rhet201-08 portfolio summer'12
DESCRIPTION
RHET201 PortfolioTRANSCRIPT
2Amin
Table of contents
Cover letter 3
Journals 4-14
Annotated Bibliography 15-25
Questionnaire and Interview Samples 26-29
Drafts 30-97
Final I-Search Paper 98-121
Presentation 122-126
Images (clarifying some class notes) 127-128
3Amin
Cover Letter
This is my RHET 201-08 portfolio for summer '12. It contains all the writing pieces, drafts
and rough brainstorming for the six-week course. This portfolio is way different than any
other portfolio I have submitted before. Since we were granted the opportunity to talk about
any topic we are interested to know more about without any restrictions, this made the course
extremely enjoyable. Thank you Dr/ Mike for allowing us to enjoy the process that much and
meet all the course objectives as well. The I-search experience is much more appealing,
enjoyable and helping students to be much more self-motivated. For this, I am truly grateful.
I have decided to organize my portfolio chronologically maintaining the sequence we were
asked to follow in class but grouping the journals together, the drafts of the paper together and
so on.. so you can see how the process went and observe the progress until the conclusion was
written answering the research question I had in the very beginning. I hope this would be up
to your expectations.
4Amin
Journal 1
Exploring topics:
In my opinion, this course gives us the opportunity to explore whichever topic that interests us the most. For me, now, I am very confused and I have the most diversified collection of
topics. First, the role of women after the revolution is one topic that I want to know more about. Another one is whether democracy is well applied all over the world or not and how
does it affect the lives of the people not necessarily to the better. I am not sure if this is relevant to the course but I would really like to know more about the football museum in
Brazil I. Maybe, transplanting organs –is it ethical or not. I am not really sure of what I want to research about, these are very primarily suggestions which will of course be modeified.
Another topic is the ultras phenomenon all over the world – how they appeared, what were their goals and how is their movement evolved over time. Actually this is the most interesting
one in my opinion however, it is really hard and I will face a lot of limitations. I am really indifferent between several topics. I don't want to make a bad decision. I think I will need more time. What about the evolution of media and how it affected the elections. No, you
know what, the football players in Egypt would have better opportunities when they resign and the can work in better positions that well qualified engineers and doctors. This I think, is one topic which Is very weird and interesting –to me at least. How can football players have these huge salaries and job opportunities unlike the engineers and doctors. These are usually low class uneducated people who know how to play football. Clubs invest millions in these
players and they suddenly become a social celebrity. No actually I am not into these so much. I find choosing the topic really hard. I don't know what should I write now. I am trying my
best but my ideas are very broad and contradicting.
Journal 2
As I finally arrived at the most seemingly interesting topic to me, I can now narrow my research to the 'Muslim Brotherhood' party. There are so many things that still look like a mystery to most of the people. You hear them talking, you believe them. They have an extremely strong ability to convince whoever they talk to. They have a great renaissance plan which they nowadays want to implement in Egypt and commonly in the Arab world where they dominated recently high positions in such as Tunisia and Sudan. Who are they? Where did they start? How are they funded? Is there a hidden hand that motivates them to crawl seeking power and authority or do they really care to change Egypt to a better Islamic moderate state? Will Egypt eventually end up the new Turkey or the new Afghanistan and/or Iran. Talking about their history and their political, economic and intellectual perspectives will definitely help people analyze and relate what's happening within the party itself –the problems and divisions they have nowadays within the members of the party and how can this affect the whole society. Some supporting ideas would be the division that took place in Sudan just after the Muslim Brothers took over. Also, in Palestine, Hamas –which are the representatives of the Muslim brotherhood there- have inner problems and quarrels with the other moderate Islamic party Fateh. What is the reason behind this? Do these quarrels should light up a certain idea in either the MB's fans or opponents? Many questions are imposing
5Amin
upon the political arena that force people to pause and think critically. What are the people's hopes and predictions for the new Egypt after the Muslim brothers have taken over the parliament and are nominating one candidate for the presidential elections 2012. Some illustrative examples and analyzing situations which previously occurred will allow the reader to follow up and have their own point of view regarding the upcoming stage. This research paper aims to analyze the Muslim Brotherhood's history and discuss the question whether they are Islamists who lack political experience and are just keen to reach high and strong positions for their own benefit or are they willing to implement some kind of plan which will be to the benefit of everyone –the society as a whole. This is what I think of primarily and may of course change by more research. This is roughly what I think I should talk about.
Journal 2- Revision 1
Muslim Brotherhood
In an article from the encyclopedia Britannica which is an academic edition I found some information about the history of the Muslim Brotherhood which will help me a lot in my research:
They are a religion-political organization which takes the Quraan and Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and make them more of a modern Islamic state. They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna. They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. At some point of a time, in the 1940s, they reached their peak and their organization consisted of roughly 500,000 members from different and variable backgrounds. They had the same religio-political perspective though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB's as a party which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and bombings and the gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.
The government started to feel the threat of the MB on them and that’s why they attempted to dissolve the organization. This did not pass easily; the MB in return assassinated Mahmoud Fahmi El-Nukrashi –the Prime Minister at that time. Hassan El-Banna himself was assassinated shortly thereafter. After this opposition they faced greatly from the government, they had to be secretly retreated underground during the revolution of 1952. Six of them were sentenced to death as they were accused of treason and many others were imprisoned. Thereafter, during the 1960's and 70's, the organization behavior remained greatly clandestine.
In the 1980s, the MB experienced a renewal and once again they were willing to reform the society with more religious views and embed the government with Islamic doctrines. They revived in Egypt, Jordon and Syria at the same time where they were fought by Hafiz El-
6Amin
Assad –Syria's president- and this resulted in the loss of 25,000 lives. The MB did not give up and they urged to participate in the legislative elections in those countries. Starting from the 1980's till now, the MB kept on participating in the parliamentary elections and boycotting it alternatively. They were highly opposed and suppressed by the previous regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January. They hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just to stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the presidency, the MB decided to effectively and continuously participate in the Egyptian politics.
In the New York Review of Books, the writer Ian Johnson discussed the MB movement after the revolution. He stated that people fear them, they are not sure how will the MB treat Israel for instance. He however, mentioned that the movement, to the west -including Obama's administration- think that the west will seemingly have good relationship with the MB and will be able to do business together – this raises the question of whether the MB are funded from the west and they are just hiding behind the curtain of reforming the country with better religious perspectives or are they really caring and they intend to work to the benefit of the Arab world not to the benefit of the west. Again Johnson mentioned that since the history repeats itself, the west should be more aware and put an eye on the MB activities. He is trying to answer the question which is previously stated and he mentioned that the US leaders should take advantage from what happened in the past – every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill American's goals", he said.
Said Ramadan, the delegate of the Muslim Brothers and the son-in-law of the MB's founder – Hassan El-Banna- can be simply called an US agent as Johnson stated. In the 1950's and 60's, the United States supported Ramadan Hugely; he took over a mosque in Munich, kicking out local Muslims to build one of the most important MB centers. Now if they are really religious people who are willing to reorganize the Islamic state, how can they built their center instead of a mosque for everyone. How can they favor their own will to the mosque that will serve all the European Muslims! Ramadan was more interested in spreading his Islamic agenda instead of fighting communism. "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson. However, the US changed its position quietly after the incident of September 11 when they followed the MB and found out that they are backed by terrorists.
In the Muslim Brotherhood's profile in BBC News, the writer stated some facts about the history of the MB. He argued that despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.
It was mentioned that by the 1940's, this organization have had as many as 2 million followers across the Arab world.
How are they calling for a democratic state while they do not approve of freedom of act? How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veil while they are willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom. "We want a civil state, based on Islamic
7Amin
principles - a democratic state, with a parliamentary system, with freedom to form parties, press freedom, and an independent and fair judiciary” Issam El-Aryan. In this phrase, they are admitting their willingness to do certain acts while in fact their actions state the opposite. What makes people still believe them? There must be a secret for their popularity. This will, of course, be discussed in the research.
In the article Obama, Egypt and History of the Muslim brotherhood, the author Kelly OConnell stated that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the datum which the people jump back to in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to stress on applying the shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy they hold the primary role of women should be care of the family. They avoid ideological positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB took about 48% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to the next Iran? Or flourish to next turkey?
In a New York Times article, the constantly changeable MB decisions were clearly represented where they first won the parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other liberal parties, controlling 48% of the seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied. When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not creeping for the power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of 2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that they are not just nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly recognizable. Will the people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB accomplished in the parliament?
In the article "Muslims Brotherhood's key role in Egypt" in the CNN website, the author Fawaz A. Gerges stated that when he interviewed a MB member he mentioned that they learned from their mistakes and they just need more time to swallow the democracy rightfully.
He also talked about what happened in Algeria. When Islamists took over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When Islamists took
8Amin
over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs?
Journal 3
Muslim Brotherhood
http://www.meforum.org/687/the-muslim-brotherhoods-conquest-of-europe?gclid=CN_hhMzAiKcCFYnc4AodDAyHdw
In the article the Muslim Brotherhood’s conquest of Europe published in the Middle East forum. The author Lorenzo Vidino mentioned that the MB when they moved to Europe in the
early 1960’s after facing huge opposition in the Middle East. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had a different goal. They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set
their ultimate goal to be very unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the muslim citizens to be the best they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the
Islamic law and shariaa to Europe and the US.
http://www.crethiplethi.com/the-structure-and-funding-sources-of-the-muslim-brotherhood/global-islam/2011/
In the article The Structure and funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, taken from the Middle East News, the author again emphasized the idea that the MB wish to establish a
caliphate based society on the ruins of the western liberalism and they found the revolution their best opportunity that could allow them to free themselves from the suppression they
suffered under the older regimes. In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central administrative body
– a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in Cairo.
In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom to
province-level leaders. This resulted in the expansion of the various committees and departments and the development of the movement’s local authorities. This means that they
do not have a specific perspective concerning the freedom of speech and expression from the very beginning, but they rather were not very democratic from the beginning and by time they
started to attain certain way of thinking and they started using the words “democracy” and “freedom” to , in my opinion, grab the people’s attention and support and attract all the
enemies of mostly the previous corrupted regime of hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and not democratic at all.
The general guide –Al-Murshid Al-Aam- is considered to be the most powerful and dominant authority. All the members of the organization should obey what he says no matter what. This
power however varies from one Murshid to another depending on his personality. Traditionally the guide serves as the head of the religio-political organization.
Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are considered highly confidential sector of their activities. People never knew how they finance their charity
9Amin
and political and social activities. As they consider the financial sources greatly and closely guarded secrets, they claim that the funds as coming directly from the members personal
pockets. Accordingly, each administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector.
There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. This raises a question again; whether the organization is funded from the west in return of achieving and fulfilling some favors to them back? This is a very debatable and
controversial issue that shapes a mystery about the MB since long ago. In addition to this, the MB is seemingly having extensible connections with some Islamic banks and institutions.
They also control large number of charitable societies which are of course, financed by the older regime—this may be adding to their regular budget which they manage to have.
“On April 24, 2010, the Al-Masri al-Youm newspaper reported that a criminal lawsuit was filed against five Muslim Brotherhood leaders for transferring millions of dollars from abroad into Egypt to fund the movement’s activity. The funds had been transferred through economic institutions in Egypt owned by Muslim Brotherhood activists. One of them is detained in Egypt, and the others were tried in absentia.”, “One of the suspects, Ibrahim Munir Ahmed Mustafa,[54] was accused of exploiting the Israeli Operation Cast Lead to collect donations for the movement, claiming the funds would go towards helping the “Palestinian people”. The other suspects are also accused of involvement in fundraising and laundering money transferred to the movement and supposedly raised for the Palestinian people. Another suspect, Wagdi Ghanem, was said to be involved in raising funds at a conference held by an organization known as the Palestinian Forum in Britain.” and “One of the British institutions reported by the newspaper Al-Masri Al-Youm to have been involved in transferring the funds to Egypt is Dar al-Ri’aya (Muslim Welfare House), an institute belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain. On January 8, 2011, the Al-Ahram newspaper reported that the criminal court in Giza had reopened the affair.” – This assures that the MB is taking the religion as a curtain that hides all their personal intentions.
In one of the conferences held by the Muslim Brotherhood supporting Mohamed Morsi –their candidate for the presidential elections 2012, they, after feeling the victory is close started saying "fatwa" such as: Obeying the ruler is essential even if he is unjust; whoever do not follow this will be considered doing "haram". On the other hand, they, on their scale, did this "haram" when they contributed in the revolution against Hosni Mubarak. This reflects that they are releasing "fatwa's" benefitting nothing but their own good.
Further analysis for the party's movement in general shows that they their goals are political not theocratic. Although they dominate the legislative branch, under the given current situation in Egypt, they amend laws that have nothing to do with the politics. They seem to be isolated from what is happening in the country; their highest concerns were about prohibiting the sexual websites, legalizing the circumcision of the girls, lowering the marriage age to 12 years.
10Amin
They will definitely face challenges in different aspects; first of all, regarding the issue of returning the security to the Egyptian streets – this will never happen under this huge conflict which is between the people and the security forces (army and police). The second issue is the economic status now in Egypt. The investors started to terminate their investors and the economy is falling greatly.
They call themselves the "freedom and justice party" where in fact, this party is dominating mostly all the authorization committees. Starting with the state council to the parliament and this is the farthest thing than justice. Additionally, they are majority in the parliament and they use this to amend laws against the freedom. If we took a look at the different laws that the different members of the parliament introduce. We will find that the liberal member Amr Hamzawy for instance, is raising much more important and closely guarded with freedom and justice laws for the people unlike the MB who just appeal for people religiously. They are very weak politically; they are proposing and discussing the unconstitutionality of the judiciary if it stated the invalidity of the parliament – this can never happen as the judiciary is the most powerful judging association in the country!
Part of their propaganda for their renaissance plan is that it takes 16 years to get the desired outcome; does this mean that they are indirectly saying that the people can't judge them after the first four years until other elections take place?
It's very unhealthy, to the whole society, that only one party with one directed way of thinking take over the most important and effective authorizations. This prevents the advantages of the objection and the inconsistency to take place.
I am still looking for sources that support two more points I have in mind:
1) The agreements between the old regime (the national party) and the MB to take part in the parliament and be able to freely participate in the political life, makes them part of the so called "felool" now – which are the followers of the old regime or in other words, people who took part in the old corrupted regime.
2) Sources that support that these people try to "lick boots" for their own good and I need to cite Mohame Morsi's declarations before the revolution where he stated that Zakareya Azmy and Botross Ghaly are representable symbols of the old regime. Other source that cite Mahdy Akef's declaration where he stated that they support Hosni Mubarak's nomination.
The research question: Are the Muslim Brotherhood's attempts to capture the executive fostered by the urge of developing Egypt, or a final step in establishing a totalitarian rule?
Journal 4
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/06/12/3523320.htm (Ramadan)
11Amin
Ramadan states that by the first round of the presidential elections, the Muslim brotherhood has already lost most of its credibility in the Egyptian streets. To a great portion of people, the Muslim Brotherhood is looked upon as a disturbed, unsettled and contradictory organization. They dominated most of the parliament which is freely elected and they represented one third of the opinions on one hand. On the other hand, they had agreements with the military to fulfill their own fortunes. They are maybe encouraged by the Turkish and Tunisian experiences. No one can overlook the great losses which are likely to take place due to their muddled tactical, strategic and failing errors. Not only will these errors cost them, but the whole country as well.
Turkey, is by all means, different than Egypt. The Muslim brotherhood will not be able to establish the success they persisted in Turkey since the economic position of Egypt is far weaker than Turkey's and its place in the Middle East is far more sensitive. Specially, after taking into consideration the Israel-Palestine conflict.
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/01/30/3418847.htm (Ramadan)
Ramadan discusses the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the west succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.
Journal 5
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30110 ("ikhwanweb")
Monday, June 18,2012 06:43
Posted in EGYPT , FJP News
Accessed 20 June 2012
Dr. Mohamed Saad Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF. He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that
this declaration is void and null arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained
the free will of the people who elected this parliament.
12Amin
Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the parliament will continue with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be ranked as the third on the
world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration.
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30082
In a press statement, Dr. Katatni pointed that the People’s Assembly, as the legislative branch, respects all other authorities, whether executive or judicial, adding that the judiciary have a
prominent place in the hearts of the Egyptian people, for their significant role in establishing justice and the enforcement of the rule of law.
Katatni Denounces Attack on Judiciary and Parliament Dr. Katatni condemns vicious assault by the Judges Club chief Zanad against Egyptian
People’s Assembly (lower house of parliament) and absurd threats he made earlier today Friday, June 8,2012 11:22
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30106
Brotherhood: Parliament was Created by Popular Will; Can Only Be Dissolved by Popular Will
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30100
morsi constitutional
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30115 results
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30111 ("ikhwanweb")
Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement The first elected president in Egypt’s history celebrates victory in the final runoff after
reliable tallies – from Morsi Campaign representatives based at polling stations across the country – show Morsi winning 52% of the vote.
Journal 6
On Wednesday 20/6, we were asked in class to prepare a questionnaire that serves our isearch as well as some open ended questions for some interviews. I had my drafted questionnaire done by Thursday morning. After the doctor reviewed it and told me some things that need to be changed such as making it more user-friendly by using easier and clearer language, grouping the similar types of questions together and specifying options under each question i.e. yes/no, agree/disagree and so on.
After following these instructions and correcting what I have been asked to correct, I started distributing my surveys both electronically and physically by Friday morning. I have sent them through emails to my friends and family, I also wrote it on my Blackberry and
13Amin
distributed it on some of my bbm contacts and I randomly distributed hard copies on people in the streets on and off campus. I managed to get 110 responses until now but I am still working to get more. The gender acts as an indifferent variable in my isearch, I tried to have very close ratio of male and female responses though. My determined age-group was between 18 and 45—I know this is a big range but I wanted to test all the people's - with different ages- thoughts concerning the Muslim brotherhood. My chosen sample of the people who did the survey was a variety of average, below and above average classes. By this, I can have the least biased thoughts and intellects.
For the interviews, I have already interviewed a Muslim Brotherhood member. His name is Ahmed Hossam El-Din. He is a 21-year-old engineer. The interview lasted for about 25 minutes. It was very interesting. I was able to counter argue most of his arguments and this interview will help me a lot with my isearch. I still want to interview a political science doctor.
My experience while doing these surveys would definitely add to my paper. I asked 12 questions that would either confirm or contradict the argument I am trying to make and I am getting predictably confirming answers till now. This process will continue for the next few days and I will of course journal about it again. As for analyzing the collected data, this will appear in details in the Methodology section in the first draft.
Journal 7
Before submitting the first draft, I have spent one long day collecting the data from the questionnaires and compiling them to see whether I got the expected answers or not. Then Doctor Mike told me in the conference I would have had all these calculated percentages and maybe graphs too if only I had created my questionnaire on surveymonkey or something similar. But unfortunately, it was too late. Anyway, after computing the results manually, I have approximated them all to the nearest whole number and this is what I got: 70% of the males and 53% of the females were strongly familiar with the Muslim Brotherhood, 20% of the males and 10% of the females had average knowledge about them and the rest were below average. 83% of the males and 53% of the females think that the MB as an organization is politically active internationally. Only 25% of the males and 18% of the females think that the MB members who participated in the dissolved parliament had effective positive role. 69% of the males and 96% of the females do not favor them over liberals since they do not trust them. 82% of the males and 75% of the females who do not trust them think that their credibility was highly affected by the latest events in Egypt. 40% of the males and 20% of the females would not give the party the chance to capture the executive under normal circumstances, however, they were able to win the presidency since the opposing candidate was from the old regime. 73% of the males and 55% of the females view their goals as theocratic not political and 9% of the males and the females view their goals as theocratic and political at the same time. 88% of the males and 80% of the females do not agree with the rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving the parliament even if they support the party in general. 90% of both males and females do not agree with establishing a theocratic state. Most of the MB members have spent time in jail under different regimes; 60% of males and
14Amin
70% of females think this is against them. Last but not least, 78% of the males and 92% of the females disagree with the early celebration of Mohamed Morsi after he claimed he won the presidential elections before the authorized association declared this. These questionnaires were distributed from the very beginning so I can collect as many opinions as I can to support my arguments and get, to an extent, an unbiased conclusion. I have to admit that the interview with Ahmed Hossam El-Din –a MB member- was not that effective and it did not help me with my paper a lot but has definitely added to my personal knowledge.
During the last week I have been writing the conclusion, drafting my paper and adding the recent news that occur in the country everyday to improve and update the isearch paper. And finally now I am journaling the last part in my isearch process before submitting the final draft. Actually this was one of the most entertaining papers I have ever written. I have enjoyed each and every part of the process – looking for sources, evaluating them, identifying the limitations and conducting surveys and interviews. If I had more time, I would have definitely researched more and wrote more. The idea of the isearch instead of the research is much more interesting and since you gave us the chance to choose any topic without any restrictions, this made the course very interesting and enjoyable. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to know more about what we are really into. I hope this was up to your expectations.
15Amin
Annotated Bibliography D1
Annotated Bibliography
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14
Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
Fawaz A. Gerges stated that when he interviewed a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) member, he mentioned that they learned from their mistakes and they just need more time to swallow the democracy rightfully.
He also talked about what happened in Algeria. When Islamists took over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs?
Johnson, Ian."Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.
Johnson discussed the MB movement after the revolution. He stated that people fear them, they are not sure how will the MB treat Israel for instance. He however, mentioned that the West -including Obama's administration- thinks they will seemingly have good relationship with the MB and will be able to do business together – this raises the question of whether the MB are funded from the West and they are just hiding behind the curtain of reforming the country with better religious perspectives or are they really caring and they intend to work to the benefit of the Arab world not to the benefit of the West. Again Johnson mentioned that since the history repeats itself, the West should be more aware and put an eye on the MB activities. He is trying to answer the question which is previously stated and he mentioned that the US leaders should take advantage from what happened in the past– every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill America's goals", "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson.
"Katatny: SCAF's Complementary Constitutional Declaration is Null and Void."
ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun.2012. Web. 20 Jun 2012.
Dr. Mohamed Saad Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF. He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people who elected this parliament.
16Amin
Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the parliament will continue with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be ranked as the third on the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration.
"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun.2012.
Web. 20 Jun 2012.
It was stated that Dr. Mohamed Morsi's presidential campaign announced his victory in the runoff long before it was officially out. Morsi went down in the Egyptian streets celebrating his vicory 6 hours only after ending the voting process. This never happened in any civilized country! An argument against what he has done is maybe he declared himself as the upcoming president so that he can challenge the results if they stated the winning of the other candidate –Ahmed Shafik-.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic
Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.
They are a religio-political organization which takes the Quraan and Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and make them more of a modern Islamic state. They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna. They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. At some point of a time, in the 1940s, they reached their peak and their organization consisted of roughly 500,000 members from different and variable backgrounds. They had the same religio-political perspective though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB's as a party which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and bombings and the gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.
the conflicts between the MB and the government were represented. When were they suppressed, under which regimes? And when did they aroused again and participated continuously in the Egyptian politics?
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York
Times, 14 Jun. 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.
In a New York Times article, the constantly changeable MB decisions were clearly represented where they first won the parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other
17Amin
liberal parties, controlling 47% of the seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied. When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not looking forward to reaching for the power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of 2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that they are not just nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly recognizable. Will the people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB accomplished in the parliament?
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada
Free Press ... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
OConnell stated that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference which the people jump back to in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy they hold the primary role of women should be care of the family. They avoid ideological positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB took about 47% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to the next Iran? Or flourish to next turkey? –assuming they will dominate the executive and the legislative branches.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
The writer stated some facts about the history of the MB. He argued that despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.
18Amin
It was mentioned that by the 1940's, this organization have had as many as 2 million followers across the Arab world.
How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veil while they are willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom. "We want a civil state, based on Islamic principles - a democratic state, with a parliamentary system, with freedom to form parties, press freedom, and an independent and fair judiciary” Issam El-Aryan-- In this phrase, they are admitting their willingness to do certain acts while in fact their actions state the opposite. What makes people still believe them? There must be a secret for their popularity.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan discussed the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt
Dearly,The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.
Ramadan stated that by the first round of the presidential elections, the Muslim brotherhood has already lost most of its credibility in the Egyptian streets. To a great portion of people, the Muslim Brotherhood is looked upon as a disturbed, unsettled and contradictory organization. They dominated most of the parliament which is freely elected and they represented one third of the opinions on one hand. On the other hand, they had agreements with the military to fulfill their own fortunes. They are maybe encouraged by the Turkish and Tunisian experiences. No one can overlook the great losses which are likely to take place due to their muddled tactical, strategic and failing errors. Not only will these errors cost them, but the whole country as well.
Turkey, is by all means, different than Egypt. The Muslim brotherhood will not be able to establish the success they persisted in Turkey since the economic position of Egypt is far weaker than Turkey's and its place in the Middle East is far more sensitive. Specially, after taking into consideration the Israel-Palestine conflict.
19Amin
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in Cairo.
In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom to province-level leaders. This was, in my opinion, to attract all the enemies of mostly the previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and not democratic at all.
Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are considered highly confidential sector of their activities. They claim that the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector.
There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. In addition to this, the MB is seemingly having extensible connections with some Islamic banks and institutions—this may be adding to their regular budget which they manage to have.
Some cases have been suspected for laundering money and getting money illegally into the country through large organizations and they turned out to be MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East
Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
Vidino mentioned that the MB when they moved to Europe in the early 1960’s after facing huge opposition in the Middle East. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had a different goal. They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe and the US.
20Amin
Annotated Bibliography D2
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
In the article "Muslims Brotherhood's key role in Egypt" in the CNN website, the author Fawaz A. Gerges stated that when he interviewed a Muslim Brotherhood member, he mentioned that they
learned from their mistakes and they just need more time to swallow the democracy rightfully.
He also talked about what happened in Algeria; when Islamists took over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs?
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.
In the New York Review of Books, the writer Ian Johnson discussed the MB movement after the
revolution. He stated that people fear them, they are not sure how will the MB treat Israel for instance. He however, mentioned that the west -‐including Obama's administration-‐ thinks they will seemingly have good relationship with the MB and will be able to do business together – this raises
the question of whether the MB are funded from the west and they are just hiding behind the curtain of reforming the country with better religious perspectives or are they really caring and they intend to work to the benefit of the Arab world not to the benefit of the west. Again Johnson
mentioned that since the history repeats itself, the west should be more aware and put an eye on the MB activities. He is trying to answer the question which is previously stated and he mentioned
that the US leaders should take advantage from what happened in the past – every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They
were never bending to fulfill America's goals", he said.
Said Ramadan, the delegate of the Muslim Brothers and the son-‐in-‐law of the MB's founder – Hassan El-‐Banna-‐ can be simply called an US agent as Johnson stated. In the 1950's and 60's, the United States supported Ramadan Hugely; he took over a mosque in Munich, kicking out local Muslims to
build one of the most important MB centers. Now if they are really religious people who are willing to reorganize the Islamic state, how can they built their center instead of a mosque for everyone. How can they favor their own will to the mosque that will serve all the European Muslims! Ramadan
was more interested in spreading his Islamic agenda instead of fighting communism. "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson. However, the US changed its position quietly after the incident of September 11 when they followed the MB and found out that they are backed by terrorists.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online
Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.
21Amin
They are a religion-‐political organization which takes the Quraan and Hadith as guidelines to reform
the surrounding societies and make them more of a modern Islamic state. They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-‐Banna. They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. At some point
of a time, in the 1940s, they reached their peak and their organization consisted of roughly 500,000 members from different and variable backgrounds. They had the same religio-‐political perspective though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-‐to-‐the-‐standard educational and
religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB's as a party which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests
followed by some violently harsh acts against the government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and bombings and the gradually escaped Hassan El-‐Banna's
control.
The government started to feel the threat of the MB on them and that’s why they attempted to dissolve the organization. This did not pass easily; the MB in return assassinated Mahmoud Fahmi El-‐Nukrashi –the Prime Minister at that time. Hassan El-‐Banna himself was assassinated shortly
thereafter. After this opposition they faced greatly from the government, they had to be secretly retreated underground during the revolution of 1952. Six of them were sentenced to death as they were accused of treason and many others were imprisoned. Thereafter, during the 1960's and 70's,
the organization behavior remained greatly clandestine.
In the 1980s, the MB experienced a renewal and once again they were willing to reform the society with more religious views and embed the government with Islamic doctrines. They revived in Egypt, Jordon and Syria at the same time where they were fought by Hafiz El-‐Assad –Syria's president-‐ and
this resulted in the loss of 25,000 lives. The MB did not give up and they urged to participate in the legislative elections in those countries. Starting from the 1980's till now, the MB kept on participating in the parliamentary elections and boycotting it alternatively. They were highly opposed and
suppressed by the previous regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January. They hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just to stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the
presidency, the MB decided to effectively and continuously participate in the Egyptian politics.
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York
Times, 14 Jun. 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.
In a New York Times article, the constantly changeable MB decisions were clearly represented where
they first won the parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other liberal parties, controlling 47% of the seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied. When
people started to rebel against them, they said they are not creeping for the power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of 2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they nominated Khairat El-‐Shater. By some
means, he was disqualified. The organization did not accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that they are not just nominating the best, but they
22Amin
want anyone, by any means to get to the elections and of course predictably will win as their
popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly recognizable. Will the people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB accomplished in the parliament?
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun
2012.
In the article Obama, Egypt and History of the Muslim brotherhood, the author Kelly OConnell stated that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the datum which the people jump back to in
each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to stress on applying the shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy they hold the primary role of women should be care of the family. They avoid ideological positions in economic matters, they call for
equality; they want to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB took about 47% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that
sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are they making these
speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality, economic health, and political power is
returning back to the Islamic principles. The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to the next Iran? Or flourish to next turkey?
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
In the Muslim Brotherhood's profile in BBC News, the writer stated some facts about the history of the MB. He argued that despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-‐known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the
democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.
It was mentioned that by the 1940's, this organization have had as many as 2 million followers across the Arab world.
How are they calling for a democratic state while they do not approve of freedom of act? How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veil while they are willing to reform a state
imposing better Islamic traits and freedom. "We want a civil state, based on Islamic principles -‐ a democratic state, with a parliamentary system, with freedom to form parties, press freedom, and an independent and fair judiciary” Issam El-‐Aryan-‐-‐ In this phrase, they are admitting their willingness to
do certain acts while in fact their actions state the opposite. What makes people still believe them? There must be a secret for their popularity.
23Amin
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan discusses the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However,
in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire,
the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the west succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a
spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-‐Banna.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt Dearly,
The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan states that by the first round of the presidential elections, the Muslim brotherhood has
already lost most of its credibility in the Egyptian streets. To a great portion of people, the Muslim Brotherhood is looked upon as a disturbed, unsettled and contradictory organization. They dominated most of the parliament which is freely elected and they represented one third of the
opinions on one hand. On the other hand, they had agreements with the military to fulfill their own fortunes. They are maybe encouraged by the Turkish and Tunisian experiences. No one can overlook
the great losses which are likely to take place due to their muddled tactical, strategic and failing errors. Not only will these errors cost them, but the whole country as well.
Turkey, is by all means, different than Egypt. The Muslim brotherhood will not be able to establish the success they persisted in Turkey since the economic position of Egypt is far weaker than Turkey's
and its place in the Middle East is far more sensitive. Specially, after taking into consideration the Israel-‐Palestine conflict.
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
In the article The Structure and funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, taken from the Middle East News, the author again emphasized the idea that the MB wish to establish a caliphate based
society on the ruins of the western liberalism and they found the revolution their best opportunity that could allow them to free themselves from the suppression they suffered from under the older regimes. In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved well organized local and nation-‐wide
networks. They are composed of central administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in Cairo.
In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-‐making freedom to province-‐level
leaders. This resulted in the expansion of the various committees and departments and the
24Amin
development of the movement’s local authorities. This means that they do not have a specific
perspective concerning the freedom of speech and expression from the very beginning, but they rather were not very democratic from the beginning and by time they started to attain certain way of thinking and they started using the words “democracy” and “freedom” to , in my opinion, grab the
people’s attention and support and attract all the enemies of mostly the previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and not democratic at all.
The general guide –Al-‐Murshid Al-‐Aam-‐ is considered to be the most powerful and dominant authority. All the members of the organization should obey what he says no matter what. This power
however varies from one Murshid to another depending on his personality. Traditionally the guide serves as the head of the religio-‐political organization.
Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are considered highly
confidential sector of their activities. People never knew how they finance their charity, political and social activities. As they consider the financial sources greatly and closely guarded secrets, they claim that the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each
administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector.
There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. This raises a question again; whether the organization is funded from the west in return of achieving and
fulfilling some favors to them back? This is a very debatable and controversial issue that shapes a mystery about the MB since long ago. In addition to this, the MB is seemingly having extensible connections with some Islamic banks and institutions. They also control large number of charitable
societies which are of course, financed by the older regime—this may be adding to their regular budget which they manage to have.
“On April 24, 2010, the Al-‐Masri al-‐Youm newspaper reported that a criminal lawsuit was filed against five Muslim Brotherhood leaders for transferring millions of dollars from abroad into Egypt to fund the movement’s activity. The funds had been transferred through economic institutions in Egypt
owned by Muslim Brotherhood activists. One of them is detained in Egypt, and the others were tried in absentia.”, “One of the suspects, Ibrahim Munir Ahmed Mustafa,[54] was accused of exploiting the Israeli Operation Cast Lead to collect donations for the movement, claiming the funds would go
towards helping the “Palestinian people”. The other suspects are also accused of involvement in fundraising and laundering money transferred to the movement and supposedly raised for the Palestinian people. Another suspect, Wagdi Ghanem, was said to be involved in raising funds at a
conference held by an organization known as the Palestinian Forum in Britain.” and “One of the British institutions reported by the newspaper Al-‐Masri Al-‐Youm to have been involved in transferring the funds to Egypt is Dar al-‐Ri’aya (Muslim Welfare House), an institute belonging to the
Muslim Brotherhood in Britain. On January 8, 2011, the Al-‐Ahram newspaper reported that the criminal court in Giza had reopened the affair.” – This assures that the MB is taking the religion as a curtain that hides all their personal intentions.
25Amin
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East
Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
In the article the Muslim Brotherhood’s conquest of Europe published in the Middle East forum. The author Lorenzo Vidino mentioned that the MB when they moved to Europe in the early 1960’s after
facing huge opposition in the Middle East. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had a different goal. They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best
they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and shariaa to Europe and the US.
26Amin
Questionnaire
1. On a scale from 1 to 10, how familiar you are with the Muslim Brotherhood or the Freedom
and Justice party? -‐Assume 1 is the lowest in all questions-‐
2. On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate the political impact of the Islamic party as an
international movement?
3. On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate the representation of the party in the
parliament?
4. Do you favor them over liberals?
5. Do you trust them?
6. Was their credibility affected by the latest news in Egypt?
7. Would you give the party the chance to capture the executive?
8. Do you personally view their goals as political like what they say, or theocratic like what they
do?
9. Do you agree with their rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving the
parliament?
10. Do you agree with establishing a theocratic state?
11. Most of them have spent most of their lifetime in jail, is this for or against them?
12. Are you with or against the early celebration Dr. Mohamed Morsi did 6 hours only after
ending the voting process?
Revised Questionnaire
This is a questionnaire about the Muslim Brotherhood activities in Egypt. Please fill it in. it
won't take more than 3 minutes.
1. How well do you know the Muslim Brotherhood/ Freedom and Justice party?
Very well
Average
27Amin
I don't know much about them
2. As an Islamic party, are they politically active internationally?
Very much
Normal
Not at all
3. Rate their representation in the parliament.
Highly effective
Neutral
Very depressing
4. Do you favor them over liberals?
Yes
No
5. Do you trust them?
Yes
No
6. Was their credibility affected by the latest news in Egypt?
Very much
A little
Not at all
7. Would you give the party the chance to capture the executive?
Yes of course
Maybe depending on the other candidates
Never
8. Do you personally view their goals as..
Political
28Amin
Theocratic
Both
9. Do you agree with their rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving
the parliament?
Agree
Disagree
Neutral
10. Do you agree with establishing a theocratic state?
Yes
No
11. Most of them have spent most of their lifetime in jail, is this for or against them?
For
Against
12. Are you with or against the early celebration Dr. Mohamed Morsi did 6 hours only
after ending the voting process?
With
Against
Thank you for your time
Interview Questions
1. How do you perceive the party's insatiability (gasha3) to capturing all the political authorities?
2. King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar El-Saddat and Hosni Mubarak, each had recognizably different plan, mindset and intellect. However, they all suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood. Comment
3. What do you think of the idea that practically your president –assuming the party will capture the executive- has another president who is Al-Murshid?
29Amin
Revised Interview Questions
1. How do you perceive the party's insatiability to capturing all the political authorities? 2. King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar El-Saddat and Hosni Mubarak, each had
recognizably different plan, mindset and intellect. However, they all suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood. Comment
3. Al-Murshid is practically the president of all the Muslim Brotherhood members. After Mohamed Moris won the presidential elections, you as a citizen have a president who is ruled by the Murshid. How do you accept this?
30Amin
I-‐Search D1 (Introduction)
Laila Amin
Rhet 201-08
Instructor Michael Gibson
I-search paper draft 1
26 June 2012
Introduction:
Today, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is the most vital and imperative political
opposition organization not only in the Arab world but on an international scale as well. They,
as members of a political not a revival organization, were able recently to dominate
authorities in different Arab countries. For instance, in the Tunisian government, they
received 40% of the ballots. In Palestine and Jordon, Hamas becoming the most powerful
opposing authority to the Palestinian-Israel conflict adds to their domination. Yet this is not
all, the Muslim Brotherhood is in control of some European and North American
communities, often representing them in dealing with the government and the non-Muslim
societies in general. After persistent, constant and continuous suppression that lasted for sixty
years, which the MB suffered from in Egypt in particular, they have recognizably emerged on
the political domain during and after the Egyptian revolution. The MB have been running
candidates for years under Hosni Mubarak's regime. They did not have the chance to run as a
party though. The MB have participated in Jordon's parliament for decades too. However, in
Gaza strip, after Hamas won the elections, they seized power and status by force. The pattern
the Muslim Brotherhood follows makes their goals mysterious for most of the people. Are
their goals political or theocratic? – This is one question that is relative depending on
everyone's mindset and intellect. Are they a group of religious men who are willing to reform
Egypt or are they an Islamic party that uses Islam to fulfill their political targets? I have been
31Amin
very curious and anxious to know more about the Muslim Brotherhood specially after there
was a huge probability for their candidate to be the next Egyptian president. I personally,
wanted to know where Egypt is heading. Are the Muslim Brotherhood attempts to capture the
executive fostered by the urge of developing and reforming Egypt, or a final step in
establishing a totalitarian rule?
I-‐search paper D1
Laila Amin
Rhet 201-08
Instructor Michael Gibson
I-search paper draft 1
26 Junee 2012
Introduction:
Today, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is the most vital and imperative political
opposition organization not only in the Arab world but on an international scale as well. They,
as members of a political not a revival organization, were able recently to dominate
authorities in different Arab countries. For instance, in the Tunisian government, they
received 40% of the ballots. In Palestine and Jordon, Hamas becoming the most powerful
opposing authority to the Palestine-Israel conflict adds to their domination. Yet this is not all,
the Muslim Brotherhood is in control of some European and North American communities,
often representing them in dealing with the government and the non-Muslim societies in
general. After persistent, constant and continuous suppression that lasted for sixty years,
which the MB suffered from in Egypt in particular, they have recognizably emerged on the
political domain during and after the Egyptian revolution. The MB has been running
candidates for years under Hosni Mubarak's regime. They did not have the chance to run as a
party though. The MB has participated in Jordon's parliament for decades too. However, in
32Amin
Gaza strip, after Hamas won the elections, they seized power and status by force. The pattern
the Muslim Brotherhood follows makes their goals mysterious for most of the people. Are
their goals political or theocratic? – This is one question that is relative depending on
everyone's mindset and intellect. Are they a group of religious men who are willing to reform
Egypt or are they an Islamic party that uses Islam to fulfill their political targets? I have been
very curious and anxious to know more about the Muslim Brotherhood specially after there
was a huge probability for their candidate to be the next Egyptian president. I personally,
wanted to know where Egypt is heading. Are the Muslim Brotherhood attempts to capture the
executive fostered by the urge of developing and reforming Egypt, or a final step in
establishing a totalitarian rule?
The story of my search:
My curiosity has driven me to surf the internet for articles, journal articles and
declarations that would help me reach as close-to-reality conclusion by the end of the process.
Luckily, since I was looking up a recurring topic, my scope and perspective have been always
changing or narrowing down till the end of the process. The constantly occurring changes on
day-to-day basis have made me much more engaged to the topic. This also allowed a variety
of updated sources to be available. Since I was so much into the topic, I have read as many
articles as I found taking into consideration the obstacle of the time limit and based on this, I
have arrived at the final sources that will benefit me to reach the most unbiased final
conclusion. Eventually, I settled on a list of articles which are specified below:
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June. 2012.
33Amin
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic
Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 June. 2012.
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York Times, 14
June. 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb. 2011.
Web. 11 June 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30 Jan. 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt Dearly,
The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood,The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul 2011. Web. 13 Jun 2012.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East Quarterly.
2005: 25-34. Web. 13 June 2012.
In order to fill my urge to know where Egypt is heading under the Muslim Brotherhood rule, I
had to know much more about their history, criticize and analyze the positions they take in
any situation throughout different time eras. Thus, I can be able to form a general idea of who
they really are and have a briefly close answer to my questions that are filling the shallow part
of my mind.
What I found:
34Amin
The Muslim Brotherhood is a religio-political organization which takes the Quraan and
Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and try to establish an Islamic state.
Ramadan discussed the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state".
However, in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was
never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue
debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He
mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly
though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller
countries and as the West succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial
to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a spark into the organizations
that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One
of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-
Banna.
They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna.
They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine,
Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. The organization consisted of many people coming from
different and variable backgrounds. They all had the same religio-political perspective
though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard
educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB as an
organization which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political
movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that
time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the
government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and
bombings and they gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.
35Amin
The government started to feel that the Muslim Brotherhood constitutes a real threat
and that’s why they attempted to dissolve the organization. Thereafter, the MB assassinated
Mahmoud Fahmi El-Nukrashi –the Prime Minister of Egypt at that time. Hassan El-Banna
himself was assassinated shortly thereafter. After this opposition which they faced greatly
from the government, they had to secretly retreat underground during the revolution of 1952.
Six of them were sentenced to death as they were accused of treason and many others were
imprisoned ("Muslim Brotherhood"). Johnson mentioned that Said Ramadan, the delegate of
the Muslim Brothers and the son-in-law of the MB's founder – Hassan El-Banna- can be
simply called an US agent. In the 1950's and 60's, the United States supported Ramadan
hugely. He took over a mosque in Munich, kicking out local Muslims to build one of the most
important MB centers. Now if they are real religious people who are willing to reorganize the
Islamic state, how can they built their center instead of a mosque that would serve every
European and non-European Muslim? How can they favor their own fortunes over the local
Muslims' fortunes? Ramadan was more interested in spreading his Islamic agenda instead of
fighting communism. "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson. He also stated
that every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension
between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained
eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill American's
goals", he added. Johnson argued that the west should be more aware of the MB activities as
the history always repeats itself. Then, during the 1960's and 70's, the organization behavior
remained greatly clandestine. After facing huge opposition in the Middle East, the MB moved
to Europe in the early 1960s. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had different goals.
They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very
unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be
36Amin
the best they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe
and the US (Vidino 25-34).
In the 1980s, the MB experienced a renewal and once again they were willing to
reform the society with more religious views and embed the government with Islamic
doctrines. They emerged in Egypt, Jordon and Syria at the same time where they were fought
by Hafiz El-Assad –Syria's president- and this resulted in the loss of 25,000 lives. The MB did
not give up and they urged to participate in the legislative elections in those countries.
Starting from the 1980's till now, the MB kept on participating in the parliamentary elections
and boycotting it alternatively. They were highly opposed and suppressed by the previous
regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January. They
hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just to
stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the
presidency, the MB decided to effectively and continuously participate in the Egyptian
politics ("Muslim Brotherhood").
What has been happening recently in Egypt and how the Muslim Brotherhood were
attempting to capture all the authorities made me stop to analyze their acts and behavior. To
start with, the West was greatly enthusiastic about the MB candidate to win. The entire West
including Obama's administration thinks that they would seemingly have good relationship
with the MB and accordingly will be able to do business together (Johnson). Since the MB's
funding sources are confidential, this raises a question of whether they are funded by the West
in return of executing their orders or not? In order to overcome the suppression, they
achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central
administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in
Cairo. In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a
partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom
37Amin
to province-level leaders. This was, in my opinion, to attract all the enemies of mostly the
previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and
not democratic at all.
Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are
considered highly confidential sector of their activities as stated previously. They claim that
the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each
administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector. There
are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of
enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. In
addition to this, the Muslim Brotherhood is seemingly having extensible connections with
some Islamic banks and institutions. They also control large number of charitable societies
which are of course, financed by the older regime—this may be adding to their regular budget
which they manage to have. Some cases have been suspected for laundering money and
getting money illegally into the country through large organizations and they turned out to be
MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits and are hiding behind the
religion curtain to fulfill all their personal intentions ("Islamic countries, Egypt").
Further analysis for the party's movement in general shows that although they
dominated the legislative branch –before it was dissolved-, under the given current situation
in Egypt, they amended laws that have nothing to do with the politics. They seemed to be
isolated from what is happening in the country; their highest concerns were about prohibiting
the sexual websites, legalizing the circumcision of the girls, lowering the marriage age to
twelve years. If we took a look at the different laws introduced by the different members of
the parliament, we will find that the liberal member Amr Hamzawy for instance, is raising
much more important and closely guarded with freedom and justice laws. Unlike the MB who
38Amin
just appeal for people religiously. They are very weak politically; they are proposing and
discussing the unconstitutionality of the judiciary if it stated the invalidity of the parliament –
this can never happen as the judiciary is the most powerful judging association in the country!
They call themselves the "freedom and justice party" where in fact, this party is dominating
mostly all the authorization committees. Starting with the state council to the parliament
(before it has been dissolved) and this is the farthest thing from justice. Additionally, they are
majority in the parliament and they use this to amend laws against the freedom. Part of their
propaganda for their renaissance plan is that it takes 16 years to get the desired outcome; does
this mean that they are indirectly saying that the people can't judge them after the first four
years until other elections take place? It's very unhealthy, to the whole society, that only one
party with one directed way of thinking take over the most important and effective
authorizations. This prevents the advantages of the objection and the inconsistency to take
place. They will definitely face challenges in different aspects; first of all, regarding the issue
of returning the security to the Egyptian streets – this will never happen under this huge
conflict which is between the people and the security forces (army and police). The second
issue is the economic status now in Egypt. The investors started to terminate their investors
and the economy is falling greatly.
Despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-
known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the
democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression ("BBC News Middle East").
How are they calling for a democratic state while they do not approve of the freedom of
people who do not agree with them? How are they willing to force the girls and women to
wear veil while they are willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom.
39Amin
OConnell stated that the MB terribly wants the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference
to which the people jump back to in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that
they want to stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In
social policy, they hold the primary role of women to be the care of the family. They avoid
ideological positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the
difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the
technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB
occupied about 47% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that
sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and
the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of
750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are
they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view
the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality,
economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The
constantly changeable MB's decisions were clearly represented when they first won the
parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other liberal parties, controlling 47% of the
seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as
soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied.
When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not willing to reach for the
power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of
2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they
nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not
accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that
they are not just nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the
elections and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is
40Amin
highly recognizable. In Al-Ahram journal, the spokesman of the MB's campaign was
interview. He was asked why did not he support Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh who has the
same plan and intellect of the MB but ran for the presidential elections independently, the
spokesman answered that he is supporting the MB and Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh does
not represent them! This means that he is not supporting Mohamed Morsi because he believes
he deserves, but because he is helping the MB to reach this position. Will the people's hate
towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the
MB accomplished in the parliament and the insatiability they show for the power? The
question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall
to the next Iran? Or flourish to the next turkey? Now that the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate
won the presidency elections, this question will be answered shortly. When Islamists took
over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political
process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to
some consistent pattern that always occurs? (Gerges).
Moreover, in one of the conferences held by the Muslim Brotherhood supporting
Mohamed Morsi –their candidate for the presidential elections 2012, they, after feeling the
victory is close started saying "fatwa" such as: Obeying the ruler is essential even if he is
unjust; whoever do not follow this will be considered doing "haram". On the other hand, they,
on their scale, did this "haram" when they contributed in the revolution against Hosni
Mubarak. This reflects that they are releasing "fatwa's" benefitting nothing but their own
good. Not only did they attempt to make agreements with the national party and the old
regime to contribute in the parliament and now they disregard this –in order not to be called
the "felool" (a word given to anyone who worked in the corrupted old regime of Hosni
Mubarak)-, but also Mohamed Morsi himself has declared before the revolution that Zakareya
Azmy and Botross Ghaly are representable symbols of the old regime and Mahdy Akef has
41Amin
declared that they support Hosni Mubarak's nomination for the upcoming elections. All of
these declarations and changing their position were in the sake of fitting what the surrounding
society wants the most. Although they were bending to the old regime for so long willing to
have some power and political participation, after the revolution, they have changed and
denied all their previous positions willing also to capture political status.
The MB reaction concerning the constitutional declaration of the invalidity of the
elected parliament which they occupied the majority in it is unacceptable! Dr. Mohamed Saad
Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving
the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF.
He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null
arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the
existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people
who elected this parliament. Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected
the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the parliament will continue
with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be
ranked as the third on the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration
("ikhwanweb").
Methodology:
The research I did was very beneficial but my conclusion would be much more
unbiased if I took into consideration what people think too. Thus, I conducted a survey—a
questionnaire consisting of 12 questions (see appendix A). These questionnaires were
distributed on a randomly chosen sample of people. I was able to get 110 surveys – 60
females and 50 males. Age group was between 18 and 45. 10 female and 10 male Christians
have answered the questionnaire too. All responses are coming from Egyptians.
42Amin
Results and Discussion:
The results are all approximated to the nearest whole number. 70% of the males and
53% of the females were strongly familiar with the Muslim Brotherhood, 20% of the males
and 10% of the females had average knowledge about them and the rest were below average.
83% of the males and 53% of the females think that the MB as an organization is politically
active internationally. Only 25% of the males and 18% of the females think that the MB
members who participated in the dissolved parliament had effective positive role. 69% of the
males and 96% of the females do not favor them over liberals since they do not trust them.
82% of the males and 75% of the females who do not trust them think that their credibility
was highly affected by the latest events in Egypt. 40% of the males and 20% of the females
would not give the party the chance to capture the executive under normal circumstances,
however, they were able to win the presidency since the opposing candidate was from the old
regime. 73% of the males and 55% of the females view their goals as theocratic not political
and 9% of the males and the females view their goals as theocratic and political at the same
time. 88% of the males and 80% of the females do not agree with the rejection of the
constitutional declaration regarding dissolving the parliament even if they support the party in
general. 90% of both males and females do not agree with establishing a theocratic state.
Most of the MB members have spent time in jail under different regimes; 60% of males and
70% of females think this is against them. Last but not least, 78% of the males and 92% of the
females disagree with the early celebration of Mohamed Morsi after he claimed he won the
presidential elections before the authorized association declared this.
This left me with some unanswered questions which I tried interviewing people to
know more about them but failed. Please see Appendix B for the interview questions. The
answers I got were vague and most of them were opinions that won't help reach a good
answer.
43Amin
Works Cited
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
"Katatny: SCAF's Complementary Constitutional Declaration is Null and Void." ikhwanweb.
N.p., 18 June 2012. Web. 20 June 2012.
"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 June 2012.
Web. 20 June 2012.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online
Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 June. 2012.
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York
Times, 14 June 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11
June 2012.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Dearly, The." ABC
Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
44Amin
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 June. 2012.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East
Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 June. 2012.
45Amin
Annotated Bibliography
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
Fawaz A. Gerges stated that when he interviewed a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) member, he mentioned that they learned from their mistakes and they just need more time to swallow the democracy rightfully.
He also talked about what happened in Algeria. When Islamists took over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs?
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June. 2012.
Johnson discussed the MB movement after the revolution. He stated that people fear them, they are not sure how will the MB treat Israel for instance. He however, mentioned that the West -including Obama's administration- thinks they will seemingly have good relationship with the MB and will be able to do business together – this raises the question of whether the MB are funded from the West and they are just hiding behind the curtain of reforming the country with better religious perspectives or are they really caring and they intend to work to the benefit of the Arab world not to the benefit of the West. Again Johnson mentioned that since the history repeats itself, the West should be more aware and put an eye on the MB activities. He is trying to answer the question which is previously stated and he mentioned that the US leaders should take advantage from what happened in the past– every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill America's goals", "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson.
"Katatny: SCAF's Complementary Constitutional Declaration is Null and Void." ikhwanweb.
N.p., 18 June.2012. Web. 20 June 2012.
Dr. Mohamed Saad Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF. He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people who elected this parliament.
46Amin
Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the parliament will continue with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be ranked as the third on the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration.
"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 June.2012.
Web. 20 June 2012.
It was stated that Dr. Mohamed Morsi's presidential campaign announced his victory in the runoff long before it was officially out. Morsi went down in the Egyptian streets celebrating his vicory 6 hours only after ending the voting process. This never happened in any civilized country! An argument against what he has done is maybe he declared himself as the upcoming president so that he can challenge the results if they stated the winning of the other candidate –Ahmed Shafik-.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online
Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 June. 2012.
They are a religio-political organization which takes the Quraan and Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and make them more of a modern Islamic state. They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna. They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. At some point of a time, in the 1940s, they reached their peak and their organization consisted of roughly 500,000 members from different and variable backgrounds. They had the same religio-political perspective though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB's as a party which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and bombings and the gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.
The conflicts between the MB and the government were represented. When were they suppressed, under which regimes? And when did they aroused again and participated continuously in the Egyptian politics?
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York
Times, 14 June. 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.
In a New York Times article, the constantly changeable MB decisions were clearly represented where they first won the parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other
47Amin
liberal parties, controlling 47% of the seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied. When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not looking forward to reaching for the power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of 2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that they are not just nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly recognizable. Will the people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB accomplished in the parliament?
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11
June 2012.
OConnell stated that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference which the people jump back to in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy they hold the primary role of women should be care of the family. They avoid ideological positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB took about 47% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to the next Iran? Or flourish to next turkey? –assuming they will dominate the executive and the legislative branches.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
The writer stated some facts about the history of the MB. He argued that despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.
48Amin
It was mentioned that by the 1940's, this organization have had as many as 2 million followers across the Arab world.
How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veil while they are willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom. "We want a civil state, based on Islamic principles - a democratic state, with a parliamentary system, with freedom to form parties, press freedom, and an independent and fair judiciary” Issam El-Aryan-- In this phrase, they are admitting their willingness to do certain acts while in fact their actions state the opposite. What makes people still believe them? There must be a secret for their popularity.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Junee 2012.
Ramadan discussed the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt Dearly,
The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan stated that by the first round of the presidential elections, the Muslim brotherhood has already lost most of its credibility in the Egyptian streets. To a great portion of people, the Muslim Brotherhood is looked upon as a disturbed, unsettled and contradictory organization. They dominated most of the parliament which is freely elected and they represented one third of the opinions on one hand. On the other hand, they had agreements with the military to fulfill their own fortunes. They are maybe encouraged by the Turkish and Tunisian experiences. No one can overlook the great losses which are likely to take place due to their muddled tactical, strategic and failing errors. Not only will these errors cost them, but the whole country as well.
Turkey, is by all means, different than Egypt. The Muslim brotherhood will not be able to establish the success they persisted in Turkey since the economic position of Egypt is far weaker than Turkey's and its place in the Middle East is far more sensitive. Specially, after taking into consideration the Israel-Palestine conflict.
49Amin
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 June. 2012.
In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in Cairo.
In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom to province-level leaders. This was, in my opinion, to attract all the enemies of mostly the previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and not democratic at all.
Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are considered highly confidential sector of their activities. They claim that the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector.
There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. In addition to this, the MB is seemingly having extensible connections with some Islamic banks and institutions—this may be adding to their regular budget which they manage to have.
Some cases have been suspected for laundering money and getting money illegally into the country through large organizations and they turned out to be MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East
Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 June. 2012.
Vidino mentioned that the MB when they moved to Europe in the early 1960’s after facing huge opposition in the Middle East. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had a different goal. They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe and the US.
50Amin
Appendix A
This is a questionnaire about the Muslim Brotherhood activities in Egypt. Please fill it in. it
won't take more than 3 minutes.
1. How well do you know the Muslim Brotherhood/ Freedom and Justice party?
Very well
Average
I don't know much about them
2. As an Islamic party, are they politically active internationally?
Very much
Normal
Not at all
3. Rate their representation in the parliament.
Highly effective
Neutral
Very depressing
4. Do you favor them over liberals?
Yes
No
5. Do you trust them?
Yes
No
6. Was their credibility affected by the latest news in Egypt?
Very much
A little
Not at all
51Amin
7. Would you give the party the chance to capture the executive?
Yes of course
Maybe depending on the other candidates
Never
8. Do you personally view their goals as..
Political
Theocratic
Both
9. Do you agree with their rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving
the parliament?
Agree
Disagree
Neutral
10. Do you agree with establishing a theocratic state?
Yes
No
11. Most of them have spent most of their lifetime in jail, is this for or against them?
For
Against
12. Are you with or against the early celebration Dr. Mohamed Morsi did 6 hours only
after ending the voting process?
With
Against
Thank you for your time
52Amin
Appendix B
1) How do you perceive the party's insatiability to capturing all the political authorities?
2) King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar El-Saddat and Hosni Mubarak, each had
recognizably different plan, mindset and intellect. However, they all suppressed the
Muslim Brotherhood. Comment
3) Al-Murshid is practically the president of all the Muslim Brotherhood members. After
Mohamed Moris won the presidential elections, you as a citizen have a president who
is ruled by the Murshid. How do you accept this?
I-search paper D2
Laila Amin
Rhet 201-08
Instructor Michael Gibson
I-search paper draft 2
30 June 2012
Introduction:
Today, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is the most vital and imperative political
opposition organization not only in the Arab world but on an international scale as well. They,
as members of a political, not a religious revival organization, were able recently to dominate
authorities in different Arab countries. For instance, in the Tunisian government, they
received 40% of the ballots. In Palestine and Jordon, Hamas –which is part of the
Brotherhood- becoming the most powerful opposing authority to the Palestine-Israel conflict
adds to their domination. Yet this is not all; the Muslim Brotherhood is in control of some
European and North American communities, often representing them in dealing with the
government and the non-Muslim societies in general. After persistent, constant and
continuous suppression that lasted for sixty years, which the MB suffered from in Egypt in
53Amin
particular, they have recognizably emerged on the political domain during and after the
Egyptian revolution which occurred on January 25th 2011. The MB have been running
candidates for the parliamentary elections for years under Hosni Mubarak's regime. They did
not have the chance to run as a party though, only as individuals. The MB have participated in
Jordon's parliament for decades too. However, in the Gaza strip, after Hamas won the
elections, they seized power and status by force. The pattern the Muslim Brotherhood follows
makes their goals mysterious for most of the people. Are their goals political or theocratic? –
This is one question that is relative depending on everyone's mindset and intellect. Are they a
group of religious men who are willing to reform Egypt or are they an Islamic party that uses
Islam to fulfill their political targets? I have been very curious and anxious to know more
about the Muslim Brotherhood specially after there was a huge probability for their candidate
to be the next Egyptian president. I personally, wanted to know where Egypt is heading. Are
the Muslim Brotherhood attempts to capture the executive branch fostered by the urge of
developing and reforming Egypt, or a final step in establishing a totalitarian rule?
The story of my search:
My curiosity has driven me to surf the internet for articles, journal articles and
declarations that would help me reach the most unbiased conclusion by the end of the
research process. Luckily, since I was looking up a current and fluctuating topic, my scope
and perspective have been always changing or narrowing down till the end of the research
process. The constantly occurring changes on a day-to-day basis have made me much more
engaged in the topic. This also allowed a variety of updated sources to be available. Since I
was so much into the topic, I have read as many articles as I found taking into consideration
the obstacle of the time limit and based on this, I have arrived at the final sources that will
benefit me to reach the most unbiased final conclusion. Eventually, I settled on a list of
articles which are specified below:
54Amin
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June. 2012.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic
Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 June. 2012.
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York Times, 14
June. 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." CanadaFree Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb. 2011.
Web. 11 June 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30 Jan. 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt Dearly,
The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
"Structure and funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood,The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul 2011. Web. 13 Jun 2012.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East Quarterly.
2005: 25-34. Web. 13 June 2012.
In order to fill my urge to know where Egypt is heading under the Muslim Brotherhood rule, I
had to know much more about their history, criticize and analyze the positions they take in
55Amin
any situation throughout different time eras. Thus, I can be able to form a general idea of who
they really are and have answers to my questions that are filling the shallow part of my mind.
What I found:
The Muslim Brotherhood is a religio-political organization which takes the Quraan and
Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and try to establish an Islamic state.
Tariq Ramadan in his article "Not an Islamic state, but a Civil State" discussed the strong will
of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no
particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy
Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and
mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the
Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was
dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded to establish
colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah.
This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their
action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the
Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.
They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna.
They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine,
Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. The organization consisted of many people coming from
different and variable backgrounds. They all had the same religio-political perspective
though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard
educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB as an
organization which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political
movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that
56Amin
time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the
government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and
bombings and they gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.
The government started to feel that the Muslim Brotherhood constitutes a real threat
and that’s why they attempted to dissolve the organization. Thereafter, the MB assassinated
Mahmoud Fahmi El-Nukrashi –the Prime Minister of Egypt at that time. Hassan El-Banna
himself was assassinated shortly thereafter. After this opposition which they faced greatly
from the government, they had to secretly retreat underground during the revolution of 1952.
Six of them were sentenced to death as they were accused of treason and many others were
imprisoned ("Muslim Brotherhood"). Ian Johnson mentioned in the article "Washington’s
Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood" that Said Ramadan, the delegate of the Muslim
Brothers and the son-in-law of the MB's founder – Hassan El-Banna- can be simply called an
US agent. In the 1950's and 60's, the United States supported Ramadan hugely. He took over a
mosque in Munich, kicking out local Muslims to build one of the most important MB centers.
Now if they are real religious people who are willing to reorganize the Islamic state, how can
they build their center instead of a mosque that would serve every European and non-
European Muslim? How can they favor their own fortunes over the local Muslims' fortunes?
Ramadan was more interested in spreading his Islamic agenda instead of fighting
communism. "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson. He also stated that every
time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the
European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB
are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill American's goals", he added.
Johnson argued that the West should be more aware of the MB activities as the history always
repeats itself. Then, during the 1960's and 70's, the organization behavior remained greatly
clandestine. After facing huge opposition in the Middle East, the MB moved to Europe in the
57Amin
early 1960s. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had different goals. They have built
mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and
questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best they
can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe and the US
(Vidino 25-34).
In the 1980s, the MB experienced a renewal and once again they were willing to
reform the society with more religious views and embed the government with Islamic
doctrines. They emerged in Egypt, Jordon and Syria at the same time where they were fought
by Hafiz El-Assad –Syria's president- and this resulted in the loss of 25,000 lives. The MB did
not give up and they urged to participate in the legislative elections in those countries.
Starting from the 1980's till now, the MB kept on participating in the parliamentary elections
in Egypt and boycotting it alternatively. They were highly opposed and suppressed by the
previous regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January.
They hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just
to stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the
presidency, the MB decided to effectively and continuously participate in the Egyptian
politics ("Muslim Brotherhood").
What has been happening recently in Egypt and how the Muslim Brotherhood were
attempting to capture all the authorities made me stop to analyze their acts and behavior. To
start with, the West was greatly enthusiastic about the MB candidate to win. The entire West
including Obama's administration thinks that they would seemingly have good relationship
with the MB and accordingly will be able to do business together (Johnson). Since the MB's
funding sources are confidential, this raises a question of whether they are funded by the West
in return of executing their orders or not? In order to overcome the suppression, they
achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central
58Amin
administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in
Cairo. In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a
partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom
to province-level leaders. This was, in my opinion, to attract all the enemies of mostly the
previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and
not democratic at all.
Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are
considered highly confidential sector of their activities as stated previously. They claim that
the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each
administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector. There
are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of
enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. In
addition to this, the Muslim Brotherhood is seemingly having extensible connections with
some Islamic banks and institutions. They also control large number of charitable societies
which are of course, financed by the older regime—this may be adding to their regular budget
which they manage to have. Some cases have been suspected for laundering money and
getting money illegally into the country through large organizations and they turned out to be
MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits and are hiding behind the
religion curtain to fulfill all their personal intentions ("Islamic countries, Egypt").
Further analysis for the party's movement in general shows that although they
dominated the legislative branch –before it was dissolved-, under the given current situation
in Egypt, they amended laws that have nothing to do with the politics. They seemed to be
isolated from what is happening in the country; their highest concerns were about prohibiting
the sexual websites, legalizing the circumcision of the girls, lowering the marriage age to
59Amin
twelve years. If we took a look at the different laws introduced by the different members of
the parliament, we will find that the liberal member Amr Hamzawy for instance, is raising
much more important and closely guarded with freedom and justice laws. Unlike the MB who
just appeal for people religiously. They are very weak politically; they are proposing and
discussing the unconstitutionality of the judiciary if it stated the invalidity of the parliament –
this can never happen as the judiciary is the most powerful judging association in the country!
They call themselves the "freedom and justice party" where in fact, this party is dominating
mostly all the authorization committees. Starting with the state council to the parliament
(before it had been dissolved) and this is the farthest thing from justice. Additionally, they
were majority in the parliament and they used this to amend laws against the freedom. Part of
their propaganda for their renaissance plan is that it takes 16 years to get the desired outcome;
does this mean that they are indirectly saying that the people can't judge them after the first
four years until other elections take place? It's very unhealthy, to the whole society, that only
one party with one directed way of thinking take over the most important and effective
authorizations. This prevents the advantages of the objection and the inconsistency to take
place. They will definitely face challenges in different aspects; first of all, regarding the issue
of returning the security to the Egyptian streets – this will never happen under this huge
conflict which is between the people and the security forces (army and police). The second
issue is the economic status now in Egypt. The investors started to terminate their investments
and the economy is falling greatly.
Despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-
known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the
democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression ("BBC News Middle East").
How are they calling for a democratic state while they do not approve of the freedom of
people who do not agree with them? How are they willing to force the girls and women to
60Amin
wear veils while they are supposedly willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits
and freedom?
Kelly O'Connell stated in the article "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim
Brotherhood" that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference to which
the people jump back in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to
stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy,
they hold the primary role of women to be the care of the family. They avoid ideological
positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference
between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological
improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB occupied about
47% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the upper
boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin
party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is
a MB member though. They are really contradicting themselves very much, I believe. Are
they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view
the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality,
economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The
constantly changeable MB's decisions were clearly represented when they first won the
parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other liberal parties, controlling 47% of the
seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as
soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied.
When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not willing to reach for the
power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of
2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they
nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not
61Amin
accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that
they are not nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections
and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly
recognizable. In Al-Ahram journal, the spokesman of the MB's campaign was interview. He
was asked why he did not support Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh who had the same plan and
intellect of the MB but ran for the presidential elections independently. The spokesman
answered that he is supporting the MB and Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh does not represent
them! This means that he is not supporting Mohamed Morsi because he believes he deserves,
but because he is helping the MB to reach this position. Will the people's hate towards
Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB
accomplished in the parliament and the insatiability they show for the power? The question is,
will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to be like
Iran? Or flourish to be like Turkey? Now that the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate won the
presidency elections, this question will be answered shortly. When Islamists took over the
parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When
Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent
pattern that always occurs? (Gerges).
Moreover, in one of the conferences held by the Muslim Brotherhood supporting
Mohamed Morsi –their candidate for the presidential elections 2012, they, after feeling the
victory is close started saying "fatwa" such as: Obeying the ruler is essential even if he is
unjust; whoever do not follow this will be considered doing "haram". On the other hand, they,
on their scale, did this "haram" when they contributed in the revolution against Hosni
Mubarak. This reflects that they are releasing "fatwa's" benefitting nothing but their own
good. Not only did they attempt to make agreements with the national party and the old
regime to contribute in the parliament and now they disregard this –in order not to be called
62Amin
the "felool" (a word given to anyone who worked in the corrupted old regime of Hosni
Mubarak)-, but also Mohamed Morsi himself has declared before the revolution that Zakareya
Azmy and Botross Ghaly are representable symbols of the old regime and Mahdy Akef has
declared that they support Hosni Mubarak's nomination for the upcoming elections. All of
these declarations and changing their position were for the sake of fitting what the
surrounding society wants the most. Although they were bending to the old regime for so long
willing to have some power and political participation, after the revolution, they have changed
and denied all their previous positions willing also to capture political status.
The MB reaction concerning the constitutional declaration of the invalidity of the
elected parliament which they occupied the majority in it is unacceptable! Dr. Mohamed Saad
Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving
the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF.
He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null
arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the
existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people
who elected this parliament. Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected
the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the parliament will continue
with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be
ranked as the third in the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration
("ikhwanweb").
Methodology:
The research I did was very beneficial but my conclusion would be much more
unbiased if I took into consideration what people think too. Thus, I conducted a survey—a
questionnaire consisting of 12 questions (see appendix A). These questionnaires were
63Amin
distributed on a randomly chosen sample of people. I was able to get 110 responses – 60
females and 50 males. Age group was between 18 and 45. 10 female and 10 male Christians
have answered the questionnaire too. All responses are coming from Egyptians.
Results and Discussion:
The results are all approximated to the nearest whole number. 70% of the males and
53% of the females were strongly familiar with the Muslim Brotherhood, 20% of the males
and 10% of the females had average knowledge about them and the rest were below average.
83% of the males and 53% of the females think that the MB as an organization is politically
active internationally. Only 25% of the males and 18% of the females think that the MB
members who participated in the dissolved parliament had effective positive role. 69% of the
males and 96% of the females do not favor them over liberals since they do not trust them.
82% of the males and 75% of the females who do not trust them think that their credibility
was highly affected by the latest events in Egypt. 40% of the males and 20% of the females
would not give the party the chance to capture the executive under normal circumstances,
however, they were able to win the presidency since the opposing candidate was from the old
regime. 73% of the males and 55% of the females view their goals as theocratic not political
and 9% of the males and the females view their goals as theocratic and political at the same
time. 88% of the males and 80% of the females do not agree with the rejection of the
constitutional declaration regarding dissolving the parliament even if they support the party in
general. 90% of both males and females do not agree with establishing a theocratic state.
Most of the MB members have spent time in jail under different regimes; 60% of males and
70% of females think this is against them. Last but not least, 78% of the males and 92% of the
females disagree with the early celebration of Mohamed Morsi after he claimed he won the
presidential elections before the authorized association declared this.
64Amin
This left me with some unanswered questions which I tried interviewing people to
know more about them but failed. Please see Appendix B for the interview questions. The
answers I got were vague and most of them were opinions that won't help reach a good
answer. One question that would have helped form a good supported argument if I had found
an answer for it is: why were the MB suppressed by all the leaders and rulers even though
each and everyone of them had different mindset, different agenda and completely different
relationships with the effective elements of the society except the MB? They all agreed on
nothing but isolating them from the political life.
Conclusion:
To cut it short, the MB have as much followers as opponents. Although they have
done a lot of charity work, helped people tremendously even though they were not in control
of highly authorized positions, reformed some areas by giving illiterates free up-to-the-
standard education and had an indispensably crucial role in making parts of the environment
much better, they are greatly opposed. If their main goal is to reform the country, why don't
they reform it without having insatiability for the power?! After representing both the good
and bad sides of the ikhwan, we can pause and think deeply. Many situations have been stated
against them that show and support effectively that until now, the MB are only hoping for
capturing the executive branch. Let us all hope for better Egypt free from the greed of the
political elements which need only to fulfill their personal intentions, caring the least about
the commonweal.
65Amin
Works Cited
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14
Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
"Katatny: SCAF's Complementary Constitutional Declaration is Null and Void."
ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 June 2012. Web. 20 June 2012.
"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 June 2012.
Web. 20 June 2012.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online
Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 June. 2012.
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York
Times, 14 June 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web.11 June
2012.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Dearly, The." ABC
Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
66Amin
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 June. 2012.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East
Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 June. 2012.
67Amin
Annotated Bibliography
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
Fawaz A. Gerges stated that when he interviewed a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) member, he mentioned that they learned from their mistakes and they just need more time to swallow the democracy rightfully.
He also talked about what happened in Algeria. When Islamists took over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs?
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June. 2012.
Johnson discussed the MB movement after the revolution. He stated that people fear them, they are not sure how will the MB treat Israel for instance. He however, mentioned that the West -including Obama's administration- thinks they will seemingly have good relationship with the MB and will be able to do business together – this raises the question of whether the MB are funded from the West and they are just hiding behind the curtain of reforming the country with better religious perspectives or are they really caring and they intend to work to the benefit of the Arab world not to the benefit of the West. Again Johnson mentioned that since the history repeats itself, the West should be more aware and put an eye on the MB activities. He is trying to answer the question which is previously stated and he mentioned that the US leaders should take advantage from what happened in the past– every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill America's goals", "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson.
"Katatny: SCAF's Complementary Constitutional Declaration is Null and Void." ikhwanweb.
N.p., 18 June.2012. Web. 20 June 2012.
Dr. Mohamed Saad Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF. He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people who elected this parliament.
68Amin
Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the parliament will continue with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be ranked as the third on the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration.
"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 June.2012.
Web. 20 June 2012.
It was stated that Dr. Mohamed Morsi's presidential campaign announced his victory in the runoff long before it was officially out. Morsi went down in the Egyptian streets celebrating his vicory 6 hours only after ending the voting process. This never happened in any civilized country! An argument against what he has done is maybe he declared himself as the upcoming president so that he can challenge the results if they stated the winning of the other candidate –Ahmed Shafik-.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online
Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 June. 2012.
They are a religio-political organization which takes the Quraan and Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and make them more of a modern Islamic state. They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna. They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. At some point of a time, in the 1940s, they reached their peak and their organization consisted of roughly 500,000 members from different and variable backgrounds. They had the same religio-political perspective though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB's as a party which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and bombings and the gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.
The conflicts between the MB and the government were represented. When were they suppressed, under which regimes? And when did they aroused again and participated continuously in the Egyptian politics?
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York
Times, 14 June. 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.
In a New York Times article, the constantly changeable MB decisions were clearly represented where they first won the parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other
69Amin
liberal parties, controlling 47% of the seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied. When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not looking forward to reaching for the power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of 2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that they are not just nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly recognizable. Will the people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB accomplished in the parliament?
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June
2012.
OConnell stated that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference which the people jump back to in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy they hold the primary role of women should be care of the family. They avoid ideological positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB took about 47% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to the next Iran? Or flourish to next turkey? –assuming they will dominate the executive and the legislative branches.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 June 2012.
The writer stated some facts about the history of the MB. He argued that despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.
70Amin
It was mentioned that by the 1940's, this organization have had as many as 2 million followers across the Arab world.
How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veil while they are willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom. "We want a civil state, based on Islamic principles - a democratic state, with a parliamentary system, with freedom to form parties, press freedom, and an independent and fair judiciary” Issam El-Aryan-- In this phrase, they are admitting their willingness to do certain acts while in fact their actions state the opposite. What makes people still believe them? There must be a secret for their popularity.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Junee 2012.
Ramadan discussed the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt Dearly,
The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan stated that by the first round of the presidential elections, the Muslim brotherhood has already lost most of its credibility in the Egyptian streets. To a great portion of people, the Muslim Brotherhood is looked upon as a disturbed, unsettled and contradictory organization. They dominated most of the parliament which is freely elected and they represented one third of the opinions on one hand. On the other hand, they had agreements with the military to fulfill their own fortunes. They are maybe encouraged by the Turkish and Tunisian experiences. No one can overlook the great losses which are likely to take place due to their muddled tactical, strategic and failing errors. Not only will these errors cost them, but the whole country as well.
Turkey, is by all means, different than Egypt. The Muslim brotherhood will not be able to establish the success they persisted in Turkey since the economic position of Egypt is far weaker than Turkey's and its place in the Middle East is far more sensitive. Specially, after taking into consideration the Israel-Palestine conflict.
71Amin
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 June. 2012.
In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in Cairo.
In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom to province-level leaders. This was, in my opinion, to attract all the enemies of mostly the previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and not democratic at all.
Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are considered highly confidential sector of their activities. They claim that the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector.
There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. In addition to this, the MB is seemingly having extensible connections with some Islamic banks and institutions—this may be adding to their regular budget which they manage to have.
Some cases have been suspected for laundering money and getting money illegally into the country through large organizations and they turned out to be MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East
Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 June. 2012.
Vidino mentioned that the MB when they moved to Europe in the early 1960’s after facing huge opposition in the Middle East. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had a different goal. They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe and the US.
72Amin
Appendix A
This is a questionnaire about the Muslim Brotherhood activities in Egypt. Please fill it in. it
won't take more than 3 minutes.
1) How well do you know the Muslim Brotherhood/ Freedom and Justice party?
Very well
Average
I don't know much about them
2) As an Islamic party, are they politically active internationally?
Very much
Normal
Not at all
3) Rate their representation in the parliament.
Highly effective
Neutral
Very depressing
4) Do you favor them over liberals?
Yes
No
5) Do you trust them?
Yes
No
6) Was their credibility affected by the latest news in Egypt?
Very much
A little
Not at all
73Amin
7) Would you give the party the chance to capture the executive?
Yes of course
Maybe depending on the other candidates
Never
8) Do you personally view their goals as..
Political
Theocratic
Both
9) Do you agree with their rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving
the parliament?
Agree
Disagree
Neutral
10) Do you agree with establishing a theocratic state?
Yes
No
11) Most of them have spent most of their lifetime in jail, is this for or against them?
For
Against
12) Are you with or against the early celebration Dr. Mohamed Morsi did 6 hours only
after ending the voting process?
With
Against
Thank you for your time
74Amin
Appendix B
1) How do you perceive the party's insatiability to capturing all the political authorities?
2) King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar El-Saddat and Hosni Mubarak, each had
recognizably different plan, mindset and intellect. However, they all suppressed the
Muslim Brotherhood. Comment
3) Al-Murshid is practically the president of all the Muslim Brotherhood members. After
Mohamed Moris won the presidential elections, you as a citizen have a president who
is ruled by the Murshid. How do you accept this?
I-search Paper Draft 3
Rhet 201-08
Instructor Michael Gibson
I-search paper draft 3- Final Paper
12 July 2012
Islamophobia
Introduction:
Today, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is the most vital and imperative political
opposition organization not only in the Arab world but on an international scale as well. They,
as members of a political, not a religious revival organization, were able recently to dominate
authorities in different Arab countries. For instance, in the Tunisian government, they
received 40% of the ballots. In Palestine and Jordon, Hamas –which is part of the
Brotherhood- becoming the most powerful opposing authority to the Palestine-Israel conflict
adds to their domination. Yet this is not all; the Muslim Brotherhood is in control of some
European and North American communities, often representing them in dealing with the
government and the non-Muslim societies in general. After persistent, constant and
75Amin
continuous suppression that lasted for sixty years, which the MB suffered from in Egypt in
particular, they have recognizably emerged on the political domain during and after the
Egyptian revolution which occurred on 25th January 2011. The MB have been running
candidates for the parliamentary elections for years under Hosni Mubarak's regime. They did
not have the chance to run as a party though, only as individuals. The MB have participated in
Jordon's parliament for decades too. However, in the Gaza strip, after Hamas won the
elections, they seized power and status by force. Also a very interesting thing that attracted so
many politically-concerned people is that, not only the Tunisian citizens were the ones who
had the right to vote in the Tunisian elections, but the citizens of Morocco and Algeria were
allowed to vote too! This was later elaborated by the famous thinkers who analyzed this as the
Islamists, including the MB of course, wanted to benefit from the large Islamic bulk in
Morocco to support them win the elections. The pattern the Muslim Brotherhood follows
makes their goals mysterious for most of the people. Are their goals political or theocratic? –
This is one question that is relative depending on everyone's mindset and intellect. Are they a
group of religious men who are willing to reform Egypt or are they an Islamic party that uses
Islam to fulfill their political targets? I have been very curious and anxious to know more
about the Muslim Brotherhood specially after there was a huge probability for their candidate
to be the next Egyptian president. I personally, wanted to know where Egypt is heading. Are
the Muslim Brotherhood attempts to capture the executive branch fostered by the urge of
developing and reforming Egypt, or a final step in establishing a totalitarian rule?
The story of my search:
My curiosity has driven me to surf the internet for articles, journal articles and
declarations that would help me reach the most unbiased conclusion by the end of the
research process. Luckily, since I was looking up a current and fluctuating topic, my scope
and perspective have been always changing or narrowing down till the end of the research
76Amin
process. The constantly occurring changes on a day-to-day basis have made me much more
engaged in the topic. This also allowed a variety of updated sources to be available. Since I
was so much into the topic, I have read as many articles as I found taking into consideration
the obstacle of the time limit and based on this, I have arrived at the final sources that will
benefit me to reach the most unbiased final conclusion. Eventually, I settled on a list of
articles which are specified below:
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic
Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York Times, 14
Jun 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb. 2011.
Web. 11 Jun 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30 Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt Dearly,
The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 Jun 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.
77Amin
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood.The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul 2011. Web. 13 Jun 2012.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East Quarterly.
2005: 25-34. Web. 13 Jun 2012.
In order to fill my urge to know where Egypt is heading under the Muslim Brotherhood's rule,
I had to know much more about their history, criticize and analyze the positions they take in
any situation throughout different time eras. Thus, I can be able to form a general idea of who
they really are and have answers to my questions that are filling the shallow part of my mind.
What I found:
The Muslim Brotherhood is a religio-political organization which takes the Quraan and
Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and try to establish an Islamic state.
Tariq Ramadan in his article "Not an Islamic state, but a Civil State" discussed the strong will
of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no
particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy
Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and
mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the
Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was
dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded to establish
colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah.
This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their
action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the
Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.
They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna.
They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine,
78Amin
Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. The organization consisted of many people coming from
different and variable backgrounds. They all had the same religio-political perspective
though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard
educational and religious projects which, as a result, caused the people to view the MB as an
organization which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political
movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that
time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the
government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and
bombings and they gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.
The government started to feel that the Muslim Brotherhood constitutes a real threat
and that’s why they attempted to dissolve the organization. Thereafter, the MB assassinated
Mahmoud Fahmi El-Nukrashi –the Prime Minister of Egypt at that time. Hassan El-Banna
himself was assassinated shortly thereafter. After this opposition which they faced greatly
from the government, they had to secretly retreat underground during the revolution of 1952.
Six of them were sentenced to death as they were accused of treason and many others were
imprisoned ("Muslim Brotherhood"). Ian Johnson mentioned in the article "Washington’s
Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood" that Said Ramadan, the delegate of the Muslim
Brothers and the son-in-law of the MB's founder – Hassan El-Banna- can be simply called an
US agent. In the 1950's and 60's, the United States supported Ramadan hugely. He took over a
mosque in Munich, kicking out local Muslims to build one of the most important MB centers.
Now if they are real religious people who are willing to reorganize the Islamic state, how can
they build their center instead of a mosque that would serve every European and non-
European Muslim? How can they favor their own fortunes over the local Muslims' fortunes?
Ramadan was more interested in spreading his Islamic agenda instead of fighting
communism. "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson. He also stated that every
79Amin
time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the
European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB
are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill American's goals", he added.
Johnson argued that the West should be more aware of the MB activities as the history always
repeats itself. Then, during the 1960's and 70's, the organization behavior remained greatly
clandestine. After facing huge opposition in the Middle East, the MB moved to Europe in the
early 1960s. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had different goals. They have built
mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and
questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best they
can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe and the US
(Vidino 25-34).
In the 1980s, the MB experienced a renewal and once again they were willing to
reform the society with more religious views and embed the government with Islamic
doctrines. They emerged in Egypt, Jordon and Syria at the same time where they were fought
by Hafiz El-Assad –Syria's president- and this resulted in the loss of 25,000 lives. The MB did
not give up and they urged to participate in the legislative elections in those countries.
Starting from the 1980's till now, the MB kept on participating in the parliamentary elections
in Egypt and boycotting it alternatively. They were highly opposed and suppressed by the
previous regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January.
They hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just
to stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the
presidency, the MB decided to effectively and continuously participate in the Egyptian
politics ("Muslim Brotherhood").
What has been happening recently in Egypt and how the Muslim Brotherhood were
attempting to capture all the authorities made me stop to analyze their acts and behavior. To
80Amin
start with, the West was greatly enthusiastic about the MB candidate to win. The entire West
including Obama's administration thinks that they would seemingly have good relationship
with the MB and accordingly will be able to do business together (Johnson). Since the MB's
funding sources are confidential, this raises a question of whether they are funded by the West
in return of executing their orders or not? In order to overcome the suppression, they
achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central
administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in
Cairo. In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a
partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom
to province-level leaders. This was, in my opinion, to attract all the enemies of mostly the
previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and
autocratic.
Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are
considered highly confidential sector of their activities as stated previously. They claim that
the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each
administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector. There
are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of
enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. In
addition to this, the Muslim Brotherhood is seemingly having extensible connections with
some Islamic banks and institutions. They also control large number of charitable societies
which are of course, financed by the older regime—this may be adding to their regular budget
which they manage to have. Some cases have been suspected for laundering money and
getting money illegally into the country through large organizations and they turned out to be
MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits and are hiding behind the
religion curtain to fulfill all their personal intentions ("Islamic countries, Egypt").
81Amin
Further analysis for the party's movement in general shows that although they
dominated the legislative branch –before it was dissolved-, under the given current situation
in Egypt, they amended laws that have nothing to do with the politics. They seemed to be
isolated from what is happening in the country; their highest concerns were about prohibiting
the sexual websites, legalizing the circumcision of the girls, lowering the marriage age to
twelve years. If we took a look at the different laws introduced by the different members of
the dissolved parliament, we will find that the liberal member Amr Hamzawy for instance,
was raising much more important and closely guarded with freedom and justice laws. Unlike
the MB who just appeal for people religiously. They are very weak politically; they were
proposing and discussing the unconstitutionality of the judiciary if it stated the invalidity of
the parliament – this can never happen as the judiciary is the most powerful judging
association in the country! They call themselves the "freedom and justice party" where in fact,
this party was dominating mostly all the authorization committees. Starting with the state
council to the parliament (before it had been dissolved) and this is the farthest thing from
justice. Additionally, they were majority in the parliament and they used this to amend laws
against the freedom. Part of their propaganda for their renaissance plan is that it takes 16
years to get the desired outcome; does this mean that they are indirectly saying that the people
can't judge them after the first four years until other elections take place? It's very unhealthy,
to the whole society, that only one party with one directed way of thinking take over the most
important and effective authorizations. This prevents the advantages of the objection and the
inconsistency to take place. They will definitely face challenges in different aspects; first of
all, regarding the issue of returning the security to the Egyptian streets – this will never
happen under this huge conflict which is between the people and the security forces (army
and police). The second issue is the economic status now in Egypt. The investors started to
82Amin
terminate their investments and the economy was falling greatly before the run-off elections
take place.
Despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-
known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the
democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression ("BBC News Middle East").
How are they calling for a democratic state while they do not approve of the freedom of
people who do not agree with them? How are they willing to force the girls and women to
wear veils while they are supposedly willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits
and freedom?
Kelly O'Connell stated in the article "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim
Brotherhood" that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference to which
the people jump back in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to
stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy,
they hold the primary role of women to be the care of the family. They avoid ideological
positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference
between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological
improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB occupied about
47% of the dissolved parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the
upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the
Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of
750,000. He is a MB member though. They are really contradicting themselves very much, I
believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this,
they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore
morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The
83Amin
constantly changeable MB's decisions were clearly represented when they first won the
parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other liberal parties, controlling 47% of the
seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as
soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied.
When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not willing to reach for the
power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential elections of
2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they
nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not
accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that
they are not nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections
and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly
recognizable. In Al-Ahram journal, the spokesman of the MB's campaign -Ghazlan- was
interviewed. He was asked why did not he support Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh who had
the same plan and intellect of the MB but ran for the presidential elections independently?
The spokesman answered that he was supporting the MB and Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh
did not represent them! This means that he was not supporting Mohamed Morsi because he
believed he deserves, but because he was helping the MB to reach this position. Will the
people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the
huge failure the MB accomplished in the parliament and the insatiability they show for the
power? The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic
principles fall to be like Iran? Or flourish to be like Turkey? Now that the Muslim
Brotherhood's candidate won the presidency elections, this question will be answered shortly.
When Islamists took over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and
dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts.
Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs? (Gerges).
84Amin
Moreover, in one of the conferences held by the Muslim Brotherhood supporting
Mohamed Morsi –their candidate for the presidential elections 2012-- they, after feeling the
victory is close started saying "fatwa" such as: Obeying the ruler is essential even if he is
unjust; whoever do not follow this will be considered doing "haram". On the other hand, they,
on their scale, did this "haram" when they contributed in the revolution against Hosni
Mubarak. This reflects that they are releasing "fatwa's" benefitting nothing but their own
good. Not only did they attempt to make agreements with the national party and the old
regime to contribute in the parliament and now they disregard this –in order not to be called
the "felool" (a word given to anyone who worked in the corrupted old regime of Hosni
Mubarak)-, but also Mohamed Morsi himself has declared before the revolution that Zakareya
Azmy and Botross Ghaly are representable symbols of the old regime and Mahdy Akef has
declared that they support Hosni Mubarak's nomination for the upcoming elections. All of
these declarations and changing their position were for the sake of fitting what the
surrounding society wants the most. Although they were bending to the old regime for so long
willing to have some power and political participation, after the revolution, they have changed
and denied all their previous positions willing also to capture political status. Simply this can
be regarded as if they "go with the flow".
The MB reaction concerning the constitutional declaration of the invalidity of the
elected parliament which they occupied the majority in it is unacceptable! Dr. Mohamed Saad
Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving
the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF.
He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null
arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the
existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people
who elected this parliament. Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected
85Amin
the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the parliament will continue
with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be
ranked as the third in the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration
("ikhwanweb"). However, after Mohamed Morsi won the presidency elections, after swearing
the oath of respecting the judicial authorities and in the first ten days of his rule, one of the
first decisions which he made was rejecting the constitutional declaration and recalling the
dissolved parliament once again! The validity of this decision is very debatable now, some
people think he has the full right to do so and others think that no, he has done the most
incorrect action on which he should be punished.
Methodology:
The research I did was very beneficial but my conclusion will be much more unbiased
if I took into consideration what people think too. Thus, I conducted a survey—a
questionnaire consisting of 12 questions (see appendix A). These questionnaires were
distributed on a randomly chosen sample of people. I was able to get 110 responses – 60
females and 50 males. Age group was between 18 and 45. 10 female and 10 male Christians
have answered the questionnaire too. All responses are coming from Egyptians.
Results and Discussion:
The results are all approximated to the nearest whole number. 70% of the males and
53% of the females were strongly familiar with the Muslim Brotherhood, 20% of the males
and 10% of the females had average knowledge about them and the rest were below average.
83% of the males and 53% of the females think that the MB as an organization is politically
active internationally. Only 25% of the males and 18% of the females think that the MB
members who participated in the dissolved parliament had effective positive role. 69% of the
males and 96% of the females do not favor them over liberals since they do not trust them.
86Amin
82% of the males and 75% of the females who do not trust them think that their credibility
was highly affected by the latest events in Egypt. 40% of the males and 20% of the females
would not give the party the chance to capture the executive under normal circumstances.
However, they were able to win the presidency since the opposing candidate was from the old
regime. 73% of the males and 55% of the females view their goals as theocratic not political
and 9% of the males and the females view their goals as theocratic and political at the same
time. 88% of the males and 80% of the females do not agree with the rejection of the
constitutional declaration regarding dissolving the parliament even if they support the party in
general. 90% of both males and females do not agree with establishing a theocratic state.
Most of the MB members have spent time in jail under different regimes; 60% of males and
70% of females think this is against them. Last but not least, 78% of the males and 92% of the
females disagree with the early celebration of Mohamed Morsi after he claimed he won the
presidential elections before the authorized association declared this.
This left me with some unanswered questions which I tried interviewing people to
know more about them but failed. Please see Appendix B for the interview questions. The
answers I got were vague and most of them were opinions that won't help me reach a good,
accurate and credible answer. One question that would have helped form a good supported
argument if I had found an answer for it is: why were the MB suppressed by all the leaders
and rulers even though each and everyone of them had different mindset, different agenda and
completely different relationships with the effective elements of the society? Why did they all
agree on nothing but isolating the MB from the political life?
Conclusion:
To cut it short, the MB have as many followers as opponents. Although they have
done a lot of charity work, helped people tremendously even though they were not in control
87Amin
of high governmental positions, reformed some areas by giving illiterates free up-to-the-
standard education and had an indispensably crucial role in making parts of the environment
much better, they are greatly opposed. If their main goal is to reform the country, why don't
they reform it without having insatiability for the power?! After representing both the good
and bad sides of the MB, we can pause and think deeply. Many situations have been stated
against them that show and support effectively that until now, the MB are only hoping for
capturing the executive branch so that they can have power. No more no less. However, they
have been in control of the executive branch for less than 20 days and we can't judge them
now. We have to wait and see. But unfortunately, what I personally see after analyzing their
work in the first few days is that they are trying to please everybody by some charismatic
actions. And it is well known that when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no
one. Let us all hope for better Egypt free from the greed of the political elements which need
only to fulfill their personal intentions, caring the least about the commonweal.
88Amin
Works Cited
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14
Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
"Katatny: SCAF's Complementary Constitutional Declaration is Null and Void."
ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun 2012. Web. 20 Jun 2012.
"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun 2012.
Web. 20 Jun 2012.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online
Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York
Times, 14 Jun 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.
Nassar, Abdel-Latif. Al-Ahram Newspaper (translated from Arabic). 24 Jun 2012.
Web. 2 July 2012. http://digital.ahram.org.eg/Policy.aspx?Serial=940861
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics
(Australian Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Jun
2012.
89Amin
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Dearly, The." ABC
Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 Jun 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East
Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
90Amin
Annotated Bibliography
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
Fawaz A. Gerges stated that when he interviewed a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) member, he mentioned that they learned from their mistakes and they just need more time to swallow the democracy rightfully.
He also talked about what happened in Algeria. When Islamists took over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs?
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.
Johnson discussed the MB movement after the revolution. He stated that people fear them, they are not sure how will the MB treat Israel for instance. He however, mentioned that the West -including Obama's administration- thinks they will seemingly have good relationship with the MB and will be able to do business together – this raises the question of whether the MB are funded from the West and they are just hiding behind the curtain of reforming the country with better religious perspectives or are they really caring and they intend to work to the benefit of the Arab world not to the benefit of the West. Again Johnson mentioned that since the history repeats itself, the West should be more aware and put an eye on the MB activities. He is trying to answer the question which is previously stated and he mentioned that the US leaders should take advantage from what happened in the past– every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill America's goals", "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson.
"Katatny: SCAF's Complementary Constitutional Declaration is Null and Void."
ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun.2012. Web. 20 Jun 2012.
Dr. Mohamed Saad Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF. He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people who elected this parliament.
91Amin
Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the parliament will continue with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be ranked as the third on the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration.
"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun.2012.
Web. 20 Jun 2012.
It was stated that Dr. Mohamed Morsi's presidential campaign announced his victory in the runoff long before it was officially out. Morsi went down in the Egyptian streets celebrating his vicory 6 hours only after ending the voting process. This never happened in any civilized country! An argument against what he has done is maybe he declared himself as the upcoming president so that he can challenge the results if they stated the winning of the other candidate –Ahmed Shafik-.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online
Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.
They are a religio-political organization which takes the Quraan and Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and make them more of a modern Islamic state. They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna. They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. At some point of a time, in the 1940s, they reached their peak and their organization consisted of roughly 500,000 members from different and variable backgrounds. They had the same religio-political perspective though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB's as a party which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and bombings and the gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.
The conflicts between the MB and the government were represented. When were they suppressed, under which regimes? And when did they aroused again and participated continuously in the Egyptian politics?
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York
Times, 14 Jun. 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.
In a New York Times article, the constantly changeable MB decisions were clearly represented where they first won the parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other
92Amin
liberal parties, controlling 47% of the seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied. When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not looking forward to reaching for the power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of 2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that they are not just nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly recognizable. Will the people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB accomplished in the parliament?
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun
2012.
OConnell stated that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference which the people jump back to in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy they hold the primary role of women should be care of the family. They avoid ideological positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB took about 47% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to the next Iran? Or flourish to next turkey? –assuming they will dominate the executive and the legislative branches.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
The writer stated some facts about the history of the MB. He argued that despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.
93Amin
It was mentioned that by the 1940's, this organization have had as many as 2 million followers across the Arab world.
How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veil while they are willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom. "We want a civil state, based on Islamic principles - a democratic state, with a parliamentary system, with freedom to form parties, press freedom, and an independent and fair judiciary” Issam El-Aryan-- In this phrase, they are admitting their willingness to do certain acts while in fact their actions state the opposite. What makes people still believe them? There must be a secret for their popularity.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan discussed the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt Dearly,
The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan stated that by the first round of the presidential elections, the Muslim brotherhood has already lost most of its credibility in the Egyptian streets. To a great portion of people, the Muslim Brotherhood is looked upon as a disturbed, unsettled and contradictory organization. They dominated most of the parliament which is freely elected and they represented one third of the opinions on one hand. On the other hand, they had agreements with the military to fulfill their own fortunes. They are maybe encouraged by the Turkish and Tunisian experiences. No one can overlook the great losses which are likely to take place due to their muddled tactical, strategic and failing errors. Not only will these errors cost them, but the whole country as well.
Turkey, is by all means, different than Egypt. The Muslim brotherhood will not be able to establish the success they persisted in Turkey since the economic position of Egypt is far weaker than Turkey's and its place in the Middle East is far more sensitive. Specially, after taking into consideration the Israel-Palestine conflict.
94Amin
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in Cairo.
In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom to province-level leaders. This was, in my opinion, to attract all the enemies of mostly the previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and not democratic at all.
Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are considered highly confidential sector of their activities. They claim that the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector.
There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. In addition to this, the MB is seemingly having extensible connections with some Islamic banks and institutions—this may be adding to their regular budget which they manage to have.
Some cases have been suspected for laundering money and getting money illegally into the country through large organizations and they turned out to be MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East
Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
Vidino mentioned that the MB when they moved to Europe in the early 1960’s after facing huge opposition in the Middle East. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had a different goal. They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe and the US.
95Amin
Appendix A
This is a questionnaire about the Muslim Brotherhood activities in Egypt. Please fill it in. it
won't take more than 3 minutes.
1) How well do you know the Muslim Brotherhood/ Freedom and Justice party?
Very well
Average
I don't know much about them
2) As an Islamic party, are they politically active internationally?
Very much
Normal
Not at all
3) Rate their representation in the parliament.
Highly effective
Neutral
Very depressing
4) Do you favor them over liberals?
Yes
No
5) Do you trust them?
Yes
No
6) Was their credibility affected by the latest news in Egypt?
Very much
A little
Not at all
96Amin
7) Would you give the party the chance to capture the executive?
Yes of course
Maybe depending on the other candidates
Never
8) Do you personally view their goals as..
Political
Theocratic
Both
9) Do you agree with their rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving
the parliament?
Agree
Disagree
Neutral
10) Do you agree with establishing a theocratic state?
Yes
No
11) Most of them have spent most of their lifetime in jail, is this for or against them?
For
Against
12) Are you with or against the early celebration Dr. Mohamed Morsi did 6 hours only
after ending the voting process?
With
Against
Thank you for your time
97Amin
Appendix B
1) How do you perceive the party's insatiability to capturing all the political authorities?
2) King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar El-Saddat and Hosni Mubarak, each had
recognizably different plan, mindset and intellect. However, they all suppressed the
Muslim Brotherhood. Comment
3) Al-Murshid is practically the president of all the Muslim Brotherhood members. After
Mohamed Morsi won the presidential elections, you as a citizen have a president who
is ruled by the Murshid. How do you accept this?
98Amin
Final Paper:
Laila Amin
Rhet 201-08
Instructor Michael Gibson
I-search paper- Final Draft
15 July 2012
Islamophobia
Introduction:
Today, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is the most vital and imperative political
opposition organization not only in the Arab world but on an international scale as well. They,
as members of a political, not a religious revival organization, were able recently to dominate
authorities in different Arab countries. For instance, in the Tunisian government, they
received 40% of the ballots. In Palestine and Jordon, Hamas –which is part of the
Brotherhood- becoming the most powerful opposing authority to the Palestine-Israel conflict
adds to their domination. Yet this is not all; the Muslim Brotherhood is in control of some
European and North American communities, often representing them in dealing with the
government and the non-Muslim societies in general. After persistent, constant and
continuous suppression that lasted for sixty years, which the MB suffered from in Egypt in
particular, they have recognizably emerged on the political domain during and after the
Egyptian revolution which occurred on 25th January 2011. The MB have been running
candidates for the parliamentary elections for years under Hosni Mubarak's regime. They did
not have the chance to run as a party though, only as individuals. The MB have participated in
Jordon's parliament for decades too. However, in the Gaza strip, after Hamas won the
elections, they seized power and status by force. Also a very interesting thing that attracted so
many politically-concerned people is that, not only the Tunisian citizens were the ones who
99Amin
had the right to vote in the Tunisian elections, but the citizens of Morocco and Algeria were
allowed to vote too! This was later elaborated by the famous thinkers who analyzed this as the
Islamists, including the MB of course, wanted to benefit from the large Islamic bulk in
Morocco to support them win the elections. The pattern the Muslim Brotherhood follows
makes their goals mysterious for most of the people. Are they a group of religious men who
are willing to reform Egypt or are they an Islamic party that uses Islam to fulfill their political
targets? I have been very curious and anxious to know more about the Muslim Brotherhood
specially after there was a huge probability for their candidate to be the next Egyptian
president. I personally, wanted to know where Egypt is heading. Are the Muslim Brotherhood
attempts to capture the executive branch fostered by the urge of developing and reforming
Egypt, or a final step in establishing a totalitarian rule?
The story of my search:
My curiosity has driven me to surf the internet for articles, journal articles and
declarations that would help me reach the most unbiased conclusion by the end of the
research process. Luckily, since I was looking up a current and fluctuating topic, my scope
and perspective have been always changing or narrowing down till the end of the research
process. The constantly occurring changes on a day-to-day basis have made me much more
engaged in the topic. This also allowed a variety of updated sources to be available. Since I
was so much into the topic, I read as many articles as I found taking into consideration the
obstacle of the time limit and based on this, I arrived at the final sources that would benefit
me to reach the most unbiased final conclusion. Eventually, I settled on a list of articles which
are specified below:
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
100Amin
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic
Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York Times, 14
Jun 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb. 2011.
Web. 11 Jun 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30 Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt Dearly,
The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 Jun 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p.,10 Jul 2011. Web. 13 Jun 2012.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East Quarterly.
2005: 25-34. Web. 13 Jun 2012.
In order to satisfy my urge to know where Egypt is heading under the Muslim Brotherhood's
rule, I had to know much more about their history, criticize and analyze the positions they
take in any situation throughout different time eras. Thus, I can be able to form a general idea
101Amin
of who they really are and have answers to my questions that are filling the shallow part of
my mind.
What I found:
The Muslim Brotherhood is a religio-political organization which takes the Quraan and
Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and try to establish an Islamic state.
Tariq Ramadan in his article "Not an Islamic state, but a Civil State" discussed the strong will
of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no
particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy
Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and
mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the
Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was
dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded in establishing
colonies and expanding their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the
Ummah. This lit a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their
action to pursue two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the
Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.
They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna.
They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine,
Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. The organization consisted of many people coming from
different and variable backgrounds. They all had the same religio-political perspective
though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard
educational and religious projects which, as a result, caused the people to view the MB as an
organization which is willing to implement some needed social services. Their political
movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that
102Amin
time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the
government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and
bombings and they gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.
The government started to feel that the Muslim Brotherhood constitutes a real threat
and that’s why they attempted to dissolve the organization. Thereafter, the MB assassinated
Mahmoud Fahmi El-Nukrashi –the Prime Minister of Egypt at that time. Hassan El-Banna
himself was assassinated shortly thereafter. After this opposition which they faced greatly
from the government, they had to secretly retreat underground during the revolution of 1952.
Six of them were sentenced to death as they were accused of treason and many others were
imprisoned ("Muslim Brotherhood"). In the article "Washington’s Secret History with the
Muslim Brotherhood", Ian Johnson mentioned that Said Ramadan, the delegate of the Muslim
Brothers and the son-in-law of the MB's founder – Hassan El-Banna- can be simply called an
US agent. In the 1950's and 60's, the United States supported Ramadan hugely. He took over a
mosque in Munich, kicking out local Muslims to build one of the most important MB centers.
Now if they are real religious people who are willing to reorganize the Islamic state, how can
they build their center instead of a mosque that would serve every European and non-
European Muslim? How can they favor their own fortunes over the local Muslims' fortunes?
Ramadan was more interested in spreading his Islamic agenda instead of fighting
communism. "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson. He also stated that every
time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the
European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB
are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill American's goals", he added.
Johnson argued that the West should be more aware of the MB activities as the history always
repeats itself. Then, during the 1960's and 70's, the organization behavior remained greatly
clandestine. After facing huge opposition in the Middle East, the MB moved to Europe in the
103Amin
early 1960s. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had different goals. They have built
mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and
questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best they
can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe and the US
(Vidino 25-34).
In the 1980s, the MB experienced a renewal and once again they were willing to
reform the society with more religious views and embed the government with Islamic
doctrines. They emerged in Egypt, Jordon and Syria at the same time where they were fought
by Hafiz El-Assad –Syria's president- and this resulted in the loss of 25,000 lives. The MB did
not give up and they yearned to participate in the legislative elections in those countries.
Starting from the 1980's till now, the MB kept on participating in the parliamentary elections
in Egypt and boycotting it alternatively depending on the deals they succeeded to make with
the National Party at that time. They were highly opposed and suppressed by the previous
regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January. They
hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just to
stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the
presidency, the MB decided to effectively and continuously participate in the Egyptian
politics ("Muslim Brotherhood").
What has been happening recently in Egypt and how the Muslim Brotherhood were
attempting to capture all the authorities made me stop to analyze their acts and behavior. To
start with, the West was greatly enthusiastic about the MB candidate to win. The entire West
including Obama's administration thinks that they would seemingly have good relationship
with the MB and accordingly will be able to do business together (Johnson). Since the MB's
funding sources are confidential, this raises a question of whether they are funded by the West
in return of executing their orders or not. In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved
104Amin
well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of a central
administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in
Cairo. In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a
partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom
to province-level leaders. This was, in my opinion, to attract all the enemies of mostly the
previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and
autocratic.
Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are
considered a highly confidential matter of their activities as stated previously. They claim that
the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each
administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their respective
sector. There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by
the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in
general. In addition to this, the Muslim Brotherhood is seemingly having extensible
connections with some Islamic banks and institutions. They also control large number of
charitable societies which are of course, financed by the older regime—this may be adding to
their regular budget which they manage to have. Some cases have been suspected for
laundering money and getting money illegally into the country through large organizations
and they turned out to be MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits
and are hiding behind the religion curtain to fulfill all their personal intentions ("Islamic
countries, Egypt").
Further analysis for the party's movement in general shows that although they
dominated the legislative branch –before it was dissolved-, under the given current situation
in Egypt, they amended laws that have nothing to do with politics. They seemed to be isolated
105Amin
from what is happening in the country; their highest concerns were about prohibiting the
sexual websites, legalizing the circumcision of the girls, lowering the marriage age to twelve
years. If we took a look at the different laws introduced by the different members of the
dissolved parliament, we will find that the liberal member Amr Hamzawy for instance, was
raising much more important and closely guarded with freedom and justice laws. Unlike the
MB who just appeal for people religiously. They are very weak politically; they were
proposing and discussing the unconstitutionality of the judiciary if it stated the invalidity of
the Parliament – this can never happen as the judiciary is the most powerful judging
association in the country! They call themselves the "Freedom and Justice Party" where in
fact, this party was dominating mostly all the authorization committees. Starting with the state
council to the Parliament (before it had been dissolved) and this is the farthest thing from
justice. Additionally, they were majority in the Parliament and they used this to amend laws
against the freedom. Part of their propaganda for their renaissance plan is that it takes 16
years to get the desired outcome; does this mean that they are indirectly saying that the people
can't judge them after the first four years until other elections take place? It's very unhealthy,
to the whole society, that only one party with one directed way of thinking take over the most
important and effective authorizations. This prevents the advantages of the objection and the
inconsistency to take place. They will definitely face challenges in different aspects; first of
all, regarding the issue of returning the security to the Egyptian streets – this will never
happen under this huge conflict which is between the people and the security forces (army
and police). The second issue is the economic status now in Egypt. The investors started to
terminate their investments and the economy was falling greatly before the run-off elections
take place.
Despite the fact that MB support and cherish democracy, they have a very well-known
statement which is: Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the democracy, the
106Amin
freedom of speech and the freedom of expression ("BBC News Middle East"). How are they
calling for a democratic state while they do not approve of the freedom of people who do not
agree with them? How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veils while they
are supposedly willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom?
Kelly O'Connell stated in the article "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim
Brotherhood" that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference to which
the people jump back in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to
stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy,
they hold the primary role of women to be the care of the family. They avoid ideological
positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference
between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological
improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB occupied about
47% of the dissolved parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the
upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the
Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of
750,000. He is a MB member though. They are really contradicting themselves very much, I
believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this,
they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore
morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The
constantly changeable MB's decisions were clearly represented when they first won the
parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other liberal parties, controlling 47% of the
seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as
soon as they took over the Parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied.
When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not willing to reach for the
power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential elections of
107Amin
2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they
nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not
accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that
they are not nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections
and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly
recognizable. In Al-Ahram journal, the spokesman of the MB's campaign -Ghazlan- was
interviewed. He was asked why did not he support Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh who had
the same plan and intellect of the MB but ran for the presidential elections independently?
The spokesman answered that he was supporting the MB and Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh
did not represent them! This means that he was not supporting Mohamed Morsi because he
believed he deserves, but because he was helping the MB to reach this position. Will the
people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the
huge failure the MB accomplished in the Parliament and the insatiability they show for the
power? The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic
principles fall to be like Iran? Or flourish to be like Turkey? Now that the Muslim
Brotherhood's candidate won the presidency elections, this question will be answered shortly.
When Islamists took over the Parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and
dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts.
Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs? (Gerges).
Moreover, in one of the conferences held by the Muslim Brotherhood supporting
Mohamed Morsi –their candidate for the presidential elections 2012-- they, after feeling the
victory is close started saying "fatwa" such as: Obeying the ruler is essential even if he is
unjust; whoever do not follow this will be considered doing "haram". On the other hand, they,
on their scale, did this "haram" when they contributed in the revolution against Hosni
Mubarak. This reflects that they are releasing "fatwa's" benefitting nothing but their own
108Amin
good. Not only did they attempt to make agreements with the national party and the old
regime to contribute in the Parliament and now they disregard this –in order not to be called
the "felool" (a word given to anyone who worked in the corrupted old regime of Hosni
Mubarak)-, but also Mohamed Morsi himself has declared before the revolution that Zakareya
Azmy and Botross Ghaly are representable symbols of the old regime and Mahdy Akef has
declared that they support Hosni Mubarak's nomination for the upcoming elections. All of
these declarations and changing their position were for the sake of fitting what the
surrounding society wants the most. Although they were bending to the old regime for so long
willing to have some power and political participation, after the revolution, they have changed
and denied all their previous positions willing also to capture political status. Simply this can
be regarded as if they "go with the flow".
The MB reaction concerning the constitutional declaration of the invalidity of the
elected parliament which they occupied the majority in it is unacceptable! Dr. Mohamed Saad
Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving
the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF.
He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null
arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the
existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people
who elected this parliament. Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected
the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the Parliament will continue
with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be
ranked as the third in the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration
("ikhwanweb"). However, after Mohamed Morsi won the presidency elections, after swearing
the oath of respecting the judicial authorities and in the first ten days of his rule, one of the
first decisions which he made was rejecting the constitutional declaration and recalling the
109Amin
dissolved parliament once again! The validity of this decision is very debatable now, some
people think he has the full right to do so and others think that no, he has done the most
incorrect action on which he should be punished.
Methodology:
The secondary research I did was very beneficial. However, I conducted a survey
using a questionnaire consisting of 12 questions (see appendix A). These questionnaires were
distributed to a randomly chosen sample of people to either confirm or contradict the results I
have reached. I was able to get 110 responses – 60 females and 50 males. Age group was
between 18 and 45. 10 female and 10 male Christians have answered the questionnaire too.
All responses are coming from Egyptians.
Results and Discussion:
The results are all approximated to the nearest whole number. 70% of the males and
53% of the females were strongly familiar with the Muslim Brotherhood, 20% of the males
and 10% of the females had average knowledge about them and the rest were below average.
83% of the males and 53% of the females think that the MB as an organization is politically
active internationally. Only 25% of the males and 18% of the females think that the MB
members who participated in the dissolved parliament had an effective positive role. 69% of
the males and 96% of the females do not favor them over liberals since they do not trust them-
-- here the females' percentage exceeds the males' greatly since the females fear the strictness
of the MB concerning the women rights and so on. 82% of the males and 75% of the females
who do not trust them think that their credibility was highly affected by the latest events in
Egypt. 40% of the males and 20% of the females would not give the party the chance to
capture the executive under normal circumstances. However, they were able to win the
presidency since the opposing candidate was from the old regime. 73% of the males and 55%
110Amin
of the females view their goals as theocratic not political and 9% of the males and the females
view their goals as theocratic and political at the same time. 88% of the males and 80% of the
females do not agree with the rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving
the Parliament even if they support the party in general. 90% of both males and females do
not agree with establishing a theocratic state. Most of the MB members have spent time in jail
under different regimes; 60% of males and 70% of females think this is against them. Last but
not least, 78% of the males and 92% of the females disagree with the early celebration of
Mohamed Morsi after he claimed he won the presidential elections before the authorized
association declared this.
This left me with some unanswered questions which I tried to answer by interviewing
people but failed. Please see Appendix B for the interview questions. The answers I got were
vague and most of them were opinions that won't help me reach a good, accurate and credible
answer. One question that would have helped form a good supported argument if I had found
an answer for it is: why were the MB suppressed by all the leaders and rulers even though
each and everyone of them had different mindset, different agenda and completely different
relationships with the effective elements of the society? Why did they all agree on nothing but
isolating the MB from the political life?
Conclusion:
The MB have as many followers as opponents then. Although they have done a lot of
charity work, helped people tremendously even though they were not in control of high
governmental positions, reformed some areas by giving illiterates free up-to-the-standard
education and had an indispensably crucial role in making parts of the environment much
better, they are greatly opposed. If their main goal is to reform the country, why don't they
reform it without having insatiability for the power?! After representing both the good and
111Amin
bad sides of the MB, we can pause and think deeply. Many situations have been stated against
them that show and support effectively that until now, the MB are only hoping for capturing
the executive branch so that they can have power. No more no less. However, they have been
in control of the executive branch for less than 20 days and we can't judge them now. We
have to wait and see. But unfortunately, what I personally see after analyzing their work in the
first few days is that they are trying to please everybody by some charismatic actions. And it
is well known that when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. Let us all
hope for better Egypt free from the greed of the political elements which need only to fulfill
their personal intentions, caring the least about the commonweal.
112Amin
Works Cited
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14
Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
"Katatny: SCAF's Complementary Constitutional Declaration is Null and Void."
ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun 2012. Web. 20 Jun 2012.
"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun 2012.
Web. 20 Jun 2012.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online
Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York
Times, 14 Jun 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.
Nassar, Abdel-Latif. Al-Ahram Newspaper (translated from Arabic). 24 Jun 2012.
Web. 2 Jul 2012. http://digital.ahram.org.eg/Policy.aspx?Serial=940861
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun
2012.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
113Amin
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Dearly, The." ABC
Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 Jun 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East
Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
114Amin
Annotated Bibliography
Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14
Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
Fawaz A. Gerges stated that when he interviewed a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) member, he mentioned that they learned from their mistakes and they just need more time to swallow the democracy rightfully.
He also talked about what happened in Algeria. When Islamists took over the Parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs?
Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York
Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.
Johnson discussed the MB movement after the revolution. He stated that people fear them, they are not sure how will the MB treat Israel for instance. He however, mentioned that the West -including Obama's administration- thinks they will seemingly have good relationship with the MB and will be able to do business together – this raises the question of whether the MB are funded from the West and they are just hiding behind the curtain of reforming the country with better religious perspectives or are they really caring and they intend to work to the benefit of the Arab world not to the benefit of the West. Again Johnson mentioned that since the history repeats itself, the West should be more aware and put an eye on the MB activities. He is trying to answer the question which is previously stated and he mentioned that the US leaders should take advantage from what happened in the past– every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill America's goals", "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson.
"Katatny: SCAF's Complementary Constitutional Declaration is Null and Void."
ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun.2012. Web. 20 Jun 2012.
Dr. Mohamed Saad Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF. He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the
115Amin
legitimacy according to the existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people who elected this parliament.
Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the Parliament will continue with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be ranked as the third on the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration.
"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun.2012.
Web. 20 Jun 2012.
It was stated that Dr. Mohamed Morsi's presidential campaign announced his victory in the runoff long before it was officially out. Morsi went down in the Egyptian streets celebrating his vicory 6 hours only after ending the voting process. This never happened in any civilized country! An argument against what he has done is maybe he declared himself as the upcoming president so that he can challenge the results if they stated the winning of the other candidate –Ahmed Shafik-.
"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online
Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.
They are a religio-political organization which takes the Quraan and Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and make them more of a modern Islamic state. They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna. They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. At some point of a time, in the 1940s, they reached their peak and their organization consisted of roughly 500,000 members from different and variable backgrounds. They had the same religio-political perspective though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB's as a party which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and bombings and the gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.
The conflicts between the MB and the government were represented. When were they suppressed, under which regimes? And when did they aroused again and participated continuously in the Egyptian politics?
"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York
Times, 14 Jun. 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.
116Amin
In a New York Times article, the constantly changeable MB decisions were clearly represented where they first won the parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other liberal parties, controlling 47% of the seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as soon as they took over the Parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied. When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not looking forward to reaching for the power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of 2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that they are not just nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly recognizable. Will the people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB accomplished in the Parliament?
OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press
... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun
2012.
OConnell stated that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference which the people jump back to in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy they hold the primary role of women should be care of the family. They avoid ideological positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB took about 47% of the Parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to the next Iran? Or flourish to next turkey? –assuming they will dominate the executive and the legislative branches.
"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb.
2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.
The writer stated some facts about the history of the MB. He argued that despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-known statement which is: The
117Amin
Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.
It was mentioned that by the 1940's, this organization have had as many as 2 million followers across the Arab world.
How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veil while they are willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom. "We want a civil state, based on Islamic principles - a democratic state, with a parliamentary system, with freedom to form parties, press freedom, and an independent and fair judiciary” Issam El-Aryan-- In this phrase, they are admitting their willingness to do certain acts while in fact their actions state the opposite. What makes people still believe them? There must be a secret for their popularity.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian
Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.
Ramadan discussed the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.
Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt Dearly,
The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.
Ramadan stated that by the first round of the presidential elections, the Muslim brotherhood has already lost most of its credibility in the Egyptian streets. To a great portion of people, the Muslim Brotherhood is looked upon as a disturbed, unsettled and contradictory organization. They dominated most of the Parliament which is freely elected and they represented one third of the opinions on one hand. On the other hand, they had agreements with the military to fulfill their own fortunes. They are maybe encouraged by the Turkish and Tunisian experiences. No one can overlook the great losses which are likely to take place due to their muddled tactical, strategic and failing errors. Not only will these errors cost them, but the whole country as well.
Turkey, is by all means, different than Egypt. The Muslim brotherhood will not be able to establish the success they persisted in Turkey since the economic position of Egypt is far weaker than Turkey's and its place in the Middle East is far more sensitive. Especially, after taking into consideration the Israel-Palestine conflict.
118Amin
"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.
N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in Cairo.
In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom to province-level leaders. This was, in my opinion, to attract all the enemies of mostly the previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and not democratic at all.
Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are considered highly confidential sector of their activities. They claim that the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector.
There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. In addition to this, the MB is seemingly having extensible connections with some Islamic banks and institutions—this may be adding to their regular budget which they manage to have.
Some cases have been suspected for laundering money and getting money illegally into the country through large organizations and they turned out to be MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits.
Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East
Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.
Vidino mentioned that the MB when they moved to Europe in the early 1960’s after facing huge opposition in the Middle East. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had a different goal. They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe and the US.
119Amin
Appendix A
This is a questionnaire about the Muslim Brotherhood activities in Egypt. Please fill it in. it
won't take more than 3 minutes.
1) How well do you know the Muslim Brotherhood/ Freedom and Justice Party?
Very well
Average
I don't know much about them
2) As an Islamic party, are they politically active internationally?
Very much
Normal
Not at all
3) Rate their representation in the Parliament.
Highly effective
Neutral
Very depressing
4) Do you favor them over liberals?
Yes
No
5) Do you trust them?
Yes
No
6) Was their credibility affected by the latest news in Egypt?
Very much
A little
Not at all
120Amin
7) Would you give the party the chance to capture the executive?
Yes of course
Maybe depending on the other candidates
Never
8) Do you personally view their goals as..
Political
Theocratic
Both
9) Do you agree with their rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving
the Parliament?
Agree
Disagree
Neutral
10) Do you agree with establishing a theocratic state?
Yes
No
11) Most of them have spent most of their lifetime in jail, is this for or against them?
For
Against
12) Are you with or against the early celebration Dr. Mohamed Morsi did 6 hours only
after ending the voting process?
With
Against
Thank you for your time
121Amin
Appendix B
1) How do you perceive the party's insatiability to capturing all the political authorities?
2) King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar El-Saddat and Hosni Mubarak, each had
recognizably different plan, mindset and intellect. However, they all suppressed the
Muslim Brotherhood. Comment
3) Al-Murshid is practically the president of all the Muslim Brotherhood members. After
Mohamed Morsi won the presidential elections, you as a citizen have a president who
is ruled by the Murshid. How do you accept this?