The Muslim Brotherhood Faultline in Saudi-Qatari Relations: Domestic Divisions and Regional Rivalry

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Fall 2021) ◽  
pp. 51-61
Author(s):  
Mustafa Menshawy ◽  
Simon Mabon
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

The commentary argues the Saudi-Qatari tensions lie in conflicting perspectives about the role of political Islam within the fabric of both states and their actions regionally. Funda-mentally, the rivalry stems from contrasting relations between political and religious elites in each country which has taken on an increasing political importance in tensions between Riyadh and Doha. Central to much of this are questions about the role played by the Muslim Brotherhood (and its various affiliates). More relatedly, the Saudi-Qatari rifts emerge out of competing understandings of authority and legitimacy, and with it, concern at the contesta-tion of these claims.

scholarly journals Social and Institutional Origins of Political Islam

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 376-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEVEN BROOKE ◽  
NEIL KETCHLEY
Keyword(s):  
Census Data ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
State Administration ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Economic Infrastructure ◽  
State Infrastructure

Under what conditions did the first Islamist movements organize? Which social and institutional contexts facilitated such mobilization? A sizable literature points to social and demographic changes, Western encroachment into Muslim societies, and the availability of state and economic infrastructure. To test these hypotheses, we match a listing of Muslim Brotherhood branches founded in interwar Egypt with contemporaneous census data on over 4,000 subdistricts. A multilevel analysis shows that Muslim Brotherhood branches were more likely in subdistricts connected to the railway and where literacy was higher. Branches were less likely in districts with large European populations, and where state administration was more extensive. Qualitative evidence also points to the railway as key to the movement’s propagation. These findings challenge the orthodoxy that contact between Muslims and the West spurred the growth of organized political Islam, and instead highlight the critical role of economic and state infrastructure in patterning the early contexts of Islamist activism.

Repression of Islamists and Authoritarian Survival in the Arab World: A Case Study of Egypt

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Lachapelle
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
State Repression ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Authoritarian Survival

This chapter explores the causes of state repression against Islamist organizations in the Arab world. Advancing a rich literature on state repression, authoritarianism, and Islamist politics, it proposes a new approach that centers on the role of non-Islamist audiences for explaining the repression of Islamists. Specifically, the chapter argues that when society is divided between non-Islamists and Islamists, an autocrat can repress Islamists to signal a commitment to non-Islamists to protect them from perceived threats by Islamists. It provides supporting evidence from Egypt, which shows how large-scale repression directed at the Muslim Brotherhood after the coup of 2013 served to cultivate the support of non-Islamists.

scholarly journals Securitizing the Muslim Brotherhood: State violence and authoritarianism in Egypt after the Arab Spring

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Pratt ◽  
Dina Rezk
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Securitization Theory ◽  
Middle East Politics ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Arab Spring

Unprecedented levels of state violence against the Muslim Brotherhood, and the widespread acceptance of this violence by Egyptians following the July 2013 military coup, have been under-examined by scholars of both critical security studies and Middle East politics, reflecting implicit assumptions that state violence is unexceptional beyond Europe. This article explores how the deployment of such levels of violence was enabled by a securitization process in which the Egyptian military successfully appropriated popular opposition to Muslim Brotherhood rule, constructing the group as an existential threat to Egypt and justifying special measures against it. The article builds on existing critiques of the Eurocentrism of securitization theory, alongside the writings of Antonio Gramsci, to further refine its application to non-democratic contexts. In addition to revealing the exceptionalism of state violence against the Muslim Brotherhood and highlighting the important role of nominally non-state actors in constructing the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to Egypt, the article also signals the role of securitization in re-establishing authoritarian rule in the wake of the 2011 uprising. Thus, we argue that securitization not only constitutes a break from ‘normal politics’ but may also be integral to the reconstitution of ‘normal politics’ following a period of transition.

The Image of Europe and the Role of its Muslims, as Portrayed in the Contemporary Islamic Debate on Muslim Minorities

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-207
Author(s):  
Carlo De Angelo
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Arab Muslim ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Muslims In Europe ◽  
Muslim Minorities ◽  
Muslim Scholars

Abstract This article examines one of several ways in which the Muslim presence in Europe is discussed or justified in Islamic terms. It mainly analyses the position of those scholars, some of them close to the Muslim Brotherhood (like Al-Qaradawi and Mawlawi), who have claimed that not only can Muslims live in Western Europe, but that they should live there. In fact, according to them Europe is a context in need of Muslims and that Muslims need it too: Europe needs the moral example Muslims can set there and Muslims need Europe in order to spread Islam. In this light, the presence of Muslims in Europe is both legitimate and necessary, and their absence unthinkable. This article is the result of an examination of particular essays and edicts which Sunni Arab Muslim scholars have contributed to the debate surrounding Muslim minorities in Europe, published between the years 1960-2000.

Political Islam: An African Perspective

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 88-103
Author(s):  
Hussein Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
African Continent ◽  
The Future ◽  
African Perspective ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

Political Islam continues to gain adherents across the African continent. In an attempt to understand why this is the case, this article explores the historical evolution of political Islam or Islamism. Three case studies are then provided to examine the implementation of this ideology—the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Sudan’s National Islamic Front and Al Shabab in Somalia. In conclusion, we examine the future of political Islam from the perspective of secularism.

scholarly journals A commitment to politics: the trajectory of the Muslim Brotherhood during Egypt's 2011–13 political opening

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Wilmot
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Military ◽  
Islamist Movement ◽  
Rare Opportunity

Prior to the 2011 Arab uprisings, Islamist parties in most Arab states had been systematically prevented from exercising any meaningful authority in government. Following President Hosni Mubarak's ousting from power in 2011, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) established a political party – the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) – and formally entered mainstream politics, providing a rare opportunity to examine the role of an Islamist party in the context of democratic transition. Contrary to concerns that the MB might use Egypt's political opening to install an undemocratic regime, the movement instead committed itself to electoral politics and consistently adhered to the framework for political transition. An analysis of the MB's political trajectory during the 2011–13 timeframe reveals that the movement endeavoured to protect Egypt's democratic transition against the encroachment of the military and the judiciary. Despite the FJP's efforts, sustained interference by non-elected institutions brought Egypt's democratic experiment to a premature end. This course of events confirms that an Islamist movement is capable of fully committing to politics, but also indicates that political commitment alone is insufficient to ensure a successful transition to democratic governance.

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