Muslim Brotherhood split: Saudi-funded Old Guard fights reforms

The Muslim Brotherhood has been racked by a crisis that has seen threats of resignation by its longtime leader, Mohammed Akef (Inset).

On Oct. 17, Akef was said to have told the Brotherhood’s Shura Council that he was quitting over disagreement with the so-called Old Guard.

The sources said the Old Guard has received financial support from Saudi Arabia while younger members have been aided by Egyptian exiles in Europe and the United States. The Brotherhood controls 20 percent of parliament and was bracing for major political changes should the ailing Mubarak leave office.

The power struggle within the Brotherhood was expected to intensify with the approach of leadership elections. Over the last month, the Mubarak regime arrested about 200 Brotherhood members to prevent regional elections.

“The fight is mostly between the Old Guard and the Young Guard,” a Brotherhood member said. “But there are other factions involved, some of whom are supported by foreign elements.”

The battle was said to pit the 81-year-old Akef, deemed the supreme guide of the Brotherhood, against many of his longtime colleagues. Akef, who promised to resign when his term ends in 2010, has sought to transfer some of his authority to Essam Al Erian, regarded as the leader of the Young Guard.

In the first step, Akef has sought to place Al Erian on the Brotherhood’s political bureau. Akef entered office in 2004 and has sought to expand the appeal of the Islamic movement, with chapters throughout the Middle East.

“Akef wants to bring in younger and reform-minded members in the leadership,” an Egyptian analyst said. “This has been heavily opposed by the Old Guard.”

For his part, Akef has denied that he resigned from the Brotherhood leadership. He also insisted that divisions within the group remain manageable.

“These differences in views will not interfere with the issues,” Akef said.

The division between the Old Guard and Young Guard spans a range of issues. The Old Guard, many of whose members own considerable assets, has fought Brotherhood efforts to support the growing independent labor movement in Egypt.

The Old Guard has also rejected an initiative to cooperate with the secular opposition. Veteran Islamists, many of whom spent years in jail, have also warned against confronting the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

“There could be an ideological aspect as well,” Diaa Rashwan, a specialist on the Brotherhood at the state-owned Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said.

Tthe Muslim Brotherhood belief incluse, the Quran and Sunna constitute a perfect way of life and social and political organization that God has set out for man. Islamic governments must be based on this system and eventually unified in a Caliphate. The MB goal, as stated by Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna was to reclaim Islam’s manifest destiny, an empire, stretched from Spain to Indonesia – an expanded Ottoman Empire. It preaches that Islam enjoins man to strive for social justice, the eradication of poverty and corruption, and political freedom to the extent allowed by the laws of Islam. The Brotherhood strongly opposes Western colonialism, and helped overthrow the pro-western monarchies in Egypt and other Muslim nations during the early 20th century.

On the issue of women and gender the Muslim Brotherhood interprets Islam very traditionally. Its founder called for “a campaign against ostentation in dress and loose behavior,” “segregation of male and female students,” a separate curriculum for girls, and “the prohibition of dancing and other such pastimes..”

The Brotherhood is one of the most influential movements in the Muslim world and especially so in the Arab world. It was founded in Egypt and Egypt is considered the center of the movement; it is generally weaker in the Maghreb, or North Africa, than in the Arab Levant. Brotherhood branches form the main opposition to the governments in several countries in the Arab world, such as Egypt, Syria and Jordan, and are politically active to some extent in nearly every Muslim country^[, possibly excluding Turkey. There are also diaspora branches in several Western nations and in south and east Asia, composed by immigrants previously active in the Brotherhood in their home countries.

The movement is immensely influential in many Muslim countries, and where legally possible, it often operates important networks of Islamic charities, creating a support base among Muslim poor. However, most of the countries where the Brotherhood is active are ruled by non-pluralist regimes. As a consequence, the movement is banned in several Arab nations, and restrictions on political activity prevent it from gaining power through elections.

The MB is a movement, not a political party, but members have created separate political parties in several countries, such as the Islamic Action Front in Jordan and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank. These parties are staffed by Brotherhood members but kept independent from the MB to some degree.