected the 8th Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood.  He replaces Magdi Akef who, in an unprecedented but widely reported move, chose to step down.

Information on Dr Muhammad Badie’s background can be found here.

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The Saga of the Muslim Brotherhood

Having avoided posting up until now on the Muslim Brotherhood’s much-publicised travails, I’ve decided to do my best to put Magdy Akef’s ‘quasi-resignation’ in context.

Firstly, for a Supreme Guide to retire is unprecedented – they usually pop their clogs (or have them popped for them in the case of the founder, Hasan al-Banna) in situ.  Secondly, Akef had already announced that he would be retiring from his role as the Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood.  And thirdly, Egyptian politics is entering a period of exceptional uncertainty: both parliamentary and presidential elections are to be held within the next two years, and, with President Mubarak expected to step down, there will be a new president for the first time in over a quarter of a century.

These are strange times indeed for the Ikhwan as they attempt to manoeuvre in the face of a renewed crackdown on their activities both domestically and internationally, and try to consolidate and improve on the successes they enjoyed in the last parliamentary elections in 2005.

There has been a great deal of speculation surrounding the future of the world’s most powerful Islamic political movement for some time.  Most of that speculation has centred on the future direction of the movement, as the reality of turgid domestic Egyptian politics has dawned on the party’s members.  The furore that surrounded Akef’s supposed resignation seemed to confirm what many analysts were thinking: here was the first outward manifestation of a leadership struggle between younger, more progressive activists and their more conservative co-members.

Akef allegedly clashed with conservatives on the Guidance Council over the appointment of senior member Essam al-Erian, a renowned dove within the organisation.  His nomination came in the wake of the recent death of Muhammad Hilal, a hawkish member of the Guidance Council, which first ignited tensions amongst the leadership.

The direction the Brotherhood takes could have much wider implications: the group is the largest opposition movement in Egypt (with some sources estimating membership at half a million Egyptians), though officially banned. Furthermore, as a pan-Islamic organisation, it is highly influential beyond Egypt’s borders as the father of Islamist movements across the Arab and Muslim world — including the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

But perhaps the two most important developments in this saga, have been the high profile criticism by the influential cleric and sometime Brotherhood ‘spiritual leader’, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, of the decision to reject al-Erian’s candidacy, and the statement released by the MB Youth Wing in response to media storm following Akef’s reported resignation.

Al-Qaradawi, called the decision a ‘betrayal of da’wah, the party and the Ummah one and all’.  However, Dr Mahmoud Ghazlan, a hawkish member of the Guidance Council, in a strongly worded letter to the shaykh retorted, “If you must interfere, then do so as a matter of principal, values and etiquette, and try to put out the flames of conflict.”

For their part, the Youth Wing used their statement to call for unity, to stress their support for the Supreme Guide and announce the holding of ‘youth conference’ some time in the near future:

Letter of the Muslim Brotherhood Youth:

We followed the recent events that have occurred in the Guidance Bureau, so we decided to have a position and opinion to be announced to the group and to the public because we are the sons of this group and we are proud of it and its civilized approach. We have the honor to belong to such a group and we are the most concerned with its progress and strength. We are keen on making it the bridge that our country can use to cross from the atmosphere of tyranny and injustice to that of freedom and progress and we sum our opinion up in this statement:

1 – We declare our appreciation and esteem for our guide and leader, Mohamed Mahdy Akef, and his leadership of the group and appreciate his effort and all the moves to maintain our presence, and the progress he achieved during his term in the Guidance Bureau and we call on him to maintain his active presence at the head of the group until he finishes his term [in January].

2 – We all respect the mechanisms of the shura (Guidance Bureau) and their results, with emphasis on the policy of openness and transparency, where regulations governing the rules of internal procedures are announced, and equality in all situations and not allowing the door for different interpretations and personal interpretations, which negatively affect the group.

3 – The unity and cohesion of our construction is one of the constants that we would not allow to be affected, so we fear that such events would lead us to severe forms of advocacy passed in other countries and therefore the duty of everyone now is to bridge the gap and ensure the safety of the spirit of logical brotherhood and to maintain objectivity away from emotions.

4 – It is not acceptable at all that some people question the guide’s [Akef] respect to shura and democracy, as he was the finest example in this respect when he insisted on changing the old regulations and the internal organization of elections and entrenched this principle. He then asked not to be given the responsibility of heading the group, to leave the opportunity to others.

5 – We call on the leadership to review its internal regulations and to modify it in a practical manner that is commensurate with the nature and requirements of the stage we are going through.

6 – We are stressing the need to improve the media performance of the group, and to make it better than it is now, in order not to repeat the poor performance, and this contradiction that has emerged in the Brotherhood’s media performances to the current events. In a way this has worsened the image of the group! We also stress that the media attaché of the group needs a comprehensive review with the seizure of media statements of the leaders and figures. We also need to determine an official spokesman for the group in order to avoid the conflicts that we saw in these recent events.

7 – We thank all the media, which dealt with professionalism and objectivity to the events with the rejection of attempts by some media that became addicted to harming the Muslim Brotherhood and we hold ourselves responsible for what happened and allowed some others to use distortion and fabrication against the movement.

8 – We confirm that solving this issue should be in a practical and objective manner to ensure non-recurrence of the problem and not to exacerbate the accumulations of it, and we are confident that the leadership is keen on this, like everyone else.

9 – We emphasize that the Muslim Brotherhood is a national Egyptian movement of community-based and public efforts since it was founded by Imam Hassan al-Banna, and is concerned with public issues and all important issues to every Egyptian and everyone who is interested in the moderate civilized Islamic project, so the society should interact with us as the largest popular movement seeking reform and change in Egypt.

10 – We aim that the next period would be the start of a boom in the national movement to meet the expectations of millions of Egyptians who rely on the Muslim Brotherhood and its role in reform and change.

We wish to take this opportunity to announce an important step, in which we wish to please the good of the homeland and of the movement and the project as a whole. Hereby we declare the launch of the first electronic conference for the youth of the Muslim Brotherhood, which will be in the near future and will discuss the most important issues of concern to the group, to present visions aimed at reform and development.

Youth of the Muslim Brotherhood

Dissent, debate, rivalry and resignations are all part and parcel of the democratic process.  That two politicians rarely agree, in spite of the best efforts of spin doctors to create the façade of party unity, is one of the most enduring aspects of party politics; it’s a healthy sign that issues are being debated, compromises are being sought, and policies formulated with input from all sides of the debate.  In the run up to the elections, despite Akef’s claim that the Brotherhood will not field a candidate for the presidency, it will be interesting to see if the movement can adapt, compromise and move forward progressively or whether it remains ossified; wedded to a current of Islamist thought that has gained little for the movement over the last three quarters of a century.

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Financing the Brethren

Time to clear out the favourites that have been burning a hole in my browser since before the August break.

Hossam Tammam, who runs the IslamOnline spin-off Islamyoon.com and is an expert on Islamist movements, most notably the Muslim Brothers (read his book – تحولات الإخوان المسامين), explains the rationale behind the Egyptian government’s recent crackdown on the Brother’s finances:

In the case known as the “international organisation”, which started in June 2009, the government seems to be targetting MB economic power once again. Prosecutors have indicted several MB-affiliated businessmen, charging them with money laundering and receiving funds from abroad to finance the outlawed group. 

And finance, under the pious smokescreen of Islamic finance, is the lynchpin of Islamist groups like the MB’s strategy to support their own activities and re-Islamise society.  In fact, as noted by most commentators, the MB and its founder Hassan al-Banna were instrumental in the development of Islamic economic models:

The origins of all Islamic economic and financial regulatory organizations, including the AAIOFI’s date back to the 1920s invention of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) founder Hassan Al-Banna, who designed political, economic, and financial infrastructures to enable Muslims to fulfill a key form of jihad mandated by the Koran (Al Jihad bi-al-Mal — financial jihad) “you… should strive for the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives….” – 61:10-11.

He viewed finance as a critical weapon to undermine the infidels — and “work towards establishing an Islamic rule on earth.” To do that, he understood that Muslims must create an independent Islamic financial system to parallel and later supersede the Western economy.

Al-Banna’s contemporaries and successors (such as the late Sayed Qutb and current Yusuf Qaradawi) set his theories and practices into motion, developing sharia-based terminology and mechanisms to advance the financial jihad — “Islamic economics,” finance and banking.

Early 1930s MB attempts to establish Islamic banking in India failed. Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser shut down the second attempt, in 1964, after only one year, later arresting and expelling the Muslim Brothers for attempts to kill him. Saudi Arabia welcomed this new wave Egyptian dissidents, as did King Saud bin Abdul Aziz earlier waves in 1954 and 1961. Their ideas so appealed to him and his clerics that in 1961, Saud funded the MB’s establishment of the Islamic University in Medina to proselytize their fundamentalist Islamic ideology, especially to foreign students.

In 1962, the MB convinced the king to launch a global financial joint venture, which became the cornerstone and engine to spread Islam worldwide. This venture created charitable foundations, which the MB oversees.

The first were the Muslim World League (MWL) and Rabitta al-Alam al-Islami, uniting Islamic radicals from 22 nations and spinning a web of many other charities with hundreds of offices worldwide. In 1978, the kingdom backed another MB initiative, the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), which with all these “charities” are implicated for funding al Qaeda, the 9/11 attacks, Hamas and others.

These “charities” are used to advance the political agenda set forth by the MB. “I don’t like this word ‘donations’,” Qaradawi told BBC Panorama on July 30, 2006.

“I like to call it jihad with money, because God has ordered us to fight enemies with our lives and our money.”

In 1969, the Saudis convened Arab and Muslim states to unify the “struggle for Islam,” and have, ever since, been the OIC’s major sponsor. The 56 OIC members include Iran, Sudan, and Syria. Based in Jeddah “pending the liberation of Jerusalem,” the OIC charter mandates and coordinates “support [of] the struggle of the Palestinian people…recovering their rights and liberating their occupied territories.”

So, with Islamist movements such as the MB employing Shari’a-tinted economics to finance themselves, pay for projects and, on a more strategic level, demonstrate proto-Islamic statecraft in the test bed of the real world: Islamic economic models would engender support for an Islamic system amongst the people and serve as the paradigm for a future Islamic state or states.

As Tammam writes:

Since its inception the MB has been big on finance. On a purely theoretical level, MB founding father Hassan El-Banna said the group should be an “economic company” just as it is a “Salafi inspiration, a Sunni method, a Sufi revelation, a political organisation, a sports society, a cultural league and a social idea”.

The fundamental importance of Islamic finance to all Islamist politico-religious movements has not escaped them.  Islamists justify their willingness to employ a hybrid Western-Islamic model to bring about the Islamisation of society by recourse to the Qur’an.

So-called Jihad bil-Mal or Financial Jihad (fundraising for needy Muslims, supporting the mujahideen and ensuring the victory of Islam) draws inspiration from a series of well-known verses in the Qur’an:

“Go forth, light-armed and heavy-armed, and strive with your wealth and your lives in the way of Allah! That is best for you if ye but knew.” – al-Tawba (Repentance), Chapter 9, verse 41

“Those who believe, and have left their homes and striven with their wealth and their lives in Allah’s way are of much greater worth in Allah’s sight. These are they who are triumphant.” – al-Tawba (Repentance), Chapter 9, verse 20

“O ye who believe! Shall I show you a commerce that will save you from a painful doom? Ye should believe in Allah and His messenger, and should strive for the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives. That is better for you, if ye did but know.” – al-Saff (the ranks, battle arrays), Chapter 61, verse 10-11

“The (true) believers are only those who believe in Allah and His messenger and afterward doubt not, but strive with their wealth and their lives for the cause of Allah. Such are the sincere.” – al-Hujraat (the private apartments, the inner apartments), Chapter 49, verse 15

“Alms are only for the poor and the needy, and the officials (appointed) over them, and those whose hearts are made to incline (to truth) and the (ransoming of) captives and those in debt and in the way of Allah and the wayfarer; an ordinance from Allah; and Allah is knowing, Wise.” – al-Tawba (Repentance), Chapter 9, verse 60

All Islamic scholars are unanimous in their interpretation of these verses regarding the centrality and importance of financial jihad as part of Allah’s jihad commandment to Muslims. Some interpretations note the verses’ internal order, in which “wealth” precedes “lives,” as evidence of the significance of financial jihad and, in certain circumstances, its precedence over self-sacrificing jihad. In his Islamic edict on jihad in Chechnya, al-Shuaibi determined that the “significance of financial jihad is not inferior to self-sacrificing jihad, being even more important.”

Dr. Hussein Shehata, a professor at al-Azhar University in Cairo, explains the uniqueness of the financial jihad commandment as being “a trial of strength of Muslim faith” and “a means to purify the soul from stinginess.” Through financial jihad, according to Shehata, Allah gives wealthy Muslims the opportunity to allocate some of their money for da’awa (literally, the call for Islam), the Islamic effort to teach or to convert people to Islam.

Dr. Ajeel Jassem al-Nashami, secretary general of the International Organization for Zakat (Islamic alms) in Kuwait, argued that donations made by Muslims for zakat should be funneled to finance jihad warfare in Palestine against Israel. In his interpretation of the Quranic verse (al-Tawba, Chapter 9, verse 60), he noted that Allah determined eight ways for using zakat for the benefit of Muslims, four of them designated to support jihad and the other four aimed at helping the needy.

Praising the merits of financial jihad, Muslim scholars also rely on Islamic tradition (hadith) attributed to the Prophet Mohammad, which assures Muslims who donate money for jihad the same reward in Heaven as the mujahideen themselves. According to hadith: “One [Muslim] who equips a person on his way to raid [the enemy’s camps] in Allah’s path [jihad] is considered to have the same status as the raider [mujahid]. One [Muslim] who substitutes [the raider] concerning his family and [taking care of their needs] with good deeds is considered to have the same status as the raider [mujahid].”

In practical terms, financial jihad is designed to sustain self-sacrificing jihad and enable it to achieve its goals on the battlefield. Dr. Abdullah Qadiri al-Ahdal, a Saudi professor at al-Medina University, referring to the duty to support the Palestinian mujahideen, determined that “financial jihad applies to all of us [Muslims] in accordance with each person’s capability. No excuse can dismiss anyone from donating money to the mujahideen and their families…as they are in urgent need of food, medication, clothing, weapons, and other [basic] necessities of life.”  Al-Ahdal views financial jihad as a vital means for the mujahideen in financing their military activity (purchasing weapons, etc.) and at the same time in securing proper social conditions for the families of the mujahideen, who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of Islam.

In another fatwa, Hussein Shehata argues that financial jihad is designed to assure mutual indemnity among Muslims and the commitment of Muslims to their warriors. According to Shehata, Muslims are committed to “financially support the families of the mujahideen who joined the call for jihad and left behind them their women and children….They [the families] are in desperate need of money and basic necessities of life such as food, drink, and accommodation.” Shehata explains that the financial jihad commandment given by God is intended “to calm the mujahideen’s [worries] by demonstrating that there are those [Muslims] who practice financial jihad and do not skimp on money for their families, even if they have fallen on the battlefield or their houses are damaged or destroyed.”

In Seventy Ways to Support the Chechen Jihad, published on the official website of the Chechen mujahideen, the importance of financial and material donations is emphasized. The Chechen mujahideen called upon Muslims to support jihad in Chechnya against the “Russian enemy” in any way possible, and to begin by transferring financial and material support.

39 Principles of Jihad, a book by Mohammad bin Ahmad al-Salem that appears on websites affiliated with al-Qaeda, offers readers an opportunity to comprehend the broad meaning of the concept of jihad as interpreted by Muslim scholars. Jihad is not only an expression of violent action against infidels, but comprises diverse acts that every Muslim is commanded to perform in order to sustain jihad. Eight of the 39 principles deal with various aspects of financial jihad:

• Financing jihad – Muslims can join in jihad by donating to jihad and the mujahideen. The donation’s value is determined by its quality and destination and not only by the amount of money given.
• Supplying the fighters’ needs – Believers who are unable to take part in jihad (for instance, women and the handicapped) can perform their duty by supplying money and equipment to the mujahideen. By doing so, the donor is considered mujahid and deserves the same reward.
• Taking care of the mujahideen’s family – Believers who support the mujahideen’s family are considered mujahid and deserve half of their reward. On the other hand, neglecting the mujahideen’s family may bring them misfortune and death by the hand of God.
• Assisting the families of the fallens – by supplying the special needs of orphans and widows.
• Assisting the families of prisoners and wounded warriors – by supplying their necessities.
• Collecting funds for the mujahideen – Money is the lifeline of jihad. Its importance also stems from the action of gathering donations, which arouse the spirit of jihad in the hearts of believers. There are many ways to carry out this duty: at mosques, public venues, family gatherings, charity events, monthly donations, or by urging the wealthy to open their hearts to the mujahideen.
• Granting charity donations to the mujahideen – who enjoy priority in Islam.
• Financing medical treatment for wounded mujahideen.

The MB, as the archetypal Islamist movement, continued to expand its economic activities until a backlash and subsequent bloody crackdown under Nasser ensured that their economic activities in Egypt were minimal.  Tammam again:

On a more practical note, El-Banna wasted no time in forming a number of companies and economic enterprises, most of which were either directly helpful to MB activities or related to his pan-Islamic vision. El-Banna believed in a national liberation movement with an Islamic orientation, and this vision influenced the type of investment on which MB companies focussed. He formed a mining company and a textile company at a time when Egypt was still a major supplier of raw cotton to British factories. We don’t know whether those companies were owned by the MB itself or by individuals affiliated with it, or a mix between the two. But we know that the MB was allowed to own companies at the time.

Private ownership, legitimately earned profit and ethical finance were all in vogue at a time when Nasser and the vanguard of the Free Officers had espoused a pan-Arabist socialist political and economic model.

As the MB’s activities were outlawed under Nasser, the subsequent exile of various key MB members allowed them to acquire new skills and knowhow heretofore unavailable to them in Egypt.  By acquiring contacts and financing in the Gulf and in Saudi Arabia, the Brotherhood and its members pioneered what became some of today’s most important Islamic financial institutions.  They were ideally poised at the onset if the Sadat era to take advantage of the new found economic optimism and restructuring overtaking Egypt:

MB capital acted without delay, investing in housing, health, education, transport, food and many other services. By the end of the 1970s a new class of MB-affiliated businessmen was taking shape in Cairo. A network of businesses linked with the group soon emerged. The MB was particularly active in real estate investment, medical supplies, school supplies, automobiles and food production. All of these areas were once monopolised by the state but were now open for private investment. MB economic activities filled up part of the gap left behind by the withdrawal of the state, making the transition to a market economy less painful for the public.

Soon the MB tried its hand at tourism, especially organised pilgrimages to Mecca, management and training, electronics and information technology. The man who organised the MB’s branching out into these new fields of economic activities was Khairat El-Shater. He was one of the first MB businessmen to venture into management (having formed the Umma Centre in the late 1980s) and computers (the well- known Salsabil Company).

Unlike MB investment under Hassan El-Banna, which was part of a national liberation quest (forming a textile company under British occupation was a daring act, in the same league as the nationalisation of the Suez Canal), investment in the liberalisation period took on a consumerist nature. As of the 1990s, the largest MB investments were directed at luxury housing and North Coast tourist resorts.

Although the Brothers have performed an important economic  role both domestically and abroad, this could not translate into corresponding success in the public domain, where the MB remains a banned political organisation.  Instead, MB members themselves became successful businessmen in their own right and acquired the wealth and privilege to use as clout on behalf of the Brethren and the ideology to which they espoused.  People like Khairat El-Shater:

El-Shater was the only exception. A brilliant businessman, El-Shater also had immense organisational skills that placed him at the top of the MB’s organisational hierarchy (he is currently the second deputy of the general guide). El-Shater is the first MB leader to combine economic and organisational power. As such, he is more than a businessman and a successful MB leader, and his influence within the MB is substantial.

The mystique surrounding the group’s wealth has been generated partly by the presence of several rich individuals at the heart of the MB leadership.  Moreover, the movement has all but dissolved its capital assets in Egypt save for a few schools, banks and charitable institutions; financial clout now rests in the hands of members who must contribute approximately 8 per cent of their wealth to the Brotherhood every year.

The increasingly blurred distinction between Brotherhood coffers and private wealth has meant the government using their legal and authoritative muscle to freeze and even confiscate the private assets of several wealthy individual members of the MB.

What’s interesting is that Nasser’s crackdown on his fellow revolutionaries and the eventual enforced isolation of various MB personalities in Europe and America during the 1950s, 60s and 70s prior to their return and the movements initial resurgence under Sadat, have contributed to the group’s financial portfolio and their fundraising and investment overseas.  A full set of accounts for the global organisation and its various offshoots would reveal just how wealthy the Brothers are.

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Whither the Muslim Brothers?

Khalil al-Anani had a piece in the Daily Star the other day, which I missed, on the possible repercussions springing from the Egyptian regime’s ongoing crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood.  These are the main points of the article:

• The recent spate of arrests, sympathetic press in independent papers such as al-Masry al-Youm and al-Dustour, as well as the tried and trusted state media, has resulted in the isolation of the Brotherhood in mainstream Egyptian society.  However, the MB have never been more powerful, perhaps not domestically, but abroad and especially in Europe, and the organisation will outlast this particular onslaught.
• The regime’s relationship with the MB continues to mirror that faced by them under Nasser: having won so many seats in the 2005 parliamentary elections, the MB overstepped the mark somewhat with regards their supposedly accepted ‘quietist’ role in the Egyptian public sphere.  That is, there was an understanding that charitable work and da’wah would be the only fields in which the MB would be allowed to operate.  Post 2005, as the regime’s thoughts started to turn towards the post-Mubarak era and the question of succession, it has been decided to eradicate the Brotherhood once and for all, and in so doing keep the lid on the inevitable power struggle in the wake of President Mubarak’s ‘standing aside’.
• The MB have been unable to secure a broad-based coalition upon which the fight government oppression and other issues afflicting Egyptian society, and have, in turn, become disconnected from heir grassroots’ support/power base.

Al-Anani outlines seven likely scenarios:

• The crackdown could lead to mass disruption and civil unrest in the wake of economic turmoil and Egypt’s uncertain political future.
• The MB’s isolation could have unexpected knock-on effects such as the radicalisation of the organisation.
• Continued suppression could lead to the disenchantment of the young cadres turning on the MB’s leadership and splitting the organisation.  The recent arrests have been seen by some as akin to the execution of Sayyed Qutb, and have expressed their dissatisfaction at what they see as a lack of political will on behalf of the leadership to confront the Mubarak regime.
• Arresting moderates in the organisation could secure short-term political capital, but generate long-term problems for the government if the MB left the centre ground.
• Radical Islamists movements could emerge amidst the MB’s tribulations, groups modelled on al-Gama’ah al-Islamiyyah that espouse violence as means of bridging the void between the state and religion.
• One possible scenario is the break-up of the MB into smaller, independent groups unfettered by a central command/leadership structure and possible more radical.
• Finally, the suppression could mirror the period in Algeria in the early 90’s when the Islamists were deprived of political power by a secularist-military alliance that culminated in the bloody feuds that continue to threaten peace in the country today.

It must be said that I disagree with al-Anani over his suggestion that the MB have become isolated from their popular support: those in Egyptian’s miniscule middle classes and more affluent social strata were never likely to endorse them and the recent arrests and consonant media revelations have done nothing to change that.  Furthermore, the MB, despite not being able to capitalise fully on the lack of progress with the so-called Road Map and not forming a coalition with the civil rights movements as we witnessed a couple of years ago, are reaping the rewards of the communications strategy, particularly online.  MB bloggers, as was borne out by the recent Harvard report into the Middle Eastern blogosphere, carry substantial weight domestically and across the Arab world.  Furthermore, the Brotherhood’s alliances abroad, outside of the Middle East, appear to be bearing fruit as meetings with White House officials prior to President Obama’s speech in Cairo and the invitation of several Muslim Brothers to the event itself will testify.

No.  The Brotherhood are a long way from finished yet and, together with Egypt’s burgeoning salafist movement, they have achieved respectable gains in their ongoing efforts to re-Islamise Egyptian society.  The MB are here to stay.

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The MB crackdown and Hamas

Dr Rafiq Habib has an article in al-Mesryoon analysing the recent spate of arrests of key Muslim Brotherhood figures in the context of the organisation’s gloabl Islamist pretensions.  He posits that the arrests, contrary to any of the ostensible justifications given by the Egyptian government, aimed to limit the MB’s global organisation and hence its power base domestically:

ففي البداية بدت القضية وكأنها موجهة لعدد من القيادات السياسية للجماعة ومنها الدكتور سعد الكتاتني والدكتور عبد المنعم أبو الفتوح كرسالة للإدارة الأمريكية حتى لا تحاور أي طرف داخل الجماعة… ورغم أن القضية في النهاية هي ضربة أمنية يراد منها عرقلة نشاط جماعة الإخوان المسلمين، ورغم أنها تمثل حلقة من سلسلة متواصلة من الاعتقالات بحق الجماعة منذ ما يزيد عن خمسة عشر عاما، إلا أن هناك خيوطا مهمة داخل القضية تكشف عن توجهات النظام، وتفتح ملفا جديدا في المواجهة بين النظام وجماعة الإخوان المسلمين.

Basically, he’s saying here that, initially the arrests aimed to send a message to the US administration not to hold talks with any section of the Brotherhood, but that, in the end, they have to be seen in the context of the 15 year campaign against the organisation.  In other words, they were a security crackdown focused on curbing the activities of the Brotherhood both domestically and abroad.

The principal aim, which marks a new stage in the relationship between the government and the MB, is to diminish the capacity of the Brotherhoods’s aid and relief activities, as evidenced by the detention in particular of Dr Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh, the General Secretary of the Arab Doctor’s Federation.

بات واضحا أن المقصود من تلك الحملة هو نشاط الإغاثة الذي تقوم به نقابة أطباء مصر واتحاد الأطباء العرب. وقد سبق اعتقال الدكتور جمال عبد السلام من قبل، أثناء حرب إسرائيل على غزة، بهدف إعاقة عمل لجان الإغاثة.

The aim of the arrests was to hinder the relief effort in the wake of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead on Gaza.

ومن الواضح أن دور جماعة الإخوان المسلمين في مساندة قطاع غزة، بات يقلق النظام الحاكم. لأنه في النهاية يمثل دورا شعبيا مؤثرا، يؤكد على إخلاص جماعة الإخوان المسلمين لقضايا الأمة الرئيسة، وعلى رأسها قضية فلسطين. ولكن بجانب ذلك، فإن كل نشاط يدعم قطاع غزة المحاصر ماديا أو معنويا، يمثل سندا وظهيرا لسكان القطاع المحاصرين، وأيضا لحركات المقاومة في القطاع، ومنها بالطبع حركة المقاومة الإسلامية حماس.

The role of the Brotherhood in the continuing relief efforts in Gaza represented an enormous challenge to the government’s domestic hegemony.  Aid to Gazans also signalled aid to the resistance and hence to the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas.

كما أن أجهزة الأمن المصرية، تريد معرفة ما إذا كانت قيادات جماعة الإخوان المسلمين وكوادرها، قد ساعدوا في جمع الأموال لحركة حماس لمساعدة سكان القطاع، وهل ساعدوا أيضا في تمويل حركة حماس لتحصل على السلاح، ولتواصل صمودها، أم لا؟

Egyptian security services wanted to know if the Brotherhood under the pretext of aid to Gaza, were helping to finance Hamas’s rearmament.  Were the Brotherhood emboldening the resistance or not?

لهذا أصبحت هذه القضية مزدوجة، فهي تهدف لتوجيه ضربة لجماعة الإخوان المسلمين، للحد من نشاطها السياسي عموما، كما تهدف لتوجيه ضربة لنشاط جماعة الإخوان الداعم لقطاع غزة المحاصر، للضغط على حركة حماس. وأظن أنها في النهاية رسالة لدولة الاحتلال الإسرائيلي والإدارة الأمريكية، أن النظام يقوم بكل ما يطلب منه وأكثر

So there are two underlying motivations for the unilateral action of the Egyptian authorities against the MB:

1. to attack the MB’s global political activity
2. to limit the MB’s support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip and hence bring pressure to bear on Hamas to make concessions in the peace process

Ultimately, according to Dr Habib, the campaign against the MB sends a message to both Washington and Tel Aviv that the Egyptian government will do whatever is asked of it.

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John Esposito Interview

The Middle East scholar John Esposito was interviewed by al-Ahram Weekly last week.  When questioned about President Obama’s likely response to unrest during the forthcoming Egyptian Presidential Elections, Esposito had this to say:

“It will be a test for US-Egyptian relations.”

Would Obama openly criticise Egypt if people are arrested during the elections, state orchestrated violence and vote rigging?

“I certainly expect it.”

On President Hosni Mubarak as a force of stability:

“I would distinguish between Egypt and any specific government. I don’t think that specific governments, such as Egypt and Tunisia, while they’re important, should not be held accountable.”

Esposito takes issue with how previous administrations, from Bill Clinton to George Bush, “always had a gap between their democratic rhetoric” and what happened on the ground. “When a crisis happened they went silent or issued a soft statement.”

On the oft-debated topic of Gamal Mubarak, the president’s younger son, taking over the presidency from his father, Esposito says:

 “We say there is movement towards democratisation when in fact what we have is the use of democratic language for states that continue to have control, if not more control, and a new form of succession. Instead of coups you pass it on to the son. You have the Syrian example and then you have rumours with regard to Egypt and Libya and a lot of people wouldn’t be surprised if it happened.

“People think it a strong likelihood, it doesn’t mean it’s accepted, but that there could be a strong likelihood the son will succeed the father because they don’t see any other strong individual.” The view in Washington — “not the US administration” — is that there “aren’t many alternatives”. One alternative, he says, is instability that allows the Muslim Brotherhood power. “They say that Gamal is more educated, more modern, more forward looking.”

And on Washington’s view of the Muslim Brotherhood:

There are plenty of analysts in government, says Esposito, who believe in having free and fair elections and of distinguishing between the Muslim Brotherhood and groups like Hizbullah and Hamas. “But there is a strong sector in domestic politics that constantly warns the Muslim Brotherhood are wolves in sheep’s clothing. The Brotherhood is seen, in some ways, as doubly dangerous, because it’s not above board about what its real intentions are.”

Read the whole interview.

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