Muslim Brotherhood

The Society of the Muslim Brotherhood is an international Islamic political and social welfare organization that was founded by Hasan al-Banna' (1906–1949) in 1928 as a means of resisting British imperial influence in Egypt. Al-Banna' was a schoolteacher in Ismailia, where there was a large British presence due to the city's location on the strategically important Suez Canal.

Al-Banna' became convinced that the way to throw off imperial rule was through renewed adherence to Islamic principles expressed in the Sharia, the Islamic legal tradition. The Brotherhood thus helped Muslims establish social welfare programs for the poor, the creation of medical clinics, food distribution centers, and primary schools. In addition, it encouraged land redistribution, unemployment payments, unionization, and the replacement of foreign investment with local. They promoted Islam as an alternative to Western materialism, claiming that it offered spiritual comfort and social justice.

In the 1930s the group branched out into Syria and, in 1939, became a recognized political party in Egypt. In the 1940s, as economic conditions worsened and the masses became increasingly alienated from Egypt's rulers, the Brotherhood's membership swelled to 500,000. The Brotherhood's activities came to include violence against foreigners, their businesses, and their supporters. The government responded by suppressing them.

In 1948 members of the Brotherhood were implicated in the assassination of Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi (1888–1948). In 1949 the Brotherhood issued pamphlets that called for "Muslim rule"; shortly after they were distributed, an unidentified man shot al-Banna'. Many Egyptians believe that the government workers who took al-Banna' to the hospital were instructed not to treat him; they consider his murder to be politically motivated. In 1952 members of the Brotherhood helped to overthrow the pro-British monarchy and establish a republic.

Collusion with the new government ended with an attempted assassination of President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918–1970) in 1954. Thousands in the Brotherhood were imprisoned as a result, including the editor of the Brotherhood's journal—Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966). Qutb's ideas had a profound influence on the Brotherhood's ideology and attitude toward the West. The West's adoption of the secularist separation of church and state, he argued, had caused "spiritual schizophrenia." Westerners segregated spirituality from their daily lives and, in his view, alienated themselves from life's real meaning. Most troubling to him, however, was the West's attempt to impose their beliefs on Muslims through imperialism.

Qutb wanted to bring spirituality back into daily life by creating a government and social structure based on Sharia. He believed that Muslims were obligated to fight those who prevented the establishment of this government, that their mission was religiously legitimate as jihad, and that those who died in this fight were not truly dead, for their influence lived on.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Brotherhood produced several splinter groups that embraced Qutb's radical call for action. One of these assassinated President Anwar al-Sadat (1918–1981) in 1981; another became the Palestinian group known as Hamas in 1988. The mainstream Brotherhood has become more moderate since the 1990s; members seek to influence government policy through democratic processes. In Egypt, several members have held office as independents, while the Brotherhood now functions as an opposition party in Jordan.

see also Egypt; Islamic Modernism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berman, Paul. "The Philosopher of Islamic Terror." The New York Times Magazine 23 (March 2003).

Cleveland, William L. A History of the Modern Middle East, 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000.

Mitchell, Richard P. The Society of the Muslim Brothers. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.