About the Book

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has become the world’s largest, most influential Islamist group. After eight decades surviving as a populist religious movement, banned from political participation in many Arab countries, in recent years it has moved towards becoming a political party and announced a party platform. This book examines this transition, exploring the relationship between party and movement, and describing leadership and power struggles within the ranks of the hierarchy and the revision of its ideology. It considers the active role the Muslim Brotherhood has played in Egyptian political life, and throughout the Middle East and Arab world, including in Jordan, Palestine, Morocco and Yemen. It analyses the Muslim Brotherhood’s position on key issues such as gender, religious minorities, and political plurality, and critically analyses whether claims that the Brotherhood has abandoned extremism and should be engaged with as a moderate political force can be substantiated. Overall, it considers whether the Muslim Brotherhood has truly transformed, or has simply reframed itself, and to what extent this development has the potential to transform politics in the Middle East.