From a political Islam researcher's objective point of view, there is no doubt that the Muslim Brotherhood has fallen into the dungeons of history. This has become evident after the June 30 revolution. This blatant reality was deliberately ignored by the United States of America as it tried to put the Egyptian public uprising against the Muslim Brotherhood's tyrant rule under suspicion, claiming that it was a military coup. The U.S. built this assumption when it saw the Egyptian military complying with the public's demands, safeguarding state institutions and stopping the repeated attempts to change the country's social identity. The American partisan stance is hardly shocking, as the United States have been preparing for "Liberal Islam" to inherit the authoritative Arab regimes. This plan came in action since 2003, and "Liberal Islam" was the recommendation of Strategic American Research. Topping the list was the Egyptian regime at the time of former President Mubarak. For those who still need more proof of this fact, they might want to refer to researches conducted by the American Rand Corporation that upholds the strategic American mentality. The researches, spearheaded by Shirley Pienaar openly suggested political and financial support for moderate Islamic cadres. Pienaar also called for the revamping of Islamic ideologies in order to expand imperialistic schemes, and ensure the complete eradication of any Arab integration. She classified dominant Islamic currents throughout the Arab world into Traditional, Secular and Extremist categories. When these strategic researches became well established, the American administration made the decision to support the Muslim Brotherhood and their rise to power in Egypt following the overthrow of Mubarak's regime. The American administration also pressured Mubarak into reforming democracy to disqualify him or members of his family from acceding to power again. Perhaps this decision better explains the deep relationship that existed between the former American Ambassador to Cairo and the Muslim Brotherhood leaders. In many ways, this relationship looked like a mutual agreement; the U.S. providing the MB with a democratic support to pave the way for their ascension to power. However, this agreement was preceded by a commitment from the Brotherhood to observe and protect Israel's national security and to adhere to the Camp David Treaty. America continued its support by shielding ousted president Mohamed Morsi in order to preserve its interests. It also had to avert his fall, but when he actually fell, it had to claim that a coup had been perpetrated against ‘a legitimate President'. But what does the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood into the dungeons of history mean? To fathom the answer, we need to undertake a cultural analysis, going back to the roots and formation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a movement. The MB tried to institute a kind of religious reform that aims to create an improvised amiability between Islam and modernism. This was the great religious reformer Sheikh Mohamed Abdou's life project, who tried to apply this pioneering formula in his famous books on the subject of Islam and Science. However, representatives of traditional Islam staunchly resisted his reformative attempts, which grew weaker as he wasn't backed by institutions, researchers or thinkers to adopt his progressive doctrine. His apprentice Rashid Reda, the owner of Al Manar magazine, was a reactionary, reserved and traditional person. Sheikh Hassan Al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood was an apprentice of Reda's. The Imam Hassan Al Banna had one of two choices, either to continue the religious reform initiated by Sheikh Mohamed Abdou, or create a new discipline and improvise a new sect in which he could disgracefully mix religion, politics and violence. This new movement had the aim of changing secular Arab countries into religious states, in compliance with a mad fantasy to retrieve the Islamic Caliphate, which would be ruled by a single Khalifa for all Muslims from East to West. In fact, a cultural analysis can also uncover the reason for their final downfall in 2013 in Egypt. This analysis sheds light on the problem of the ‘traditional mentality' that governs the Muslim Brotherhood project as a whole. I was able to record in 1994, what I termed the ‘Crisis of the Modern Islamic Project' in an article that was later included in the book ‘Global Fundamentalism and Postmodernism, (Cairo: Academic Library 1996). In this article I wrote: "the Islamic project is undoubtedly undergoing a crisis." What I meant by ‘Islamic Project' is the Islamic movement that emerged in the Arab World more than sixty years ago. It is probable that the Muslim Brotherhood, due to their spread in several Arab countries, were the representatives of this movement. However, the crisis I mentioned did not only pertain to the behavior of this movement's followers, it was primarily based on the theoretical grounds of their project, the way they viewed the world and perceived others. Their behavior caused deadly clashes between them and the authorities of many Arab countries. I think that this last paragraph has summarized the main reasons behind Political Islam's exit from history; the primary reason being that the Muslim Brotherhood was the manifestation of a traditional mentality that failed to face real-life difficulties and waged a fierce battle against the modern discourse. The main feature of the traditional mentality's discourse is adherence to the past. However, the past that they chose to abide by was fictitious and unreliable. It changes according to the identity of those who put forth the discourse. It has been known to avoid reality and disbelieve global change. It actually completely denied the effects of global change. The Brotherhood's discourse also attempted to resist global changes, adopting a historic conspiracy theory. Lastly, the Brotherhood's discourse created an ideal utopia to be applied according to the fantasies of its advocates, with complete disregard to its obvious incongruity. The Brotherhood's project, as marketed by its Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, confirms the accuracy of this analysis. He promoted this project after the success of the MB's political Freedom and Justice Party in the Egyptian parliamentary elections, saying, "it seems that Hassan Al Banna's dream on the recovery of the Islamic Caliphate is about to come true." The Murshid and his group became addicted to prodigal fantasies, reaching out for the retrieval of an Islamic Caliphate, as if it were an ideal realm. However, in reality, the Caliphate came with swords, oppression and violence, after the Righteous Caliphs' era. The fictitious Caliphate announced by IS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi in Syria and Iraq depicts a very distorted image of Islam and the Righteous Caliphs, presenting them as tyrants in the Islamic state's history. We have no doubt – in our perception of the traditional mentality's crisis - that its advocates have come to a dead end. They are completely powerless in answering to the questions posed to them, whatever their type or orientation. The discourse adopted by the Brotherhood will cost them dearly. Being solely taken by a fantasy world born out of their imagination impedes them from facing reality. They ignore the most basic human rights and are indifferent to the ruin they cause for countries and their peoples. This analysis written years ago, may receive validation these days due to the rapid and crashing downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which came only a year after their ascension to power. The propositions made by some politicians for a ‘political reconciliation' with the Muslim Brotherhood, thus indicate a complete lack of awareness as to the fundamental opposition between the myth-based traditional Mentality and the Modern realistic one. The two mentalities have diametrically different worldviews, with principles and theoretical boundaries that are poles apart, consequently leading to diverging sets of behaviors.
