The Muslim Brotherhood in the post-Arab Spring scenario: Alliance rebuilding and Strategies of Survival

Abstract

The Muslim Brotherhood, already 90 years old in 2018, have already experienced other periods of repression, illegalization and exile (in the 50-60s in Egypt as well as in the 60-70s in Syria). However, what is particular to the current wave of repression and persecution is the context of great convulsion and geostrategic maneuvering, marked by the outbreak of several armed conflicts in the Middle East and a visible authoritarian regression, not only throughout the region but also in Europe, Israel and America. These wars and blockades are creating counter-intuitive alliances and ideological contradictions, which in turn have an impact on the Islamist camp. They affect both Sunni and Chia, peaceful and violent Islamist groups, as well as and their respective interactions. This article intends to shed light on the new strategies the Muslim Brotherhood is adopting, not only in the Middle East but also in the West, in order to escape from the pressure exerted by an increasingly large group of countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates among them) as well as the dilemma their members face of radicalization and absorption into Yihadist Salafism. We use as methodological tool a dense description of events to analyze the changes in the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideological orientations and strategic choices.