Since its formation in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has seemed destined to reap a bitter harvest in the end of the day. The organisation's trends throughout history reveal a number of parallels to the tragic ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus, the king of Ephyra (modern-day Corinth). According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus was punished by ancient Greek gods for chronic deceitfulness. The gods condemned him to a punishment of pushing an immense rock towards the top of a hill from which it rolled down again and then to repeat this action forever. Likewise, the MB ascended the podium of victory several times, but before receiving the trophy it was forced to come down handcuffed and put in jail. After decades, the MB was released yet again to become involved in a new round of politics, only to find itself repeating its tragedy once again. In 1952, the MB pledged loyalty to a group of young army officers led by late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser to help oust the British-loyal monarchy in Egypt. Nasser, politically savvy in his own right, believed that a military coupled with religious sentiments would encourage the Muslim-majority nation in Egypt to rally behind the movement against the king. The MB committed themselves to 1952 ‘Free Officers' revolution task. However, they provoked Nasser's suspicions when they came to the negotiating table to discuss a power sharing agreement. The gulf between the young army officers and the MB widened as Nasser suspected their motives during talks over the departure of the British troops from Egypt in the 1953. In one of his national speeches in 1966, Nasser told a massive political rally that MB was conspiring with the British embassy in Cairo against the revolution (compare with allegations that the MB's co-operated with Washington to assume power after January 25 Revolution two years ago). In March 1954, Nasser survived an assassination by two men associated with the MB in Alexandria. Hours after the incident, thousands of Muslim Brothers were arrested and sent to prison indefinitely. They were tortured, humiliated and hundreds of them were sentenced to death by military tribunal or died as they were tortured. Anwar Sadat succeeded Nasser after his death in 1971. Sadat ordered the release of thousands of his predecessor's political victims. Sadat expected that they would reciprocate by silencing his opponents, the communists and socialists who were loyal to Nasser. He also allowed them a degree of ideological autonomy. The Islamists lived up to Sadat's expectations dominating the ideological playing field over the communists who retreated in disgrace (note that the MB-led Islamists shifted their battle against communists to Afghanistan in the 1980s). But like his predecessor, Sadat could not quench the MB's quest for power. Taking Sadat's declaration that he was a Muslim leader of a Muslim nation to an extreme, the MB in collaboration with other Islamist groups, vented their ideological wrath on Copts. Sadat paid the price with his life for his misplaced friendship towards the Islamists in 1981; he was assassinated by Jamaa Islamiyaa, a militant group breast-fed and pampered by Muslim Brotherhood. After he agreed to a peace deal with Israel. Islamists claimed that Sadat was a traitor for signing a peace treaty with the Zionist enemy (Israel) who was occupying Palestine (note that when assuming power in Egypt in 2012, President Morsi confirmed his commitment to Sadat's peace accords). Islamists rampaged across the country, brutally killing police officers and policemen in cities in Upper Egypt to declare a Muslim emirate in Egypt. When Mubarak succeeded Sadat, he released many leftists, Copts, and writers, from jail. Their vacancy cells refilled with Islamists and MB's members, who failed to escape the country. Many Islamist Mujahideen fighters returning from Afghanistan launched a war of terror against the regime of then president Hosni Mubarak. One group launched an assasination attempt on Mubarak in Addis Ababa in 1995. In 2000, Mubarak gave in to pressures from Washington and decided to incorporate the MB back into Egyptian political life. In 2011, the dazed SCAF (the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces), in the model of late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser, rode the religious sentiment of the Muslim-dominated country to steer the nation safely out of the violent aftermath of the uprising. Islamists, including the assassins of president Anwar Sadat, were released from jail and allowed free association in political life. Further, there are now suspicions that the SCAF had planned to help the MB assume power in Egypt temporarily. Over the past year, many, political, economic, social and ideological landmines had exploded in the face of the new rulers (the MB and Islamists), whose image sank deep in society. The Tamarad (Rebel) movement, a stroke of populist genius, organised mass demonstrations to oust the MB-led regime of President Mohamed Morsi. Public discontent reached a boiling point, fully exploding yesterday – just two days before the Great Day of June 30. The beleaguered President has no option but to call for early presidential elections. Stripped of his presidential power, President Morsi and hundreds of MB's leaders and men will undoubtedly reap the bitter harvest they had had several times before in more than 60 years. Nonetheless, unlike Sisyphus, the MB will remain at the bottom of the hill, being unable to ascend it again and for decades to come.
