The Los Angeles Times has a piece today on the conflict between the younger, more liberal generation and the older, more conservative generation in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. They interview bloggers Mustafa Naggar and Abd el-Monem Mahmoud, author of the blog “Ana Ikhwan“, both disaffected Brotherhood members disappointed by the religious rigidity of Egypt's main opposition organization. This article points out a trend that other observers of the Egyptian political scene have seen for a while; Marc Lynch's article “Young Brothers in Cyberspace” details the characteristics of different generations within the Brotherhood and the ways that the cyber-savvy and progressive fourth generation marks a departure from the more conservative third generation.
Lynch summarizes his analysis of this fourth generation as follows:
What do all the inter- and intra-generational fissures portend for the future of the Muslim Brothers? An older Muslim Brother blogger, Ahmad "Abd al-"Ati, came out in favor of the fourth generation's openness: "The blogs represent a sign of success despite the fears of others that they have crossed the line. Exchanging ideas is not a divide between generations and differences of opinion are not divisions." This is an opinion from which young bloggers … take heart. Yet Deputy Guide Muhammad Habib seems bent on squelching talk of "generations" or "trends" out of concern that it could be used to weaken the Brothers.
Mahmoud's quote in the LA Times piece underlines this latter concern:
“When the brotherhood feels threatened by the state, it rallies around the conservatives and that takes it further from the reformists,” said Mahmoud. “It is the state oppression that is actually empowering the conservatives. But our generation is different. We are calling for more reasoning, for more reinterpretation.”
The larger, and to me, more interesting question here is in what ways the Brotherhood movement is restricted by the overwhelming force and presence of the Egyptian state. One of the reasons that the Brotherhood makes such good copy and is so interesting to follow is because it's narrative is an underdog narrative – The MB David takes on Mubarak's Goliath, over an extended period of time (the Brotherhood was initiated by Hassan al Banna in 1928). But in what ways is an opposition movement stunted in its development by constantly being, well, the opposition? It's interesting to think about what a Muslim Brotherhood government would look like, not just because it's fun to play with hypotheticals but because when policymakers project to post-authoritarian Egypt, the Brotherhood typically plays a large role, and the expectations we have of that outcome will influence the way policy is made. Do these bloggers represent the elements within the Brotherhood that would be at the forefront if the MB were to come into power in Egypt? What consequences does stifling these bloggers have for the future of the movement?
