rhet201-08 portfolio summer'12

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Laila Amin

Rhet 201-08

Portfolio Summer

'12

Instructor Michael

Gibson

12 July 2012

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Table of contents

Cover letter 3

Journals 4-14

Annotated Bibliography 15-25

Questionnaire and Interview Samples 26-29

Drafts 30-97

Final I-Search Paper 98-121

Presentation 122-126

Images (clarifying some class notes) 127-128

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Cover Letter

This is my RHET 201-08 portfolio for summer '12. It contains all the writing pieces, drafts

and rough brainstorming for the six-week course. This portfolio is way different than any

other portfolio I have submitted before. Since we were granted the opportunity to talk about

any topic we are interested to know more about without any restrictions, this made the course

extremely enjoyable. Thank you Dr/ Mike for allowing us to enjoy the process that much and

meet all the course objectives as well. The I-search experience is much more appealing,

enjoyable and helping students to be much more self-motivated. For this, I am truly grateful.

I have decided to organize my portfolio chronologically maintaining the sequence we were

asked to follow in class but grouping the journals together, the drafts of the paper together and

so on.. so you can see how the process went and observe the progress until the conclusion was

written answering the research question I had in the very beginning. I hope this would be up

to your expectations.

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Journal 1

Exploring topics:

In my opinion, this course gives us the opportunity to explore whichever topic that interests us the most. For me, now, I am very confused and I have the most diversified collection of

topics. First, the role of women after the revolution is one topic that I want to know more about. Another one is whether democracy is well applied all over the world or not and how

does it affect the lives of the people not necessarily to the better. I am not sure if this is relevant to the course but I would really like to know more about the football museum in

Brazil I. Maybe, transplanting organs –is it ethical or not. I am not really sure of what I want to research about, these are very primarily suggestions which will of course be modeified.

Another topic is the ultras phenomenon all over the world – how they appeared, what were their goals and how is their movement evolved over time. Actually this is the most interesting

one in my opinion however, it is really hard and I will face a lot of limitations. I am really indifferent between several topics. I don't want to make a bad decision. I think I will need more time. What about the evolution of media and how it affected the elections. No, you

know what, the football players in Egypt would have better opportunities when they resign and the can work in better positions that well qualified engineers and doctors. This I think, is one topic which Is very weird and interesting –to me at least. How can football players have these huge salaries and job opportunities unlike the engineers and doctors. These are usually low class uneducated people who know how to play football. Clubs invest millions in these

players and they suddenly become a social celebrity. No actually I am not into these so much. I find choosing the topic really hard. I don't know what should I write now. I am trying my

best but my ideas are very broad and contradicting.

Journal 2

As I finally arrived at the most seemingly interesting topic to me, I can now narrow my research to the 'Muslim Brotherhood' party. There are so many things that still look like a mystery to most of the people. You hear them talking, you believe them. They have an extremely strong ability to convince whoever they talk to. They have a great renaissance plan which they nowadays want to implement in Egypt and commonly in the Arab world where they dominated recently high positions in such as Tunisia and Sudan. Who are they? Where did they start? How are they funded? Is there a hidden hand that motivates them to crawl seeking power and authority or do they really care to change Egypt to a better Islamic moderate state? Will Egypt eventually end up the new Turkey or the new Afghanistan and/or Iran. Talking about their history and their political, economic and intellectual perspectives will definitely help people analyze and relate what's happening within the party itself –the problems and divisions they have nowadays within the members of the party and how can this affect the whole society. Some supporting ideas would be the division that took place in Sudan just after the Muslim Brothers took over. Also, in Palestine, Hamas –which are the representatives of the Muslim brotherhood there- have inner problems and quarrels with the other moderate Islamic party Fateh. What is the reason behind this? Do these quarrels should light up a certain idea in either the MB's fans or opponents? Many questions are imposing

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upon the political arena that force people to pause and think critically. What are the people's hopes and predictions for the new Egypt after the Muslim brothers have taken over the parliament and are nominating one candidate for the presidential elections 2012. Some illustrative examples and analyzing situations which previously occurred will allow the reader to follow up and have their own point of view regarding the upcoming stage. This research paper aims to analyze the Muslim Brotherhood's history and discuss the question whether they are Islamists who lack political experience and are just keen to reach high and strong positions for their own benefit or are they willing to implement some kind of plan which will be to the benefit of everyone –the society as a whole. This is what I think of primarily and may of course change by more research. This is roughly what I think I should talk about.

Journal 2- Revision 1

Muslim Brotherhood

In an article from the encyclopedia Britannica which is an academic edition I found some information about the history of the Muslim Brotherhood which will help me a lot in my research:

They are a religion-political organization which takes the Quraan and Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and make them more of a modern Islamic state. They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna. They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. At some point of a time, in the 1940s, they reached their peak and their organization consisted of roughly 500,000 members from different and variable backgrounds. They had the same religio-political perspective though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB's as a party which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and bombings and the gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.

The government started to feel the threat of the MB on them and that’s why they attempted to dissolve the organization. This did not pass easily; the MB in return assassinated Mahmoud Fahmi El-Nukrashi –the Prime Minister at that time. Hassan El-Banna himself was assassinated shortly thereafter. After this opposition they faced greatly from the government, they had to be secretly retreated underground during the revolution of 1952. Six of them were sentenced to death as they were accused of treason and many others were imprisoned. Thereafter, during the 1960's and 70's, the organization behavior remained greatly clandestine.

In the 1980s, the MB experienced a renewal and once again they were willing to reform the society with more religious views and embed the government with Islamic doctrines. They revived in Egypt, Jordon and Syria at the same time where they were fought by Hafiz El-

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Assad –Syria's president- and this resulted in the loss of 25,000 lives. The MB did not give up and they urged to participate in the legislative elections in those countries. Starting from the 1980's till now, the MB kept on participating in the parliamentary elections and boycotting it alternatively. They were highly opposed and suppressed by the previous regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January. They hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just to stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the presidency, the MB decided to effectively and continuously participate in the Egyptian politics.

In the New York Review of Books, the writer Ian Johnson discussed the MB movement after the revolution. He stated that people fear them, they are not sure how will the MB treat Israel for instance. He however, mentioned that the movement, to the west -including Obama's administration- think that the west will seemingly have good relationship with the MB and will be able to do business together – this raises the question of whether the MB are funded from the west and they are just hiding behind the curtain of reforming the country with better religious perspectives or are they really caring and they intend to work to the benefit of the Arab world not to the benefit of the west. Again Johnson mentioned that since the history repeats itself, the west should be more aware and put an eye on the MB activities. He is trying to answer the question which is previously stated and he mentioned that the US leaders should take advantage from what happened in the past – every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill American's goals", he said.

Said Ramadan, the delegate of the Muslim Brothers and the son-in-law of the MB's founder – Hassan El-Banna- can be simply called an US agent as Johnson stated. In the 1950's and 60's, the United States supported Ramadan Hugely; he took over a mosque in Munich, kicking out local Muslims to build one of the most important MB centers. Now if they are really religious people who are willing to reorganize the Islamic state, how can they built their center instead of a mosque for everyone. How can they favor their own will to the mosque that will serve all the European Muslims! Ramadan was more interested in spreading his Islamic agenda instead of fighting communism. "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson. However, the US changed its position quietly after the incident of September 11 when they followed the MB and found out that they are backed by terrorists.

In the Muslim Brotherhood's profile in BBC News, the writer stated some facts about the history of the MB. He argued that despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.

It was mentioned that by the 1940's, this organization have had as many as 2 million followers across the Arab world.

How are they calling for a democratic state while they do not approve of freedom of act? How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veil while they are willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom. "We want a civil state, based on Islamic

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principles - a democratic state, with a parliamentary system, with freedom to form parties, press freedom, and an independent and fair judiciary” Issam El-Aryan. In this phrase, they are admitting their willingness to do certain acts while in fact their actions state the opposite. What makes people still believe them? There must be a secret for their popularity. This will, of course, be discussed in the research.

In the article Obama, Egypt and History of the Muslim brotherhood, the author Kelly OConnell stated that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the datum which the people jump back to in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to stress on applying the shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy they hold the primary role of women should be care of the family. They avoid ideological positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB took about 48% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to the next Iran? Or flourish to next turkey?

In a New York Times article, the constantly changeable MB decisions were clearly represented where they first won the parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other liberal parties, controlling 48% of the seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied. When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not creeping for the power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of 2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that they are not just nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly recognizable. Will the people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB accomplished in the parliament?

In the article "Muslims Brotherhood's key role in Egypt" in the CNN website, the author Fawaz A. Gerges stated that when he interviewed a MB member he mentioned that they learned from their mistakes and they just need more time to swallow the democracy rightfully.

He also talked about what happened in Algeria. When Islamists took over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When Islamists took

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over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs?

Journal 3

Muslim Brotherhood

http://www.meforum.org/687/the-muslim-brotherhoods-conquest-of-europe?gclid=CN_hhMzAiKcCFYnc4AodDAyHdw

In the article the Muslim Brotherhood’s conquest of Europe published in the Middle East forum. The author Lorenzo Vidino mentioned that the MB when they moved to Europe in the

early 1960’s after facing huge opposition in the Middle East. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had a different goal. They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set

their ultimate goal to be very unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the muslim citizens to be the best they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the

Islamic law and shariaa to Europe and the US.

http://www.crethiplethi.com/the-structure-and-funding-sources-of-the-muslim-brotherhood/global-islam/2011/

In the article The Structure and funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, taken from the Middle East News, the author again emphasized the idea that the MB wish to establish a

caliphate based society on the ruins of the western liberalism and they found the revolution their best opportunity that could allow them to free themselves from the suppression they

suffered under the older regimes. In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central administrative body

– a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in Cairo.

In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom to

province-level leaders. This resulted in the expansion of the various committees and departments and the development of the movement’s local authorities. This means that they

do not have a specific perspective concerning the freedom of speech and expression from the very beginning, but they rather were not very democratic from the beginning and by time they

started to attain certain way of thinking and they started using the words “democracy” and “freedom” to , in my opinion, grab the people’s attention and support and attract all the

enemies of mostly the previous corrupted regime of hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and not democratic at all.

The general guide –Al-Murshid Al-Aam- is considered to be the most powerful and dominant authority. All the members of the organization should obey what he says no matter what. This

power however varies from one Murshid to another depending on his personality. Traditionally the guide serves as the head of the religio-political organization.

Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are considered highly confidential sector of their activities. People never knew how they finance their charity

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and political and social activities. As they consider the financial sources greatly and closely guarded secrets, they claim that the funds as coming directly from the members personal

pockets. Accordingly, each administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector.

There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. This raises a question again; whether the organization is funded from the west in return of achieving and fulfilling some favors to them back? This is a very debatable and

controversial issue that shapes a mystery about the MB since long ago. In addition to this, the MB is seemingly having extensible connections with some Islamic banks and institutions.

They also control large number of charitable societies which are of course, financed by the older regime—this may be adding to their regular budget which they manage to have.

“On April 24, 2010, the Al-Masri al-Youm newspaper reported that a criminal lawsuit was filed against five Muslim Brotherhood leaders for transferring millions of dollars from abroad into Egypt to fund the movement’s activity. The funds had been transferred through economic institutions in Egypt owned by Muslim Brotherhood activists. One of them is detained in Egypt, and the others were tried in absentia.”, “One of the suspects, Ibrahim Munir Ahmed Mustafa,[54] was accused of exploiting the Israeli Operation Cast Lead to collect donations for the movement, claiming the funds would go towards helping the “Palestinian people”. The other suspects are also accused of involvement in fundraising and laundering money transferred to the movement and supposedly raised for the Palestinian people. Another suspect, Wagdi Ghanem, was said to be involved in raising funds at a conference held by an organization known as the Palestinian Forum in Britain.” and “One of the British institutions reported by the newspaper Al-Masri Al-Youm to have been involved in transferring the funds to Egypt is Dar al-Ri’aya (Muslim Welfare House), an institute belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain. On January 8, 2011, the Al-Ahram newspaper reported that the criminal court in Giza had reopened the affair.” – This assures that the MB is taking the religion as a curtain that hides all their personal intentions.

In one of the conferences held by the Muslim Brotherhood supporting Mohamed Morsi –their candidate for the presidential elections 2012, they, after feeling the victory is close started saying "fatwa" such as: Obeying the ruler is essential even if he is unjust; whoever do not follow this will be considered doing "haram". On the other hand, they, on their scale, did this "haram" when they contributed in the revolution against Hosni Mubarak. This reflects that they are releasing "fatwa's" benefitting nothing but their own good.

Further analysis for the party's movement in general shows that they their goals are political not theocratic. Although they dominate the legislative branch, under the given current situation in Egypt, they amend laws that have nothing to do with the politics. They seem to be isolated from what is happening in the country; their highest concerns were about prohibiting the sexual websites, legalizing the circumcision of the girls, lowering the marriage age to 12 years.

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They will definitely face challenges in different aspects; first of all, regarding the issue of returning the security to the Egyptian streets – this will never happen under this huge conflict which is between the people and the security forces (army and police). The second issue is the economic status now in Egypt. The investors started to terminate their investors and the economy is falling greatly.

They call themselves the "freedom and justice party" where in fact, this party is dominating mostly all the authorization committees. Starting with the state council to the parliament and this is the farthest thing than justice. Additionally, they are majority in the parliament and they use this to amend laws against the freedom. If we took a look at the different laws that the different members of the parliament introduce. We will find that the liberal member Amr Hamzawy for instance, is raising much more important and closely guarded with freedom and justice laws for the people unlike the MB who just appeal for people religiously. They are very weak politically; they are proposing and discussing the unconstitutionality of the judiciary if it stated the invalidity of the parliament – this can never happen as the judiciary is the most powerful judging association in the country!

Part of their propaganda for their renaissance plan is that it takes 16 years to get the desired outcome; does this mean that they are indirectly saying that the people can't judge them after the first four years until other elections take place?

It's very unhealthy, to the whole society, that only one party with one directed way of thinking take over the most important and effective authorizations. This prevents the advantages of the objection and the inconsistency to take place.

I am still looking for sources that support two more points I have in mind:

1) The agreements between the old regime (the national party) and the MB to take part in the parliament and be able to freely participate in the political life, makes them part of the so called "felool" now – which are the followers of the old regime or in other words, people who took part in the old corrupted regime.

2) Sources that support that these people try to "lick boots" for their own good and I need to cite Mohame Morsi's declarations before the revolution where he stated that Zakareya Azmy and Botross Ghaly are representable symbols of the old regime. Other source that cite Mahdy Akef's declaration where he stated that they support Hosni Mubarak's nomination.

The research question: Are the Muslim Brotherhood's attempts to capture the executive fostered by the urge of developing Egypt, or a final step in establishing a totalitarian rule?

Journal 4

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/06/12/3523320.htm (Ramadan)

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Ramadan states that by the first round of the presidential elections, the Muslim brotherhood has already lost most of its credibility in the Egyptian streets. To a great portion of people, the Muslim Brotherhood is looked upon as a disturbed, unsettled and contradictory organization. They dominated most of the parliament which is freely elected and they represented one third of the opinions on one hand. On the other hand, they had agreements with the military to fulfill their own fortunes. They are maybe encouraged by the Turkish and Tunisian experiences. No one can overlook the great losses which are likely to take place due to their muddled tactical, strategic and failing errors. Not only will these errors cost them, but the whole country as well.

Turkey, is by all means, different than Egypt. The Muslim brotherhood will not be able to establish the success they persisted in Turkey since the economic position of Egypt is far weaker than Turkey's and its place in the Middle East is far more sensitive. Specially, after taking into consideration the Israel-Palestine conflict.

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/01/30/3418847.htm (Ramadan)

Ramadan discusses the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the west succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.

Journal 5

http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30110 ("ikhwanweb")

Monday, June 18,2012 06:43

Posted in EGYPT , FJP News

Accessed 20 June 2012

Dr. Mohamed Saad Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF. He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that

this declaration is void and null arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained

the free will of the people who elected this parliament.

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Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the parliament will continue with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be ranked as the third on the

world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration.

http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30082

In a press statement, Dr. Katatni pointed that the People’s Assembly, as the legislative branch, respects all other authorities, whether executive or judicial, adding that the judiciary have a

prominent place in the hearts of the Egyptian people, for their significant role in establishing justice and the enforcement of the rule of law.

Katatni Denounces Attack on Judiciary and Parliament Dr. Katatni condemns vicious assault by the Judges Club chief Zanad against Egyptian

People’s Assembly (lower house of parliament) and absurd threats he made earlier today Friday, June 8,2012 11:22


Brotherhood: Parliament was Created by Popular Will; Can Only Be Dissolved by Popular Will


morsi constitutional

http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30115 results

http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=30111 ("ikhwanweb")

Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement The first elected president in Egypt’s history celebrates victory in the final runoff after

reliable tallies – from Morsi Campaign representatives based at polling stations across the country – show Morsi winning 52% of the vote.

Journal 6

On Wednesday 20/6, we were asked in class to prepare a questionnaire that serves our isearch as well as some open ended questions for some interviews. I had my drafted questionnaire done by Thursday morning. After the doctor reviewed it and told me some things that need to be changed such as making it more user-friendly by using easier and clearer language, grouping the similar types of questions together and specifying options under each question i.e. yes/no, agree/disagree and so on.

After following these instructions and correcting what I have been asked to correct, I started distributing my surveys both electronically and physically by Friday morning. I have sent them through emails to my friends and family, I also wrote it on my Blackberry and

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distributed it on some of my bbm contacts and I randomly distributed hard copies on people in the streets on and off campus. I managed to get 110 responses until now but I am still working to get more. The gender acts as an indifferent variable in my isearch, I tried to have very close ratio of male and female responses though. My determined age-group was between 18 and 45—I know this is a big range but I wanted to test all the people's - with different ages- thoughts concerning the Muslim brotherhood. My chosen sample of the people who did the survey was a variety of average, below and above average classes. By this, I can have the least biased thoughts and intellects.

For the interviews, I have already interviewed a Muslim Brotherhood member. His name is Ahmed Hossam El-Din. He is a 21-year-old engineer. The interview lasted for about 25 minutes. It was very interesting. I was able to counter argue most of his arguments and this interview will help me a lot with my isearch. I still want to interview a political science doctor.

My experience while doing these surveys would definitely add to my paper. I asked 12 questions that would either confirm or contradict the argument I am trying to make and I am getting predictably confirming answers till now. This process will continue for the next few days and I will of course journal about it again. As for analyzing the collected data, this will appear in details in the Methodology section in the first draft.

Journal 7

Before submitting the first draft, I have spent one long day collecting the data from the questionnaires and compiling them to see whether I got the expected answers or not. Then Doctor Mike told me in the conference I would have had all these calculated percentages and maybe graphs too if only I had created my questionnaire on surveymonkey or something similar. But unfortunately, it was too late. Anyway, after computing the results manually, I have approximated them all to the nearest whole number and this is what I got: 70% of the males and 53% of the females were strongly familiar with the Muslim Brotherhood, 20% of the males and 10% of the females had average knowledge about them and the rest were below average. 83% of the males and 53% of the females think that the MB as an organization is politically active internationally. Only 25% of the males and 18% of the females think that the MB members who participated in the dissolved parliament had effective positive role. 69% of the males and 96% of the females do not favor them over liberals since they do not trust them. 82% of the males and 75% of the females who do not trust them think that their credibility was highly affected by the latest events in Egypt. 40% of the males and 20% of the females would not give the party the chance to capture the executive under normal circumstances, however, they were able to win the presidency since the opposing candidate was from the old regime. 73% of the males and 55% of the females view their goals as theocratic not political and 9% of the males and the females view their goals as theocratic and political at the same time. 88% of the males and 80% of the females do not agree with the rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving the parliament even if they support the party in general. 90% of both males and females do not agree with establishing a theocratic state. Most of the MB members have spent time in jail under different regimes; 60% of males and

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70% of females think this is against them. Last but not least, 78% of the males and 92% of the females disagree with the early celebration of Mohamed Morsi after he claimed he won the presidential elections before the authorized association declared this. These questionnaires were distributed from the very beginning so I can collect as many opinions as I can to support my arguments and get, to an extent, an unbiased conclusion. I have to admit that the interview with Ahmed Hossam El-Din –a MB member- was not that effective and it did not help me with my paper a lot but has definitely added to my personal knowledge.

During the last week I have been writing the conclusion, drafting my paper and adding the recent news that occur in the country everyday to improve and update the isearch paper. And finally now I am journaling the last part in my isearch process before submitting the final draft. Actually this was one of the most entertaining papers I have ever written. I have enjoyed each and every part of the process – looking for sources, evaluating them, identifying the limitations and conducting surveys and interviews. If I had more time, I would have definitely researched more and wrote more. The idea of the isearch instead of the research is much more interesting and since you gave us the chance to choose any topic without any restrictions, this made the course very interesting and enjoyable. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to know more about what we are really into. I hope this was up to your expectations.

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Annotated Bibliography D1

Annotated Bibliography

Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14

Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.

Fawaz A. Gerges stated that when he interviewed a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) member, he mentioned that they learned from their mistakes and they just need more time to swallow the democracy rightfully.

He also talked about what happened in Algeria. When Islamists took over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs?

Johnson, Ian."Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York

Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.

Johnson discussed the MB movement after the revolution. He stated that people fear them, they are not sure how will the MB treat Israel for instance. He however, mentioned that the West -including Obama's administration- thinks they will seemingly have good relationship with the MB and will be able to do business together – this raises the question of whether the MB are funded from the West and they are just hiding behind the curtain of reforming the country with better religious perspectives or are they really caring and they intend to work to the benefit of the Arab world not to the benefit of the West. Again Johnson mentioned that since the history repeats itself, the West should be more aware and put an eye on the MB activities. He is trying to answer the question which is previously stated and he mentioned that the US leaders should take advantage from what happened in the past– every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill America's goals", "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson.

"Katatny: SCAF's Complementary Constitutional Declaration is Null and Void."

ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun.2012. Web. 20 Jun 2012.

Dr. Mohamed Saad Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF. He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people who elected this parliament.

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Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the parliament will continue with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be ranked as the third on the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration.

"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun.2012.

Web. 20 Jun 2012.

It was stated that Dr. Mohamed Morsi's presidential campaign announced his victory in the runoff long before it was officially out. Morsi went down in the Egyptian streets celebrating his vicory 6 hours only after ending the voting process. This never happened in any civilized country! An argument against what he has done is maybe he declared himself as the upcoming president so that he can challenge the results if they stated the winning of the other candidate –Ahmed Shafik-.

"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic

Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.

They are a religio-political organization which takes the Quraan and Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and make them more of a modern Islamic state. They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna. They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. At some point of a time, in the 1940s, they reached their peak and their organization consisted of roughly 500,000 members from different and variable backgrounds. They had the same religio-political perspective though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB's as a party which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and bombings and the gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.

the conflicts between the MB and the government were represented. When were they suppressed, under which regimes? And when did they aroused again and participated continuously in the Egyptian politics?

"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York

Times, 14 Jun. 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.

In a New York Times article, the constantly changeable MB decisions were clearly represented where they first won the parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other

17Amin

liberal parties, controlling 47% of the seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied. When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not looking forward to reaching for the power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of 2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that they are not just nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly recognizable. Will the people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB accomplished in the parliament?

OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada

Free Press ... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb.

2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.

OConnell stated that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference which the people jump back to in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy they hold the primary role of women should be care of the family. They avoid ideological positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB took about 47% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to the next Iran? Or flourish to next turkey? –assuming they will dominate the executive and the legislative branches.

"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb.

2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.

The writer stated some facts about the history of the MB. He argued that despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.

18Amin


How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veil while they are willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom. "We want a civil state, based on Islamic principles - a democratic state, with a parliamentary system, with freedom to form parties, press freedom, and an independent and fair judiciary” Issam El-Aryan-- In this phrase, they are admitting their willingness to do certain acts while in fact their actions state the opposite. What makes people still believe them? There must be a secret for their popularity.

Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics (Australian

Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.

Ramadan discussed the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.

Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt

Dearly,The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.

Ramadan stated that by the first round of the presidential elections, the Muslim brotherhood has already lost most of its credibility in the Egyptian streets. To a great portion of people, the Muslim Brotherhood is looked upon as a disturbed, unsettled and contradictory organization. They dominated most of the parliament which is freely elected and they represented one third of the opinions on one hand. On the other hand, they had agreements with the military to fulfill their own fortunes. They are maybe encouraged by the Turkish and Tunisian experiences. No one can overlook the great losses which are likely to take place due to their muddled tactical, strategic and failing errors. Not only will these errors cost them, but the whole country as well.


19Amin

"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, The." Islamic countries, Egypt.

N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.

In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in Cairo.

In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom to province-level leaders. This was, in my opinion, to attract all the enemies of mostly the previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and not democratic at all.

Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are considered highly confidential sector of their activities. They claim that the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector.

There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. In addition to this, the MB is seemingly having extensible connections with some Islamic banks and institutions—this may be adding to their regular budget which they manage to have.

Some cases have been suspected for laundering money and getting money illegally into the country through large organizations and they turned out to be MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits.

Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East

Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.

Vidino mentioned that the MB when they moved to Europe in the early 1960’s after facing huge opposition in the Middle East. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had a different goal. They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe and the US.

20Amin

Annotated Bibliography D2

Gerges, Fawaz. "Muslim Brotherhood's Key Role in Egypt." CNN Opinion. CNN, 14 Feb.

2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.

In the article "Muslims Brotherhood's key role in Egypt" in the CNN website, the author Fawaz A. Gerges stated that when he interviewed a Muslim Brotherhood member, he mentioned that they

learned from their mistakes and they just need more time to swallow the democracy rightfully.

He also talked about what happened in Algeria; when Islamists took over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs?

Johnson, Ian. "Washington’s Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood." The New York


In the New York Review of Books, the writer Ian Johnson discussed the MB movement after the

revolution. He stated that people fear them, they are not sure how will the MB treat Israel for instance. He however, mentioned that the west -‐including Obama's administration-‐ thinks they will seemingly have good relationship with the MB and will be able to do business together – this raises

the question of whether the MB are funded from the west and they are just hiding behind the curtain of reforming the country with better religious perspectives or are they really caring and they intend to work to the benefit of the Arab world not to the benefit of the west. Again Johnson

mentioned that since the history repeats itself, the west should be more aware and put an eye on the MB activities. He is trying to answer the question which is previously stated and he mentioned

that the US leaders should take advantage from what happened in the past – every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They

were never bending to fulfill America's goals", he said.

Said Ramadan, the delegate of the Muslim Brothers and the son-‐in-‐law of the MB's founder – Hassan El-‐Banna-‐ can be simply called an US agent as Johnson stated. In the 1950's and 60's, the United States supported Ramadan Hugely; he took over a mosque in Munich, kicking out local Muslims to

build one of the most important MB centers. Now if they are really religious people who are willing to reorganize the Islamic state, how can they built their center instead of a mosque for everyone. How can they favor their own will to the mosque that will serve all the European Muslims! Ramadan

was more interested in spreading his Islamic agenda instead of fighting communism. "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson. However, the US changed its position quietly after the incident of September 11 when they followed the MB and found out that they are backed by terrorists.

"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun. 2012.

21Amin

They are a religion-‐political organization which takes the Quraan and Hadith as guidelines to reform

the surrounding societies and make them more of a modern Islamic state. They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-‐Banna. They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. At some point

of a time, in the 1940s, they reached their peak and their organization consisted of roughly 500,000 members from different and variable backgrounds. They had the same religio-‐political perspective though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-‐to-‐the-‐standard educational and

religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB's as a party which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests

followed by some violently harsh acts against the government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and bombings and the gradually escaped Hassan El-‐Banna's

control.

The government started to feel the threat of the MB on them and that’s why they attempted to dissolve the organization. This did not pass easily; the MB in return assassinated Mahmoud Fahmi El-‐Nukrashi –the Prime Minister at that time. Hassan El-‐Banna himself was assassinated shortly

thereafter. After this opposition they faced greatly from the government, they had to be secretly retreated underground during the revolution of 1952. Six of them were sentenced to death as they were accused of treason and many others were imprisoned. Thereafter, during the 1960's and 70's,

the organization behavior remained greatly clandestine.

In the 1980s, the MB experienced a renewal and once again they were willing to reform the society with more religious views and embed the government with Islamic doctrines. They revived in Egypt, Jordon and Syria at the same time where they were fought by Hafiz El-‐Assad –Syria's president-‐ and

this resulted in the loss of 25,000 lives. The MB did not give up and they urged to participate in the legislative elections in those countries. Starting from the 1980's till now, the MB kept on participating in the parliamentary elections and boycotting it alternatively. They were highly opposed and

suppressed by the previous regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January. They hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just to stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the

presidency, the MB decided to effectively and continuously participate in the Egyptian politics.


Times, 14 Jun. 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.

In a New York Times article, the constantly changeable MB decisions were clearly represented where

they first won the parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other liberal parties, controlling 47% of the seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied. When

people started to rebel against them, they said they are not creeping for the power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of 2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they nominated Khairat El-‐Shater. By some

means, he was disqualified. The organization did not accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that they are not just nominating the best, but they

22Amin

want anyone, by any means to get to the elections and of course predictably will win as their

popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly recognizable. Will the people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB accomplished in the parliament?

OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." Canada Free Press

... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun

2012.

In the article Obama, Egypt and History of the Muslim brotherhood, the author Kelly OConnell stated that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the datum which the people jump back to in

each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to stress on applying the shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy they hold the primary role of women should be care of the family. They avoid ideological positions in economic matters, they call for

equality; they want to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB took about 47% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that

sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are they making these

speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality, economic health, and political power is

returning back to the Islamic principles. The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to the next Iran? Or flourish to next turkey?


2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.

In the Muslim Brotherhood's profile in BBC News, the writer stated some facts about the history of the MB. He argued that despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-‐known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the

democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.


How are they calling for a democratic state while they do not approve of freedom of act? How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veil while they are willing to reform a state

imposing better Islamic traits and freedom. "We want a civil state, based on Islamic principles -‐ a democratic state, with a parliamentary system, with freedom to form parties, press freedom, and an independent and fair judiciary” Issam El-‐Aryan-‐-‐ In this phrase, they are admitting their willingness to

do certain acts while in fact their actions state the opposite. What makes people still believe them? There must be a secret for their popularity.

23Amin



Ramadan discusses the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However,

in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire,

the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the west succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a

spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-‐Banna.

Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Egypt Dearly,

The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.

Ramadan states that by the first round of the presidential elections, the Muslim brotherhood has

already lost most of its credibility in the Egyptian streets. To a great portion of people, the Muslim Brotherhood is looked upon as a disturbed, unsettled and contradictory organization. They dominated most of the parliament which is freely elected and they represented one third of the

opinions on one hand. On the other hand, they had agreements with the military to fulfill their own fortunes. They are maybe encouraged by the Turkish and Tunisian experiences. No one can overlook

the great losses which are likely to take place due to their muddled tactical, strategic and failing errors. Not only will these errors cost them, but the whole country as well.

Turkey, is by all means, different than Egypt. The Muslim brotherhood will not be able to establish the success they persisted in Turkey since the economic position of Egypt is far weaker than Turkey's

and its place in the Middle East is far more sensitive. Specially, after taking into consideration the Israel-‐Palestine conflict.


N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.

In the article The Structure and funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood, taken from the Middle East News, the author again emphasized the idea that the MB wish to establish a caliphate based

society on the ruins of the western liberalism and they found the revolution their best opportunity that could allow them to free themselves from the suppression they suffered from under the older regimes. In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved well organized local and nation-‐wide

networks. They are composed of central administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in Cairo.

In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-‐making freedom to province-‐level

leaders. This resulted in the expansion of the various committees and departments and the

24Amin

development of the movement’s local authorities. This means that they do not have a specific

perspective concerning the freedom of speech and expression from the very beginning, but they rather were not very democratic from the beginning and by time they started to attain certain way of thinking and they started using the words “democracy” and “freedom” to , in my opinion, grab the

people’s attention and support and attract all the enemies of mostly the previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and not democratic at all.

The general guide –Al-‐Murshid Al-‐Aam-‐ is considered to be the most powerful and dominant authority. All the members of the organization should obey what he says no matter what. This power

however varies from one Murshid to another depending on his personality. Traditionally the guide serves as the head of the religio-‐political organization.

Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are considered highly

confidential sector of their activities. People never knew how they finance their charity, political and social activities. As they consider the financial sources greatly and closely guarded secrets, they claim that the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each

administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector.

There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. This raises a question again; whether the organization is funded from the west in return of achieving and

fulfilling some favors to them back? This is a very debatable and controversial issue that shapes a mystery about the MB since long ago. In addition to this, the MB is seemingly having extensible connections with some Islamic banks and institutions. They also control large number of charitable

societies which are of course, financed by the older regime—this may be adding to their regular budget which they manage to have.

“On April 24, 2010, the Al-‐Masri al-‐Youm newspaper reported that a criminal lawsuit was filed against five Muslim Brotherhood leaders for transferring millions of dollars from abroad into Egypt to fund the movement’s activity. The funds had been transferred through economic institutions in Egypt

owned by Muslim Brotherhood activists. One of them is detained in Egypt, and the others were tried in absentia.”, “One of the suspects, Ibrahim Munir Ahmed Mustafa,[54] was accused of exploiting the Israeli Operation Cast Lead to collect donations for the movement, claiming the funds would go

towards helping the “Palestinian people”. The other suspects are also accused of involvement in fundraising and laundering money transferred to the movement and supposedly raised for the Palestinian people. Another suspect, Wagdi Ghanem, was said to be involved in raising funds at a

conference held by an organization known as the Palestinian Forum in Britain.” and “One of the British institutions reported by the newspaper Al-‐Masri Al-‐Youm to have been involved in transferring the funds to Egypt is Dar al-‐Ri’aya (Muslim Welfare House), an institute belonging to the

Muslim Brotherhood in Britain. On January 8, 2011, the Al-‐Ahram newspaper reported that the criminal court in Giza had reopened the affair.” – This assures that the MB is taking the religion as a curtain that hides all their personal intentions.

25Amin



In the article the Muslim Brotherhood’s conquest of Europe published in the Middle East forum. The author Lorenzo Vidino mentioned that the MB when they moved to Europe in the early 1960’s after

facing huge opposition in the Middle East. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had a different goal. They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best

they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and shariaa to Europe and the US.

26Amin

Questionnaire

1. On a scale from 1 to 10, how familiar you are with the Muslim Brotherhood or the Freedom

and Justice party? -‐Assume 1 is the lowest in all questions-‐

2. On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate the political impact of the Islamic party as an

international movement?

3. On a scale from 1 to 10, how would you rate the representation of the party in the

parliament?

4. Do you favor them over liberals?

5. Do you trust them?

6. Was their credibility affected by the latest news in Egypt?

7. Would you give the party the chance to capture the executive?

8. Do you personally view their goals as political like what they say, or theocratic like what they

do?

9. Do you agree with their rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving the

parliament?

10. Do you agree with establishing a theocratic state?

11. Most of them have spent most of their lifetime in jail, is this for or against them?

12. Are you with or against the early celebration Dr. Mohamed Morsi did 6 hours only after

ending the voting process?

Revised Questionnaire

This is a questionnaire about the Muslim Brotherhood activities in Egypt. Please fill it in. it

won't take more than 3 minutes.

1. How well do you know the Muslim Brotherhood/ Freedom and Justice party?

Very well

Average

27Amin

I don't know much about them

2. As an Islamic party, are they politically active internationally?

Very much

Normal

Not at all

3. Rate their representation in the parliament.

Highly effective

Neutral

Very depressing


Yes

No


Yes

No


Very much

A little

Not at all


Yes of course

Maybe depending on the other candidates

Never

8. Do you personally view their goals as..

Political

28Amin

Theocratic

Both

9. Do you agree with their rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving

the parliament?

Agree

Disagree

Neutral


Yes

No


For

Against

12. Are you with or against the early celebration Dr. Mohamed Morsi did 6 hours only

after ending the voting process?

With

Against

Thank you for your time

Interview Questions

1. How do you perceive the party's insatiability (gasha3) to capturing all the political authorities?

2. King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar El-Saddat and Hosni Mubarak, each had recognizably different plan, mindset and intellect. However, they all suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood. Comment

3. What do you think of the idea that practically your president –assuming the party will capture the executive- has another president who is Al-Murshid?

29Amin

Revised Interview Questions

1. How do you perceive the party's insatiability to capturing all the political authorities? 2. King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar El-Saddat and Hosni Mubarak, each had

recognizably different plan, mindset and intellect. However, they all suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood. Comment

3. Al-Murshid is practically the president of all the Muslim Brotherhood members. After Mohamed Moris won the presidential elections, you as a citizen have a president who is ruled by the Murshid. How do you accept this?

30Amin

I-‐Search D1 (Introduction)

Laila Amin

Rhet 201-08

Instructor Michael Gibson

I-search paper draft 1

26 June 2012

Introduction:

Today, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is the most vital and imperative political

opposition organization not only in the Arab world but on an international scale as well. They,

as members of a political not a revival organization, were able recently to dominate

authorities in different Arab countries. For instance, in the Tunisian government, they

received 40% of the ballots. In Palestine and Jordon, Hamas becoming the most powerful

opposing authority to the Palestinian-Israel conflict adds to their domination. Yet this is not

all, the Muslim Brotherhood is in control of some European and North American

communities, often representing them in dealing with the government and the non-Muslim

societies in general. After persistent, constant and continuous suppression that lasted for sixty

years, which the MB suffered from in Egypt in particular, they have recognizably emerged on

the political domain during and after the Egyptian revolution. The MB have been running

candidates for years under Hosni Mubarak's regime. They did not have the chance to run as a

party though. The MB have participated in Jordon's parliament for decades too. However, in

Gaza strip, after Hamas won the elections, they seized power and status by force. The pattern

the Muslim Brotherhood follows makes their goals mysterious for most of the people. Are

their goals political or theocratic? – This is one question that is relative depending on

everyone's mindset and intellect. Are they a group of religious men who are willing to reform

Egypt or are they an Islamic party that uses Islam to fulfill their political targets? I have been

31Amin

very curious and anxious to know more about the Muslim Brotherhood specially after there

was a huge probability for their candidate to be the next Egyptian president. I personally,

wanted to know where Egypt is heading. Are the Muslim Brotherhood attempts to capture the

executive fostered by the urge of developing and reforming Egypt, or a final step in

establishing a totalitarian rule?

I-‐search paper D1

Laila Amin

Rhet 201-08



26 Junee 2012

Introduction:



as members of a political not a revival organization, were able recently to dominate


received 40% of the ballots. In Palestine and Jordon, Hamas becoming the most powerful

opposing authority to the Palestine-Israel conflict adds to their domination. Yet this is not all,

the Muslim Brotherhood is in control of some European and North American communities,

often representing them in dealing with the government and the non-Muslim societies in

general. After persistent, constant and continuous suppression that lasted for sixty years,

which the MB suffered from in Egypt in particular, they have recognizably emerged on the

political domain during and after the Egyptian revolution. The MB has been running

candidates for years under Hosni Mubarak's regime. They did not have the chance to run as a

party though. The MB has participated in Jordon's parliament for decades too. However, in

32Amin

Gaza strip, after Hamas won the elections, they seized power and status by force. The pattern

the Muslim Brotherhood follows makes their goals mysterious for most of the people. Are

their goals political or theocratic? – This is one question that is relative depending on

everyone's mindset and intellect. Are they a group of religious men who are willing to reform

Egypt or are they an Islamic party that uses Islam to fulfill their political targets? I have been

very curious and anxious to know more about the Muslim Brotherhood specially after there

was a huge probability for their candidate to be the next Egyptian president. I personally,

wanted to know where Egypt is heading. Are the Muslim Brotherhood attempts to capture the

executive fostered by the urge of developing and reforming Egypt, or a final step in

establishing a totalitarian rule?

The story of my search:

My curiosity has driven me to surf the internet for articles, journal articles and

declarations that would help me reach as close-to-reality conclusion by the end of the process.

Luckily, since I was looking up a recurring topic, my scope and perspective have been always

changing or narrowing down till the end of the process. The constantly occurring changes on

day-to-day basis have made me much more engaged to the topic. This also allowed a variety

of updated sources to be available. Since I was so much into the topic, I have read as many

articles as I found taking into consideration the obstacle of the time limit and based on this, I

have arrived at the final sources that will benefit me to reach the most unbiased final

conclusion. Eventually, I settled on a list of articles which are specified below:


2011. Web. 11 June 2012.


Review of books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June. 2012.

33Amin


Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 June. 2012.

"Muslim brotherhood (Egypt)." The New York Times, Times Topics. The New York Times, 14

June. 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.


... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June 2012.

"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC News Middle East. Bbc News, 9 Feb. 2011.

Web. 11 June 2012.


Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30 Jan. 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.



"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood,The." Islamic countries, Egypt.

N.p., 10 Jul 2011. Web. 13 Jun 2012.

Vidino, Lorenzo. "The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe." Middle East Quarterly.

2005: 25-34. Web. 13 June 2012.

In order to fill my urge to know where Egypt is heading under the Muslim Brotherhood rule, I

had to know much more about their history, criticize and analyze the positions they take in

any situation throughout different time eras. Thus, I can be able to form a general idea of who

they really are and have a briefly close answer to my questions that are filling the shallow part

of my mind.

What I found:

34Amin

The Muslim Brotherhood is a religio-political organization which takes the Quraan and

Hadith as guidelines to reform the surrounding societies and try to establish an Islamic state.

Ramadan discussed the strong will of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state".

However, in my opinion, there is no particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was

never mentioned neither in the Holy Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue

debatable and depended on the doctrines and mindset of the group that wills to do so. He

mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic state was represented, imperfectly

though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and broken up into smaller

countries and as the West succeeded to establish colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial

to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah. This lightened a spark into the organizations

that are categorized as Islamic to organize their action to pursuit two priority objectives. One

of them was the international expansion of the Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-

Banna.

They started in 1928, Ismalia, Egypt. Their very first founder was Hassan El-Banna.

They extended increasingly throughout many Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine,

Lebanon, Sudan and North Africa. The organization consisted of many people coming from

different and variable backgrounds. They all had the same religio-political perspective

though. Initially, the Muslim Brotherhood focused on some well up-to-the-standard

educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB as an

organization which is willing to implement some social needed services. Their political

movement started in the late 1930s when they firstly opposed the Wafd party which, at that

time, ruled Egypt. They organized protests followed by some violently harsh acts against the

government. The armed part of the organization started performing assassinations and

bombings and they gradually escaped Hassan El-Banna's control.

35Amin

The government started to feel that the Muslim Brotherhood constitutes a real threat

and that’s why they attempted to dissolve the organization. Thereafter, the MB assassinated

Mahmoud Fahmi El-Nukrashi –the Prime Minister of Egypt at that time. Hassan El-Banna

himself was assassinated shortly thereafter. After this opposition which they faced greatly

from the government, they had to secretly retreat underground during the revolution of 1952.

Six of them were sentenced to death as they were accused of treason and many others were

imprisoned ("Muslim Brotherhood"). Johnson mentioned that Said Ramadan, the delegate of

the Muslim Brothers and the son-in-law of the MB's founder – Hassan El-Banna- can be

simply called an US agent. In the 1950's and 60's, the United States supported Ramadan

hugely. He took over a mosque in Munich, kicking out local Muslims to build one of the most

important MB centers. Now if they are real religious people who are willing to reorganize the

Islamic state, how can they built their center instead of a mosque that would serve every

European and non-European Muslim? How can they favor their own fortunes over the local

Muslims' fortunes? Ramadan was more interested in spreading his Islamic agenda instead of

fighting communism. "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson. He also stated

that every time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension

between the European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained

eventually; the MB are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill American's

goals", he added. Johnson argued that the west should be more aware of the MB activities as

the history always repeats itself. Then, during the 1960's and 70's, the organization behavior

remained greatly clandestine. After facing huge opposition in the Middle East, the MB moved

to Europe in the early 1960s. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had different goals.

They build mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very

unique and questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be

36Amin

the best they can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe

and the US (Vidino 25-34).

In the 1980s, the MB experienced a renewal and once again they were willing to

reform the society with more religious views and embed the government with Islamic

doctrines. They emerged in Egypt, Jordon and Syria at the same time where they were fought

by Hafiz El-Assad –Syria's president- and this resulted in the loss of 25,000 lives. The MB did

not give up and they urged to participate in the legislative elections in those countries.

Starting from the 1980's till now, the MB kept on participating in the parliamentary elections

and boycotting it alternatively. They were highly opposed and suppressed by the previous

regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January. They

hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just to

stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the

presidency, the MB decided to effectively and continuously participate in the Egyptian

politics ("Muslim Brotherhood").

What has been happening recently in Egypt and how the Muslim Brotherhood were

attempting to capture all the authorities made me stop to analyze their acts and behavior. To

start with, the West was greatly enthusiastic about the MB candidate to win. The entire West

including Obama's administration thinks that they would seemingly have good relationship

with the MB and accordingly will be able to do business together (Johnson). Since the MB's

funding sources are confidential, this raises a question of whether they are funded by the West

in return of executing their orders or not? In order to overcome the suppression, they

achieved well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of central

administrative body – a legislative branch, executive branch and judiciary branch based in

Cairo. In the 1980’s, their movement was reformed. This reform was clearly focusing on a

partial departure from the centralized character and providing more decision-making freedom

37Amin

to province-level leaders. This was, in my opinion, to attract all the enemies of mostly the

previous corrupted regime of Hosni Mubarak which was believed to be very centralized and

not democratic at all.

Regarding the financial sources of the organization, until nowadays, they are

considered highly confidential sector of their activities as stated previously. They claim that

the funds are coming directly from the members' personal pockets. Accordingly, each

administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their sector. There

are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by the help of

enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in general. In

addition to this, the Muslim Brotherhood is seemingly having extensible connections with

some Islamic banks and institutions. They also control large number of charitable societies

which are of course, financed by the older regime—this may be adding to their regular budget

which they manage to have. Some cases have been suspected for laundering money and

getting money illegally into the country through large organizations and they turned out to be

MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits and are hiding behind the

religion curtain to fulfill all their personal intentions ("Islamic countries, Egypt").

Further analysis for the party's movement in general shows that although they

dominated the legislative branch –before it was dissolved-, under the given current situation

in Egypt, they amended laws that have nothing to do with the politics. They seemed to be

isolated from what is happening in the country; their highest concerns were about prohibiting

the sexual websites, legalizing the circumcision of the girls, lowering the marriage age to

twelve years. If we took a look at the different laws introduced by the different members of

the parliament, we will find that the liberal member Amr Hamzawy for instance, is raising

much more important and closely guarded with freedom and justice laws. Unlike the MB who

38Amin

just appeal for people religiously. They are very weak politically; they are proposing and

discussing the unconstitutionality of the judiciary if it stated the invalidity of the parliament –

this can never happen as the judiciary is the most powerful judging association in the country!

They call themselves the "freedom and justice party" where in fact, this party is dominating

mostly all the authorization committees. Starting with the state council to the parliament

(before it has been dissolved) and this is the farthest thing from justice. Additionally, they are

majority in the parliament and they use this to amend laws against the freedom. Part of their

propaganda for their renaissance plan is that it takes 16 years to get the desired outcome; does

this mean that they are indirectly saying that the people can't judge them after the first four

years until other elections take place? It's very unhealthy, to the whole society, that only one

party with one directed way of thinking take over the most important and effective

authorizations. This prevents the advantages of the objection and the inconsistency to take

place. They will definitely face challenges in different aspects; first of all, regarding the issue

of returning the security to the Egyptian streets – this will never happen under this huge

conflict which is between the people and the security forces (army and police). The second

issue is the economic status now in Egypt. The investors started to terminate their investors

and the economy is falling greatly.

Despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-

known statement which is: The Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the

democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression ("BBC News Middle East").

How are they calling for a democratic state while they do not approve of the freedom of

people who do not agree with them? How are they willing to force the girls and women to

wear veil while they are willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom.

39Amin

OConnell stated that the MB terribly wants the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference

to which the people jump back to in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that

they want to stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In

social policy, they hold the primary role of women to be the care of the family. They avoid

ideological positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the

difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the

technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB

occupied about 47% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that

sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and

the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of

750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are

they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view

the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality,

economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The

constantly changeable MB's decisions were clearly represented when they first won the

parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other liberal parties, controlling 47% of the

seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as

soon as they took over the parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied.

When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not willing to reach for the

power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of

2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they

nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not

accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that

they are not just nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the

elections and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is

40Amin

highly recognizable. In Al-Ahram journal, the spokesman of the MB's campaign was

interview. He was asked why did not he support Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh who has the

same plan and intellect of the MB but ran for the presidential elections independently, the

spokesman answered that he is supporting the MB and Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh does

not represent them! This means that he is not supporting Mohamed Morsi because he believes

he deserves, but because he is helping the MB to reach this position. Will the people's hate

towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the

MB accomplished in the parliament and the insatiability they show for the power? The

question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall

to the next Iran? Or flourish to the next turkey? Now that the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate

won the presidency elections, this question will be answered shortly. When Islamists took

over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political

process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to

some consistent pattern that always occurs? (Gerges).

Moreover, in one of the conferences held by the Muslim Brotherhood supporting

Mohamed Morsi –their candidate for the presidential elections 2012, they, after feeling the

victory is close started saying "fatwa" such as: Obeying the ruler is essential even if he is

unjust; whoever do not follow this will be considered doing "haram". On the other hand, they,

on their scale, did this "haram" when they contributed in the revolution against Hosni

Mubarak. This reflects that they are releasing "fatwa's" benefitting nothing but their own

good. Not only did they attempt to make agreements with the national party and the old

regime to contribute in the parliament and now they disregard this –in order not to be called

the "felool" (a word given to anyone who worked in the corrupted old regime of Hosni

Mubarak)-, but also Mohamed Morsi himself has declared before the revolution that Zakareya

Azmy and Botross Ghaly are representable symbols of the old regime and Mahdy Akef has

41Amin

declared that they support Hosni Mubarak's nomination for the upcoming elections. All of

these declarations and changing their position were in the sake of fitting what the surrounding

society wants the most. Although they were bending to the old regime for so long willing to

have some power and political participation, after the revolution, they have changed and

denied all their previous positions willing also to capture political status.

The MB reaction concerning the constitutional declaration of the invalidity of the

elected parliament which they occupied the majority in it is unacceptable! Dr. Mohamed Saad

Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving

the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF.

He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null

arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the legitimacy according to the

existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people

who elected this parliament. Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected

the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the parliament will continue

with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be

ranked as the third on the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration

("ikhwanweb").

Methodology:

The research I did was very beneficial but my conclusion would be much more

unbiased if I took into consideration what people think too. Thus, I conducted a survey—a

questionnaire consisting of 12 questions (see appendix A). These questionnaires were

distributed on a randomly chosen sample of people. I was able to get 110 surveys – 60

females and 50 males. Age group was between 18 and 45. 10 female and 10 male Christians

have answered the questionnaire too. All responses are coming from Egyptians.

42Amin

Results and Discussion:

The results are all approximated to the nearest whole number. 70% of the males and

53% of the females were strongly familiar with the Muslim Brotherhood, 20% of the males

and 10% of the females had average knowledge about them and the rest were below average.

83% of the males and 53% of the females think that the MB as an organization is politically

active internationally. Only 25% of the males and 18% of the females think that the MB

members who participated in the dissolved parliament had effective positive role. 69% of the

males and 96% of the females do not favor them over liberals since they do not trust them.

82% of the males and 75% of the females who do not trust them think that their credibility

was highly affected by the latest events in Egypt. 40% of the males and 20% of the females

would not give the party the chance to capture the executive under normal circumstances,

however, they were able to win the presidency since the opposing candidate was from the old

regime. 73% of the males and 55% of the females view their goals as theocratic not political

and 9% of the males and the females view their goals as theocratic and political at the same

time. 88% of the males and 80% of the females do not agree with the rejection of the

constitutional declaration regarding dissolving the parliament even if they support the party in

general. 90% of both males and females do not agree with establishing a theocratic state.

Most of the MB members have spent time in jail under different regimes; 60% of males and

70% of females think this is against them. Last but not least, 78% of the males and 92% of the

females disagree with the early celebration of Mohamed Morsi after he claimed he won the

presidential elections before the authorized association declared this.

This left me with some unanswered questions which I tried interviewing people to

know more about them but failed. Please see Appendix B for the interview questions. The

answers I got were vague and most of them were opinions that won't help reach a good

answer.

43Amin

Works Cited


2011. Web. 11 June 2012.


Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June 2012.

"Katatny: SCAF's Complementary Constitutional Declaration is Null and Void." ikhwanweb.

N.p., 18 June 2012. Web. 20 June 2012.

"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 June 2012.

Web. 20 June 2012.


Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 June. 2012.


Times, 14 June 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.


... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11

June 2012.


2011. Web. 11 June 2012.



Ramadan, Tariq. "Political Mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood Will Cost Dearly, The." ABC

Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.

44Amin


N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 June. 2012.


Quarterly. 2005: 25-34. Web. 13 June. 2012.

45Amin



2011. Web. 11 June 2012.




Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June. 2012.



N.p., 18 June.2012. Web. 20 June 2012.


46Amin


"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 June.2012.

Web. 20 June 2012.





The conflicts between the MB and the government were represented. When were they suppressed, under which regimes? And when did they aroused again and participated continuously in the Egyptian politics?


Times, 14 June. 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.


47Amin



... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11

June 2012.



2011. Web. 11 June 2012.


48Amin




Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Junee 2012.






49Amin


N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 June. 2012.









50Amin

Appendix A



1. How well do you know the Muslim Brotherhood/ Freedom and Justice party?

Very well

Average


2. As an Islamic party, are they politically active internationally?

Very much

Normal

Not at all

3. Rate their representation in the parliament.

Highly effective

Neutral

Very depressing


Yes

No


Yes

No


Very much

A little

Not at all

51Amin


Yes of course


Never

8. Do you personally view their goals as..

Political

Theocratic

Both

9. Do you agree with their rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving

the parliament?

Agree

Disagree

Neutral


Yes

No


For

Against

12. Are you with or against the early celebration Dr. Mohamed Morsi did 6 hours only


With

Against


52Amin

Appendix B

1) How do you perceive the party's insatiability to capturing all the political authorities?

2) King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar El-Saddat and Hosni Mubarak, each had

recognizably different plan, mindset and intellect. However, they all suppressed the

Muslim Brotherhood. Comment

3) Al-Murshid is practically the president of all the Muslim Brotherhood members. After

Mohamed Moris won the presidential elections, you as a citizen have a president who

is ruled by the Murshid. How do you accept this?

I-search paper D2

Laila Amin

Rhet 201-08



30 June 2012

Introduction:



as members of a political, not a religious revival organization, were able recently to dominate


received 40% of the ballots. In Palestine and Jordon, Hamas –which is part of the

Brotherhood- becoming the most powerful opposing authority to the Palestine-Israel conflict

adds to their domination. Yet this is not all; the Muslim Brotherhood is in control of some

European and North American communities, often representing them in dealing with the

government and the non-Muslim societies in general. After persistent, constant and

continuous suppression that lasted for sixty years, which the MB suffered from in Egypt in

53Amin

particular, they have recognizably emerged on the political domain during and after the

Egyptian revolution which occurred on January 25th 2011. The MB have been running

candidates for the parliamentary elections for years under Hosni Mubarak's regime. They did

not have the chance to run as a party though, only as individuals. The MB have participated in

Jordon's parliament for decades too. However, in the Gaza strip, after Hamas won the

elections, they seized power and status by force. The pattern the Muslim Brotherhood follows

makes their goals mysterious for most of the people. Are their goals political or theocratic? –

This is one question that is relative depending on everyone's mindset and intellect. Are they a

group of religious men who are willing to reform Egypt or are they an Islamic party that uses

Islam to fulfill their political targets? I have been very curious and anxious to know more

about the Muslim Brotherhood specially after there was a huge probability for their candidate

to be the next Egyptian president. I personally, wanted to know where Egypt is heading. Are

the Muslim Brotherhood attempts to capture the executive branch fostered by the urge of

developing and reforming Egypt, or a final step in establishing a totalitarian rule?



declarations that would help me reach the most unbiased conclusion by the end of the

research process. Luckily, since I was looking up a current and fluctuating topic, my scope

and perspective have been always changing or narrowing down till the end of the research

process. The constantly occurring changes on a day-to-day basis have made me much more

engaged in the topic. This also allowed a variety of updated sources to be available. Since I

was so much into the topic, I have read as many articles as I found taking into consideration

the obstacle of the time limit and based on this, I have arrived at the final sources that will

benefit me to reach the most unbiased final conclusion. Eventually, I settled on a list of

articles which are specified below:

54Amin


2011. Web. 11 June 2012.


Review of books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June. 2012.


Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 June. 2012.


June. 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.

OConnell, Kelly. "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim Brotherhood." CanadaFree Press

... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June 2012.


Web. 11 June 2012.


Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30 Jan. 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.



"Structure and funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood,The." Islamic countries, Egypt.

N.p., 10 Jul 2011. Web. 13 Jun 2012.


2005: 25-34. Web. 13 June 2012.

In order to fill my urge to know where Egypt is heading under the Muslim Brotherhood rule, I

had to know much more about their history, criticize and analyze the positions they take in

55Amin


they really are and have answers to my questions that are filling the shallow part of my mind.

What I found:



Tariq Ramadan in his article "Not an Islamic state, but a Civil State" discussed the strong will

of the Muslim Brotherhood to revive the "Islamic state". However, in my opinion, there is no

particular meaning of the term "Islamic state" as this was never mentioned neither in the Holy

Quraan nor in the Shariaa. That makes the issue debatable and depended on the doctrines and

mindset of the group that wills to do so. He mentions that during the Ottoman Empire, the

Islamic state was represented, imperfectly though. Thereafter, as the Ottoman Empire was

dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded to establish

colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah.

This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their

action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the

Muslim Brotherhood at the time of Hassan El-Banna.






educational and religious projects which as a result caused the people to view the MB as an



56Amin










imprisoned ("Muslim Brotherhood"). Ian Johnson mentioned in the article "Washington’s

Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood" that Said Ramadan, the delegate of the Muslim

Brothers and the son-in-law of the MB's founder – Hassan El-Banna- can be simply called an

US agent. In the 1950's and 60's, the United States supported Ramadan hugely. He took over a

mosque in Munich, kicking out local Muslims to build one of the most important MB centers.

Now if they are real religious people who are willing to reorganize the Islamic state, how can

they build their center instead of a mosque that would serve every European and non-

European Muslim? How can they favor their own fortunes over the local Muslims' fortunes?

Ramadan was more interested in spreading his Islamic agenda instead of fighting

communism. "The US did not reap much of its effort", said Johnson. He also stated that every

time the United States wish to make alliances with the MB to ease the tension between the

European Muslims or to fight the communism, the same result is gained eventually; the MB

are the only beneficiary. "They were never bending to fulfill American's goals", he added.

Johnson argued that the West should be more aware of the MB activities as the history always

repeats itself. Then, during the 1960's and 70's, the organization behavior remained greatly

clandestine. After facing huge opposition in the Middle East, the MB moved to Europe in the

57Amin

early 1960s. They, unlike the large Islamic societies, had different goals. They have built

mosques, they have done charity work and they set their ultimate goal to be very unique and

questionable indeed. They weren’t intending to “help the Muslim citizens to be the best they

can be” but instead, they wanted to spread the Islamic law and Shariaa to Europe and the US

(Vidino 25-34).







in Egypt and boycotting it alternatively. They were highly opposed and suppressed by the

previous regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January.

They hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just

to stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the











58Amin






not democratic at all.



















59Amin


the parliament, we will find that the liberal member Amr Hamzawy for instance, is raising

much more important and closely guarded with freedom and justice laws. Unlike the MB who

just appeal for people religiously. They are very weak politically; they are proposing and

discussing the unconstitutionality of the judiciary if it stated the invalidity of the parliament –

this can never happen as the judiciary is the most powerful judging association in the country!

They call themselves the "freedom and justice party" where in fact, this party is dominating

mostly all the authorization committees. Starting with the state council to the parliament

(before it had been dissolved) and this is the farthest thing from justice. Additionally, they

were majority in the parliament and they used this to amend laws against the freedom. Part of

their propaganda for their renaissance plan is that it takes 16 years to get the desired outcome;

does this mean that they are indirectly saying that the people can't judge them after the first

four years until other elections take place? It's very unhealthy, to the whole society, that only

one party with one directed way of thinking take over the most important and effective

authorizations. This prevents the advantages of the objection and the inconsistency to take

place. They will definitely face challenges in different aspects; first of all, regarding the issue

of returning the security to the Egyptian streets – this will never happen under this huge

conflict which is between the people and the security forces (army and police). The second

issue is the economic status now in Egypt. The investors started to terminate their investments

and the economy is falling greatly.






60Amin

wear veils while they are supposedly willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits

and freedom?

Kelly O'Connell stated in the article "Obama, Egypt & History of the Muslim

Brotherhood" that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference to which

the people jump back in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to

stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy,

they hold the primary role of women to be the care of the family. They avoid ideological

positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference

between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological

improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB occupied about

47% of the parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the upper

boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin

party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is

a MB member though. They are really contradicting themselves very much, I believe. Are

they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view

the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality,

economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The






power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of



61Amin


they are not nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections

and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly

recognizable. In Al-Ahram journal, the spokesman of the MB's campaign was interview. He

was asked why he did not support Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh who had the same plan and

intellect of the MB but ran for the presidential elections independently. The spokesman

answered that he is supporting the MB and Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh does not represent

them! This means that he is not supporting Mohamed Morsi because he believes he deserves,

but because he is helping the MB to reach this position. Will the people's hate towards

Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB

accomplished in the parliament and the insatiability they show for the power? The question is,

will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to be like

Iran? Or flourish to be like Turkey? Now that the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate won the

presidency elections, this question will be answered shortly. When Islamists took over the

parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When

Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent

pattern that always occurs? (Gerges).


Mohamed Morsi –their candidate for the presidential elections 2012, they, after feeling the







62Amin





these declarations and changing their position were for the sake of fitting what the

surrounding society wants the most. Although they were bending to the old regime for so long

willing to have some power and political participation, after the revolution, they have changed

and denied all their previous positions willing also to capture political status.











ranked as the third in the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration

("ikhwanweb").

Methodology:

The research I did was very beneficial but my conclusion would be much more

unbiased if I took into consideration what people think too. Thus, I conducted a survey—a


63Amin

distributed on a randomly chosen sample of people. I was able to get 110 responses – 60













would not give the party the chance to capture the executive under normal circumstances,

however, they were able to win the presidency since the opposing candidate was from the old










64Amin



answers I got were vague and most of them were opinions that won't help reach a good

answer. One question that would have helped form a good supported argument if I had found

an answer for it is: why were the MB suppressed by all the leaders and rulers even though

each and everyone of them had different mindset, different agenda and completely different

relationships with the effective elements of the society except the MB? They all agreed on

nothing but isolating them from the political life.

Conclusion:

To cut it short, the MB have as much followers as opponents. Although they have

done a lot of charity work, helped people tremendously even though they were not in control

of highly authorized positions, reformed some areas by giving illiterates free up-to-the-

standard education and had an indispensably crucial role in making parts of the environment

much better, they are greatly opposed. If their main goal is to reform the country, why don't

they reform it without having insatiability for the power?! After representing both the good

and bad sides of the ikhwan, we can pause and think deeply. Many situations have been stated

against them that show and support effectively that until now, the MB are only hoping for

capturing the executive branch. Let us all hope for better Egypt free from the greed of the

political elements which need only to fulfill their personal intentions, caring the least about

the commonweal.

65Amin

Works Cited


Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June 2012.


Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June 2012.


ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 June 2012. Web. 20 June 2012.

"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 June 2012.

Web. 20 June 2012.




Times, 14 June 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.


... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web.11 June

2012.


2011. Web. 11 June 2012.




Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 June 2012.

66Amin


N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 June. 2012.



67Amin



2011. Web. 11 June 2012.




Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June. 2012.



N.p., 18 June.2012. Web. 20 June 2012.


68Amin


"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 June.2012.

Web. 20 June 2012.







Times, 14 June. 2012. Web. 15 June 2012.


69Amin



... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 June

2012.



2011. Web. 11 June 2012.


70Amin




Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Junee 2012.






71Amin


N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 June. 2012.









72Amin

Appendix A



1) How well do you know the Muslim Brotherhood/ Freedom and Justice party?

Very well

Average


2) As an Islamic party, are they politically active internationally?

Very much

Normal

Not at all

3) Rate their representation in the parliament.

Highly effective

Neutral

Very depressing

4) Do you favor them over liberals?

Yes

No

5) Do you trust them?

Yes

No

6) Was their credibility affected by the latest news in Egypt?

Very much

A little

Not at all

73Amin

7) Would you give the party the chance to capture the executive?

Yes of course


Never

8) Do you personally view their goals as..

Political

Theocratic

Both

9) Do you agree with their rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving

the parliament?

Agree

Disagree

Neutral

10) Do you agree with establishing a theocratic state?

Yes

No

11) Most of them have spent most of their lifetime in jail, is this for or against them?

For

Against

12) Are you with or against the early celebration Dr. Mohamed Morsi did 6 hours only


With

Against


74Amin

Appendix B






Mohamed Moris won the presidential elections, you as a citizen have a president who


I-search Paper Draft 3

Rhet 201-08


I-search paper draft 3- Final Paper

12 July 2012

Islamophobia

Introduction:










75Amin



Egyptian revolution which occurred on 25th January 2011. The MB have been running




elections, they seized power and status by force. Also a very interesting thing that attracted so

many politically-concerned people is that, not only the Tunisian citizens were the ones who

had the right to vote in the Tunisian elections, but the citizens of Morocco and Algeria were

allowed to vote too! This was later elaborated by the famous thinkers who analyzed this as the

Islamists, including the MB of course, wanted to benefit from the large Islamic bulk in

Morocco to support them win the elections. The pattern the Muslim Brotherhood follows

makes their goals mysterious for most of the people. Are their goals political or theocratic? –

This is one question that is relative depending on everyone's mindset and intellect. Are they a

group of religious men who are willing to reform Egypt or are they an Islamic party that uses

Islam to fulfill their political targets? I have been very curious and anxious to know more

about the Muslim Brotherhood specially after there was a huge probability for their candidate

to be the next Egyptian president. I personally, wanted to know where Egypt is heading. Are

the Muslim Brotherhood attempts to capture the executive branch fostered by the urge of

developing and reforming Egypt, or a final step in establishing a totalitarian rule?






76Amin



was so much into the topic, I have read as many articles as I found taking into consideration

the obstacle of the time limit and based on this, I have arrived at the final sources that will

benefit me to reach the most unbiased final conclusion. Eventually, I settled on a list of

articles which are specified below:


2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.


Review of books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.

"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic

Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun 2012.


Jun 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.


... Because Without America there is no Free World. N.p., 7 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.


Web. 11 Jun 2012.


Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30 Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.


The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 Jun 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.

77Amin

"Structure and Funding Sources of the Muslim Brotherhood.The." Islamic countries, Egypt.

N.p., 10 Jul 2011. Web. 13 Jun 2012.


2005: 25-34. Web. 13 Jun 2012.

In order to fill my urge to know where Egypt is heading under the Muslim Brotherhood's rule,

I had to know much more about their history, criticize and analyze the positions they take in


they really are and have answers to my questions that are filling the shallow part of my mind.

What I found:









dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded to establish

colonies and expand their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the Ummah.

This lightened a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their

action to pursuit two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the




78Amin




educational and religious projects which, as a result, caused the people to view the MB as an












imprisoned ("Muslim Brotherhood"). Ian Johnson mentioned in the article "Washington’s

Secret History with the Muslim Brotherhood" that Said Ramadan, the delegate of the Muslim









79Amin











(Vidino 25-34).







in Egypt and boycotting it alternatively. They were highly opposed and suppressed by the

previous regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January.

They hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just

to stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the





80Amin












autocratic.














81Amin







the dissolved parliament, we will find that the liberal member Amr Hamzawy for instance,

was raising much more important and closely guarded with freedom and justice laws. Unlike

the MB who just appeal for people religiously. They are very weak politically; they were

proposing and discussing the unconstitutionality of the judiciary if it stated the invalidity of

the parliament – this can never happen as the judiciary is the most powerful judging

association in the country! They call themselves the "freedom and justice party" where in fact,

this party was dominating mostly all the authorization committees. Starting with the state

council to the parliament (before it had been dissolved) and this is the farthest thing from

justice. Additionally, they were majority in the parliament and they used this to amend laws

against the freedom. Part of their propaganda for their renaissance plan is that it takes 16

years to get the desired outcome; does this mean that they are indirectly saying that the people

can't judge them after the first four years until other elections take place? It's very unhealthy,

to the whole society, that only one party with one directed way of thinking take over the most

important and effective authorizations. This prevents the advantages of the objection and the

inconsistency to take place. They will definitely face challenges in different aspects; first of

all, regarding the issue of returning the security to the Egyptian streets – this will never

happen under this huge conflict which is between the people and the security forces (army

and police). The second issue is the economic status now in Egypt. The investors started to

82Amin

terminate their investments and the economy was falling greatly before the run-off elections

take place.






wear veils while they are supposedly willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits

and freedom?









47% of the dissolved parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the

upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the

Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of

750,000. He is a MB member though. They are really contradicting themselves very much, I

believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this,

they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore

morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The

83Amin






power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential elections of






recognizable. In Al-Ahram journal, the spokesman of the MB's campaign -Ghazlan- was

interviewed. He was asked why did not he support Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh who had

the same plan and intellect of the MB but ran for the presidential elections independently?

The spokesman answered that he was supporting the MB and Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh

did not represent them! This means that he was not supporting Mohamed Morsi because he

believed he deserves, but because he was helping the MB to reach this position. Will the

people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the

huge failure the MB accomplished in the parliament and the insatiability they show for the

power? The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic

principles fall to be like Iran? Or flourish to be like Turkey? Now that the Muslim

Brotherhood's candidate won the presidency elections, this question will be answered shortly.

When Islamists took over the parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and

dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts.

Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs? (Gerges).

84Amin


Mohamed Morsi –their candidate for the presidential elections 2012-- they, after feeling the














and denied all their previous positions willing also to capture political status. Simply this can

be regarded as if they "go with the flow".









85Amin




("ikhwanweb"). However, after Mohamed Morsi won the presidency elections, after swearing

the oath of respecting the judicial authorities and in the first ten days of his rule, one of the

first decisions which he made was rejecting the constitutional declaration and recalling the

dissolved parliament once again! The validity of this decision is very debatable now, some

people think he has the full right to do so and others think that no, he has done the most

incorrect action on which he should be punished.

Methodology:

The research I did was very beneficial but my conclusion will be much more unbiased

if I took into consideration what people think too. Thus, I conducted a survey—a


distributed on a randomly chosen sample of people. I was able to get 110 responses – 60











86Amin



would not give the party the chance to capture the executive under normal circumstances.

However, they were able to win the presidency since the opposing candidate was from the old












answers I got were vague and most of them were opinions that won't help me reach a good,

accurate and credible answer. One question that would have helped form a good supported

argument if I had found an answer for it is: why were the MB suppressed by all the leaders

and rulers even though each and everyone of them had different mindset, different agenda and

completely different relationships with the effective elements of the society? Why did they all

agree on nothing but isolating the MB from the political life?

Conclusion:

To cut it short, the MB have as many followers as opponents. Although they have

done a lot of charity work, helped people tremendously even though they were not in control

87Amin

of high governmental positions, reformed some areas by giving illiterates free up-to-the-

standard education and had an indispensably crucial role in making parts of the environment

much better, they are greatly opposed. If their main goal is to reform the country, why don't

they reform it without having insatiability for the power?! After representing both the good

and bad sides of the MB, we can pause and think deeply. Many situations have been stated

against them that show and support effectively that until now, the MB are only hoping for

capturing the executive branch so that they can have power. No more no less. However, they

have been in control of the executive branch for less than 20 days and we can't judge them

now. We have to wait and see. But unfortunately, what I personally see after analyzing their

work in the first few days is that they are trying to please everybody by some charismatic

actions. And it is well known that when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no

one. Let us all hope for better Egypt free from the greed of the political elements which need

only to fulfill their personal intentions, caring the least about the commonweal.

88Amin

Works Cited


Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.


Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.


ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun 2012. Web. 20 Jun 2012.

"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun 2012.

Web. 20 Jun 2012.




Times, 14 Jun 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.

Nassar, Abdel-Latif. Al-Ahram Newspaper (translated from Arabic). 24 Jun 2012.

Web. 2 July 2012. http://digital.ahram.org.eg/Policy.aspx?Serial=940861




2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.

Ramadan, Tariq. "Not an Islamic State, but a Civil State." ABC Religion & Ethics

(Australian Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Jun

2012.

89Amin


Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 Jun 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.


N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.



90Amin



2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.









91Amin



Web. 20 Jun 2012.







Times, 14 Jun. 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.


92Amin




2012.



2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.


93Amin










94Amin


N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.









95Amin

Appendix A



1) How well do you know the Muslim Brotherhood/ Freedom and Justice party?

Very well

Average



Very much

Normal

Not at all

3) Rate their representation in the parliament.

Highly effective

Neutral

Very depressing


Yes

No


Yes

No


Very much

A little

Not at all

96Amin


Yes of course


Never


Political

Theocratic

Both


the parliament?

Agree

Disagree

Neutral


Yes

No


For

Against



With

Against


97Amin

Appendix B






Mohamed Morsi won the presidential elections, you as a citizen have a president who


98Amin

Final Paper:

Laila Amin

Rhet 201-08


I-search paper- Final Draft

15 July 2012

Islamophobia

Introduction:












Egyptian revolution which occurred on 25th January 2011. The MB have been running




elections, they seized power and status by force. Also a very interesting thing that attracted so

many politically-concerned people is that, not only the Tunisian citizens were the ones who

99Amin

had the right to vote in the Tunisian elections, but the citizens of Morocco and Algeria were

allowed to vote too! This was later elaborated by the famous thinkers who analyzed this as the

Islamists, including the MB of course, wanted to benefit from the large Islamic bulk in

Morocco to support them win the elections. The pattern the Muslim Brotherhood follows

makes their goals mysterious for most of the people. Are they a group of religious men who

are willing to reform Egypt or are they an Islamic party that uses Islam to fulfill their political

targets? I have been very curious and anxious to know more about the Muslim Brotherhood

specially after there was a huge probability for their candidate to be the next Egyptian

president. I personally, wanted to know where Egypt is heading. Are the Muslim Brotherhood

attempts to capture the executive branch fostered by the urge of developing and reforming

Egypt, or a final step in establishing a totalitarian rule?








was so much into the topic, I read as many articles as I found taking into consideration the

obstacle of the time limit and based on this, I arrived at the final sources that would benefit

me to reach the most unbiased final conclusion. Eventually, I settled on a list of articles which

are specified below:


2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.

100Amin


Review of books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.

"Muslim Brotherhood." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic

Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 11 Jun 2012.


Jun 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.




Web. 11 Jun 2012.


Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30 Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.


The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 Jun 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.


N.p.,10 Jul 2011. Web. 13 Jun 2012.


2005: 25-34. Web. 13 Jun 2012.

In order to satisfy my urge to know where Egypt is heading under the Muslim Brotherhood's

rule, I had to know much more about their history, criticize and analyze the positions they

take in any situation throughout different time eras. Thus, I can be able to form a general idea

101Amin

of who they really are and have answers to my questions that are filling the shallow part of

my mind.

What I found:









dismantled and broken up into smaller countries and as the West succeeded in establishing

colonies and expanding their rule, it was crucial to seek independence and reuniting the

Ummah. This lit a spark into the organizations that are categorized as Islamic to organize their

action to pursue two priority objectives. One of them was the international expansion of the







educational and religious projects which, as a result, caused the people to view the MB as an

organization which is willing to implement some needed social services. Their political


102Amin










imprisoned ("Muslim Brotherhood"). In the article "Washington’s Secret History with the

Muslim Brotherhood", Ian Johnson mentioned that Said Ramadan, the delegate of the Muslim















103Amin





(Vidino 25-34).





not give up and they yearned to participate in the legislative elections in those countries.


in Egypt and boycotting it alternatively depending on the deals they succeeded to make with

the National Party at that time. They were highly opposed and suppressed by the previous

regime of Hosni Mubarak and they revived again after the revolution of 25th January. They

hesitated briefly whether to take part in the revolution and have an effective role or just to

stand and watch what will happen. After Mubarak was forced to step down from the









in return of executing their orders or not. In order to overcome the suppression, they achieved

104Amin

well organized local and nation-wide networks. They are composed of a central






autocratic.


considered a highly confidential matter of their activities as stated previously. They claim that


administrative sector is responsible mainly for specific activities related to their respective

sector. There are some sources that claim on the other hand, that the organization is funded by

the help of enterprises in Egypt and elsewhere and by the Persian Gulf states and the West in

general. In addition to this, the Muslim Brotherhood is seemingly having extensible

connections with some Islamic banks and institutions. They also control large number of

charitable societies which are of course, financed by the older regime—this may be adding to

their regular budget which they manage to have. Some cases have been suspected for

laundering money and getting money illegally into the country through large organizations

and they turned out to be MB members. This assures that the MB work for their own benefits

and are hiding behind the religion curtain to fulfill all their personal intentions ("Islamic

countries, Egypt").



in Egypt, they amended laws that have nothing to do with politics. They seemed to be isolated

105Amin

from what is happening in the country; their highest concerns were about prohibiting the

sexual websites, legalizing the circumcision of the girls, lowering the marriage age to twelve

years. If we took a look at the different laws introduced by the different members of the

dissolved parliament, we will find that the liberal member Amr Hamzawy for instance, was

raising much more important and closely guarded with freedom and justice laws. Unlike the

MB who just appeal for people religiously. They are very weak politically; they were

proposing and discussing the unconstitutionality of the judiciary if it stated the invalidity of

the Parliament – this can never happen as the judiciary is the most powerful judging

association in the country! They call themselves the "Freedom and Justice Party" where in

fact, this party was dominating mostly all the authorization committees. Starting with the state

council to the Parliament (before it had been dissolved) and this is the farthest thing from

justice. Additionally, they were majority in the Parliament and they used this to amend laws

against the freedom. Part of their propaganda for their renaissance plan is that it takes 16

years to get the desired outcome; does this mean that they are indirectly saying that the people

can't judge them after the first four years until other elections take place? It's very unhealthy,

to the whole society, that only one party with one directed way of thinking take over the most

important and effective authorizations. This prevents the advantages of the objection and the

inconsistency to take place. They will definitely face challenges in different aspects; first of

all, regarding the issue of returning the security to the Egyptian streets – this will never

happen under this huge conflict which is between the people and the security forces (army

and police). The second issue is the economic status now in Egypt. The investors started to

terminate their investments and the economy was falling greatly before the run-off elections

take place.

Despite the fact that MB support and cherish democracy, they have a very well-known

statement which is: Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the democracy, the

106Amin

freedom of speech and the freedom of expression ("BBC News Middle East"). How are they

calling for a democratic state while they do not approve of the freedom of people who do not

agree with them? How are they willing to force the girls and women to wear veils while they

are supposedly willing to reform a state imposing better Islamic traits and freedom?









47% of the dissolved parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the

upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the

Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of

750,000. He is a MB member though. They are really contradicting themselves very much, I

believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this,

they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore

morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The




soon as they took over the Parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied.


power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential elections of

107Amin






recognizable. In Al-Ahram journal, the spokesman of the MB's campaign -Ghazlan- was

interviewed. He was asked why did not he support Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh who had

the same plan and intellect of the MB but ran for the presidential elections independently?

The spokesman answered that he was supporting the MB and Abdel Monem Abou Al-Fotouh

did not represent them! This means that he was not supporting Mohamed Morsi because he

believed he deserves, but because he was helping the MB to reach this position. Will the

people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the

huge failure the MB accomplished in the Parliament and the insatiability they show for the

power? The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic

principles fall to be like Iran? Or flourish to be like Turkey? Now that the Muslim

Brotherhood's candidate won the presidency elections, this question will be answered shortly.

When Islamists took over the Parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and

dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts.

Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs? (Gerges).


Mohamed Morsi –their candidate for the presidential elections 2012-- they, after feeling the





108Amin


regime to contribute in the Parliament and now they disregard this –in order not to be called








and denied all their previous positions willing also to capture political status. Simply this can

be regarded as if they "go with the flow".









the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the Parliament will continue



("ikhwanweb"). However, after Mohamed Morsi won the presidency elections, after swearing

the oath of respecting the judicial authorities and in the first ten days of his rule, one of the

first decisions which he made was rejecting the constitutional declaration and recalling the

109Amin

dissolved parliament once again! The validity of this decision is very debatable now, some

people think he has the full right to do so and others think that no, he has done the most

incorrect action on which he should be punished.

Methodology:

The secondary research I did was very beneficial. However, I conducted a survey

using a questionnaire consisting of 12 questions (see appendix A). These questionnaires were

distributed to a randomly chosen sample of people to either confirm or contradict the results I

have reached. I was able to get 110 responses – 60 females and 50 males. Age group was

between 18 and 45. 10 female and 10 male Christians have answered the questionnaire too.

All responses are coming from Egyptians.







members who participated in the dissolved parliament had an effective positive role. 69% of

the males and 96% of the females do not favor them over liberals since they do not trust them-

-- here the females' percentage exceeds the males' greatly since the females fear the strictness

of the MB concerning the women rights and so on. 82% of the males and 75% of the females

who do not trust them think that their credibility was highly affected by the latest events in

Egypt. 40% of the males and 20% of the females would not give the party the chance to

capture the executive under normal circumstances. However, they were able to win the

presidency since the opposing candidate was from the old regime. 73% of the males and 55%

110Amin

of the females view their goals as theocratic not political and 9% of the males and the females

view their goals as theocratic and political at the same time. 88% of the males and 80% of the

females do not agree with the rejection of the constitutional declaration regarding dissolving

the Parliament even if they support the party in general. 90% of both males and females do

not agree with establishing a theocratic state. Most of the MB members have spent time in jail

under different regimes; 60% of males and 70% of females think this is against them. Last but

not least, 78% of the males and 92% of the females disagree with the early celebration of

Mohamed Morsi after he claimed he won the presidential elections before the authorized

association declared this.

This left me with some unanswered questions which I tried to answer by interviewing

people but failed. Please see Appendix B for the interview questions. The answers I got were

vague and most of them were opinions that won't help me reach a good, accurate and credible

answer. One question that would have helped form a good supported argument if I had found

an answer for it is: why were the MB suppressed by all the leaders and rulers even though

each and everyone of them had different mindset, different agenda and completely different

relationships with the effective elements of the society? Why did they all agree on nothing but

isolating the MB from the political life?

Conclusion:

The MB have as many followers as opponents then. Although they have done a lot of

charity work, helped people tremendously even though they were not in control of high

governmental positions, reformed some areas by giving illiterates free up-to-the-standard

education and had an indispensably crucial role in making parts of the environment much

better, they are greatly opposed. If their main goal is to reform the country, why don't they

reform it without having insatiability for the power?! After representing both the good and

111Amin

bad sides of the MB, we can pause and think deeply. Many situations have been stated against

them that show and support effectively that until now, the MB are only hoping for capturing

the executive branch so that they can have power. No more no less. However, they have been

in control of the executive branch for less than 20 days and we can't judge them now. We

have to wait and see. But unfortunately, what I personally see after analyzing their work in the

first few days is that they are trying to please everybody by some charismatic actions. And it

is well known that when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. Let us all

hope for better Egypt free from the greed of the political elements which need only to fulfill

their personal intentions, caring the least about the commonweal.

112Amin

Works Cited


Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.


Review of Books. N.p., 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.


ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun 2012. Web. 20 Jun 2012.

"Morsi, Egypt's President-Elect, Victory Statement." ikhwanweb. N.p., 18 Jun 2012.

Web. 20 Jun 2012.




Times, 14 Jun 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.

Nassar, Abdel-Latif. Al-Ahram Newspaper (translated from Arabic). 24 Jun 2012.

Web. 2 Jul 2012. http://digital.ahram.org.eg/Policy.aspx?Serial=940861



2012.


2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.

113Amin


Broadcasting Corporation). N.p., 30`` Jan. 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.


Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 Jun 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.


N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.



114Amin



Feb. 2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.


He also talked about what happened in Algeria. When Islamists took over the Parliament in Algeria in 1992, the army intervened and dissolved the political process. When Islamists took over in Sudan, it split into two parts. Does this ring a bell to some consistent pattern that always occurs?






Dr. Mohamed Saad Katatni, Speaker of the People’s Assembly refused the constitutional declaration of dissolving the elected parliament and did not approve of it. This declaration was authored by the SCAF. He, during a meeting with some SCAF members, stressed that this declaration is void and null arguing that the SCAF does not have neither the right nor the

115Amin

legitimacy according to the existing Declaration to do so and should have instead, maintained the free will of the people who elected this parliament.

Katatni, as a Muslim brotherhood member, has clearly rejected the declaration of the constitutional organization and assured that the Parliament will continue with its work. This is unacceptable by all means. For the constitutional organization to be ranked as the third on the world, they as a brotherhood are not allowed to reject its declaration.


Web. 20 Jun 2012.







Times, 14 Jun. 2012. Web. 15 Jun 2012.

116Amin

In a New York Times article, the constantly changeable MB decisions were clearly represented where they first won the parliamentary elections sweeping away all the other liberal parties, controlling 47% of the seats. People gave them their voices as they had very impressive project to be done. But as soon as they took over the Parliament, nothing from this plan was performed or applied. When people started to rebel against them, they said they are not looking forward to reaching for the power and the status thus they won't nominate a candidate for the presidential election of 2012. However, and not surprisingly, they as always, did not follow their word and they nominated Khairat El-Shater. By some means, he was disqualified. The organization did not accept that and they nominated another candidate who is Mohamed Morsi which shows that they are not just nominating the best, but they want anyone, by any means to get to the elections and of course predictably will win as their popularity in the Egyptian streets is highly recognizable. Will the people's hate towards Mubarak's regime force them to elect Mohamed Morsi again after the huge failure the MB accomplished in the Parliament?



2012.

OConnell stated that the MB terribly want the Quraan and Sunna to be the reference which the people jump back to in each and every moral situation. He also mentioned that they want to stress on applying the Shariaa on all the controversial issues and debates. In social policy they hold the primary role of women should be care of the family. They avoid ideological positions in economic matters, they call for equality; they want to narrow the difference between the rich and the poor. They care for this social justice more than the technological improvement for instance. However, I myself do not agree with this. The MB took about 47% of the Parliament seats and they were discussing publishing a law that sets the upper boundary of the salaries to 50,000 Egyptian pounds, excluding themselves and the Sallafin party. The Katatni, the speaker of people's assembly in Egypt, takes a salary of 750,000. He is a MB member though. They are very contradicting themselves, I believe. Are they making these speeches for the sake of power and authority? Inspite of this, they view the society as a corrupted one by secular values and the only way to restore morality, economic health, and political power is returning back to the Islamic principles. The question is, will the country if ruled by the MB and after applying the Islamic principles fall to the next Iran? Or flourish to next turkey? –assuming they will dominate the executive and the legislative branches.


2011. Web. 11 Jun 2012.

The writer stated some facts about the history of the MB. He argued that despite the fact that MB support and cherish the democracy, they have a very well-known statement which is: The

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Islam is the solution; this has nothing to do with the democracy, the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.







The." ABC Religion and Ethics. N.p., 12 June 2012. Web. 18 Jun 2012.

Ramadan stated that by the first round of the presidential elections, the Muslim brotherhood has already lost most of its credibility in the Egyptian streets. To a great portion of people, the Muslim Brotherhood is looked upon as a disturbed, unsettled and contradictory organization. They dominated most of the Parliament which is freely elected and they represented one third of the opinions on one hand. On the other hand, they had agreements with the military to fulfill their own fortunes. They are maybe encouraged by the Turkish and Tunisian experiences. No one can overlook the great losses which are likely to take place due to their muddled tactical, strategic and failing errors. Not only will these errors cost them, but the whole country as well.

Turkey, is by all means, different than Egypt. The Muslim brotherhood will not be able to establish the success they persisted in Turkey since the economic position of Egypt is far weaker than Turkey's and its place in the Middle East is far more sensitive. Especially, after taking into consideration the Israel-Palestine conflict.

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N.p., 10 Jul. 2011. Web. 13 Jun. 2012.









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Appendix A



1) How well do you know the Muslim Brotherhood/ Freedom and Justice Party?

Very well

Average



Very much

Normal

Not at all

3) Rate their representation in the Parliament.

Highly effective

Neutral

Very depressing


Yes

No


Yes

No


Very much

A little

Not at all

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Yes of course


Never


Political

Theocratic

Both


the Parliament?

Agree

Disagree

Neutral


Yes

No


For

Against



With

Against


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Appendix B






Mohamed Morsi won the presidential elections, you as a citizen have a president who


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Presentation:

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MLA format:

How to make your portfolio:

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