Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood

2488 Words Dec 29th, 2012 10 Pages
The Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood is the largest Islamist organization in Egypt. It was founded in the 1920s by Hassan Al-Banna. The movement was a model of political activism combined with Islamic charity work. At first, it only aimed to spread Islamic morals, but soon became involved in politics. While the Muslim Brotherhood claims that it supports democratic principles, it aims to create a state ruled by Al Shariaa. Al Shariaa is the Islamic law stated in the Quran. The Brotherhood's mostly used slogan is "Islam is the solution", and it is known worldwide. It officially opposes violence to achieve goals; however, some of the movement's members were involved in massacres, bombings and assassinations of
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The movement is currently seeking to avoid full authority. It is, however, focusing on the longer term. The Brotherhood is aiming for a leading role in the process of writing a new constitution. Indeed, it is not clear if the old strategies of the Muslim Brotherhood will guide their actions through the coming days (Brown). Another cause to the success of the Muslim Brotherhood is that its offices acted as social service agencies. During winter people used to drop in asking for blankets, which the party handed them out along with their brochures. They as well helped several people in paying their medical bills (Kristof).
According to interviews I have conducted with different Freedom and Justice Party's supporters, I have discovered some of the reasons why they voted for them in the elections. Some people believe that Islam is the only solution for building a new, better and safer Egypt after the 25th of January revolution. They believe that if the candidates are God-fearing and obeying they won't be corrupt. Another reason is that some members of the Freedom and Justice Party offered financial help for those who would vote for them. Most of the people I interviewed were from a low social standard; therefore, they were in need of this help. In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood exploited poor people to gain more votes. That is mostly how they attempted to win most of
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