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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 5 - 11 October 2000 Issue No. 502 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 5 - 11 October 2000 Issue No. 502
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The Brothers' last sigh?
By Amira Howeidy
The death of Ibrahim Sharaf, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood's secretary-general, last month offered the 72-year-old group the opportunity to stage a "show of strength." The funeral was attended by hundreds of followers from various generations who, had they gathered for a different occasion, would have been arrested. The funeral was also an opportunity for the press and media to be present and for 81-year-old Mustafa Mashhour, the group's Supreme Guide, to make firebrand statements, such as "the Brotherhood's state will be established" in 30 years.
Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan El-Banna
A few weeks earlier, the Brotherhood's Alexandria chapter had released a list of its election candidates, which included for the first time the names of a woman and a Copt. But the Copt, lawyer Samir Mansour, later said he was not planning to run for election.
Mashhour announced that 70 Brotherhood figures will contest the elections, running as independents. But the number swelled to approximately 90 when the registration process began last week.
Despite what many observers viewed as clear messages from the state that it does not wish to see members of the illegal group run for election, the Brothers appear to be determined. But the majority of candidates are little known, apart from Jihan El-Halafawi, the Muslim sister of Alexandria, her husband Dr Ibrahim El-Zaafarani, assistant secretary-general of the Alexandria chapter of the Doctors Syndicate, Ma'moun El-Hodeibi, the group's spokesman, and Seif El-Islam Hassan El-Banna, son of the group's founder Hassan El-Banna.
Some analysts believe that the Brotherhood's decision to contest the forthcoming elections, and their choice of candidates, do not express confidence in their ability to win seats, but rather reveal an attempt to ameliorate the grave internal problems that have plagued the group since 1996.
"The Brothers are not contesting the elections this time with the objective of winning seats in parliament," argues Diaa Rashwan, a senior researcher at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies. "This was their only choice. It would have been difficult for them to take any other course in view of two factors; the first is that since December 1994, they have been targeted by the state. So as a political force, they want to show that the crackdown has not intimidated them," says Rashwan. But what is more important, he adds, is that the Brotherhood is facing real threats to its existence and unity. "So there is no better opportunity than the elections to achieve two objectives: winning an extensive press coverage which, for them, is more important than the elections themselves and attempting to re-unite Brotherhood ranks."
Some 180 Brotherhood candidates ran in the last elections of 1995, but only one, Ali Fath-El-Bab in the Helwan constituency, made it to parliament.
Notwithstanding the Brotherhood's motives, their decision to contest the poll is not without political risk, according to Rashwan. "I believe that the voting process [in the forthcoming poll] will be fair, as a result of Judicial supervicison. But of what comes before the vote, such as arrests? For such a strong political force to contest the elections and only win one or two seats is a major political risk because it impacts its reputation. Moreover, the opposition, mainly the Tagammu and Wafd, are likely to win a larger number of seats this time than in the past. So the results will appear to reflect the actual size of the Brotherhood."
INTERNAL CRISES: The Brotherhood's gamble may well misfire, according to observers. If it proves unable to win more than one or two seats, such a result would resonate inside the organisation, which already is suffering from internal crisis. "The organisation is being run by a group of people who became politically active in the 1930s. How can such people lead the group into the 21st century?" asked Rashwan. "Unless the group is restructured to allow the third and fourth generations, who actually constitute the bulk of the rank-and-file, to take over, the Brotherhood will collapse."
The leadership crisis has been exacerbated by the government clampdown. The government's attitude towards the illegal organisation took a dramatic turn in 1995 when it put on military trial some of the group's most energetic up-and-coming leaders, in what observers consider to have been the harshest clampdown on the Brotherhood since 1965. This younger group of rising Brotherhood stars included Essam El-Eryan, assistant secretary-general of the Doctors Syndicate, Ibrahim El-Zaafarani, secretary-general of the Alexandria chapter of the same syndicate, and Mohamed Habib, an Assiut University professor. A second batch of 33 men, including journalist Salah Abdel-Maqsoud, was later put on military trial.
The sentences they received ranged between three and five years imprisonment. This was followed by a clampdown on the three professional syndicates that the group controlled -- those of engineers, doctors and lawyers -- which were placed under judicial sequestration.
In 1996, a number of the Brotherhood's younger members applied for the establishment of a legal political party, Al-Wassat (Centre), without the knowledge or approval of the group's historical leadership. Although the Political Parties Committee turned them down, the pressure put by the leadership on Al-Wassat group led to their mass exodus from Brotherhood ranks. The split opened a Pandora's Box of internal dissension, which had hitherto been kept well under wraps. For the first time in the Brotherhood's history, the top leadership, as well as the highly centralised and authoritarian organisational structure it presided over, came under heavy fire from within the group's own ranks. Moreover, with younger, more pragamatic and dynamic leaders behind bars, it was left to that same aged leadership to manage the crisis, ultimately leading to further demoralisation within Brotherhood ranks.
Last October, security forces detained 20 suspected members of the group. On 25 December, they were put on a military trial on charges of plotting to revive the outlawed organisation's activities and gain control over professional syndicates. The case has been dragging on since then.
ELECTION BACKDROP: In 1984, the Muslim Brotherhood forged a coalition with the Wafd Party that won 58 seats in the People's Assembly, with the majority going to the Brotherhood. Raising the slogan "Islam is the solution," the group achieved a similar victory in 1987 after allying itself with Ibrahim Shukri's Labour Party and the late Mustafa Kamel Murad's Liberal Party. The tripartite or "Islamic alliance" won a staggering 78 seats, of which 36 went to the Brotherhood.
These alliances were necessary to enable Brotherhood members to run on the slate of a licensed political party. But with the switch to the individual candidacy system, 180 Brotherhood figures ran as independents in 1995. Only one made it to parliament.
GENEALOGY: The Association of Muslim Brothers, which scholars hold to be the first wide-scale, organised and international Islamist movement, was founded in Ismailia by Hassan El-Banna in March 1928.
L-R Hassan El-Gamal, Essam El-Erian and Sheikh Sayed Askar behind bars in the 1995 military trial
The Brotherhood is led by a Supreme Guide, assisted by a General Guidance Bureau, the executive body responsible for formulating policies and running the group's activities. There is also a consultant assembly called the Shura Council.
As the group celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1948, El-Banna declared that Islam was a universal religion and that his movement was an international one. The group's two immediate objectives, he continued, were reviving and applying the Islamic social system and contributing to social service.
In 1948, Prime Minister Mahmoud El-Noqrashi issued a military decree dissolving the group on the grounds that it had secretly plotted to overthrow the monarchy. Twenty days later, a young Brotherhood member carried out the group's most daring act of violence, the assassination of Noqrashi inside the Interior Ministry building.
El-Banna was killed by government agents on 12 February 1949.
A court of law later exonerated the Brotherhood of the charge of plotting to overthrow the monarchy and, on 30 April 1951, the ban on the group was rescinded after the Wafd Party won the elections and set up a new government.
A decree dissolving political parties in January 1953 did not cover the Brotherhood on the grounds that it was not a political party. But a year later, the decree was invoked against the Brotherhood by President Gamal Abdel-Nasser who ordered that the group be dissolved.
In 1954, the government accused the Brotherhood of attempting to assassinate Nasser; as a result, thousands of its members were rounded up and some were put on trial. Of these, six were sentenced to death and executed and seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Following Nasser's death in 1970 and Anwar El-Sadat's rise to power, jailed Brotherhood members were released and the mainstream Brotherhood renounced violence.
In 1977, the group filed a lawsuit with the administrative court demanding that the 1954 decree, which disbanded it, be declared null and void. This demand, however, was turned down in 1992 and the group filed an appeal with a higher court.
Related stories:
Brothers forward a new image, and a sister 31 August - 6 September 2000
Waiting for the Bar? 3 - 9 August 2000
Brotherhood in decline? 25 Nov. - 1 Dec. 1999
A major split in the Brotherhood? 30 July - 5 August 1998
Politics in God's name 16 - 22 November 1995
See also Running as religious duty
The 1995 elections
