The Wall Street Journal has done a featured story titled “Muslim Brotherhood Falters as Egypt Outflanks Islamists” which reports that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has suffered a reversal of fortune of late. According to the introduction:
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is on the defensive, its struggles reverberating throughout Islamist movements that the secretive organization has spawned world-wide. Just recently, the Brothers’ political rise seemed unstoppable. Candidates linked with the group won most races they contested in Egypt’s 2005 parliamentary elections, gaining a record 20% of seats. Across the border in Gaza, another election the following year propelled the Brotherhood’s Palestinian offshoot, Hamas, into power. Since then, Egypt’s government jailed key Brotherhood members, crimped its financing and changed the constitution to clip religious parties’ wings. The Brotherhood made missteps, too, alienating many Egyptians with saber rattling and proposed restrictions on women and Christians. These setbacks have undermined the group’s ability to impose its Islamic agenda on this country of 81 million people, the Arab world’s largest. “When we’re not advancing, we are retreating. And right now we are not spreading, we are not achieving our goals,” the Brotherhood’s second-in-command, Mohamed Habib, said in an interview.
The article goes on to detail the background to these conclusions.
Previous posts have discussed the announcement that Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the current Supreme Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, will be stepping down from his position in the next months.