The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's post July 2012 Survival and the Role of its Networks Abroad

108 Pages·2016·1.12 MB·English

by  Sarah Loukas

2016

After the Fall from Power: The Egyptian
Muslim Brotherhood’s post July 2012 Survival
and the Role of its Networks Abroad

Sarah Loukas
s1585770

Master Thesis
Supervisor: Dr. A.P. Schmid
Second reader: Prof. Dr. E. Bakker

Master of Science in Crisis and Security Management
Public Administration
Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs
Leiden University

Date: August 10, 2016
Dedicated to my beloved father, Ayad Loukas † 7-9-2015
You loved me unconditionally, supported me with everything and always
believed in me. Thank you Dad, for giving me the strength and determination to
complete my thesis.

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Abstract

This research aimed to fill in a knowledge gap on the survival of the Muslim Brotherhood
after the military coup of July 2013 and the following repressive campaign it is facing to this
day. Since the Muslim Brotherhood has an international network, it was also important to do
research upon its network abroad to find out if these sections played any role in its survival.
The research questions were as follow: 1) How has the regime of el-Sisi dealt with the Muslim
Brotherhood after the military coup in July 2013? And 2) How did the Muslim Brotherhood
survive after the fall from power in 2013 and to what extent played its network abroad a role
in this survival? The developments of the Muslim Brotherhood were analyzed through the
social movement theory. This theory played a crucial role in answering the research
questions, since the Muslim Brotherhood can be viewed as a social-political movement.

The analysis of this research showed that the regime of el-Sisi aimed to break the
power of the Muslim Brotherhood. Since July 2013, the regime implemented several
sanctions against the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization and their sympathizer. The
measures that the regime of el-Sisi has taken against the Muslim Brotherhood include the
arrests of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood leaders, members, and activists and the
disruption and termination of all its social-political and religious activities. In addition, the el-
Sisi regime violated several human rights. Finally, this research has come to the conclusion
that the Muslim Brotherhood survived the military coup because it was able to adjust its
organizational and ideological structure in such a way that it could survive the repression. The
network abroad played a crucial role in this survival since the el-Sisi regime made it almost
impossible for the Muslim Brotherhood to operate inside Egypt. Therefore, many of its
members fled abroad and started to operate from inside these countries. The Muslim
Brotherhood sections abroad and countries like Qatar, Turkey and the United Kingdom made
this possible.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction 6
1.1 Background 6
1.2 Research Question and Sub-questions 8
1.3 Scientific and Societal Relevance 9
1.4 Reading Guide 10
2. Theoretical Framework 11
2.1 State Repression 11
2.1.1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights 12
2.2 Social Movement Theory 14
2.2.1 State Repression and Social Movement Theory 14
2.2.2 Resource Mobilization Theory 15
2.2.3 Political Opportunity Structure 17
2.2.4 Culture and Framing Processes 17
2.2.5 Structure of Islamic Activism 19
2.2.6 Social Movements and the use of Internet 20
2.3 Literature Review 22
2.3.1 The Resistance and Social Movement of the Muslim Brotherhood After the Fall
from Power in 2013 22
2.3.2 State Repression 25
3. Methodology 30
3.1 Central Research Questions and Sub-questions 30
3.2 Concepts 32
3.3 Research Methods 33
3.3.1 Case Study 33
3.3.2 Advantages and Disadvantages of a Case Study 34
3.4 Data Collection 35
3.4.1 Desktop Research 35
3.4.2 Document Analysis 36
3.4.3 Literature Study of Scientific Articles 36
3.5 Limitations 36

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4. Analysis 37
4.1 Sisi’s Repressive Policy Against the Muslim Brotherhood 38
4.1.1 Clashes between pro-Morsi Protesters and the Regime of el-Sisi 38
4.1.2 Sentences Carried out against Members and Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood
39
4.1.3 Termination of Activities of the Muslim Brotherhood 40
4.1.4 Criticism of Non-governmental Organizations 42
4.1.5 Conclusion 44
4.2 Reaction of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to Sisi’s Repressive Policy 47
4.2.1 Organizational Changes 47
4.2.2 Ideological Changes 49
4.2.3 Muslim Brotherhood Underground 51
4.2.4 Muslim Brotherhood Members Abroad 52
4.2.5 Conclusion 53
4.3 Reaction of Muslim Brotherhood Sections Abroad 57
4.3.1 European Muslim Brotherhood Sections 57
4.3.2 International Muslim Brotherhood Sections 60
4.3.3 Conclusion 64
4.4 Reaction of the States Friendly to the Muslim Brotherhood 68
4.4.1 Qatar 68
4.4.2 Turkey 70
4.4.3 United States 71
4.4.4 United Kingdom 73
4.4.5 Conclusion 74
5. Conclusion 78
Discussion 82
5.1 The Muslim Brotherhood’s Possible Future 83
5.1.1 Muslim Brotherhood Continues as a Religious Organization 83
5.1.2 Muslim Brotherhood Continues as an Underground Movement 84
5.1.3 Muslim Brotherhood Divided - Youth vs. Old Guard 84
Bibliography 87

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1. Introduction
The Muslim Brotherhood is the oldest and largest Islamist organization of Egypt and is one of
the world’s leading Islamist organizations. The main aim of the Muslim Brotherhood is the
re-establishment of the global Islamic caliphate (Friedland, 2015). As Friedland (2015)
described in his report: ‘’The Brotherhood is a social and political organization that wants an
all-encompassing role for Islam in the lives of its members and in the broader society based
on their interpretation of the Quran’’ (p.4). The Muslim Brotherhood has a violent jihadist
ideology that is based on the Sharia law. However, they have adopted a non-violent public
strategy in order to achieve their goals. The Brotherhood renounced violence in the 1970s and
earned popular support by providing social services such as pharmacies, hospitals, and
schools.
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 as an indigenous reaction to what its
leader considered to be the degraded status of contemporary Islam (Friedland, 2015). The
organization has played an active part in numerous major wars and uprisings, such as in the
Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) and the Egyptian revolution (2011). Members of
the Muslim Brotherhood have fought together with broader coalitions to advance the goal of
Islamic rule. The Brotherhood has around eighty branches worldwide and has been a
prominent source of inspiration for other Islamist organization such as Al Qaeda and the
Islamic State (Friedland, 2015, p.4).
The Muslim Brotherhood has stated several goals, which are as follows: 1) The world
must be informed about Islam and its teachings; 2) The world must be unified under the
banner of Islam; 3) Increase the standard of living and accomplish social justice; 4) combat
against disease, poverty, hunger and ignorance; 5) Liberate the Ummah (Islamic Nation) from
foreign rule; 6) Create a worldwide Islamic state; 7) Build a new world civilization that is
based on Sharia and Islam (‘’ Bylaws of the International Muslim Brotherhood’’, 2010, p.2).
1.1 Background
On January 25, 2011, the demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak started. This is known as the
January 25 Revolution; millions of people took to the streets all across Egypt to demand the
overthrow of their current president, Hosni Mubarak The protests consisted of marches,
demonstrations, riots, occupations of squares, and strikes. After 18 days of protesting, vice
president Omar Suleiman announced on February 11, 2011 that Hosni Mubarak had resigned
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as president and had handed over power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
(Kirkpatrick, 2011).
In 2012, Egypt had it first presidential election where Egypt’s head of state would be
directly elected by the people, in a competitive election that had candidates representing
different political platforms, and where the outcome was genuinely unknown (The Carter
Center, 2012, p.2). The presidential election was held on 23-24 May, 2012, and the run-off in
the second round was held on 16-17 June, 2012. On June 24, 2012, it was officially
announced that Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, had won the
presidential election with 51,7 % of the votes. With this victory, the Muslim Brotherhood has
reached its peak of political accomplishment. Observers saw the Muslim Brotherhood’s
access to political power as a test of whether it would remain committed to the traditional
ideology of the organization, or if it would become more moderate due to the demands of
governing. Mohamed Morsi’s way of running the country was marked by widespread
frustration with economic mismanagement and poor governance (Laub, 2014, para.2).
Therefore, the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood was short-lived. On the first anniversary of
Mohamed Morsi’s presidency, millions of people took to the streets again to protests against
the Egyptian president, demanding that he would resign (Fayed & Saleh, 2013, para.3). Soon
thereafter, on July 3, 2013, Mohamed Morsi, the first elected president of Egypt, was
overthrown in a military coup that was led by army chief General el-Sisi. The Egyptian
constitution was also suspended. In addition to this, the Egyptian army arrested Mohamed
Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders, and declared Adly Mansour, Chief Justice of
the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, as the interim president of Egypt (Hauslohner &
Booth, 2013).
After the military coup, there were many clashes between pro-Morsi protestors and
security personnel. The military government officially designated the Muslim Brotherhood as
a terrorist organization in December 2013. On June 8, 2014, el-Sisi was sworn in as the new
president of Egypt. After assuming official presidency, el-Sisi started a repressive campaign
against the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood was banned from all political
activities because it was designated as a terrorist organization, and the regime also closed
many of the organization’s social-religious activities. Since the repressive campaign against
the Muslim Brotherhood, many members fled abroad to countries such as Turkey, Qatar, and
the United Kingdom and started to operate from these countries. The Muslim Brotherhood
had to make several changes in their ideological/organizational structure to survive the
repression and also to show it resistance against the military coup.
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1.2 Research Question and Sub-questions
The aim of this thesis is to find out how the Muslim Brotherhood survived after the military
coup in July 2013 and the following repressive campaign it is facing to this day. Since the
Muslim Brotherhood has an international network, it is important to research several sections
abroad to find out if these sections played any role in its survival. Since both repression and
survival are important factors for the development and future of the Muslim Brotherhood, the
two central research questions are as follows:

1. How has the regime of el-Sisi dealt with the Muslim Brotherhood after the military
coup in July 2013?

2. How did the Muslim Brotherhood survive after the fall from power in 2013 and to
what extent played its network abroad a role in this survival?

In order to fully answer the above research questions, several sub-questions were formed.
Each sub-question covers an important aspect of one of the main research questions. These
sub-questions aim to find information about the specific measures the el-Sisi regime took
against the Muslim Brotherhood, how Muslim Brotherhood reacted to the repression in Egypt,
how the Muslim Brotherhood sections abroad reacted to the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi
and the repression that followed, and finally the reaction of the states that are/were friendly to
the Muslim Brotherhood after the repression in Egypt. The following specific sub-questions
are as follows:

1. What specific measures did the el-Sisi regime take against the Muslim Brotherhood?
2. What was the reaction of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to the repression by el-
Sisi?
3. How did Muslim Brotherhood sections in other countries react to the overthrow of
Morsi and the repression that followed?
4. What was the reaction of the States that are/were friendly (Qatar, Turkey, USA and
UK) to the Muslim Brotherhood after the repression in Egypt?

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1.3 Scientific and Societal Relevance
Scientific relevance is important for research in order to make a positive contribution to the
available and already existing knowledge on a specific subject (van Thiel, 2007, p.21). This
research is scientifically relevant, because it aims to fill in a knowledge gap. A great deal of
research has already been conducted on the Muslim Brotherhood, its history as a social-
political movement, and on how the organization developed over the years. However, there is
a knowledge gap on how the Muslim Brotherhood developed after the military coup of July
2013. Almost no research has been done on how the Muslim Brotherhood survived after the
military coup, to what extent the organization needed to change in order to survive, and how
its network abroad played a role in its survival. Since many researchers have analyzed the
Muslim Brotherhood as a political-social movement in the past and also analyzed how the
organization survived after a history of state repression, it is interesting to find out how the
Muslim Brotherhood survived this time and what specific factors played a role in this
survival.
The societal relevance is the social science of making a positive contribution to a
social problem (van Thiel, 2007, p.21-22). After the military coup in July 2013, the Muslim
Brotherhood in Egypt faced a repressive campaign from the el-Sisi regime. Because of this
repression, many members and leaders have fled abroad to countries such as Turkey, Qatar
and the United Kingdom. In addition to this, the leaders that fled abroad started to operate
from these countries. Their conspiratorial presence in host countries could possibly pose a
threat to countries that have democratic values.
Following the ouster of Mohamed Morsi, there were many violent confrontations in
Egypt between the security authorities and pro-Morsi activists. This raised several questions
amongst different countries on how the current Egyptian regime was dealing with the Muslim
Brotherhood, and whether or not this was in line with upholding human rights standards.
Furthermore, the violence that the Muslim Brotherhood has used since the military coup is
also affecting other countries, because the Muslim Brotherhood has an international network
and is not only operating from Egypt but also from many other countries within and beyond
the Arab world. According to Lebl (2012), the European Union’s societal cohesion, political
system, and democratic values are under attack. This attack is organized from within Europe
by Islamist organizations, in particular the Muslim Brotherhood (Lebl, 2012, p.101).
Therefore, further research needs to be done in order to gain more information about the
international network of the Muslim Brotherhood and to explore to what extent this plays a
role in the survival of the organization.
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1.4 Reading Guide
This thesis will be divided into several chapters, in order to answer the before-mentioned
central questions and sub-questions. Chapter two will consist of a theoretical framework that
will serve as an introduction for the analysis of this research. In the theoretical framework,
several theoretical concepts will be explained that are helpful in answering the central and
sub-questions. The literature review will also be given in this chapter. The chapter following
the theoretical framework will consist of the methodology that is designed for this thesis. This
chapter includes the definition of concepts that are important for this research, the research
method, data collection, and lastly, the limitations of this research will be discussed. After the
methodology, the most important chapter of this thesis will follow: the analysis. The analysis
will consist of four sub-chapters and each sub-chapter will analyze one of the sub-questions.
After the analysis a concluding chapter will follow, with the final answer on the two central
questions and sub-questions of this thesis and also some possible scenarios for the present and
near future of the Muslim Brotherhood will be briefly discussed in this last chapter.

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