UK Muslim Brotherhood figure Azzam Tamimi has published an article for the Islamist Middle East Monitor that provides a unique, insider’s look into how the Global Muslim Brotherhood views its future following the downfall of the Brotherhood in Egypt. The article begins:
Azzam Tamimi
Well-intending or ill-intending, some people here and there proclaim that what happened in Egypt in 2013 marked the beginning of the end of the Muslim Brotherhood. Not only that, such people insist that the Brotherhood should disband because they believe that it has failed and has no role to play.
Some of those who say this attribute themselves to the Brotherhood or to their Youth Wing. Until quite recently, some even occupied quite senior positions within the movement.
I had not yet been born when the Muslim Brotherhood endured its first major tribulation in 1954. Then, several of its prominent figures were hanged, hundreds were imprisoned and thousands were banished, driven underground or abroad. I was 10 when the movement endured its second major tribulation in 1965. This time too, several of its top leaders, including distinguished ideologue Sayyid Qutb, were hanged, hundreds were imprisoned and thousands were banished as before.
I do not recall that I was conscious of the details of what was going on at the time but I remember quite well that some of my own relatives, who looked up to Egypt’s military dictator Gamal Abdel Nassir as the saviour of the Ummah and the liberator of Palestine, rejoiced at the misfortune of the Brotherhood and celebrated their persecution. Nassir’s media machine had done an ‘excellent’ job tarnishing the image of the Brotherhood and misleading the Arab masses from the ocean to the Gulf.
In September 2014, an article posted on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood website described Azzam Tamimi as “a leader member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain.” He is also frequently described as a Hamasspokesman.
