<
http://isnblog.ethz.ch/isn-security-watch/the-imperial-dream-of-the-muslim-
brotherhood> The Imperial Dream of the Muslim Brotherhood
Felix Imonti on Monday, 5 February 2013
The end will justify the means to unite the Islamic peoples into a world of
virtue and prosperity to where the Muslim Brotherhood says that it will
bring them. Egypt is their launching platform. The entire Islamic world is
their objective.
If they were running for office in the United States or any European country
on their economic platform of job creation, the sanctity of private
property, and a social safety net, they will likely win. It all sounds
perfect. Then, you learn that you have just voted for the Muslim
Brotherhood.
Members of the movement come from the upper levels of Egyptian society. They
are the businessmen, doctors, university professors, military officers, and
other professionals. Over their eighty four year history, they have
infiltrated every area of government, education, and industry.
If its economic policies are all there is about the movement, it would pose
no threat in the public mind. What does frighten so many is the secrecy that
shields the organization from scrutiny and the negative propaganda spread by
worried authoritarian regimes. Under such circumstances, it is
understandable that the attacks by various governments would have forced the
Brotherhood to protect itself beneath a cloak of secrecy.
They have grown in societies that are authoritarian, corrupt, and have shown
little inclination to invest in the development of the society. Saudi Arabia
has a quarter of its youth unemployed in spite of the wealth generated by
the vast oil resources. Beyond the petroleum industry, the Kingdom has done
little to expand its economy in order to absorb the coming generation: and
that is true of most of the region where sixty-five percent of the
population is under the age of twenty-nine years.
What makes the Brotherhood different from the other movements that have
emerged in the Middle East is that it has blended religion with a political
and economic philosophy. Brotherhood members are missionaries in business
suits who present the promise of a traditional Islamic based prosperous
technically advanced society while their Salafi rival advocates in their
robes offer to take people back to the seventh century in search of moral
purity.
Not until the overthrow of the Mubarak regime in Egypt has the world had an
opportunity to glimpse into the souls and minds of the Brotherhood followers
as they deal with the political power that was never available to them
before. For the more than three generations of growth, the movement has
undergone a metamorphous that has made it difficult to grasp what the
philosophy really is. What that has meant is that the Brotherhood in the
various countries where it has been established has adapted to the differing
environments.
You could describe it as the Zen philosophy of water. Add heat and the water
becomes steam. Remove the heat and the water is ice. Add one item and it is
coffee. Change the ingredients and it is human blood. Whatever its outer
character, it will always revert to its true nature.
What is the essence of the Muslim Brotherhood? Through much of its history,
the Brotherhood has employed the use of violence against various
governments. They helped to end the British rule over Egypt and were granted
recognition as a nationalist force only to be outlawed later in 1954 after
attempting to assassinate Gamal Nasser who introduced a military centered
secular society. Osama bin Laden was a member of the Saudi organization.
Ayman al-Zawahiri his chief deputy was a member of the Egyptian Brotherhood.
Sayyid Qutb in 1964 and a philosopher of the Egyptian based movement wrote
in Milestones, his key work, that any government that did not subscribe to
Sharia Law and the strict Moslem moral code should be overthrown. His work
has inspired many
<
http://www.cfr.org/africa/egypts-muslim-brotherhood/p23991?cid=nlc-public-t
he_world_this_week-link10-20121207> jihadists.
After the retaliation by Nasser in the 1950s and the Syrian massive killings
in 1981, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence as an instrument
to achieve power. Renouncing the use of what they did not have meant that
the movement was in reality relinquishing nothing.
Instead, the Brotherhood through association with other parties or through
individuals without an Open affiliation with the Brotherhood sought
political office in the 1984 election. The policy was to get some people
into office without appearing as a political threat. It was the cultivating
of the art of maintaining insignificance That Deng Xiaoping would advocate
for a newly emerging China at about the same time. The Brotherhood later
summarized their actions with the slogan, "participation, not
<
http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-muslim-brotherhoods-democratic-d
ilemma-6205> domination."
That has been the cautious pattern followed right up to the Egyptian
Revolution that saw the removal after a mere eighteen days of riots and
demonstrations of President Mubarak. At first, the Brotherhood stood aside
while other groups went into the streets. Only after they saw that the mobs
presented a major force that had the potential of pulling down the
government did the Brotherhood reveal its real muscle by ordering its own
trained and armed followers from the sports clubs into the streets.
Suddenly, the police were overwhelmed. Ninety-nine police stations across
the country came under attack.
Satisfied that the conditions for the Brotherhood to claim power had
arrived, the Freedom and Justice Party was established. Morsi, the enforcer
in the governing Guidance Bureau held such a position of trust within the
organization that he was granted the chairmanship of the party and was the
negotiator with the security forces. Haunted by memories of prior oppression
by the military and police, the Brotherhood would not make a move until they
were assured that they would be granted recognition as a legitimate
political
<
http://www.currenttrends.org/research/detail/egypts-muslim-brotherhood-afte
r-the-revolution> party.
There was within the post Mubarak regime three points of power within the
chaos. The army with its tanks and guns, the disorganized secular and
liberal movements, and the Muslim Brotherhood along with the supporting
Salafi organizations.
The Brotherhood offered to the armed forces a structured organization with a
central command in the Guidance Bureau and disciplined members. It would
provide the army with the means to relinquish its unwanted role of governors
of the government. For nearly sixty years, the military had ruled from the
shadows and it was back to the safety of the shadows to where they sought to
retreat.
What the army wanted was the status quo as far as its place in Egyptian
society was concerned. That was the price that the Brotherhood would have to
pay; and the Brotherhood has been willing to give the generals whatever they
want as demonstrated in Articles 193 through 197 of the new
<
http://www.theislamistsarecoming.com/islamists/article/egypt%E2%80%99s-draf
t-constitution?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ww_12_07_
12> constitution.
The Minister of Defense is to be selected from and by the officer corps of
the armed forces and is to be the commander in chief. A National Defense
Council will manage the military budget that will be beyond the jurisdiction
of the parliament. The army will have as well the authority to arrest
civilians whose actions threaten the armed forces.
The Brotherhood has been condemned by critics as having abandoned their
principals by cutting a deal with the armed forces. Students of the
characteristics of water will readily recognize the real nature of the
movement. The primary objective is to acquire power peacefully and Morsi and
his Brotherhood colleagues are pursuing that goal by simply adapting to the
situation.
The provisions of the constitution that assure the continued privileged
status of the armed force in effect remove the military from the political
stage. Articles 193 through 197 grants to the Brotherhood the license to
pursue its own agenda.
That agenda is revealed in Article 10 in the preamble of the new
constitution.
Arab unity is a call of history and of the future, and a demand of destiny.
Such unity is to be reinforced through the integration and fraternity with
countries of the Nile Valley and of the Muslim world, both a natural
extension borne out of the distinctiveness of Egypt's position on the global
map.
Article 4 of the constitution takes an idea one step further. For the first
time in modern Egyptian constitutional history, a body separate from the
legislative body has been created to review all legislation in order to
determine if it complies with Sharia Law. What is also of interest is to the
responsibility of the organization to carry their views beyond the
frontiers, a point mentioned as well in Article 10 in the Preamble.
Al-Azhar is an encompassing independent Islamic institution, with exclusive
autonomy over its own affairs, responsible for preaching Islam, theology and
the Arabic language in Egypt and the world. Al-Azhar Senior Scholars are to
be consulted in matters pertaining to Islamic law.
Other articles of the constitution stress the need to strengthen the Arabic
languages and values. There is the view that too much foreign influence has
corrupted the indigenous cultures.
Although Mohammed Morsi is the president of Egypt, he was not the first
choice. Khairat el-Shater, the former deputy supreme guide of the
Brotherhood and its de facto leader had been nominated by the Freedom and
Justice Party, but was disqualified. Only at the last moment did Mohammed
Morsi enter the political contest. Why this point is important is because
the members of the Brotherhood outside of Egypt must swear an oath of
loyalty to the Supreme Guide. If the Supreme Guide were also the president
of Egypt it would have created a major point of conflict between Cairo and
the other Arab states where there are Brotherhood chapters.
What is emerging in Egypt is a return to the era of gamal Nasser. He offered
the principal of the "Three Circles of Power." Those were Islam, oil, and
the Suez Canal. He united Egypt and Syria briefly in the United Arab
Republic.
Fifty years later, the Middle East is far wealthier than it had been during
the time of Nasser, but it remains politically backward and has seen little
economic or cultural growth. The Brotherhood sees itself as the means of
transforming the region and accomplishing what their old enemy only dreamed
of achieving. With chapters throughout the Middle East and beyond wherever
there is a Moslem population, they look upon a united Islamic culture that
would rival the West as it had when Moslem culture extended into Spain.
During those lost days of glory, Moslem armies were spreading the Faith far
beyond the region; and Arab intellectuals were making advances in the
sciences, mathematics, and the arts.
Of course, all of this could change abruptly if the Brotherhood is swept
from office, except that the army needs them because there is no one to
replace them.
Felix Imonti, the retired director of a private equity firm currently living
in Japan. This article was
<
http://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Middle-East/The-Imperial-Dream-of-the-Musli
m-Brotherhood.html> originally published by ISN partner,
<
http://oilprice.com> OilPrice.com.
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Received on Tue Feb 05 2013 - 14:28:45 EST
