Introduction
The Muslim Brotherhood refers to the transnational political and religious group that was created in Egypt by the Islamic scholar Hassan al-Banna on the basis of the belief that Islam is a way of life and not simply a religion. Banna was opposed to the Western concepts of democracy and justice. He considered the imitation of Western customs sacrilegious. Therefore, he founded this organization to unite the believers of Islam from all across the world into the bond of brotherhood and liberate Egypt from the bondage of Western influences (Jones and Cullinane 2013). By definition, democracy refers to a form of secular government in which people have the supreme power to choose their government and they exercise this power directly and indirectly via a system of representation that involves elections held periodically (Sparre and Petersen 2007). However, the Muslim Brotherhood promotes a shift from secularism and democracy and a return to the traditional rules as dictated by the holy Quran as a basis for communities, states, and healthy families. The proponents of the Muslim Brotherhood are opposed to secularism and democracy, and in order to fight for their ideologies, they have embraced violence.
The five-part slogan of the group is "God is our objective; the Qur'an is the Constitution; the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; death for the sake of God is our wish" (Jones and Cullinane 2013). Muslim Brotherhood Deputy Chairman Mohammad Ma'mun El-Hudaibi, in a 1997 study for Harvard International Review, stated the two key pillars on which the Brotherhood is based upon include the introduction of the Islamic Sharia Law as the basis of regulating the affairs of the society and state and making efforts "to achieve unification among the Islamic countries and states, mainly among the Arab states, and liberating them from foreign imperialism" (Jones and Cullinane 2013). This group is the largest and the oldest opposition group in the country, having had the support of the Egyptian middle class sections, and the members of this group control many professional organizations in the country. This paper would discuss the role of Islam in modern Egypt, the connections between Islamic networks and Civil Society in Egypt, Islamic networks and the democratization process, the Islamic movements, and secularism in Egypt.
The Role of Islam in Modern Egypt
Islam has always played a big role in social as well as political life in Egypt. Modern times are no different. Egypt came under the Islamic rule first under the Ottoman Empire. Since then, apart from a few years when Egypt was attacked by Napoleon in 1798 and when the country was declared a secularist state for a few decades in the 20th century, Egypt almost uninterruptedly has continued to remain an Islamic state. 96% of the Egyptians are Sunni Muslims. Less than 1% of the Egyptians are non-Muslims (Fahmy 2013). In present day Egypt, Islam has a huge impact on the society. Most of the schools are operated under the guidance of the mosques. Most of the schools are headed by the religious leaders. Al-Azhar University, which is the highest religious institution in Egypt, is also the highest educational governing body of Egypt. Mosques also play a big role in public life as most of the medical systems are also controlled by mosques. According to the current Constitution of Egypt, the heads of the mosques and educational institutions are appointed by the government, but they should have a minimum qualification. This new band of educated religious leaders has started influencing the new generation of Egyptian youths. Contemporary Egyptian Muslims believe that there is no dichotomy between sacred and secular. The rural population and lower strata of the society are hugely influenced by the imams (local religious leaders). This section of the population still practices the age-old Islamic traditions like veneration of saints, belief in the influence of evil spirits, and recourse to charms (Ankur 2013). Religious leaders like Amr Khaled preach to maintain a disciplined focus on life without compromising on the modern lifestyle.
One of the principal problems of the modern day Egypt is the presence of extremist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Although the majority of the followers of the Muslim Brotherhood are either moderate or new Islamists, who are non-violent, but a substantial number of the Muslim Brotherhood are radicals intending to get Egypt and other Muslim nations rid of western influences. In recent years, the Egyptian government is making efforts to revert back to the concept of Islam being a way of life. Egyptians were always faithful about religion. A study conducted in 1990 by some students of Harvard shows that almost 98% of the Egyptian citizens want Islam as the state religion and Sharia Law as the law of the country (Chatham House 2011). Even after the recent revolutionary movement known famously as Arab Spring, the beliefs of these people have not changed. In fact, still 96% of the population supports the idea of Islam being the guiding force of politics (Sparre and Petersen 2007). In fact, in recent years, the common people of Egypt have aligned themselves towards religion based politics because of the decades long failure of the secularist government. These strong believers of Islam think that embracing Islam as a way of life will help decrease corruption, create an environment of free education and medical facilities for all, and create an environment of equality, reducing bureaucracy.
Connection between Islamic Networks and Civil Society in Egypt
Islam has a played an important role in the civil society of Egypt, partly because of the continuous clashes between the Egyptian regime and different Islamist networks like the Muslim Brotherhood and others. When President Sadat was in power, the Egyptian regime tried to legitimize the radical groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, allowing members of the Muslim Brotherhood to participate in elections to parliament and professional syndicates. During the regime of Sadat, through mosques and Islamic universities, Sadat created an infrastructure to make Islam reach even poorest of the poor section. In fact, during his regime, people’s faith in Islam had increased a lot. However, Al Sadat was not an extremist, believing in the peaceful coexistence of other religions and secularist ideas, but the extremist religious groups like the Muslim Brotherhood sought a pure Islamic regime without the influence of western secularist ideals (Sparre and Petersen 2007). They made an attack on the Sadat government due to which, the Sadat regime reacted by making counter attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood leaders and activists, eventually prohibiting it from functioning as a political party. Immediately, after this, extremists of the Muslim Brotherhood killed Al Sadat in 1981.
After the demise of Al Sadat, Hosni Mubarak became the President of Egypt and ruled for almost 30 years until 2012. Under his rule, Egypt had a semi-authoritarian government in place with a few democratic elements. Hosni instituted a party system consisted of the National Democratic Party at the center with a few opposition parties to its right and left (Sparre and Petersen 2007). The ruling party and the President had the dominating power, while the opposition parties were divided and weak. During his rule, as he enjoyed authoritarian power, the corruption level went up significantly. The condition of the common people did not improve even though the country was doing well economically. The Muslim Brotherhood, which, till that time, was supported by a small section of the Egyptians, started gaining huge popularity among the middle classes (Chatham House 2011). However, as it was a banned organization with no political power, they could not rise into power.
After the 2012 revolution, Mohamed Morsy, a Presidential candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, became the President of Egypt. There were a lot of expectations from his government. However, he adopted a hard line approach and chose the governors from the Muslim Brotherhood members or fanatical Islamic extremists. He also tried to overturn the current judiciary system of Egypt and wanted to implement Sharia Law in the same fashion as Saudi Arabia (Fahmy 2013). However, his government was soon toppled by another revolutionary movement in 2013. In 2014, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, an independent candidate, won the election by receiving 96% of the votes.
Egypt has an array of civil society organizations, including social welfare organizations like charities, orphanages, NGOs, schools, hospitals, clinics, and zakat committees; 22 professional syndicates like the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association, the World Bank, UN Agencies, and NGOs; and informal networks and community groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, Kijafa, and so on. Lest the civil society organizations rise into power, different Egyptian governments in order to contain their influence and power have tried different tactics. The Mubarak government tried a mixture of repression and cooperation towards civil society organizations (Sparre and Petersen 2007). Since 1967, Egyptians lived under the emergency law, except a period of break for 18 months in 1980, until 31st May, 2012. These laws prevented the occurrence of any non-governmental political action, such as street demonstrations, unregistered financial donations, unapproved political rallies or organizations (Sparre and Petersen 2007). The Emergency Law also restrains the basic rights of citizens by allowing their arrests without charge and refraining them from the freedom of association.
Islamic Networks and Democratization Process
According to Islam, all the Muslims are equal in the eyes of God, and therefore, some people should not get the privilege over others. Islam has democratic ideas in its root. However, in most of the Islamic states, strong religious leaders or the kind backed by the religious leaders have all the power in the hands. In fact, the heads of the state of countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, and some other Middle East countries are still not selected through a democratic electoral process. Rather, their selection is either made by the religious leaders or made because of their superior religious roots. On the other hand, Islamic countries like Turkey have a democratic process of selection of the head of the state for almost 100 years.
Egypt also created its judiciary and started a democratic process of the election of the President in the mid of the 20th century. Unlike Turkey, where the democratic process worked well, in Egypt, the democratic and secularist process was never successful. However, under the disguise of democracy, many secular presidents of Egypt actually acted like autocratic leaders, with Hosni Mubarak being the latest of them. Because of these secularist authoritarian leaders, Islamic religious groups flourished. They preached equality, provided free schooling and medical services to the poor, and taught Islam as a way of life. Because of poor governance of the presidents, these religious factions gradually started becoming popular. During the 1960s and the 1970s, a big religious movement took place in order to institute Islam as a way of life in the political and judicial system (Chatham House 2011). This was partially successful when the president Sadat recognized some of the religious factions and through the help of them, the influence of Islam started reaching out to the common people. Although some of the radical religious groups through their extremist propaganda failed to influence the entire mass, but the majority of the Muslim Brotherhood members with their moderate ideology managed to bring a maximum number of people under their wings. For instance, the Al Shaab group was a group of Islamic Intellectuals and Anti-Western Young Militants, who were mainly non-violent and vocal about Mubarak’s inability to build an Islamic network with the Arab countries (Jones and Cullinane 2013). They were especially vocal about their opinions about the non-participation of Egypt in the Gulf War and Israel-Palestinian War. This group not only became popular within Egypt during the time of crisis, but also received huge support from other Arab countries.
Professional Associates was another non-violent faction of the Muslim Brotherhood involved in the civil society institutions and a number of social activities. They believed in peaceful social protest, and they garnered huge popularity among the large middle class populations of Egypt, because of their idea of replacing the Mubarak government with a democratic Islamic process. Another faction that had a huge influence on the democratization of Egypt through Islam was the new Islamist group, which preached national interpretation of the Quran and had faith in the judiciary system (Cofman 2014). These groups helped in the current process of the overall overhaul of a democratic system of Egypt by creating a new judiciary, constitution, and a one step process of the presidential election.
How Islamic Movements Foster Peace and Cooperation or Conflict and Disorder?
Because of a lot of Islamic radical groups across the world, Islam is often thought of promoting violence. However, actually Islam is a religion of peace. As per the original teachings of Quran, killing people, especially innocent people is a grave sin. However, over the years, because of the wrong interpretation of the Quran, many think otherwise. In fact, many radicals, including the Muslim Brotherhood justify killing people in the name of God (Cofman 2014). Many a times, they kill innocent people to show their grievance against the government.
However, over the centuries, Islamic places of worship had been a place of gathering, peace and harmony. In fact, mosques have been the basic source of education, medical help and also a source of food and shelter for the poor and needy. In Egypt, the Al-Azhar University not only acted as the highest religious body of the country, but also helped develop education and medical help through its network of mosques and religious leaders. For example, when a huge tension was going on between the Hosni Mubarak government and the Muslim Brotherhood, Ulamas acted as the main mediator between the two groups to arrive at a peaceful agreement (Chatham House 2011). Unlike Christianity and other religions that mostly affect the private life of an individual, Islamic law is a comprehensive code of behavior that regulates both the private and public life of an individual. Islamic rules like giving donations to mosques and feeding the poor, at least once a year, definitely increases the cooperation among individuals and society as a whole.
Many Islamic leaders believe that since the prophet Mohammad used violence to spread his religious propaganda, therefore, violence or jihad is a righteous path as per the Quran. They believe that even killing someone is just for the sake of religion. Because of this radical interpretation of the Quran, many extreme Islamist groups use violent tactics to spread the religious ideologies of Islam (Cofman 2014). The Muslim Brother is no exception. In fact, over the years, they have butchered many political leaders, non-Muslims, and even innocent Muslim people who opposed to their radical ideology.
Secularism
The principle of secularism is based on two basic propositions. Firstly, it separates the state from the influence of religious institutions, ensuring the non-participation of religious groups in the affairs of state and the non-interference of the state in religious affairs. Secondly, secularism believes that people of all religions and beliefs are equal in the eyes of law and parliament, thereby ensuring and protecting the freedom of religious beliefs and practice for every citizen (NSS 2014).
In the case of Egypt, it was a secular country for a brief period of time, but owing to continuous pressures from the radical Islamist groups in the 1960s and the 1970s, the Sharia Law was made the official law for Egypt in 1980. Egypt only recognizes three religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. However, there are three separate laws for these three religious sections. The believers of Christianity and Judaism have much less privileges, having no right to build their own places of worship in the Egyptian soil (Berman 2003). Also, if they want to marry an Egyptian Muslim, they must convert into Islam, be it a male or female. The law of the Egyptian state is largely influenced by the Quran and Sharia. Therefore, although the process of election and parliament is democratic, the judiciary and the political system being highly influenced by Islam makes Egypt a non-secular country.
Conclusion
Egypt is one of the largest Islamic nations in the world. However, it is one of the few democratic Islamic nations in the world. Over the centuries, the religious influence on political matters in all the countries across the globe has reduced, except Islamic countries, especially Egypt. Egypt is seen as a resurgence of Islamic ideologies in the last 20 years, primarily because of the decades-long corruption and bureaucracy that eroded people’s faith in the democratic and secularist process. During this time, the Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood have flourished with their religious propaganda that sought to replace the democratic government with the hardline Sharia Law. Some of these Muslim activists influenced a larger part of the common people with their philanthropic work and an idea of peace through Islam, whereas other fundamental groups wanted to revert back to the religious way of governance through extreme measures. Although after two revolutions, Egypt has instituted a democratic electoral process, but still the political and judiciary systems are under the heavy influence of fundamental religious ideas, which is keeping Egypt from the transition into a true democratic and secular country.
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