The Muslim Brotherhood from Opposition to Governance

Abstract

The Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) electoral victories after the January 25 revolution, have spurred the anxiety of a plethora of domestic and international observers concerned about the future of democracy, and the civil state under Islamic governance. Th is paper revisits the Brotherhood’s literature on the dichotomy of “Shari’a and governance” to contextualise the current political vision of the Freedom and Justice Party, and forecast the extent to which it might evolve in years to come. Th e Brotherhood’s current conception of the civil state, Shari’a, and democracy did not materialise overnight, rather it is the culmination of 84 years of social and political endeavors and constant revisions by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a movement, as well as Islamic thinkers and jurists inspired by the Brotherhood’s school of thought. Not only did the MB usher in generations of practicing Muslims worldwide who espoused its socio-religious ideology, but even more significantly, it introduced a distinct Islamic political school of thought that continues to shape the core ideology of leading Islamic political parties in Muslim-majority countries, including Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, among others.