OJSH Home

2021 - Volume 4 - Number 1

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt: Ideology vs. Pragmatism

David Schwartz * dvd99@015.net.il * ORCID: 0000-0002-3989-8546
Bar-Ilan University, Department of Political Science, Ramat Gan, ISRAEL

Daniel Galily * daniel.galily@gmail.com * ORCID: 0000-0001-9111-4502 * ResearcherID: D-4390-2019
South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Philosophical and Political Sciences, Blagoevgrad, BULGARIA

Open Journal for Studies in History, 2021, 4(1), 1-10 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojsh.0401.01001s
Received: 24 February 2021 ▪ Accepted: 17 April 2021 ▪ Published Online: 19 April 2021

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
This study aims to present the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, its ideology and pragmatism. With progress and modernization, the Islamic movements in the Middle East realized that they could not deny progress, so they decided to join the mainstream and take advantage of technological progress in their favor. The movement maintains at least one website in which it publishes its way, and guides the audience. Although these movements seem to maintain a rigid ideology, they adapt themselves to reality with the help of many tools, because they have realized that reality is stronger than they are. The main points in the article are: The status of religion in the country; What is the Muslim Brotherhood? According to which ideology is the movement taking place? - Movement background and ideology; Theoretical background – The theory of Pragmatism; How is pragmatism manifested in the activity of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? In conclusions: The rise of the Islamist movements as a leading social and political force in the Middle East is the result of the bankruptcy of nationalism, secularism and the left in the Arab world, which created an ideological vacuum, which is filled to a large extent by the fundamentalists, ensuring that Islam is the solution. It is not only about the extent of the return to religion, but about the transformation of religion into a major political factor both by the regimes and by the opposition. These are political movements that deal first and foremost with the social and political mobilization of the masses, and they exert pressure to apply the Islamic law as the law of the state instead of the legal systems taken from the Western model.

KEY WORDS: Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt, ideology, pragmatism.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
David Schwartz, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Political Science, Ramat Gan, ISRAEL. E-mail: dvd99@015.net.il.

REFERENCES:

Ajami, F. (1983). In the Pharaoh’s shadow: Religion and authority in Egypt. Islam in the political process. James P. Piscatori (Ed.) Cambridge University Press.

Bacon, M. (2012). Pragmatism. Oxford Polity Press.

Badrul, H. S. (1982). Syed Qutb Shaheed. Islamic Publications International, 2nd ed.

Brandom, R. (2011). Perspectives on Pragmatism: Classical, Recent, and Contemporary, MA: Harvard University Press.

Chukov, S. V. (2018). Political and philosophical discourse on the border between the Caliphate and terrorism – ISIS. 2nd International e-Conference on Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (2IeCSHSS) – Conference Proceedings (pp. 59-74). Belgrade: Center for Open Access in Science. https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.e-conf.02.05059c

El Rashidi, Y. (2011). Egypt: The victorious Islamists. New York Review of Books. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/07/14/egypt-victorious-islamists/.

Kloppenber, T. J. (1996). Pragmatism: An old name for some new ways of thinking? Source: The Journal of American History, 83(1), 100-138. https://oconnell.fas.harvard.edu/files/jameskloppenberg/files/pragmatism_old_name_for_new_wayas_of_thinking.pdf.

Menand, L. (Ed.) (1998). Pragmatism. New York: Random House. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/

Mura, A. (2012). A genealogical inquiry into early Islamism: the discourse of Hasan al-Banna. Journal of Political Ideologies, 17(1).    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13569317.2012.644986?journalCode=cjpi20

Murphy, C. (2007). Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience. Paperback.

Osman, T. (2010). Egypt on the brink: From Nasser to Mubarak. Yale University Press.

Robinson, F. (Ed.). (2010). The Islamic world in the age of western dominance. Cambridge University Press.

Petkova, T. (2012). The Arab Spring and the problems of the Schengen Area - in the monographic collection “Borders.In Philosophical and political readings [Петкова, Т., Арабската пролет и проблемите на Шенгенското пространство – в монографичен сборник Границите - философски и политически прочити, стр. 64-74, Изд. “Фабер”, Велико Търново. България.] pp. 64-74, Faber Publishing House, Veliko Tarnovo. Bulgaria. ISBN 978-954-400-645-7.