he last 12 months has reshaped the map of Islamist forces in Egypt. The 30 June 2013 Revolution pulled the carpet from beneath their feet, leaving them stranded and exposed. Shunned by the vast majority, groups that in the recent past attracted millions of voters are on the brink of political oblivion. As 2014 draws to a close, many such groups seem to be headed for extinction. The Muslim Brotherhood Founded in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood operated underground for many decades. Its members gradually become involved in the political process but it was not until after the 25 January 2011 Revolution that the group really made its mark. Suddenly, news and images of Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders filled the media. Then one of those leaders, Mohamed Morsi, head of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Brotherhood's political wing, was nominated as a presidential candidate and ended up in the presidential palace, where he would remain for a year. In July 2013 Morsi was ousted from office. Millions had taken to the streets to protest against the incompetence, arrogance and exclusionist policies of the Brotherhood regime. By 24 December 2013 the Muslim Brotherhood had been designated a terrorist organisation by the Hazem Al-Beblawi government. The decision followed the bombing of the Daqhaliya Security Directorate. Sixteen people died and more than 130 were wounded in a terrorist attack in which security forces say the Muslim Brotherhood was implicated. Designating the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation meant “those who participate in the activities of the group, promote it orally, in writing or by any other means, or who fund its activities” could be prosecuted. The government notified the signatories of the 1998 Arab Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism of its decision and its legal implications. Many Brotherhood officials who had remained in Egypt fled while others were arrested. Incidents of terrorism proliferated throughout 2014 and the prime suspect was invariably the Muslim Brotherhood. The group persisted in its calls for demonstrations, though the protests were feeble and firmly confronted by security forces. There were more detentions of Muslim Brotherhood officials in the course of the year. Yasser Ali, who served as Morsi's presidential spokesman, was accused of helping Morsi-era prime minister Hisham Qandil flee the country. Ali was released in November, the same month that Mohamed Ali Bishr, Morsi's minister of local development, was arrested on espionage charges. Egyptian university campuses remained arenas for demonstrations and violence. Al-Azhar engaged a private security firm (Falcon), and security was tightened around all universities, but the violence continued. Hundreds of students were expelled, the vast majority Muslim Brotherhood members or sympathisers. The prosecution of Muslim Brotherhood members continued throughout the year. Courts handed down hundreds of death sentences, including one against Supreme Guide Badie. Many others were sentenced to life imprisonment. While Turkey and Qatar continued to back the Muslim Brotherhood, the US and EU shifted their positions after the referendum on the new constitution and the election of Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi as president. Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood — the Qatari-based Al Jazeera channel had emerged as the leading Brotherhood propagandist — began to annoy not only Egypt but other countries in the Gulf. They soon begin to pressure Doha, which responded by issuing a list of “personae non grata.” It included senior Brotherhood officials Mahmoud Hussein, Wagdi Ghoneim, Gamal Abdel Sattar, Hamza Zawba, Ashraf Badr Al-Din, Amr Darrag, Essam Talima, Tareq Al-Zomar and Assem Abdel Maged, and a number of younger, “second-generation” leaders. A kiss of reconciliation, planted by the Emir of Qatar on the forehead of the Saudi monarch in the presence of other Gulf heads of state, sealed the fate of Muslim Brother officials who had taken refuge in Qatar. Asked to leave, many found their way to London. For the Muslim Brotherhood, 2014 was an unmitigated disaster. Branded a terrorist group, the Brotherhood lost any vestige of popular support. Even the acquittal of Mubarak, which triggered popular anger, did not work in favour of the Muslim Brothers, who tried to win the January revolutionaries to their side by claiming the revolution had been stolen and the way was being paved for a return of the Mubarak-era deep state. Freedom and Justice Party “online” In the wake of the 25 January 2011 revolution, religiously affiliated political parties proliferated. The Muslim Brotherhood established the FJP in May 2011. The fledgling party's star quickly soared. Following the ouster Morsi, who had served as party head before his nomination as president, the party began to use its Facebook page and Twitter accounts to publicise anti-government activities. The party was already moribund when it was legally dissolved after the Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organisation. Al-Wasat vanishes It was a long struggle but officials who had broken away from the Muslim Brotherhood eventually managed to establish a party of their own, Al-Wasat, in February 2011. Its first leader was Abul Ela Madi, and lawyer Essam Sultan was his deputy. Both are now behind bars, awaiting trial on charges that include inciting violence during the Rabaa Al-Adawiya sit-in. The party had hoped to become a partner in the Hisham Qandil government but succeeded in securing a single cabinet seat, the People's Assembly and Shura Council portfolio held by Mohamed Mahsoub, who has since fled the country. During the year of Muslim Brotherhood rule tensions erupted between the Wasat Party and the FJP, though the two parties reconciled after the 30 June revolution. The popular uprising against Morsi left Al-Wasat without political or popular support.
Salafist Calling left reeling Like many Islamist forces, the Salafist Calling, founded in Alexandria, entered the political arena after the 25 January Revolution. Unlike the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists are not a single organisation under the command of a supreme guide. They are an array of movements that subscribe to a general ideology or doctrine. Because their doctrine prohibits defiance of rulers, they did not take part in the uprisings though they tried to reap the fruits of the two revolutions. Despite historic differences with the Muslim Brotherhood, they made common cause with their old enemy in parliament. Internal organisational and political differences led a segment of the Salafist Calling to break away and form the Salafist Front, which eventually joined NASL. One of the leaders of this movement, Morsi's one-time adviser Emad Abdel-Ghaffour, then went on to form the Watan (Homeland) Party. The Salafist Calling continues to support the state and the government, just as it supported the post 3 July roadmap and opposed the Muslim Brotherhood. Many of its younger members have grown increasingly disaffected with the staunch pro-government stance of their leadership. Salafist Calling leaders were attacked in media for their inability to persuade their younger cadres to vote in May's presidential poll. The Salafist Calling has seen its popularity undermined, partly because the Salafists are associated with the Muslim Brothers in the public mind, but also because the group is seen as being opportunistic. The Nour Party: Sinking fortunes The Nour Party is the political wing of the Salafist Calling. Its president, Younes Makhioun, attended the declaration of the “roadmap to the future” on 3 July 2013. The party was initially lauded for its participation and its performance. It was not long, though, before it was wrong-footed by government measures that restricted access to mosque pulpits. The Ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) limits the delivering of sermons and preaching in mosques to Al-Azhar graduates licensed by the ministry. The vast majority of Salafist leaders are not Al-Azhar graduates. Suddenly, it appeared to Salafist leaders that not only were they not being rewarded for standing by the government they were being actively punished. Government measures made the position of the Salafist leadership increasingly awkward as many young Salafists concluded the Salafist Calling had sacrificed everything to help portray the post-3 July order as “inclusive” of the Islamist trend. After helping the new authorities, the Nour Party found its political influence waning and its leaders barred from pulpits.
NASL disintegrates On 26 June 2013, days before Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood regime were ousted, an umbrella organisation was created to support them. The National Association to Support Legitimacy (NASL) included a number of religious parties, with the notable exception of the Salafist Nour Party. During the Rabaa and Nahda Square sit-ins NASL organised a variety of political activities. Following the breakup of the sit-ins, its role was limited to issuing statements and calling for demonstrations. The parties that joined NASL had linked their political futures to the Muslim Brotherhood. When they an entered the political fray many sacrificed their religious work to focus on political competition, only to lose whatever political ground they had gained because of their association with the Muslim Brotherhood. In short, they failed to attain any of their goals through their alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood. Cracks had begun to surface in the alliance even before the government ruled to dissolve the Independence Party and then banned NASL. The Salafist Front: Another failure The Salafist Front, formed by breakaway members of the Nour Party and the Salafist Calling, threw in its lot with the Muslim Brotherhood. It even counted Brotherhood Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat Al-Shater among its members. Last month the Front issued a declaration proclaiming what was variously billed as the “Islamic Revolution” and the “Uprising of Muslim Youth.” Set for 28 November, it turned out to be a non-event. The Salafist Front has no grassroots base. It tried to make a name for itself and failed. The jihadists and their downfall Jihadist militant organisations such as Ajnad Misr entered into an undeclared alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood. Their fortunes began to ebb with the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood, which brought an end to the political and security cover they had enjoyed under the Morsi presidency. Under Brotherhood rule these organisations were free to communicate with their counterparts elsewhere in the region, most notably in North Africa and Gaza. The fall of the Muslim Brotherhood regime delivered a debilitating blow to these organisations. Their tacit political backing vanished and the authorities moved to halt their inflows of funds. Arsenals of arms, accumulated under Muslim Brotherhood rule, quickly dwindled. Paper parties Several Islamist political parties were never more than paper entities. Whatever weight they carried with the public was a function of the notoriety of their leaders. These parties neither failed nor weakened over the course of the year. They were born weak, remained weak and played no significant part in wider events. The Construction and Development Party, the political wing of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya, was established on 20 June 2011. Its two co-founders, Tarek Al-Zomor and Safwat Abdel-Ghani have fled the country. Al-Tawhid Al-Arabi (The Arab Unification) Party was established in late May 2011. Since its founding its only activity has been to release occasional statements to the press. Al-Fadila (Virtue) Party was the first Salafist party to be founded after the 25 January Revolution. It split in July 2011 when former head, General Adel Abdel-Maqsoud, and some members of the party's political bureau announced that they were severing their ties with the party because of what they called “a conspiracy to change principles founded on the commitment to the Sharia, the sovereignty of law and the moderate Salafist Islamist way and embrace extremist ideas that are harmful to the public.” Al-Fadila was a member of NASL. Al-Asala (Authenticity) Party was formed by breakaway members from Al-Fadila and headed by Adel Abdel-Maqsoud. It enjoys the support of a number of Salafist preachers, including Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud and Mohamed Hassan. Support for the party dwindled because of its backing of Morsi. Al-Watan (Homeland) Party was created by dissident members of the Nour Party and Salafist Calling. Led by Emad Abdel-Ghaffour, Al-Watan was a member of NASL. Al-Istiqlal (Independence) Party, recently dissolved by court order, withdrew from NASL during the association's dying days. Once known as the Labour Party, Al-Istiqlal was headed by Magdi Ahmed Hussein who is now in jail.
