Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

Can Obama erase ‘Bush nostalgia’ in the Middle East?

Obama has reverted to Clinton-era policies in the Middle East. But Arab reformers are nostalgic for something more like Bush’s “freedom agenda,” which helped usher in a promising moment for Arab reform...

What if the Next Iranian Regime is Just as Bad as This One?

There is another issue that sanctions advocates never address: what if their proposal results in a new government, but the new government wants to pursue a bomb and continue Iran’s foreign policy? As far as they are concerned, nothing meaningful will have changed.....

POMED on engaging Islamist movements.

Since we're talking about the Muslim Brotherhood this morning: Shadi Hamid and Amanda Kadlec have a good new POMED paper out on engaging political Islamist movements, like the Brotherhood and Jordan's Islamic Action Front...

How to Talk to Islamists (Without Getting Frightened) .

If you've ever wondered whether we've engaged with Islamists, whether we can, and, perhaps more importantly, whether we should, then you're in luck...

Nuggets from New Muslim Brotherhood Leader's Al-Jazeera Interview

As some of you know, the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest and most influential Islamist group in the Middle East, recently elected a new leader...

A Radical Turn for the Muslim Brotherhood?

On January 16, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt – the largest and most influential Islamist movement in the Middle East – announced the election of a new General Guide, the organization’s top leadership post. There has already been considerable speculation, though relatively little in English, on what this might mean for the Brotherhood and broader Islamist trends in the region...

Obama and the Middle East: One Year On, A New Beginning?

Nearly a year since U.S. President Barack Obama spoke on the Washington Capitol steps of a “new way forward” with the Muslim world – and more than six months since his landmark Cairo speech of June 2009, perceived administration failures to follow up with tangible policy changes on the ground are causing growing disillusionment in the Arab and Muslim world...

Obama and the Arab World: The Honeymoon Is Really Over Now

There's no doubt that there's been growing Arab disappointment with President Obama, but I'm beginning to sense the disappointment - both understandable and expected - turning into something altogether more worrying...

The End of Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda is spent as an ideological force in the Arab and Muslim world, so we might as well come out and say it, and, hopefully, act like it too...

Did Al-Qaeda ever matter as much as we think it did?

Al-Qaeda was never the threat some thought it was, and others wanted it to be. Al-Qaeda was never going to become mainstream, because other organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, that were strong opponents of al-Qaeda were already quite popular, commanding the loyalty of millions in the region. These were the mainstream, nonviolent Islamists, and it was never coincidental that Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s no. 2, had written an entire book accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of betraying the Islamic cause by, among other things, participating in elections...

The Middle East and the 'Paradox of Engagement'

A new article of mine on Obama's Middle East strategy has just come out in Democracy..

The Cairo Conundrum

In his June 4, 2009 speech at Cairo University, President Barack Obama dramatically raised expectations for U.S. policy in the Middle East, among Americans and Muslims both...

The Cairo Conundrum

In his June 4, 2009 speech at Cairo University, President Barack Obama dramatically raised expectations for U.S. policy in the Middle East, among Americans and Muslims both...

Should the Burqa be Banned?

The issue of the burqa (or the niqab) is one that I’ve struggled with because it forces us to choose between competing goods. It cuts to fundamental questions of the limits of tolerance and free speech. Mona Eltahawy is a courageous advocate for women’s equality and I enjoy her columns a great deal, but I find her most recent piece for the New York Times somewhat perplexity. ..

The U.S. in Iran: "Stop Meddling"?

Even Islamist leaders activists – those most concerned with distancing themselves from the U.S. – regularly call on America to meddle, by putting more pressure on Arab autocrats (see here for an interesting example). Mainstream Islamists also regularly express their desire to engage in dialogue with Americans. Presumably, this would be the ultimate “kiss of death.”..

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Regime

The Brotherhood, founded in 1928, is the oldest and most influential Islamist movement in the Middle East, with branches in most Arab countries. The group went underground during the rule of President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1954-70), who imprisoned or executed most its leaders. Hoping to counter the influence of the left, President Anwar el-Sadat released Brotherhood members from prison and allowed the group to operate with a degree of freedom. ..

Muslim Brotherhood Will Attend Obama Speech in Cairo

The POMED Wire, the blog of the Project on Middle East Democracy, is breaking the news that ten parliamentarians from the Muslim Brotherhood will be attending Obama’s..

How Can the U.S. President Speak to Two Audiences at Once?

Such skills and rhetorical ability will be sorely needed in Egypt. Already, the selection of Egypt, rather than, say, Indonesia, Morocco, or Turkey, has been interpreted by members of the embattled Egyptian opposition as a tacit endorsement of President Hosni Mubarak’s increasingly repressive regime. Mixed in with such concern is a kind of repressed nostalgia for the days of late 2004 and 2005 - the now blurry "Arab spring" - when the Bush administration seemed, for a moment at least, ..

The Future of US-Egypt Relations

Perhaps, sometimes, a bit of ambition must be sacrificed for a bit of realism, as much as some of us may dislike the way the word "realistic" is misused these days. In any case, the vision Greg lays out in this paper is actually doable, not later but now, and we hope the Obama administration will consider the policy recommendations, particularly in light of some recent signs suggesting that the administration is de-emphasizing human rights and democracy in the bilateral relationship. ..

Debating Democracy in the Obama Era

I wrote last month about an open letter, which I’ve helped organize, on the need to make democracy in the Middle East a top priority, which was signed by leading American and Muslim scholars and experts. The Washington Post, in an editorial, cited it, saying "[the letter’s] depth and breadth vividly shows that the Obama administration could find many allies for progressive change in the Middle East - if only it looks beyond the rulers’ palaces."..