Overview
The Muslim Brotherhood
The Muslim Brotherhood is a multi-national Islamic revivalist organization based in Egypt and founded by a primary school teacher, Hassan al-Banna. Originally established in 1928 as a social youth club stressing moral and social reform rooted in Islam, by 1939 it had turned into a political organization. From its founding in 1928 through today, the Muslim Brotherhood has been a focal source of opposition to the government, rejecting the Western influences of secularism and modernization. Despite a constitutional ban against religious-based political parties and the Brotherhood’s technically “illegal” (though highly tolerated) status, members have been elected to Egypt’s parliament as independents in 1984, 1987, 2000 and most recently in Egypt’s 2005 Parliamentary elections, in which the Muslim Brotherhood won a record high of 88 seats of the total 454. The Muslim Brotherhood has given rise to several militant and violent organizations, for which, it has received much criticism from opposing groups and even amongst the off shoots themselves.
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Ideology
Defining an Islamic State
Al-Banna’s Islam was an all-encompassing one:
“We believe the provision of Islam and its teachings are all inclusive, encompassing the affairs of the people in this world and the hereafter. And those who think that these teachings are concerning only with the spiritual or ritualistic aspects are mistaken in this believe because Islam is a faith and a ritual, a nation and a nationality, a religion and a state, spirit and deed, holy text and sword…The Glorious Quran…considers [these things] to be the core of Islam and its essence” (Moaddel 197)
Here, al-Banna, reveals how the Brotherhood derives their definition of an ideal Islamic State through their interpretation of the Quran. Previous reformists, such as Mohammed Abduh and his disciple, Abduh Rashid Rida wrote of the philosophies with which al-Banna identified. Rashid Rida committed himself to the salafi movement; a movement committed to "a restoration of an earlier golden age of Islam, the period of the pious ancestors, the 'salaf al-salih'" (Brown 214). Al-Banna became a disciple of Rida and ardently adopted Rida's interpretation of what comprised an Islamic State. Although al-Banna's Islamic State near directly mimicked the Islamic State proposed by salafiya reformism, his gained more popular support and, thus, became the first mass movement for Islam. Al-Banna believed that the spread and creation of a genuine Islamic State could only occur through the banning of Western ideas and influence on Sharia doctrinal laws. Sharia is the code of law derived from the Quran.
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