"They Were Going Together with the Ikhwan": The Influence of Muslim Brotherhood Thinkers on Shi'i Islamists during the Cold War

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-262
Author(s):  
Siarhei Bohdan
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Islamic Revolution ◽  
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Islamist Movement

By analyzing the interest displayed by the followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in writings by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, this article shows how the Shi'i Islamist movement in Iran and Afghanistan was both transnational and influenced by Sunni Islamists in the Arab world. Using mostly Iranian and Afghan sources, this article discusses these influences through the notion of Islamic revolutionary ecumenism. While much attention has been given to Khomeini's call to "export" Iran's Islamic Revolution, this article shows some of the ways his own followers "imported" their ideology.

Land of Blue Helmets

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Arab World ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Member States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Political Mediation

Born in 1945, the United Nations (UN) came to life in the Arab world. It was there that the UN dealt with early diplomatic challenges that helped shape its institutions such as peacekeeping and political mediation. It was also there that the UN found itself trapped in, and sometimes part of, confounding geopolitical tensions in key international conflicts in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, such as hostilities between Palestine and Iraq and between Libya and Syria. Much has changed over the past seven decades, but what has not changed is the central role played by the UN. This book's claim is that the UN is a constant site of struggle in the Arab world and equally that the Arab world serves as a location for the UN to define itself against the shifting politics of its age. Looking at the UN from the standpoint of the Arab world, this volume includes chapters on the potential and the problems of a UN that is framed by both the promises of its Charter and the contradictions of its member states.

Nasser's Gamble

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Ferris
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Original Material ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Arab Spring

This book draws on declassified documents from six countries and original material in Arabic, German, Hebrew, and Russian to present a new understanding of Egypt's disastrous five-year intervention in Yemen, which Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser later referred to as “my Vietnam.” The book argues that Nasser's attempt to export the Egyptian revolution to Yemen played a decisive role in destabilizing Egypt's relations with the Cold War powers, tarnishing its image in the Arab world, ruining its economy, and driving its rulers to instigate the fatal series of missteps that led to war with Israel in 1967. Viewing the Six Day War as an unintended consequence of the Saudi–Egyptian struggle over Yemen, the book demonstrates that the most important Cold War conflict in the Middle East was not the clash between Israel and its neighbors. It was the inter-Arab struggle between monarchies and republics over power and legitimacy. Egypt's defeat in the “Arab Cold War” set the stage for the rise of Saudi Arabia and political Islam. Bold and provocative, this book brings to life a critical phase in the modern history of the Middle East. Its compelling analysis of Egypt's fall from power in the 1960s offers new insights into the decline of Arab nationalism, exposing the deep historical roots of the Arab Spring of 2011.

Repression of Islamists and Authoritarian Survival in the Arab World: A Case Study of Egypt

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Lachapelle
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
State Repression ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Authoritarian Survival

This chapter explores the causes of state repression against Islamist organizations in the Arab world. Advancing a rich literature on state repression, authoritarianism, and Islamist politics, it proposes a new approach that centers on the role of non-Islamist audiences for explaining the repression of Islamists. Specifically, the chapter argues that when society is divided between non-Islamists and Islamists, an autocrat can repress Islamists to signal a commitment to non-Islamists to protect them from perceived threats by Islamists. It provides supporting evidence from Egypt, which shows how large-scale repression directed at the Muslim Brotherhood after the coup of 2013 served to cultivate the support of non-Islamists.

Post-Islamism in Distress? A Critical Evaluation of the Theory in Islamist-Dominated Egypt (11 February 2011-3 July 2013)

2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-118
Author(s):  
Robbert A.F.L. Woltering
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
New Horizons ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Tunisian Revolution

The developments in the Arab world since the outbreak of the Tunisian revolution not only open up new horizons for Arab citizens, they also allow for scholars of Middle Eastern studies to test certain theories in ways heretofore impossible. One such theory is that of post-Islamism. This paper discusses a number of recent publications by former members of the Muslim Brotherhood, in light of recent developments in and analysis of Egypt’s Islamist politics, with the aim of determining whether it is possible (and useful) to speak of a ‘post-Islamist condition’ in the post-Mubarak period wherein the Muslim Brotherhood rose to power. 


Monarchs and Mamluks, or How Do You Say “Thank You” for $20 Billion

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-24
Author(s):  
Richard W. Bulliet
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Cooperation ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Arab Spring

The causes and processes of the Arab Spring movements are less important for current political developments than the responses to those movements by states that were not directly involved. After discussing the Turkish, Israeli, Iranian, and American responses, the focus turns to the recently announced military cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Did the Saudi government conspire with the Egyptian high command to plot the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Cairo? If so, as seems likely, was the United States aware of the conspiracy? More importantly, what does the linkage between the Egyptian army and Saudi and Gulf financial support for President al-Sisi's regime suggest for the future of stability and legitimate rule in the Arab world?

scholarly journals A commitment to politics: the trajectory of the Muslim Brotherhood during Egypt's 2011–13 political opening

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Wilmot
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Military ◽  
Islamist Movement ◽  
Rare Opportunity

Prior to the 2011 Arab uprisings, Islamist parties in most Arab states had been systematically prevented from exercising any meaningful authority in government. Following President Hosni Mubarak's ousting from power in 2011, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) established a political party – the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) – and formally entered mainstream politics, providing a rare opportunity to examine the role of an Islamist party in the context of democratic transition. Contrary to concerns that the MB might use Egypt's political opening to install an undemocratic regime, the movement instead committed itself to electoral politics and consistently adhered to the framework for political transition. An analysis of the MB's political trajectory during the 2011–13 timeframe reveals that the movement endeavoured to protect Egypt's democratic transition against the encroachment of the military and the judiciary. Despite the FJP's efforts, sustained interference by non-elected institutions brought Egypt's democratic experiment to a premature end. This course of events confirms that an Islamist movement is capable of fully committing to politics, but also indicates that political commitment alone is insufficient to ensure a successful transition to democratic governance.

The Middle Eastern Cold War: Unique Dynamics in a Questionable Regional Framework

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-322
Author(s):  
Jeffrey James Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
International History ◽  
War Narrative ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Ideological Identity

One of the more prominent themes to emerge from this roundtable is the desire to integrate the history of the modern Middle East with broader trends in international history, particularly with regard to the recent emphasis on “decentralizing” and “globalizing” the Cold War narrative. My own research interests are consistent with this approach, as one of the central concerns of my current project is to show how Algeria's revolutionary nationalists defied the regional categories imposed on them from the outside by pursuing overlapping diplomatic initiatives under the rubrics of Maghribi unity, African unity, Arab unity, Afro-Asianism, and Third Worldism. After independence in 1962, the Algerian foreign ministry's main geographical divisions differed significantly from those used by the U.S. State Department—and most history departments’ hiring committees—by dividing the world into “the West,” “the Socialist Countries,” “the Arab World,” “Africa,” and “Latin America/Asia.” These categories were the product of both practical considerations and ideological/identity politics on the part of Algeria's new leaders, and to my mind suggest that the “Middle East” may itself be a particularly arbitrary and misleading geographical framework, even in comparison to other parts of the developing world where European imperialism exerted a heavy cartographical influence.

scholarly journals The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt: Ideology vs. Pragmatism

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
David Schwartz ◽  
Daniel Galily
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
Western Model ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Masses

This study aims to present the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, its ideology and pragmatism. With progress and modernization, the Islamic movements in the Middle East realized that they could not deny progress, so they decided to join the mainstream and take advantage of technological progress in their favor. The movement maintains at least one website in which it publishes its way, and guides the audience. Although these movements seem to maintain a rigid ideology, they adapt themselves to reality with the help of many tools, because they have realized that reality is stronger than they are. The main points in the article are: The status of religion in the country; What is the Muslim Brotherhood? According to which ideology is the movement taking place? - Movement background and ideology; Theoretical background – The theory of Pragmatism; How is pragmatism manifested in the activity of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? In conclusions: The rise of the Islamist movements as a leading social and political force in the Middle East is the result of the bankruptcy of nationalism, secularism and the left in the Arab world, which created an ideological vacuum, which is filled to a large extent by the fundamentalists, ensuring that Islam is the solution. It is not only about the extent of the return to religion, but about the transformation of religion into a major political factor both by the regimes and by the opposition. These are political movements that deal first and foremost with the social and political mobilization of the masses, and they exert pressure to apply the Islamic law as the law of the state instead of the legal systems taken from the Western model.

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