Purposes
This research proposal paper outlines various methods imposed by Muslim Brotherhood in transforming themselves from socio-religion organization to a political party. It outlines the challenges faced by the Muslim Brotherhood in their struggle for political posts.
Introduction
Sheikh al Bassan formed Muslim Brotherhood, the largest religious-social association in the modern era, in 1928. It has the largest operation and immense influence of all Islamic divisions operating among Sunni-Muslim societies in the Middle East and elsewhere. Its rise took place during the fall of Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. The main goal of the establishment of Muslim Brotherhood was probably to provide a genuine cultural, political, and socio-economic response to the challenges of modernity brought about by Westerns. The group aimed at liberating Egypt and Palestine land from foreign rule, reestablishment of Islamic rule, and reunification of the Muslim nation.
Objectives
I propose to review the procedures inputted by the Muslim Brotherhood into moving from the socio-religion organization to political acquaintance. In this analysis, I will attain three goals:
- Find the founder of the faction and the aims of the founder.
- Outline the challenges faced by the members of the group while juggling their goals.
- Outline the outcome of the Muslim Brotherhood after achieving their goals.
Review of the literature
The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the movements that had a quick and random spread in Cairo. Its main role at the beginning was to serve workers who had gone into exile while under the rule of the British. The social service network achieved by the Muslim created room for bringing the Muslim Brotherhood into power. Its flexibility enabled recruitment of many members within short spell of time. The organization of the Muslim Brotherhood led to the creation of internal tension and disagreements in Egypt for some time. It was during the first decade when the movement organizational structure emerged. Hassan al-Banna was its general guide with assistance of an operating wing formed with the intention of it liberating Muslim land. The movement violent acts began in the 1940s against the British and senior officials. In the year 1949, the Muslim Brotherhood disapproved the British thought of overwhelming them by assassinating one of the regime leaders. This had led to the death of assassination of Hassan as revenge from the British (Campo 88).
The support offered by the free officials motivated the Muslim Brotherhood into juggling their goal. However, the signing of Nassers treaty with the British over Suez Canal led to the torturing of the movement leaders and activists. This had also led to the division of the Muslim Brotherhood into factions due to lack of leadership. Difference in opinions among the factions led to the cropping of armed struggle as the solution to the problems encountered by the Muslims, and punishing of non-supportive Muslims.
The execution of Sayyid Qutb in 1966 led to the Islamists imposing violent teachings acquainted from him, which later resulted in Al-Qaeda. Four years after the execution of Qutb, Sadat came to power influencing the Muslim Brotherhood into loving politics, Sadat had ordered for the release of movement activists. During his reign as a leader, Sadat led to rejuvenation of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was thirsty for leadership. It was during this same period under the reign of Sadat that Islamic activism became extraordinarily strong. The assassination of Sadat in 1981 in his attempt to hit Muslim Brotherhoods infrastructure, and the arrest of the activists fueled the fight of Islamists against the Egyptian regime, and due to fear of Islamic terrorism, President Mubarak allowed the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition parties to have a reunion. (Zahid 26)
The Muslim Brotherhood kept on making some movements into the government bodies such as public institutions as student’s organizations and trade unions. They also made efforts of breaking into the army, media, police, and law apparatuses. In the mid 1990s, the Muslim Brotherhood made some remarkable achievements in apprentice organizations and university teaching bodies (Zahid 46).
The movement played an audacious game in that they avoided as much confrontations as possible while penetrating into political scenes based on their social support. The group members even took part in election of official associations. It was within the same year, when the Muslim Brotherhood came into full possession of the official political establishments. In the year 1992, while the Islamists were taking victory over Algeria the Muslim Brotherhood, on the other side, presented their documents full of plans on how they were going to take over Egypt. The release of Muslim Brotherhood members and leaders in the year 2000 led to the formation of new political triumph. In the year 2005 election, the Muslim Brotherhood emerged the winner by securing a majority of the contested seats. In the short life span spent in power, the movement in cooperation with other opposition elements took part in political protest against the regime (Testa, Lemoine and Strickland 600).
Methods
- Conduct a literature review on materials provided by authors in the library.
- Interview some members well versed with Muslim history to clarify the information gained from books.
Questions I will use to avoid inflicting my meanings to the interviewee.
- Tell me about anything concerning the Muslim Brotherhood.
- What are your perceptions of the conducts of the Muslim Brotherhood?
- How are they spread?
Limitations: direct questioning of the Muslims over what they know of their past whereas I am not a Muslim is too challenging.
Delimitations: To avoid cases of conflicts with people from other religion, I acquainted much of my information from the library.
Works Cited
Campo, Eduardo Juan. Encyclopedia of Islam: Facts on File library of religion and mythology. NY: Infobase Publishing, 2010. Print.
Testa, David W., Florence Lemoine, and John Strickland. Global History: Cultural Encounters from Antiquity to the Present. Armonk, NY: Sharpe Reference, 2004. Print
Zahid, Mohammed. The Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s Succession Crisis: The Politics of Liberalisation and Reform in the Middle Eat. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012. Print.