Article Review of Islamic Mobilization: Social Movement Theory and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (original) (raw)
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Islamism and Social Movement Framework.pdf
2019
The paper used the theoretical framework of social movement to explain the mobilizing ability in Islam. It argued that the nature of Islam which unifies faith and politics gives it the ability for mobilization.
The hope for democratic transition in the Middle East has largely faded. With the exception of Tunisia, most Arab Spring countries are overshadowed by counter-revolutions and / or are threatened by sectarian unrest or civil war. Still, the short wave of popular protest against authoritarian rule, which swept through Tunisia and then engulfed Egypt, provides rich material to explore processes of democratic transition. A comparison between Egypt and Tunisia is valuable because their respective republican regimes fell after a relatively short period of fierce protests, but without damaging the national integrity of the state. As such, the Egyptian and Tunisian cases can be seen as way-markers in debating theoretical aspects of authoritarianism and democratisation.
PhD Thesis, European University Institute, 2012
In the 2010s, Islamist activism has been on the rise across the Middle East and North Africa for decades now. In the light of the post-revolutionary elections in Egypt and Tunisia, Islamist parties are sweeping the polls supported by the overwhelming majority of voters. This dissertation investigates the dynamic of this support for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The explanation of individual activists’ motivation behind this form of middle-class activism has been investigated by exploring individual beliefs, emotions and identities. Activists’ motivational explanations and representation do not develop in a vacuum, outside of a specific context. Explaining the configuration of collective action therefore requires an analysis of a pattern of social characteristics using a spectrum of social movement theories. The long-term contentious relationship between the various Egyptian authoritarian regimes and the Muslim Brotherhood produced an Islamist resistance culture with a particular set of incitements for would be activists. Middle-class activists have primarily been motivated by the Brotherhood’s ability to educate its followers through a multi-stage membership process. During this process youth activists have acquired a strengthened sense of individual purpose. They also possses organizational skills and have successfully ascended the social ladder, leading to a feeling of moral superiority and a degree of personal autonomy even within an authoritarian socio-political context. The social movement organization serves as a facilitator of structured dissent and its success depends ultimately on its ability to recognize the basic needs of a frustrated population. Sympathizers of a particular social movement organization in turn seek realistic forms of dissent which correspond to their system of values and practices.
IIUM JOURNAL OF HUMAN SCIENCES, 2021
Social movements have become an important topic within sociology in modern times. Even though it has not reached a consensus regarding its definition and typology, people define it as a collective action against a particular class to achieve a specific end. It has been articulated through various theories and perspectives. Sometimes, it is also compared with notions such as political parties, interest groups, civil society, and religious organisations. However, it has been presented both as a catalyst for social change and a result of social change and structure. The objective of this paper is to examine various social movement theories, especially concerning its relevance to social movement analysis of Muslim societies. This paper also investigates a Muslim perspective of social movement peculiar with Muslim societies, focussing on the Arab spring particularly the Egyptian case, to understand the scope and relevance of social movement theories in the Muslim world. The content analysis method are used to achieve the objectives. This paper finds that social movement is suitable as an analytical tool, not an empirical category, to understand Muslim societies. However, instead of any theory or paradigm, a multidisciplinary approach is more compatible to be used in the study of the Muslim world.
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt: Organizational Challenges and Ideology
The Muslim Brotherhood’s loss of power on the one hand and the security campaign against it on the other have opened up debates as to whether these circumstances will push the movement to make significant changes to its ideology and organization, driving it either towards openly following peaceful strategies and tactics, or adopt an ideology of violence. The main questions of this report are what challenges the Muslim Brotherhood face in trying to overcome their internal divisions and whether the Muslim Brotherhood will maintain the peaceful stance it adopted during the coup, or whether it will be forced to adopt a policy of armed violence. The report will also discuss whether the Muslim Brotherhood will be able to find a way back into the political system.
Muslim Brotherhood: Ideology, Organization, and Activism
The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements, 2023
The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the most important groups and movements of political Islam around the world. It operates under different names that vary from one country to another. The Muslim Brotherhood is also one of the largest social movements that seeks to achieve social, political, religious, and cultural reform in the Muslim world. The group emerged in the early twentieth century and spread widely throughout the Arab and Muslim world and became one of the most influential movements in the political, social, and cultural realms. It has millions of supporters and sympathizers from Malaysia and Indonesia to Morocco as well as in Europe and North America.
Muslim Brotherhood and Its Developments in Egypt
2022
The oldest faction of the modern Islamic movement is the Muslim Brotherhood, which was established by Sheikh Hassan al-Banna in 1928 AD. Hasan al-Banna tried to bring together the various Islamic intellectual currents in his group in order to unite the ranks of Muslims in the face of the dangerous challenges facing them, so he declared, “We are a Salafi da’wah and a Sufi reality”, but Hasan al-Banna stressed that Sufism is a means and not a goal and that it is an educational method and not a dervish discourse, but this did not succeed in reunification except to a limited extent. In the Brotherhood there are Salafist and Sufi currents, and so on. Al-Banna attacked the intellectual aspect that contradicts Islam in Western civilization, but he benefited from various Western sciences because they did not clash with Islam, especially the science of organization, management, journalism, media, and others. The Muslim Brotherhood in the whole world still applies the principles of Hassan al-Banna in general until now.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist Call and the Orientation Towards State and Society in Egypt
The Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist Call and the Orientation Towards State and Society in Egypt, 2024
This book considers the time span between 1981 and 2013, which is shaped by the rule of Hosni Mubarak until the ousting of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013. Although the two movements are Egyptian movements, their ideologies reach far beyond Egyptian borders. This book will enrich one’s understanding of the difference between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist Call and the ideological transformations of each of them by focusing on the impact of the Egyptian regime’s power network (ideological, economic, military, and political) on these transformations, and studying the ideological attitudes of both movements to many issues such as political participation, democracy, women’s issues, minorities, freedoms, and systems of governance. This first requires an exploration of the regime’s power networks and the relationship between these sources of power, which are both featured in this book.
Egypt's Islamic Movement began to take hold and gain popularity in the 1930s and spread immensely not only in Egypt, but in many other Muslim countries as well in the 1970s and 1980s. In general, the movement calls for Islamic law to ultimately be the basis for civil law. It does not believe that religion and the state need to be, or should be, separated. In Egypt, the largest, most popular, and best organized entity supporting this movement was and continues to be the Muslim Brotherhood.
Journal of the Human and Social Science Researches, 2020
The Muslim Brotherhood witnessed an unexpected political power with its electoral victory in legislative and presidential elections soon after the fall of Mubarak in Egypt. Although the Brotherhood enjoyed high popular support, to a great extent, thanks to its charity activities and social services, soon after Morsi took office, this popular support began to diminish dramatically. On the first anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration as president, millions of Egyptians took to the streets to protest against his administration. Massive street protests ended up with a military coup that eliminated the prospects for Egypt’s transition to democracy. This article investigates how the Brotherhood’s policies vis a vis the deep state in Egypt made the organization vulnerable in the awake of street protests in 2013. First, the article makes a brief overview of the historical evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood and then, it explores critical decisions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood leadership during Egypt’s transition and their implications. Finally, it examines the organization’s policies in the aftermath of the coup.