For more than eight decades, the Muslim Brotherhood has been one of the most discussed Islamist movements in the world. To its critics, it has long been a totalitarian organization bent on undermining democracy and spreading religious authoritarianism. To some naïve Western policymakers and activists, however, it still appears to be little more than a “community organization” or a religious charity. This dual perception has distorted the debate and left governments ill-prepared to counter the broader Islamist challenge.

The truth lies somewhere in between. The Muslim Brotherhood of today is a fractured and weakened organization, particularly after its ouster from power in Egypt in 2013. Yet the ideas it popularized – political Islamism, theocratic governance, and the notion of global Islamic solidarity – have taken root far beyond Cairo. They continue to shape Islamist movements across the Middle East, Europe, North America, and South Asia. To underestimate this ideological legacy, or to confuse it with the centralized command of a bygone era, is to risk grave miscalculations.

At its height in the mid-20th century, the Brotherhood’s reach was formidable. Egyptian exiles and migrants carried its message to Europe, North America, and the wider Muslim world. By the 1980s, its leadership attempted to centralize control under the “International Organization”, designed to unify disparate branches under the authority of Cairo’s Supreme Guide. Yet unity proved elusive.

Branches in North Africa and the Gulf began drifting away. Sudanese Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi built his own movement, adapted to Sudanese realities. In Kuwait, the Brotherhood lost credibility after siding with Saddam Hussein’s invasion. Jordan witnessed deep schisms, not least because of the disruptive influence of Hamas, itself a Brotherhood offspring that soon operated independently. By the time Egypt’s short-lived Brotherhood government under Mohamed Morsi

© Blitz