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Flaws of Muslim Brotherhood

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Former Brother says Egypt's Mursi shows group's flaws

Former Brother says Egypt's Mursi shows group's flaws
Source: Reuters - Thu, 27 Jun 2013 01:38 PM

By Tom Perry and Maggie Fick

CAIRO, June 26 (Reuters) - Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh says he left Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood because its leaders did not believe in democracy. A year of President Mohamed Mursi's rule has strengthened his view.

Abol Fotouh, a candidate in last year's election, says Mursi is running Egypt the way the Brotherhood runs itself, valuing loyalty over competence, with dire consequences for the country.

Like other opponents of the Brotherhood's head of state, he says it is time Egyptians had the chance to choose again. Mass rallies are planned for this weekend aimed at forcing Mursi to step down and call early presidential elections.

"People are not looking for ideological government," said Abol Fotouh, a 62-year-old doctor who spent half his life in the Brotherhood. "They are looking for one that preserves their dignity, their freedom, their independence, their economy."

His comments illustrate a complaint at the centre of the political storm facing Mursi as his first year in power draws to a close on Sunday. Anger at the government's failure to deliver better living conditions is compounded by a widely held belief the Mursi presidency is a cover for a Brotherhood power grab.

The Brotherhood dismisses that notion. In a speech late on Wednesday, Mursi went as far as naming non-Islamist politicians he said had refused government jobs last year when he tried to assemble his first cabinet. Since then, ever more isolated, Mursi has appointed a growing number of fellow Islamists in official posts, fuelling accusations of "Brotherhoodisation".

Abol Fotouh described it as an approach buried deep in the psyche of a movement that spent decades underground until the 2011 uprising that swept Hosni Mubarak from power.

"It's as if he is managing the Egyptian state using the management approach of an oppressed group, a group pursued by the police," said Abol Fotouh, who spent six years a political prisoner under Mubarak. "Because you are an organisation on the run, you bring in the people you trust," he said.

"The management of a state cannot be like this."


A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman declined comment on Thursday.

ELECTION

Abol Fotouh left the Brotherhood in 2011 to chart his own political course. He launched one of the best-organised campaigns in last year's presidential election, pitching himself as a man with appeal across the national spectrum.

The only Islamist besides Mursi in the presidential race, he won the endorsement of Egypt's biggest hardline Salafi Islamist group, but also support among the secular professional classes.

His bid was ultimately undone by Brotherhood's late decision to field its own candidate - a decision some Brotherhood experts say was partly driven by its enmity towards its former member Abol Fotouh and the realisation he might otherwise win.

Abol Fotouh left the Brotherhood citing his long-standing concern about its mix of religious and political activism and what he described as the current leadership's disregard for democratic values. He now backs protests against Mursi but is not eager to run again himself for the presidency.

"The current leadership, in my view, is not concerned by these issues: neither the law nor democracy," he said. "It believes in democracy as a tool to realise its goals, and I am against this," he said. "I am worried for the future of democracy in Egypt with the current leadership."

He said he was referring to some members of the Guidance Council, the Brotherhood's executive board. Speaking to Reuters earlier this month, one member of the Council rejected the claim it is the silent controlling force behind Mursi's presidency.


The member said the Council offered Mursi some advice, but added that the president rarely heeded it.

Abol Fotouh said he had offered to help Mursi with "ideas, opinion, advice" late last year during his only meeting with the president, but his opinion was never sought: "The truth is that all the discussions held with Dr. Mursi were just for show.

"He is an Egyptian nationalist, a good man with moral commitment. But in the end, unfortunately, he didn't keep his promise to be independent of the Muslim Brotherhood," he said.

"The organisation is controlling him to this day ... and any talk to the contrary is neither sincere or true."
(Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
 
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Victory or Death: The Muslim Brotherhood in the Trenches » Current Trends in Islamist Ideology

Two Future Paths

The Brotherhood’s triumphant moment lasted much shorter than it envisioned. One year after its victorious entry into Egypt’s presidential palace and its assumption of the commanding heights of the state, it finds itself back in prison cells, and in public squares demonstrating the injustice that has befallen it, with the further threat of even the latter being denied to it. A new government has been formed and not a single Islamist serves among its ministers. To make matters worse, while Egypt’s generals were ultimately responsible for ending the Brotherhood’s dream, the moment did not arrive without a significant portion of the population cheering along. As Brotherhood members get rounded up, leaders thrown into prisons without charges, Islamist channels closed and Brotherhood demonstrations attacked, the majority of the population is quite indifferent with many gloating and asking for more. The Brotherhood’s future participation in politics remains an open question with calls for banning Brotherhood members from running being floated.
Today the Brotherhood is still dealing with daily developments and attempting to outline a strategy to deal with the assault. In the face of unfolding events, it proclaims its confidence that President Morsi will soon be reinstated by the power of the people as Chavez had been in 2002. Such bravado should not blind one however to the reality of the situation and the actual balance of forces on the ground. No matter how good a fight the Brotherhood puts, it has lost this battle to its enemy, the military. In due time, the occupation with daily developments will give way to long-term considerations and the Brotherhood will look back at its one year in power, start the process of self-reflection, and attempt to find answers for essential questions. What did we do wrong? Could we have avoided this scenario? How can we reach power once again and maintain it?
Occupying the horizon ahead of the Brotherhood will lay two paths. The first is that of Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party. Learning from their mistake, the Brotherhood as a whole or some significant portion of it may realize that they need to change their ways, give up their organizational structure, open up to society, moderate their discourse and develop actual governance plans. An Erdogan may rise from the ranks of the second-tier leadership of the Gama’a or in the person of a previous leader of the Brotherhood who was kicked out of its ranks, such as Abdel Moneim Aboul Fetouh, with the ability to capture the Brotherhood’s constituency and expand it.

But another path also dominates the horizon: that of Said Qutb. The characterization of the events that led to Morsi’s ouster as part of a conspiracy against Islam or the Islamist project, and which involves the military, seculars and the West, may lead to positions hardening instead of softening. It can also lead to a questioning of the whole methodology of the Gama’a. The ballot box will be questioned as the preferable route and the bullet will provide a tempting alternative. “We told you so,” is the message Jihadis are already screaming at the Brotherhood and it is sounding more persuasive than ever. Abandon the roads of democracy and of man and return to the road of Jihad and of God.

Which path will the Brotherhood take? Erdogan or Qutb? The question remains unanswered, but the Brotherhood will not approach it in a vacuum. Two issues will shape how the Brotherhood answers the questions of today as it aims to come up with the answers of tomorrow: what room its enemies will allow it to play in the country’s political sphere and how its own historical experience will shape how it views things. Rationality, after all, is not value free.

Samuel Tadros is a Research Fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom
 
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Abu Fotoh is one confused missed up jealous SOB , the MB tried to please everyone n ended up pleased no one , they barely spoke about charia (bc of the secular media pressure) n all they cared about is economy yet the failed bc the deep state was way too strong for them .
Erdogan's bath hopefully but Sheikh Qutb's way is all they r getting now . I don't even c them anymore on the streets , they r either dead or behind bars
 
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My friend,

There is no smoke without fire, having said that, the MB had failed to serve the Egyptian people, they failed to form a coalition Gov't, they fail to fulfill the demands in which Morsi had plagued that he will achieve within the first 100 days of his presidency.

At the same time, no one can tell a lie, the way the authority cracked down on them was beyond anyone's expectations.
 
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