Family ties: Brotherhood infiltrates countries through related arms

Shaimaa Hefzy

For decades, the Brotherhood has implemented policies aimed at creating arms for it everywhere in the world, recruiting members through family relationships to maintain a guarantee of loyalty.

The Brotherhood flourished in Tunisia, represented by the Ennahda party, before it lost its popularity and the people denounced it, but the group’s members still have dreams that extend to Libya and Egypt.

Former Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdul Salam, who runs a pro-Brotherhood research center and is a member of the executive office of the Ennahda movement, is the son-in-law of party leader Rachid Ghannouchi, and he has ties to Qatar.

Family entanglement

Family entanglement and the inheritance of professions and positions are among the most important features of the Brotherhood that founder Hassan al-Banna developed in order to ensure the group’s survival, increase its cohesion, and consolidate its strength.

This brought about the establishment of a women’s section that would be responsible for selecting girls to join the group and qualifying them to become active members, and then the male Brotherhood members could choose wives from among them.

Money, Brotherhood, and Power

Dr. Yasser Thabet, in his book “The Age of Family: Money, Muslim Brotherhood and Power Deals” (2014), said that the Brotherhood is ruled by affiliation, family ties, marriage and a network based on interests.

In his book, Thabet added that the concept of family mixed with unmistakable political and economic pragmatism, along with the gateway of family ties and organized marriages, formed major features of the Brotherhood’s influence.

Thabet referred to a number of intermarriages, including the marriage between Brotherhood leader Said Ramadan and Banna’s daughter Wafa. Ramadan played a dangerous role in establishing and organizing Brotherhood-affiliated groups in Pakistan and Europe, and he remained active in Switzerland until his death in 1995.

Affinity

The relationships among Brotherhood leaders in Cairo are a testament to this strategy. In the era of former Brotherhood General Guide Mohammed Mahdi Akef, the guidance office included four members with ties through marriage. Akef’s wife, Wafa Ezzat, is the sister of Deputy Guide Mahmoud Ezzat. Mahmoud Ezzat’s second sister married Mahmoud Amer, who headed the group’s administrative office until his death.

Meanwhile, the older and most famous daughter of Khairat el-Shater, Zahra, was married to Brotherhood leader Ayman Abdel Ghani, who served a prison sentence with Shater.

Ayman was the deputy leader of the Brotherhood’s students’ section and then became the youth secretary of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. He is the brother of Mohamed Abdel Ghani, a member of the group’s Shura Council.

Radwa el-Shater married Abdul Rahman Ali, a young leader in the group’s propaganda department, while his daughter Sumaya married another prominent Brotherhood member, pharmacist Khaled Abu Shadi, who is a leader in the group’s advocacy and education section.

Aisha el-Shater married Mohamed al-Hadidi, a Brotherhood official in Germany for many years, and he is the son of Saleh al-Hadidi, a pillar in the Brotherhood.

Mohammad Salim Al-Awa was married to Amani, the daughter of prominent Brotherhood leader Hassan al-Ashmawi, who managed to escape from Egypt to Libya following the failed Mansheya assassination attempt on late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in October 1954. He then traveled to Saudi Arabia and remained there until Abdel Nasser’s death. Brotherhood member Mounir Al-Dallah is married to Ashmawi’s sister.

The Brotherhood also exploits its intermarriage connections economically and financially. Businessman Hassan Malek, a partner of Khairat el-Shater, is married to Gehan Elewa, the sister of another Brotherhood businessman, Mohamed Saad Elewa.