Egyptian media has published an article titled “How Divided is Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood?” analyzing divisions within the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. According to the article in Al-Ahram:
A Facebook call calling upon the Muslim Brotherhood youth to overthrow their leadership has stirred debate as to whether Egypt’s largest Islamist group is facing an internal crisis. Also Egypt’s largest opposition group, members officially deny that internal divisions are rife.
Within a few days of the overthrow of Mubarak, a Facebook event entitled “Muslim Brotherhood Youth Revolution” was established, calling on the Muslim Brotherhood Youth to overthrow the upper echelons of the group. The event was supposed to be a demonstration planned to take place in front of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau on 17 March. The group stated that their rebellion was related to the Brotherhood leadership’s position during Egypt’s 25 January Revolution, arguing that the leadership was not in touch with the “25 January revolutionary spirit”. The demonstration did not take place. Some Brotherhood members deny any such plan existed or that any negotiations over it took place. Salman Imam, Muslim Brotherhood member and Cairo University student, says “These are all media exaggerations. I did not hear of any such divisions.” Omar Mentash, another Brotherhood member, said: “The media frequently makes up stories about the Brotherhood and some newspapers exaggerate things to serve certain agendas. I personally do not know any Brotherhood youth who had planned to overthrow or demonstrate against the leadership, and usually when we have problems we discuss it with the leadership.” Nevertheless, there were some signs of a gap between the youth and the leadership within the Islamist organisation, starting the 25 January popular revolution.
Read the rest here.
An earlier post discussed an Iranian media report claiming that the Egyptian Brotherhood was considering negotiations with a faction of its younger members in order to avoid a splitting of the group.
It should be noted that the Muslim Brotherhood today has become a global network and that the Egyptian mother branch is not necessarily the most important part of the movement. Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, close to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, is often referred to by the GMBDW as the most important leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood, an acknowledgement of his role as the de facto spiritual leader of the movement. In 2004, Qaradawi turned down the offer to lead the Egyptian Brotherhood after the death of the Supreme Guide.