Muslim Brotherhood: II Period (1952-70)

Transition

The history of Muslim Brothers is a continuous tension between periods of PERSECUTION and periods of COLLABORATION with the power.

1952-1954: “Holy Revolution”: alliance between Muslim Brothers and Free Officer Group. It was a quite harmonious revolution because people were united in fighting against British.

But it soon became clear that the various parts of Egyptian society were not in accord about their future tasks.
During the Holy Revolution the alliance had been produced because of a convergence of interests, but at the same time there was also a convergence between programs: Muslim Brothers wanted to fight against illiteracy, such as Nasser, that promoted a socialist program.
But their source was Qu’ran, while the source of Nasser was an economic source. However, Muslim Brothers agreed with Nasser on many political issues (e.g. nationalization of Suez Canal). The problem was that Nasser didn’t want to cooperate with any social group, because he wanted to control the society and create a new structure.

1954-1970: Nasser’s persecutions
Tens of thousands of Muslim Brothers were arrested and tortured. However, the society maintained a great number of members, but there were some problems:
- leadership;
- lack of organization due to Nasser’s persecutions;
- internal fragmentation (as a consequence of Al-Banna’s death). The society was divided in groups with different attitudes.

The successor of Al-Banna was moderate; Sayyd Qubt was more radical, but he had more influence on Muslim Brothers’ activities. Sayyd Qubt suggested that Egypt was not an Islamic country, but an “ignorant” country that didn’t know Islam. Indeed, the radicalism of Muslim Brotherhood can be considered a parenthesis.

1967: defeat of Egypt against Israel (Six Days War) ➔ questions about its ability to protect its citizens and resist to Israel. The socialist program of Nasser did not improve the material conditions of the majority of Egyptians ➔ Muslim Brothers proposed new solutions.