Time for introspection

The sudden under custody death of Egypt’s firstdemocratically elected president after the Egyptian uprising came to a shock tothe world. Muhammad Morsi emerged as a leader of Egypt after the popularuprising against the Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Morsi was a comrade of MuslimBrotherhood or Ikhwan al-Muslmeen, who ascended through successive ranks of theorganisation. It is his deep association with the organisation that equippedMorsi with a strong and established support. Though, the Brotherhood was notimmensely popular or only mainstream political party in the country.Nevertheless, the success of the Brotherhood after the Arab uprising was morebecause of its centralised leadership in Cairo and deeply committed membershipwith a closely knit mobilising structure for the promotion of its ideas. Theideas of the Brotherhood is known for the Islamist distribution of socialservices, organising protests and informing voting behaviour with such insightsof the organisation.

Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic organisation established byHassan al-Banna in 1928 in Egypt as an Islamist religious, Political and Socialmovement. Al-Banna introduced organised politics in the Muslim world, and themain ideas of the movement were to resist Western imperialism and Islamisation,primarily, of Egypt. The movement was against Arab nationalism and regarded allMuslims as members of one single community. Gradual reformism was preferredover the revolutionary change and a complete rejection of the Western ideas.The Brotherhood showed solidarity and proximity to the Palestinians and alsofought Jihad alongside the Arab army in one or more wars. The Brotherhood hasbeen highly influential for the emergence of what they call Political Islam.The Pan-Islamic appeal based on rationalism interlocked Shia-Sunni sectariandifference too. Ayatollah Muhammad Bakir al-Sadr of Iraq founded Islamic DawaParty in Najaf and fashioned it in the Brotherhood, and the membership includedfrom the Sunni cadres as well. The Muslim Brotherhood affiliated parties inIraq were joined by Shias also till the Baathist crackdown of Sadam Hussain.

   

The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran hastranslated Syed Qutub’s works to Farsi and the belief in the eradication ofoppression or confronting Israel and liberation of Palestine was an importantcommon ground between the Brotherhood and other Shi’i parties in the region.There are much more programs and objectives that are common to both, and thatalways brought them in proximity with each other or made them natural allies.It was also evident in support of the Brotherhood to the Islamic Revolution andthe Islamic Republic received delegations of Muslim Brothers from many Muslimcountries to congratulate Ayatollah Syed Ruhullah Khomeini on the success ofthe revolution.  Later, The InternationalOrganisation of Muslim Brotherhood coordinated with Islamic Unity Forum of Iranto organise Shia-Sunni interfaith dialogue on several occasions and soon. TheAyatollahs also issued fatwas to refrain fuelling sectarian tension between thetwo communities. Therefore, not only the Islamic Republic but other Shi’iulemas also saw the Muslim Brotherhood as a bridge to the Sunni world.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, it was 2011 inEgypt when Political Islam was seen making its way to power. The Brotherhoodlinked Freedom and Justice Party won the election under Muhammad Morsi in 2012and the new administration started to improve ties with Iran. President Morsihanded over Non-aligned Movement presidency to Tehran and became first EgyptianPresident to visit Tehran in thirty years. President Muhammad Ahmadinejad alsoreciprocated by attending Islamic Summit in Cairo in 2013. The bilateralrelations were established economically and otherwise, too. However, the SaudiArabia angle and the emerging Saudi inclined Islamist factions in the country,along with the Egyptian hard power bend towards the United States became amassive hurdle in the bilateral relations.

The millennium decade proved to be dangerous for the regionas the international politics of West Asia was drastically being changed in thefavour of Israel. Under the patronage of the thesis of the clash ofcivilisations, the war on terror and US Invasion of Iraq was designed. TheLebanese war of 2006 with Israel Defence Force further annoyed the lobby.  Therefore, the sectarian tension was fired inthe region, that spread to South Asia and other parts too. Many argue thatShia-Sunni Schism has always remained there but calling it a handiwork of theUS and allies is unfair. My argument to counter this is that the schism hasremained there theologically, but it was toxified and used for political andstrategic advantage in this period to reduce the influence of rationalistIslamists and marginal Islamist political voice forever.

The 1953 Coup D’état in Iran, failed 2016 Coup D’état inTurkey and many such other attempts indicate what we saw is someway similar tothe Military Coup in Egypt in 2014 that ousted President Morsi for not beingable to bring  national consensus and wastried till the day he died in the courtroom in Cairo.  The neo-liberal and Zionist elements arescripting policies for the region and are chocking the native and popularmovements to deny stability to the region for their own vested interests. Theregional powers are also well part of the agenda, and the sectarian tensionsare just a facade to decline rights of the oppressed. The introspection is neededto counter this kind of conspiracies. No one is denied the rights but some kindof sense must prevail.

(Khairunnisa Aga is Doctoral Candidate, Centre for West AsiaStudies School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University)

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