The Failure of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab World

The Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn, henceforth MB) is one of the major contemporary Islamic revivalist movement that had a tremendous impact not only on Arabic-speaking youth but also on the youths in Africa and Southeast Asia. Its founder, Ḥasan al Bannā, was a charismatic personality who was able, within a very short period (1938-1949), to influence both the elite and youths in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Kuwait, and Sudan . The movement played an important political role in Egypt and the Sudan . Al- Bannā’s mission was kept alive, after his assassination in 1949, by his followers particularly Sayyid Quṭb, Muḥammad Quṭb, al-Bahī al-Khūlī, Muḥammad al-Ghazālī, Ḥasan al-Huḍaibī, Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī and others. The intellectual contribution of Sayyid Quṭb, his brother Muḥammad Quṭb and Yūsuf al- Qaraḍāwī extended far beyond Egypt. Millions of youth globally have benefited from their scholarly and intellectual contributions .

Nawaf Obaid’s volume focusses mainly on one dimension of MB work, namely, its political role in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Sudan and Tunis . The author worked as an advisor to the Saudi government for over a period of fifteen years, which gave him ample opportunity to study and collect first-hand information on the interaction between MB and various political stakeholders.