What is the Muslim Brotherhood?

If you read about Islam in the Middle East, you'll come across references to the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that purports to work toward peace while supporting organizations like Hamas with political and economic power. Like most Muslim organizations, the facts about the Brotherhood are murky to Western eyes, but certain pieces of information are undeniable.

The motto of the Muslim Brotherhood translates to "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." They are unabashedly pro-Sharia (law based on the Koran and Sunnah, or Islamic religious writings) and believe that Islam should order the lives of Muslims from top to bottom.

In addition, they are dedicated to reestablishing the Caliphate, a unified Muslim state. Picture the Pope ruling all of the Catholic world as both political and religious head, and you have the general idea of how that works. The Muslim Brotherhood believe that Islam is destined to be a unified empire stretching from Spain to Indonesia - and should reclaim all the land that Muslims once held, regardless of who holds it today.

Make no mistake: the Brotherhood is undoubtedly the most powerful political organization in the Muslim world today.

History of the Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood was started in 1928 in Egypt by workers in the Suez Canal Company led by Hassan alBanna, and their power helped overthrow Western colonialism and monarchies that supported the West. In 1936, they had 800 members; only two years later, they had 200,000. The close ties held by organizations throughout the Middle East can be traced to the origins of many in the Brotherhood. Though the organization has been variously outlawed and tolerated, and though many of its members have been tortured, imprisoned, and murdered, it has maintained its structural integrity and grown in membership over time.Tragically, it may have been the intolerance of many governments that has led to the radicalization of a number of the Muslim Brotherhood's branches, and to the overall secrecy of the entire group. Had the Brotherhood been allowed to develop like other political and social groups, we might today see a very different Middle East.

Today, major branches of the Muslim Brotherhood are in Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia, Libya, the Maldives, and the United States. In many of these countries, the Brotherhood is the main political opposition to the established government.

Methods of the Muslim Brotherhood

Though they officially oppose any violent means to achieve the goals they have set, there are exceptions. The Muslim Brotherhood supports the violent establishment of a Palestinian state, and attempted overthrow the secular Ba'athists in Syria. The Egyptian government does not trust them, and believes they are responsible for a series of terroristic or Mafia-style killings dating back to World War II. Egyptian government officials systematically attempt to block the Brotherhood from being elected, using all the powers (legitimate or not) they have at their disposal.

Though the Brotherhood has officially repudiated him, Osama bin Laden was strongly influenced in his youth by the Muslim Brotherhood. Sayyid Qutb, one of the most influential members of the Brotherhood, wrote Milestones, in which he called for the use of "physical power and Jihad" to re-establish Sharia throughout the Muslim world.

Finances for the Muslim Brotherhood come primarily from tithes by members, including some of the wealthiest oil billionaires in Saudi Arabia.

Beliefs of the Muslim Brotherhood

Once the Caliphate is established, the Brotherhood want to work toward social justice, eliminating poverty and corruption, and the establishment of freedom provided it does not violate sharia law. This includes freedom of movement, but not true freedom of religion; racial equality, but not sexual equality.

In many countries, the Muslim Brotherhood is very active in charitable and poverty organizations. For this reason, they tend to have strong support among the poor.

Though the Muslim Brotherhood officially opposes terrorism, this public stance is met with some skepticism. One reason for this is that many radical and violent branches and members have broken away from the Brotherhood in disagreement with this policy. Also, many Western analysts have stated that the official policy is just a stance, and that the Brotherhood claims to abhor terrorism while quietly supporting it. Dr. Ahmad Al-Rabi, a former Kuwaiti government official and today columnist, has stated that all the Muslim religious terrorism we see today is rooted in the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas is part of the Brotherhood, and Al-Jazeera is widely acknowledged to be the media wing of the organization.