There has been ongoing disagreement between Islamic thinker Gamal el-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood, who repeatedly reject and deny all issues he raises, disregarding the fact that he is the younger brother of the Brotherhood's founder, Sheikh Hassan el-Banna. But this time is different, since the mysterious documents which the junior el-Banna has unveiled for the first time in the group's history, which relate to his elder brother, cannot be denied or ignored. The documents are expected to spark controversy since they discuss facts concerning the foundation of the Brotherhood, the intellectual doctrine it follows, its internal organization, and other core issues. They also involve surprising facts and revelations about the mystery that has enveloped the group since its establishment in 1928. The documents are divided into a four-part book. Two parts have already been published, and the other two will be released later. Al-Masry Al-Youm has obtained most of these documents and will publish them in two sections, the first including those tackling the Brotherhood's stance towards political authorities, rulers, political parties in general, its approach towards minorities, its perception of the Islamic caliphate, and its perception of relationships with the West. The second section will cast light on those documents dealing with the internal affairs of the group as an organization: its private activities, problems, and funding. It will also detail the founding of the organization, the nature of the internal conflicts at that time, as well as other issues that have long been unknown - both to persons interested in the organization and even to the group's members and followers itself. The documents, among other items of the el-Banna family's legacy, ended up in the hands of Gamal el-Banna due to his next-of-kinship with his brother. The importance of the documents originates from the fact that they were hand-written by the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood himself, Hassan el-Banna, and that some of them include papers and letters written by Muslim Brotherhood leaders in the period between 1928 and 1949. They were kept safe by the family until the younger brother decided to bring them to light. Gamal el-Banna explains that "unveiling these documents to the public will be the proper action, no matter how many reservations there are". We will focus on some selected points of interest from the first section of documents published by Al-Masry Al-Youm. Most of the documents show how Hassan el-Banna's speeches were comprehensible and how he carefully chose his words, despite repeating and talking at length. This method seems to have been intended to convey his ideas to the public. The documents show that Hassan el-Banna was a good writer, addressing the most sensitive issues with a highly organized and elegant style of writing. One important document written by Hassan el-Banna talks about "Islam and Politics". The document is not dated but most likely it was written in the late 1930s or early 1940s. El-Banna says, "Whenever you find a person talking about politics and Islam, you see that he completely separates between both, and between the meanings of each. People think that Islam and politics can never converge". In another part of the same document and after presenting a definition of politics and what he calls "comprehensive Islam," el-Banna states: "Following this general definition of comprehensive Islam and the meaning of non-partisan politics, I can openly say that Islamic faith is not complete without being politically educated and without possessing farsightedness in the affairs of one's nation. All Islamic associations have to set as a priority their programs focusing on national political affairs. Otherwise, they themselves will be in need of understanding the meaning of Islam." The Muslim Brotherhood has never been non-political, and it will never be non-Islamic. It has never separated between politics and religion. In el-Banna's writings, he states that people will never see the Brotherhood as partisans one day. El-Banna was not however so clear as to what he meant by "the nation" – whether this was the "Egyptian nation," or the "Islamic nation". It is clear, however, from his document on "Islam and Politics," that the founder of the Brotherhood totally rejected transforming the group into a party - which might, in part, explain the real reason behind the slowness of the Brotherhood in this regard. Hassan el-Banna's stand in this respect becomes all the more clear in one document he wrote under the title "Politics and Us". He writes: "Some people might say: 'What has the Muslim Brotherhood got to do with parliament if the Muslim Brotherhood is a religious group, and parliament is a political body?' Doesn't this support what people say about the Brotherhood being a political group which doesn't stop at calling people to Islam as it claims? "[…] I say frankly and clearly, if what you mean is that we're partisans who support one party but not another, we're not so, and we wont be, and nobody can prove that, not by a shred of evidence. But if you mean that we're politicians in the sense that we are concerned with the affairs of our nation, that we believe that an executive authority is part and parcel of the teachings of Islam, that political freedom and national dignity are one of its pillars and obligations, and that we're working hard on attaining full freedom and reforming the executive authority, then that's who we are." In the same document, and under the title "The Palace and Us," Hassan el-Banna says that the Brotherhood is loyal to the throne and to the king, and that Islam views the king as the shadow of God on earth.
