MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD -- Part 2 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In West Asia[edit] Bahrain[edit] In Bahrain, the Muslim Brotherhood is represented by the Al Eslah Society and its political wing, the Al-Menbar Islamic Society. Following parliamentary elections in 2002, Al Menbar became the largest joint party with eight seats in the forty seat Chamber of Deputies. Prominent members of Al Menbar include Dr Salah Abdulrahman, Dr. Salah Al Jowder, and outspoken MP Mohammed Khalid. The party has generally backed government sponsored legislation on economic issues, but has sought a clampdown on pop concerts, sorcery and soothsayers. It has strongly opposed the governments accession to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the grounds that this would give Muslim citizens the right to change religion, when in the partys view they should be beheaded.[100] In March 2009, the Shia group The Islamic Enlightenment Society held its annual conference with the announced aim of diffusing tension between Muslim branches. The society invited national Sunni and Shia scholars to participate. Bahraini independent Salafi religious scholars Sheikh Salah Al Jowder and Sheikh Rashid Al Muraikhi, and Shia clerics Sheikh Isa Qasim and Abdulla Al Ghoraifi spoke about the importance of sectarian cooperation. Additional seminars were held throughout the year.[101] In 2010, the U.S. government sponsored the visit of Al-Jowder, described as a prominent Sunni cleric, to the United States for a three-week interfaith dialogue program in several cities.[102][103] Syria[edit] Main article: Muslim Brotherhood of Syria The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria was founded in the 1930s (according to lexicorient) or in 1945, a year before independence from France, (according to journalist Robin Wright). In the first decade or so of independence it was part of the legal opposition, and in the 1961 parliamentary elections it won ten seats (5.8% of the house). But after the 1963 coup that brought the Baath Party to power it was banned.[104] It played a major role in the mainly Sunni-based movement that opposed the secularist, pan-Arabist Baath party. This conflict developed into an armed struggle that continued until culminating in the Hama uprising of 1982, when the rebellion was crushed by the military.[105] Membership in the Syrian Brotherhood became a capital offence in Syria in 1980 (under Emergency Law 49, which was revoked in 2011), but the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Palestinian group, Hamas, was located in the Syrias capital Damascus, where it was given Syrian government support. This has been cited as an example of the lack of international centralisation or even coordination of the Muslim Brotherhood.[106] The Brotherhood is said to have resurrected itself and become dominant group in the opposition by 2012 the Syrian civil war against the Assad regime according to the Washington Post newspaper.[107] But by 2013 another source described it as having virtually no influence on the conflict.[108] Syrian President Bashar Assad welcomed the fall of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and remarked Arab identity is back on the right track after the fall from power of Egypts Muslim Brotherhood, which had used religion for its own political gain.[109] Jordan[edit] The Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood was formed in 1942, and is a strong factor in Jordanian politics. While most political parties and movements were banned for a long time in Jordan such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Brotherhood was exempted and allowed to operate by the Jordanian monarchy. The Jordanian Brotherhood has formed its own political party, the Islamic Action Front, which has the largest number of seats of any party in the Jordanian parliament.[110] The Muslim Brotherhood is playing an active role in the unrest in several Arab countries in January 2011. For example, at a rally held outside the Egyptian Embassy in Amman on Saturday, 29 January 2011 with some 100 participants, Hammam Saeed, head of the Muslim Brotherhood of Jordan and a close ally of the Hamass Damascus-based leader, Khaled Meshaal, said: Egypts unrest will spread across the Mideast and Arabs will topple leaders allied with the United States. However, he did not specifically name Jordanian King Abdullah II.[111] As of late 2013, the movement in Jordan was described as being in disarray.[112] Iran[edit] Although Iran is a predominately Shia Muslim country and the Muslim Brotherhood is Sunni in doctrine, Olga Davidson and Mohammad Mahallati claim the Brotherhood has had influence among Shia in Iran.[113] Navab Safavi, who founded Fadaiyan-e Islam, (also Fedayeen of Islam, or Fadayan-e Islam), an Iranian Islamic organization active in Iran in the 1940s and 1950s, was highly impressed by the Muslim Brotherhood.[114] From 1945 to 1951 the Fadain assassinated several high level Iranian personalities and officials who they believed to be un-Islamic. They included anti-clerical writer Ahmad Kasravi, Premier Haj Ali Razmara, former Premier Abdolhossein Hazhir, and Education and Culture Minister Ahmad Zangeneh.[115] At that time Navab Safavi now based in the UK where associates and allies of Ayatollah Khomeini who went on to become a figure in the Iranian Revolution of 1979.[115] Khomeini and other religious figures in Iran worked to establish Islamic unity and downplay Shia-Sunni differences.[citation needed] Iraq[edit] The Iraqi Islamic Party was formed in 1960 as the Iraqi branch of the Brotherhood,[116] but was banned from 1961 during the nationalist rule of Abd al-Karim Qasim. As government repression hardened under the Baath Party from February 1963, the group was forced to continue underground. After the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003, the Islamic Party has reemerged as one of the main advocates of the countrys Sunni community. The Islamic Party has been sharply critical of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, but participates in the political process.[117] Its leader is Iraqi Vice-President Tariq Al-Hashimi. Also, in the north of Iraq there are several Islamic movements inspired by or part of the Muslim Brotherhood network. The Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) holds seats in the Kurdish parliament, and is the main political force outside the dominance of the two main secularist parties, the PUK and KDP.[118] Israel and the Palestinian Territories[edit] Abd al-Rahman al-Banna, the brother of the Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, went to the British Mandate for Palestine and established the Muslim Brotherhood there in 1935. Al-Hajj Amin al-Husseini, eventually appointed by the British as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in hopes of accommodating him, was the leader of the group in Palestine.[119] Another important leader associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine was Izz al-Din al-Qassam, an inspiration to Islamists because he had been the first to lead an armed resistance in the name of Palestine against the British in 1935.[120] In 1945, the group established a branch in Jerusalem, and by 1947 twenty-five more branches had sprung up, in towns such as Jaffa, Lod, Haifa, Nablus, and Tulkarm, which total membership between 12,000 to 20,000.[citation needed] Brotherhood members fought alongside the Arab armies during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and, after Israels creation, the ensuing Palestinian refugee crisis encouraged more Palestinian Muslims to join the group. After the war, in the West Bank, the groups activity was mainly social and religious, not political, so it had relatively good relations with Jordan, which was in control of the West Bank after 1950. In contrast, the group frequently clashed with the Egyptian regime that controlled the Gaza Strip until 1967.[121] In the 1950s and 1960s, the Brotherhoods goal was the upbringing of an Islamic generation through the restructuring of society and religious education, rather than opposition to Israel, and so it lost popularity to insurgent movements and the presence of Hizb ut-Tahrir.[122] Eventually, however, the Brotherhood was strengthened by several factors: The creation of al-Mujamma al-Islami, the Islamic Center in 1973 by Shaykh Ahmad Yasin had a centralizing effect that encapsulated all religious organizations. The Muslim Brotherhood Society in Jordan and Palestine was created from a merger of the branches in the West Bank and Gaza and Jordan. Palestinian disillusion with the Palestinian militant groups caused them to become more open to alternatives. The Islamic Revolution in Iran offered inspiration to Palestinians. The Brotherhood was able to increase its efforts in Palestine and avoid being dismantled like militant groups because it did not focus on the occupation. While militant groups were being dismantled, the Brotherhood filled the void.[123] After the 1967 Six Day War, Israel may have looked to cultivate political Islam as a counterweight to Fatah, the main secular Palestinian nationalist political organization.[124][125] Between 1967 and 1987, the year Hamas was founded, the number of mosques in Gaza tripled from 200 to 600, and the Muslim Brotherhood named the period between 1975 and 1987 a phase of social institution building.[126] During that time, the Brotherhood established associations, used zakat (alms giving) for aid to poor Palestinians, promoted schools, provided students with loans, used waqf (religious endowments) to lease property and employ people, and established mosques. Likewise, antagonistic and sometimes violent opposition to Fatah, the Palestine Liberation Organization and other secular nationalist groups increased dramatically in the streets and on university campuses.[124] In 1987, following the Intifada, the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas[123][127] was established from Brotherhood-affiliated charities and social institutions that had gained a strong foothold among the local population. During the First Intifada (1987–93), Hamas militarized and transformed into one of the strongest Palestinian militant groups. The Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007 was the first time since the Sudanese coup of 1989 that brought Omar al-Bashir to power, that a Muslim Brotherhood group ruled a significant geographic territory.[128] However, the 2013 overthrow of the Mohammad Morsi government in Egypt significantly weakened Hamass position, leading to a blockade of Gaza and economic crisis.[108] Saudi Arabia[edit] Saudi Arabia has helped the Brotherhood financially for over half a century.[16][129] The brotherhood first had an impact inside Saudi Arabia in 1954 when many Egyptian brethren sought to escape president Gamal Abdun-Nassers clampdown, while (the largely illiterate) Saudi Arabia was looking for teachers -- who were also conservative pious Arab Muslims -- for its newly created public school system.[130] Thousands of MB members came to Saudi and entrenched both in Saudi society and in the Saudi state, taking a leading role in key governmental ministries.[131] In particular, many established themselves in Saudi educational system. One expert on Saudi affairs (Stephane Lacroix) has stated: The education system is so controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, it will take 20 years to change -- if at all. Islamists see education as their base in Saudi Arabia.[132] The Muslim Brotherhoods brand of Islam and Islamic politics differs from the strict Salafi creed, Wahhabiyya, officially held by the state of Saudi Arabia, and the organization does not have a formal organizational presence in the Kingdom.[133] This is not discrimination as the Saudi government doesn’t allow any political group or party to function openly.[129] Relations between the Saudi ruling family and the Brotherhood became strained with Saudi opposition to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the willingness of Saudi government to allow US troops to be based in the Kingdom to fight Iraq.[131] The Brotherhood supported the Sahwah Awakening movement that pushed for political change in the Kingdom.[134] The ruling family was also alarmed by the Arab Spring and the example set by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, with president Muhammad Morsi bringing an Islamist government to power by means of popular revolution and elections.[135] The then Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef denounced the Brotherhood, saying it was guilty of betrayal of pledges and ingratitude and was the source of all problems in the Islamic world.[16] In March 2014, in a significant departure from its past official stance the Saudi government declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organization.[131] Kuwait[edit] The Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait is represented in the Kuwaiti parliament by Hadas.[136][137] Yemen[edit] The Muslim Brotherhood is the political arm of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, commonly known as Islah. Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh made a lot of effort to entrench the accusations of being in league with Al Qaeda, but he failed to present any, even a weak, evidence to support his claims.[138] Oman[edit] Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said of Oman claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood obtained support from the uneducated people.[139] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood
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