Islamists come late to the party in Egyptian uprising

Islamists come late to the party in Egyptian uprising 

It’s the Arab world’s oldest and largest opposition movement, but the Muslim Brotherhood has played an erratic and sometimes bewildering role in the protests gripping Egypt.
The group, whose roots trace back to 1928 when it was founded to agitate for a return to the teachings of the Koran, was conspicuously silent when protests erupted last week.
At first, some analysts wrongly assumed the Brotherhood was playing puppet master to the protesters.
Its members are often imprisoned for speaking and its very existence is outlawed. The truth, however, is that the young, Internet-savvy Egyptians who used Facebook and Twitter to mobilize are overwhelmingly secular.
They view the Brotherhood as passé, in some cases part of the very establishment they are fighting to sweep aside. The Brotherhood, meanwhile, was caught off-guard.
Asked why the group didn’t take part in the first massive demonstration which coincided with Police Day, a senior member of the Brotherhood told The New York Times they didn’t want to desecrate a national holiday.
“We should all be celebrating together,” Essam El Erian said. The Brotherhood subsequently issued a flurry of mixed messages. First, they refused to collectively back the protesters, then they condoned individual members to march. Two days later, the Brotherhood called out all of its membership onto the streets. Now they want an official role in any new government.
While grateful for the boost the Brotherhood gave their numbers, many protesters are worried the group’s fundamentalist message will discredit their cause and erode secular support for their call for President Hosni Mubarak to step down.
The protesters’ message has nothing to do with Islamism, they maintain, it has to do with ending economic stagnation, government corruption and limits on their freedom.
In a world watchful for threats posed by groups founded by radical Islam, such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, the popular revolt taking shape in Egypt, unhinged from religious ideology, is something of an anomaly.
As the protests gain momentum, and observers ponder an Arab world without Mr. Mubarak, questions are swirling over the future of the Brotherhood.
Saad El-Katatni, a senior Brotherhood figure, says the group is talking to other opposition leaders to strike a committee to steer the protest.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate and key reformer, would be a member of the committee, he said, but not necessarily its leader.
Mr. Mubarak has made clamping down on the Islamists a major focus for his government. Last week, he denounced them for infiltrating the protests with looters, and accused them of fomenting unrest. But while the Brotherhood is officially banned, it has been quietly allowed to operate within limits for years.
Analysts, as well as those on the street, have begun to ponder an end to the Brotherhood, as well as Mr. Mubarak. They say both forces have historically fed off of each other and would be equally irrelevant if Egypt begins a new chapter.
Meanwhile the Brotherhood, whose membership topped 500,000 in the 1940s, and captured 88 seats in Egypt’s 2005 election by running as independent candidates, has been stifled politically, dwindling as its members age. Today its leadership is fractured and ineffective. Mohammed Badie, its current leader, is viewed as a conservative, reluctant to challenge the regime for fear of another crackdown.
If the Brotherhood were to enter talks with the government, Mr. Badie would play a key role.
For now, the Brotherhood seems to have decided the best course of action is to boost their presence on the street while remaining somewhat aloof. After the government ordered the internet shut down, Brotherhood members knocked on doors in Alexandria to mobilize protesters.
“The Brotherhood have not been out with their own slogans and banners,” Abdel-Galil el-Sharnoubi, administrator of the Brotherhood website, told the Associated Press. “We have all agreed on a popular stance.”
Brotherhood leader
Mohammed Badie, 66, became leader of Egypt’s biggest opposition group last year. The Brotherhood is run on a collegiate basis, with a number of figures who often speak in its name such as Essam al-Erian or London-based Kamel El-Helbawy. But if it were to enter into talks with the government it would be on the authorization of its murshid ‘aam, or general guide, Mr. Badie. He is seen as a conservative, in the typical mould of Brotherhood leaders, who was reluctant to challenge the authorities for fear of provoking more repression. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has made fending off the Islamists a major plank of his policies, accusing them of subverting last week’s protests and provoking the looting and disorder. The government says the Brotherhood is a banned organization but allows it to operate within limits.
Brotherhood around the world
Gaza: The Palestinian organization Hamas, which governs the Gaza portion of the Palestinian territories, is officially recognized in the Brotherhood’s charter as its Palestinian branch.
Sudan: Politics in Sudan have long been closely linked to Egypt, and several high-ranking members of Omar al-Bashir’s government in Sudan are Brotherhood members.
Jordan: The Brotherhood-aligned Islamic Action Front party is tolerated by the monarch. The party had the largest number of seats in a toothless parliament dominated by independents until 2010 elections, which they said were unfair and boycotted.
Iraq: The Iraqi Islamic Party, which evolved out of the Brotherhood, was part of government after the 2005 election, but its members have now been split among several parties.
Syria: Membership in the Brotherhood has been a capital offence since 1980, and the movement has been largely underground since being crushed in the 1982 Hama uprising and subsequent massacre that left thousands dead.
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