When you look at the history of the Muslim Brotherhood and see how they have survived until now then you will understand that this organization is here for good and that its members will not let go easily.
Don’t forget that in the past the organization was even linked to the assassination of my personal hero President Anwar Al Sadat - his attackers were identified as Islamist nationalists associated with the Muslim Brotherhood under the name of Islamic Jihad.
I believe, as I mentioned in last week''s post that today their enemies are secular and liberal people like myself, because we are calling to separate religion from politics. We are calling for a new and free Egypt that doesn’t discriminate against anyone due to his\her religion.
This brings me to this week''s blog.
It is very obvious, in my opinion, that the Muslim Brotherhood maintains secret deals with the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), or let''s call it "the trade;" which leaves SCAF in power and in turn allows the Brotherhood to dominate the parliament and control the government. For the Brotherhood this would be a very fair deal. After 80 years of police harassments and being an underground organization they have suddenly become legit and more powerful than any other faction.
Also you have to keep in mind that SCAF is very strict towards the secular and liberal factions because of the Egyptian people''s constant pressure on them to give the power back to its rightful owners: the people. This is the main reason why, in my opinion, they have recently raided and prosecuted several pro-democracy organizations.
To my knowledge, after the parliamentary elections the Brotherhood didn’t participate in any protests and they even announced that they would not take part in the civil disobedience that was called for on February 11, 2012.
This tells me that they are well satisfied with their gains so far and are on good terms with SCAF.
If you look back, since 1941 the British government and every other Egyptian government all the way to Mubarak took very high measures and focused on Muslim Brotherhood activities: the Brotherhood''s journals were suppressed, its meetings were banned and any reference to it in newspapers was forbidden until the Revolution.
During this time, the Brotherhood kept a low profile and they concentrated on maintaining and expanding their membership base and extending their social welfare programs all across Egypt.
This low profile policy really served them well, in my opinion, and they kept everything in order and all of their followers and members stayed underground until the removal of Mubarak.
During the Mubarak rule the political life in Egypt was, in my opinion, totally corrupt and all the opposition parties were just cartoons for show with no effect what so ever on the government. This is the main reason why I believe the Brotherhood dominated the parliamentary elections, as they are the most organized party that had sleeping cells all over Egypt which became very active after the revolution, with no fear of any prosecution.
The Brotherhood did for the people what their governments couldn’t or wouldn’t do. Since the revolution the Brotherhood feels like it is literally everywhere I go with their posters and charitable events all around Egypt. During the parliamentary elections they created stores in numerous provinces in Egypt that sells important food supplies for half the price, such as rice, sugar…etc.
The Brotherhood funds are huge to a very scary level; each member has to donate 8% of their monthly income to the organization, also add to this their supporters in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who throw millions of dollars as donations. They really seem that they have no shortage of money and no shortage of supporters.
I believe that the real upcoming test for the Brotherhood is the issue of tourism and the permits to sell alcohol. Keep in mind that there are 4 million jobs created from the tourism industry, so this is a huge economic issue.
So let''s wait and see what the Brotherhood will do about this issue.
The Brotherhood has struggled through persecutions and prison sentences throughout the past several decades. They have a history of making all kinds of deals and agreements with everyone—even the Nazis—which makes them, in my opinion, unpredictable. The organization stayed underground for years and years but kept well organized which makes them a well-recognized force to deal with. They have money to throw at the good people of my Egypt, which gives them a scary advantage.
Bottom line: Since the revolution, the Muslim Brotherhood has become a reality as they have never been before and now we have to deal with them.