The Muslim Brotherhood: Evolution of an Islamist Movement

This timely publication emerges from Emory University political scientist Wickham’s (Mobilizing Islam) long-term research into the institutional and ideological nuances of “movement change” within the Muslim Brotherhood—the Sunni revivalist organization that was the leading opponent of the Mubarak regime in Egypt before the popular uprising of January 2011. After the fall of Mubarak, the Brotherhood’s political party won a plurality of seats in the Egyptian parliament. The Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna, in opposition to foreign domination and the expansion of Western cultural values and practices there. While emphasizing reformist currents and the complicated interplay of shifting ideological commitments, Wickham’s analysis highlights inherent contradictions in the movement. The picture of Egypt’s Brotherhood, divided from the beginning by opposing gradualist and extremist tendencies, benefits from Wickham’s astute analysis of related movements in Jordan, Kuwait, and Morocco. A chapter on the Brotherhood’s role in the 2011 uprising and its subsequent transformation offers detailed insights that will interest general readers and academics alike. This admirable study (based on hundreds of interviews) is a judicious, well-grounded plea for complexity in the depiction and analysis of Islamist movements. (Aug.)