Muslim
Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood (Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimun) was founded in March 1928 in the Egyptian city of Ismailia by Hassan al-Banna, a 22-year-old schoolteacher deeply influenced by the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924. Al-Banna was alarmed by what he viewed as Western cultural imperialism penetrating Muslim societies, and sought to create an organisation that would re-Islamise Muslim populations from the ground up — through education, social welfare, and ultimately political power.

The Brotherhood's foundational slogan — "Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope" — encapsulated its totalising vision: Islam not merely as a personal faith, but as a complete political, legal, and social system governing every aspect of life.

By the 1940s, the Brotherhood had grown to an estimated 500,000 members in Egypt alone, operating a vast network of schools, clinics, businesses, and paramilitary units. It became involved in armed conflict during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and its secret apparatus carried out assassinations of Egyptian officials. Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmoud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi was assassinated by a Brotherhood member in 1948; al-Banna himself was killed by Egyptian secret police in retaliation months later.

The Brotherhood's relationship with Egyptian governments oscillated between alliance and violent suppression. After Gamal Abdel Nasser survived an assassination attempt attributed to Brotherhood members in 1954, he banned the organisation and imprisoned thousands of its members. It was in these prisons that Sayyid Qutb — the Brotherhood's most influential theorist — developed the radical ideology that would directly inspire Al-Qaeda and ISIS, arguing that existing Muslim governments were apostates to be overthrown by violent jihad.

The Brotherhood's ideology rests on the belief that Islam is a complete, self-sufficient system encompassing law, politics, economics, and social organisation — and that all Muslim societies must be governed exclusively by Sharia. It explicitly rejects the separation of religion and state as a Western imposition incompatible with Islam.

Unlike purely violent jihadist groups, the Brotherhood employs a gradualist, long-term strategy combining da'wa (proselytising), social services, political participation, and institutional infiltration. It builds parallel social structures — schools, hospitals, mosques, charities — that create dependency and loyalty among populations, then leverages this grassroots base to pursue political power through democratic participation when permitted, and through other means when not.

The Brotherhood's strategic document for North America, discovered by the FBI in 2004, described its mission as "a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilisation from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and by the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated."

Sayyid Qutb's prison writings introduced the concept of takfir — declaring other Muslims apostates — which became the theological justification for violence against Muslim governments. Though the Brotherhood officially distanced itself from violent tactics after the 1970s, its intellectual framework directly spawned the organisations that embraced them, including Al-Qaeda (founded by Brotherhood-influenced figures) and Hamas (its formal Palestinian branch).

The Brotherhood operates across multiple domains simultaneously, making it uniquely difficult to counter through conventional counterterrorism measures alone:

Institutional infiltration: Brotherhood-linked organisations have established deep roots in Western universities, mosques, think tanks, and political parties. In the UK, the Muslim Council of Britain has been linked to Brotherhood networks. In the United States, organisations including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and the Muslim American Society were identified in federal court proceedings as Brotherhood fronts.

Finance and media: Qatar's Al Jazeera network serves as a de facto Brotherhood propaganda platform, and Qatari sovereign wealth funds have financed Brotherhood-linked institutions globally. Turkish state media under Erdoğan has similarly amplified Brotherhood narratives.

Political power seizure: The Brotherhood participated in elections across Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Morocco, and Gaza — winning power in several instances. In Gaza, its Hamas branch has governed since seizing control in a 2007 coup against the Palestinian Authority.

Armed wings: While the Brotherhood's central leadership maintains a nominal commitment to non-violence, it has founded, supported, or inspired explicitly violent organisations including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and various Syrian rebel factions.

The Muslim Brotherhood's reach is global, and its activities have directly impacted communities documented across multiple IFC regional desks.