The Egiptian Revolution of 2011

After the events of Egyptian Revolution in 2011, in which civilians inspired by the Arab Spring rebelled against thirty-year President Hosni Mubarak and removed him from office, Egypt had the first true opportunity in more than 150 years of struggle for independence to elect a truly democratic representative as their leader. In a presidential election, Egypt voted to elect the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohammed Morsi, to presidential office. However, President Morsi was removed in a military coup just one year after taking office, and both he and the Muslim Brotherhood have faced political, police, and public persecution ever since. In order to understand why Egypt so willingly turned on its first democratically elected president in history, it is necessary to examine the Muslim Brotherhood’s founding, ideology and goals, the means and strategies by which it pursues these goals, and its past and potential current status as a terrorist organization. This paper will trace the Brotherhood from its birth through to the modern day, and will seek to answer the following questions: what went wrong for the Muslim Brotherhood? Is the Brotherhood truly a terrorist organization, and if so, what threat does it pose to Egypt? What does the future hold for the Brotherhood?

The Muslim Brotherhood, more formally known as the Society of the Muslim Brothers, was founded in 1928 in Egypt, during a climate of nationalistic sentiment and desire for the overthrow of colonial and western influence. Just nine years earlier, the Egyptian people had come together in a rebellion known as the First Egyptian Revolution of 1919. In 1922, Britain recognized Egypt’s independence, and a constitution was first implemented in 1923. [1] Though this independen...

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...erhood officially disavowed the use of violence and began to use politics in addition to community outreach as a means of achieving their goals.

Despite the West’s (and now Egypt’s) classification of the Brotherhood as a terrorist group, the Brotherhood has been frequently criticized by true Islamic terrorist organizations and extremist groups, including the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and Egyptian-born terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri, for refusing to use violence and holding “too moderate” of views towards Israel, the West, and non-Muslims. Indeed, “many analysts say that the Brotherhood's brand of "Islamism" remains largely misunderstood.” [23] International media, particularly the United States, view the Brotherhood with suspension for its ties to Hamas; despite this, the Muslim Brotherhood has largely remained committed to peaceful reform and activism for decades