McKenzie Templeton

February 8th, 2012

SIS 201: AC
Professor Lucero
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt, & U.S. Collaboration
The United States, a country that observes the secularism of politics and strictly conforms
to the separation of church and state, has an extensive history in its opposition to countries that
have installed Shari a law, or law derived from the Quran. The U.S. maintains a distrustful
perception of political factions operating on the moral and religious code of Shari a, for
apprehensions exist within the minds of politicians in the possibility of these groups developing
fundamentalist or even radical Islamic beliefs, glaringly evident in Iran or the Talibans former
militant governance of Afghanistan. However, these fears of the United States were peculiarly
yielded after the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. The Muslim Brotherhood, a religious political
group that defines Islam as not only a religion, but also a way of life, has validly established
itself as a major political party in Egypt following the fall from power of Hosni Mubarak,
rejecting secularism and attaining a powerful influence in parliament (Jones 2011 CNN). As
council member Salah Abd-al-Maqsud (1989) asserts, The goal of the Muslim Brotherhood is
to rule by Gods book and to live by His laws in all walks of life (Abu-Amr). United States
officials have continually met with The Muslim Brotherhoods Freedom and Justice Partly after
the revolution, revealing a fundamental shift in US policy towards Egypt's Islamists, long
shunned as pariahs by the United States (Al-Nasrawi 2012). Why did the foreign policy of the
United States lapse? Americas support of The Muslim Brotherhood continues, even after its
Islamic Jihad movement in 1967 (Abu-Amr pg.90 1994), the intelligence of its confirmed

financial connections of the group to al-Qaeda, suspected bombings in Egypt, and association
with the assassination of the prime minister in 1948 (Crane 2005). Why does the United States
support an organization that wholly believes that politics is a part of religion and whose
enduring motto is Islam is the solution? (Ikhwan: Official Muslim Brotherhood Website).
Essentially, why does the United States support the Muslim Brotherhood's political power in
Egypt when it condemns other political groups in the Middle East based on Shari a law?
The Muslim Brotherhood was indeed founded on Islamic law, as Ziad Abu-Amr (1994)
states, The goal of this organization, which later became one of the largest political parties in
Egypt and the Arab East, was to build an Islamic society by applying Islamic law (shari a).
Since its establishment, the Muslim Brotherhood has called and worked for achieving that goal
(1). This unity of state and religion, of government and Islam, is exceedingly unfamiliar to the
United States, and is a mergence the U.S. usually refuses to recognize or even tolerate. Yet, the
Untied States defends The Muslim Brotherhood, despite its Islamic political foundations and
uncertain connections to illegal activity, because of its specific expression of democratic values.
Dr. Mohamed El-Sayed Habib, First Deputy of the Chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, stated
in an interview on the Brotherhoods mission,
We have announced our acceptance of democracy that acknowledges political pluralism,
the peaceful rotation of power, and the fact that the nation is the source of all powers (.) As we
see it, political reform includes () restoring of public freedoms, including the right to establish
political parties () the freedom of the press, freedom of criticism and thought, freedom of
peaceful demonstrations, freedom of assembly, etc.(Ikhwan: The Muslim Brotherhoods Official
Website).

The United States is therefore willing to forego its hesitancies in supporting a group so
committed to Islamic ideology, considering the prospect of a democratic Egyptian government
aligned with the U.S. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2011) declares, We believe, given
the changing political landscape in Egypt, that it is in the interests of the United States to engage
with all parties that are peaceful and committed to nonviolence, that intend to compete for the
parliament and the presidency (CNN). The United States continues to defend the Muslim
Brotherhood, even with American domestic concern as U.S. commentators espouse antagonistic
rhetoric, calling the Muslim Brothers radical Islamists and a vital component of the enemys
assault force () deeply hostile to the United States (Leiken & Brooke 2007). However, the
evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood is devoted to the establishment of democratic principles
supersedes any national protest of their hypothesized creation of a theocracy.
The Unites States accepts the Muslim Brotherhood, for although the group refuses to
recognize Israel and advances a dual democratic- Islamist state, it is notably moderate (Leiken &
Brooke 2007). Islamic Jihadists even profess disgust for the Brotherhoods adoption of
seemingly Western ideologies, as Al Qaedas Ayman al-Zawahiri disparages the group for,
luring thousands of young Muslim men into lines for elections () instead of into the lines of
jihad (Leiken & Brooke 2007). The political group rejects radicalism and the suppression of
females, offering women full participation in the revolution through the organization. The
Brotherhood is largely a product of the history of Egyptian revolution, as the existing political
pluralism () had directed the MB in a moderate direction as it attempted to participate in
electoral competitions (Moaddel pg. 4 2002) That is to say, the Muslim Brotherhoods current
political orientation is a result of the social developments of Egypt after its 1919 revolution,
including the formation of a liberal-nationalist state (preceding, though, The Muslim

Brotherhoods turn to extremism during Nassers authoritarian regime, as they were excluded
from parliamentary participation). The Brotherhood endeavors to return to its origins before the
post-1952 coup, origins that reflect its principles of altruism, democracy, and the freedom to
express any sociopolitical views without fear of suppression, exile, or imprisonment. An Islamicdemocratic government the Muslim Brotherhood does envision, but a radical regime it does not.
As the organization has demonstrated, an Islamic state is not tantamount to an oppressive one.