Ikhwanweb :: The Muslim Brotherhood Official English Website

No Cause to Delay Democracy

Egypt is facing a moment of truth. The great hopes of its revolution are fading as activists rage against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and society divides over the role of Islamists...

Uncertainty and optimism in Egypt

After briefly sizing me up as I surveyed his offerings, the street bookseller near Cairo’s Tahrir Square approached me and asked: “Muslim Brotherhood books or revolution books?” I suppose the concerns of Americans scanning Arabic books in Cairo are just that obvious...

The Qaradawi Index

Yusuf al-Qaradawi is in the news these days, denounced on a daily basis on Saudi, Palestinian and Egyptian op-ed pages, forums and TV over his stances on Gaza, on Hamas and Abu Mazen, on Yemen, and more. Following those controversies is an excellent window into what divides and arouses passion in Arab politics today...

Conservative gains in Muslim Brotherhood elections

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has just announced the results of its internal elections to the 16 member Guide's Office (which acts a sort of executive branch for the movement)...

Spoilt ballots

Moderate Islamist movements across the Arab world have made a decisive turn towards participation in democratic politics over the last 20 years. They have developed an elaborate ideological justification for contesting elections, which they have defended against intense criticism from more radical Islamist competitors. At the same time, they have demonstrated a commitment to internal democracy remarkable by the standards of the region, and have repeatedly proved their willingness to respect the results of elections even when they lose...

Cracking down on moderate Islamists

The detention of the three MB bloggers is part of a wider crackdown which has directly targeted the most moderate and pragmatic figures within the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. That ongoing policy escalated dramatically with the arrest of several members of the MB’s Guidance Council. The arrested figures including Abdel Monem Abou al-Fattouh, a leading moderate and pragmatic figure within the Egyptian MB, on what appear to be trumped up charges related to his alleged activities with t..

Qaradawi’s Revisions

His book, described by the Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm last week in a seven part series, is far more important than the much-discussed "recantations" and "revisions" of former jihadist intellectuals such as Dr. Fadl (Sayid Imam) and the leaders of the Gama’a Islamiya. The internal revisions by ex-jihadists (which Qaradawi praises) may influence that tiny group of extremists, and demonstrate cracks in their intellectual foundations. But for the most part, the mass Arab public h..

Where are Egyptian politics going? A panel discussion

An Egyptian delegation making the rounds of DC stopped by the Elliott School this morning to talk about the Cairo political scene and their hopes to improve American-Egyptian relations after what they described as a few turbulent years. While some of their other meetings are likely off-the-record, their gracious agreement to appear in a university setting open to the public allowed students, faculty and members of the public (including a number of Egyptian-Americans) the chance to ask..

Should we support internet activists in the Middle East?

I spoke yesterday at the Open Society Institute about the political impact of new media in the Middle East. Thanks to everyone who showed up, and the great questions and discussions which followed. In many ways it was a pessimistic talk, which pushed back against expectations that new media technologies like blogs, Facebook or Twitter were going to radically change politics in the short or medium term. Over the longer term, there is a more real transformative potential, especially fo..

The next Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood

Mohammed Mehdi Akef, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, has just announced that he will not seek a second term and will step down within a few months. This announcement by the 81 year old Akef creates an extremely interesting and important moment in the history of the Brotherhood. The change in leadership has potentially wide-ranging implications for moderate Islamist movements throughout the Middle East..

PIPA: Muslims still don’t like al-Qaeda or the U.S.

The University of Maryland’s Project on International Policy Attitudes headed by Steve Kull has just released the results of its latest survey of Muslim public opinion. The survey was carried out between July and September 2008 in eight countries, including Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories. The main findings should not be surprising: ..

The conversation

Barack Obama has vowed to restore America’s stature in the Arab world. A task so enormous, writes Marc Lynch, demands a new approach to public diplomacy that seeks engagement rather than victory...

How did the Gaza war affect Palestinian public opinion?

I’ve just seen the first public opinion survey carried out in the West Bank and Gaza since the war, and the results are about what you’d expect: Hamas has gained politically and Fatah has declined. Since I haven’t seen it reported anywhere yet, here are the main findings of the survey carried out by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center between January 29-31:..

How badly did Gaza poison the well?

I would argue that the Gaza crisis did impose significant costs on the new administration, and will make its task much more difficult in the early going. Few in the region seem prepared to grant Obama a fresh start, with the horrific conditions in Gaza still drawing great attention and outrage. But at the same time, if the Obama administration seizes the opportunity to really change the Bush approach -- in ways consistent with its own campaign rhetoric on regional engagement -- then it..

AQ and IT

Last week I was invited to give a talk about the likely impact of trends in information technology on al-Qaeda. I thought I would put at least few of the ideas from that talk out here, even though I don’t have an actual text to reproduce...

USIP Future of US Forces in Iraq

I sat (okay, stood outside the overflow room) through a two hour panel at the US Institute for Peace this morning, chaired by Daniel Serwer and featuring Kimberly Kagan, Charles Knight, Colin Kahl, and Rend al-Rahim, devoted to the future of U.S. forces in Iraq. It was an unusually rich panel discussion, and all four panelists made useful and thoughtful contributions. ..

Why U.S. strategy on Iran is crumbling

’Everywhere you turn, it is the policy of Iran to foment instability and chaos," Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Gulf dignitaries in Bahrain last month. But in reality, everywhere you turn, from Qatar to Saudi Arabia to Egypt, you now see Iranian leaders shattering longstanding taboos by meeting cordially with their Arab counterparts. ..

FYI Upcoming Appearances

For those in DC or the Boston area, FYI: I’ll be doing the following events over the next two weeks, all of which I assume are open to the public though you may have to RSVP:.....

Doing dialogue in Cairo

I’m just back to the US, and now I can say a bit more about where I was and what I was doing. Some readers might recall that last month I published an essay in Foreign Policy magazine, "How to Talk to America", cast as a memo to the Supreme Guide of the MB. ..

AMS open letter to resistance

The Association of Muslim Scholars, one of the most influential Sunni organizations in Iraq, has just released an unprecedented open letter to the "resistance". According to the Al-Haq Agency, this is the first time that the AMS has publicly addressed the resistance as a whole, making it a fairly significant event. Like the essay by Abd al-Rahman al-Rawashdi posted last week, the AMS argues that the time has come for the resistance to reap the fruits of its successful jihad against..