New book on secret Muslim Brotherhood files published “The Muslim Brotherhood from Hassan Al-Banna to Mahdi Akef”

Al-Mahrousa Center for Publishing, Press Services and Information has published a new book, entitled “The Muslim Brotherhood from Hassan Al-Banna to Mahdi Akef”, written by Islamic Affairs Researcher Dr. Abdul Rahim Ali.

The author published his book with an introduction that started from the escalating political debate between power and the Muslim Brotherhood, asking the thorny questions that society awaits answering from the Brotherhood movement.

The researcher devoted the first chapter of his book to the emergence and development of the Muslim Brotherhood, starting from a monitoring of the Egyptian situation in the first quarter of the twentieth century, specifically since 1907 when a group of parties that express different directions and opinions appeared, then the official collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the WWI.

Then he reviews the 1919 revolution and the national trend. It is seen that the movement arose as a result of the debate that took place between the modern and conservative currents, and as a result of which the Muslim Youth Group originated in 1927, then the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928.

Then the author reviews how the founder, Sheikh Hassan Al-Banna, began his call from Ismailia where he worked as a teacher, to 1931, after the group went public, its activities emerged in Cairo, where Al-Banna established a number of branches in more than one governorate.

In the second chapter, the author discusses the founding journey from 1928 to 1945 and raises a preliminary question: Was the group religious or political? He answers that in the first period, the founder was keen to present the group as an advocacy group that works in the style of wisdom and good advice.

That in 1938, Hassan Al-Banna raised the transformation from the call to the struggle, as he stressed that the group will hold accountable all the leaders and parties if they do not work to support Islam and restore its rule and glory.

After that, Abdul Rahim deals with the organizational and motor framework that was crystallized in 1935.

However, the author believes that the basic framework was only completed with the fifth conference in 1939, according to Richard Mitchell, where the invitation spread and the basic laws of the group and its weekly magazine were issued.

The author does not deny the role played by the group during WWII, as it expressed in a speech to Prime Minister Ali Maher its support for Egypt's refusal to participate in the war and to hold the aid provided to Britain on what is required by the text of the 1936 treaty.

He adds that otherwise the group continued struggling on the surface, and had an effective role in provoking national feelings against Britain, despite the war. However, the author refers to the Brotherhood's alliance with the palace against the Wafd Party, which was the majority party, and ended up with the arrest of Hassan Al-Banna and Abd al-Hakim Abdin, the Secretary-General of the group in 1941.

In the third chapter, the author presents the transformation of the Brotherhood since the 1945 conference, in light of the effects of the second war, as the movement turned from a group to the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Banna announced for the first time that the movement became a political party.

After that, the author reviews the completion of the organizational formation of the Brotherhood, then the emergence of the political face of the movement, as Al-Banna presented the political vision of the movement that was summarized in establishing an Islamic government across all the Islamic world, respecting the teachings and rules of Islam and prohibiting all sins such as alcohol, adultery, gambling and cheating.

Then the book mentions the first ordeal that the Brotherhood experienced, the group's dissolution and the assassination of Hassan Al-Banna, after the remarkable growth of the group since 1945, the formation of the Brotherhood's military wing, the assassination of Khazindar and Al-Nokrashy, which led to the decision to dissolve the group after the escalation of the almost daily operations of the Brotherhood’s Secret Apparatus.

The fourth chapter deals with the Brotherhood and the Egyptian political scene, the palace, Al-Wafd and their relationships with the communists. What the author states in the Brotherhood’s relationship with the Communists is that Hassan Al-Banna asked the American embassy to form a joint office between the Brotherhood and the Americans to combat communism, provided that most of its members must be from the Brotherhood.

In the fifth chapter, the author deals with the Brotherhood and their position on major issues, the first of which is the position on democracy and partisanism, and he says that the messages of Hassan Al-Banna are filled with paradoxes and contradictions, as neither is the Brotherhood considered a religious group working in politics nor is it a political group that raises religious slogans.

Then Abdul Rahim reviews the Brotherhood's position on violence and terrorism, and of course recalls the history of the Secret Apparatus that was associated with the formation of the Brotherhood's operations agency and its organizational arrangement and also recounts a number of assassinations carried out by the Brotherhood.

The author further discusses the Brotherhood’s stand on women and guiding them while emphasizing these rules and forcing them over female teachers, students, doctors and so on.

The book also highlights the Brotherhood’s position on women’s assumption of senior positions, as well as their outfits and appearance, as speeches of the Brotherhood stresses that there is a conspiracy that aims at destroying families by liberating women.

Then the author moves to the Brotherhood's position on national unity issues and their position towards Copts, and considers that this issue is a significant indicator to Egypt's political situation.

As for the second chapter, which came under the title of ‘Stations in the history of the Brotherhood’, it discussed the Brotherhood and the July revolution, the Brotherhood and President Sadat, as well as the Brotherhood’s economics and strategic goals.