The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt: Pursuing Moderation Within an Authoritarian Environment
Abstract
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is one of the biggest Islamist movements in the Middle East and North Africa, and its role in the future of Egyptian politics deserves careful consideration in light of the recent overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's regime. Over the past decades, the MB has changed its relationship with successive Egyptian authoritarian regimes by continuously renouncing violence and abiding by a moderate path as a means to achieve its objectives. This study uses competing organizational theories to understand the reasons behind the Muslim Brotherhood's decision to pursue a moderate path and reject a radical strategy against different ruling regimes. The relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian state covers a relatively long period of time, marked by the presidencies of Gamal Adel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak. The following questions are addressed: (1) What factors influenced the strategies and objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood in its organizational development?; (2) Did these factors change over time?; and (3) What was the causal weight of different factors on the behavior of the Muslim Brotherhood? The major finding of the study is that, over time, a combination of external and internal factors, such as regime repression, regime constraints, leadership, organizational and generational structures, and ideological influences have shaped the organization's decision making process. Furthermore, the study highlights the stagnation of this moderation in the face of regime constraints, internal leadership, and generational issues, and demonstrates that the mode of recovery from this stagnation will be critical to the Muslim Brotherhood's future as a movement.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA547851
Entities
People
- Thorsten Hoffmann
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School