Book Review: The Muslim Brotherhood: The Burden of Tradition by Alison Pargeter.
Published by Saqi Books, London. 300 pages, 2010.
Reviewed by Commander Youssef Aboul-Enein, MSC, USN
Alison Pargeter is a researcher on Islamist radicalism at the University of Cambridge. Her first book is a refreshingly complex and nuanced examination of the Muslim Brotherhood. The book starts with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, by a schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, and its evolution from social organization to a political organization based on an interpretation of Islamic ideals. It discusses the tensions inherent in this organization as Muslim Brotherhood struggle amidst several currents within Islam, Egypt, and the Arab world. For instance, the book highlights the Muslim Brotherhood's early criticism of the clergy at al-Azhar Rectory for their lack of activism. While the Muslim Brotherhood is better known for its violent splinter groups, in 1994 a group splintered based on a desire to compromise with Egypt's various political parties to gain a seat at the table. This group would be known as al-Wasat (the Moderates) and although formed a splinter group of the Muslim Brotherhood, has included members of many of Egypt's secular and marginalized political parties like leftists, Arab socialists, and Arab nationalists. A chapter also discusses the early merging of the Egyptian with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, during the latter's founding, and their separation as the Syrian branch became more radicalized as a reaction to Syria's violent polity.
The author discusses key questions that comprise whole chapters. These questions include examining the relationship between the Muslim Brotherhood and violence, should governments engage this organization, and the to what extent is the Muslim Brotherhood a internationalist organization? While the review will not answer all these questions, the author expresses the statements of Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guides who desire a more global reach with the realities of Libyan, Sudanese, and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood branches wanting to retain independence. The book highlights the tension between Sudan's Hassan al-Turabi, a Sorbonne and Oxford educated lawyer, who refused to swear fealty to the less educated Supreme Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Some members of the Muslim Brotherhood outside of Egypt resent Egyptian hubris and desire to dominate, simply because they are the founding branch. Other tensions discuss the disagreement among leaders of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood over tactics, ideology, and the reality of operating politically in Egypt. One criticism of the book is that it did not contain a discussion of the impact of the Muslim Brotherhood Youth on the old-guard of the organization. In addition, this youth are using the technology of the 21st century Facebook™ and Twitter™ to organize, craft messages, and monitor criticism on an hourly basis from around the world. However, this is an excellent book for those wanting a more serious look at the complexities and disagreements within this organization that goes beyond the simplistic sound bites of an international conspiracy to create a caliphate.
Commander Aboul-Enein is author of "Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat," (Naval Institute Press, 2010). He is Adjunct Islamic Studies Chair at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, and is a Senior Defense Department counter-terrorism advisor.