Before the revolution, the idea that Egypt might one day become an Islamic state wasn’t up for debate. Then, the word was that the Muslim Brotherhood movement had been losing its grassroots support for years. The country’s secular intelligentsia was of the general opinion that the Mubarak regime was using such scaremongering threats as ‘it’s either us or the Brotherhood’ to counteract pressure from Washington to democratise.
Whenever I discussed the topic with educated Egyptians leaning tentatively towards the Brotherhood’s ideals, they would argue that the banned organisation had long renounced violence and extremism—and now consisted of moderates striving to improve the plight of the poor. That argument is shared by US Director of Intelligence James Clapper who was roundly criticised for referring to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as a ‘secular’ group.
These days, Brotherhood leaders are selling themselves as quasi-liberals keen for Egypt to evolve into an open, pluralistic democracy encompassing the aspirations of all Egyptians. Cognisant that Western powers are suspicious of their true intent, smiling Brotherhood spokespeople have been putting on a liberal face on satellite networks, appearing on the BBC’s Hard Talk and The Doha Debates.
Two unresolved questions: Are they wolves in sheep’s clothing or is their new moderate, reformist ideology inclusive of all sectors of Egyptian society? And just how much support do they still enjoy?
The Brotherhood is not a monolith, as evidenced by the resignations last week of several of its leaders angered by a statement from the Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohammad Badie ordering members to join the movement’s planned Freedom and Justice Party. According to the Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm, many more defections are expected.
In response to criticism that the Brotherhood would rail against a Coptic Christian presidential candidate, former Muslim Brotherhood Chairman Mohammad Mahdi Akef says his movement has no problem with a Copt heading the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, which rings of he who doth protest too much.
There are also serious differences among the Brotherhood’s old guard and reformers over the relaxation of Islamic principles towards acceptance into mainstream politics. An article published on the Brotherhood’s website, Ikhwanweb, titled ‘Freedom and Democracy, is more important than Leila Al Baradei’s bikini’ and ending with the line “nothing is worse than dictatorship and autocracy even if it is social liberalism” was slammed by Brotherhood hard-core for downplaying the group’s adherence to Islamic ethics and morals.
Judging by other articles on Ikhwanweb, the core fundamentals of the Brotherhood are unchanged. One reads, “We completely reject the way that Western society has almost completely stripped women of their morality and chastity.” Well-known members of the Brotherhood have also admitted that the group’s aim is for Egypt to ultimately become an Islamic state but they are careful to add the proviso ‘with the consent of the Egyptian electorate.’
Organised movement
The picture gets even murkier when it comes to the Brotherhood’s current following. Until recently, adherents, fearful of being whipped away by Mubarak’s security services, were loath to show their true political colours. The fact that a national referendum on amendments to the constitution that would bring about parliamentary and presidential elections by the end of the year was accepted by 77 per cent of voters is a coup for the Brotherhood. This advantage is because, aside from Mubarak’s discredited National Democratic Party, the Brotherhood is the only organised and known political movement in the country. The result was a slap in the face for the revolutionary youth who wanted to wait up to 18 months for elections to give new parties and candidates time to communicate their manifestos.
One thing is certain. Egypt is safe from any covert aspirations the Brotherhood may be harbouring in the short term, as the organisation will not field a presidential candidate during upcoming elections and is targeting just 30 percent of parliamentary seats.
The same cannot be said for the 2015 ballot when the worst case scenario would be for the Brotherhood to join with its offshoot, the Al Wasat Party and/or the Salafists, that have always been apolitical but are now planning to participate in the post-revolutionary political order. There is no doubt that a growing number of Egyptians are rattled.
But nobody is as rattled as poor deluded Glenn Beck of Fox News who regularly spouts his paranoid theory that the Brotherhood plan to turn the US into an Islamic state or the Islamophobic author Daniel Pipes who believes—or pretends to—that the Brotherhood is working towards a global Muslim Caliphate. What’s the betting Beck and Pipes won’t be heading to Neiman Marcus to buy burqas for their wives any time soon?
No one can know for sure what power and influence the Brotherhood wields or how centred its members are around a single agenda. Or even what that supposedly remodeled agenda looks like. It’s, therefore, up to Egypt’s next government to listen to the electorate and fulfill people’s expectations before the Brotherhood can get a hefty foot in the door, which is not what Egypt’s youth revolution was all about.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
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Could Egypt emerge as an Islamic state in the future?
Posted on April 6, 2011 by Linda S. Heard
Before the revolution, the idea that Egypt might one day become an Islamic state wasn’t up for debate. Then, the word was that the Muslim Brotherhood movement had been losing its grassroots support for years. The country’s secular intelligentsia was of the general opinion that the Mubarak regime was using such scaremongering threats as ‘it’s either us or the Brotherhood’ to counteract pressure from Washington to democratise.
Whenever I discussed the topic with educated Egyptians leaning tentatively towards the Brotherhood’s ideals, they would argue that the banned organisation had long renounced violence and extremism—and now consisted of moderates striving to improve the plight of the poor. That argument is shared by US Director of Intelligence James Clapper who was roundly criticised for referring to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as a ‘secular’ group.
These days, Brotherhood leaders are selling themselves as quasi-liberals keen for Egypt to evolve into an open, pluralistic democracy encompassing the aspirations of all Egyptians. Cognisant that Western powers are suspicious of their true intent, smiling Brotherhood spokespeople have been putting on a liberal face on satellite networks, appearing on the BBC’s Hard Talk and The Doha Debates.
Two unresolved questions: Are they wolves in sheep’s clothing or is their new moderate, reformist ideology inclusive of all sectors of Egyptian society? And just how much support do they still enjoy?
The Brotherhood is not a monolith, as evidenced by the resignations last week of several of its leaders angered by a statement from the Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mohammad Badie ordering members to join the movement’s planned Freedom and Justice Party. According to the Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm, many more defections are expected.
In response to criticism that the Brotherhood would rail against a Coptic Christian presidential candidate, former Muslim Brotherhood Chairman Mohammad Mahdi Akef says his movement has no problem with a Copt heading the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, which rings of he who doth protest too much.
There are also serious differences among the Brotherhood’s old guard and reformers over the relaxation of Islamic principles towards acceptance into mainstream politics. An article published on the Brotherhood’s website, Ikhwanweb, titled ‘Freedom and Democracy, is more important than Leila Al Baradei’s bikini’ and ending with the line “nothing is worse than dictatorship and autocracy even if it is social liberalism” was slammed by Brotherhood hard-core for downplaying the group’s adherence to Islamic ethics and morals.
Judging by other articles on Ikhwanweb, the core fundamentals of the Brotherhood are unchanged. One reads, “We completely reject the way that Western society has almost completely stripped women of their morality and chastity.” Well-known members of the Brotherhood have also admitted that the group’s aim is for Egypt to ultimately become an Islamic state but they are careful to add the proviso ‘with the consent of the Egyptian electorate.’
Organised movement
The picture gets even murkier when it comes to the Brotherhood’s current following. Until recently, adherents, fearful of being whipped away by Mubarak’s security services, were loath to show their true political colours. The fact that a national referendum on amendments to the constitution that would bring about parliamentary and presidential elections by the end of the year was accepted by 77 per cent of voters is a coup for the Brotherhood. This advantage is because, aside from Mubarak’s discredited National Democratic Party, the Brotherhood is the only organised and known political movement in the country. The result was a slap in the face for the revolutionary youth who wanted to wait up to 18 months for elections to give new parties and candidates time to communicate their manifestos.
One thing is certain. Egypt is safe from any covert aspirations the Brotherhood may be harbouring in the short term, as the organisation will not field a presidential candidate during upcoming elections and is targeting just 30 percent of parliamentary seats.
The same cannot be said for the 2015 ballot when the worst case scenario would be for the Brotherhood to join with its offshoot, the Al Wasat Party and/or the Salafists, that have always been apolitical but are now planning to participate in the post-revolutionary political order. There is no doubt that a growing number of Egyptians are rattled.
But nobody is as rattled as poor deluded Glenn Beck of Fox News who regularly spouts his paranoid theory that the Brotherhood plan to turn the US into an Islamic state or the Islamophobic author Daniel Pipes who believes—or pretends to—that the Brotherhood is working towards a global Muslim Caliphate. What’s the betting Beck and Pipes won’t be heading to Neiman Marcus to buy burqas for their wives any time soon?
No one can know for sure what power and influence the Brotherhood wields or how centred its members are around a single agenda. Or even what that supposedly remodeled agenda looks like. It’s, therefore, up to Egypt’s next government to listen to the electorate and fulfill people’s expectations before the Brotherhood can get a hefty foot in the door, which is not what Egypt’s youth revolution was all about.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.