The dissidents from the Muslim brotherhood, the reasons behind their split

Doaa Imam

The Muslim Brotherhood (1928) witnessed in the 1940s the first case of splitting from the path that was drawn by the founder Hassan al-Banna (1906-1949); where a group of young people declared their disobedience to the policy of the guide, which blocked all outlets of dialogue with individuals, claiming to be  supported by God and his prophet and no one has the right to review his points of view as long as he lived, these youth founded the “Shabab Muhammad” Association, and the Muslim Brotherhood called that incident “the first sedition”.

For 90 years – the age of the Muslim Brotherhood – individuals have left the group, either dissidents or dismissed. The two cases differ in that the dissents took place as a result of schism over the nature of the organization’s administration, without abandoning the group’s intellectual project. While Separation means rebellion against the Brotherhood’s intellectual project considering it impossible to be applied on the ground.

The group carried the seeds of its weakness as they believed its strength’s points; before the revolution of January 25, 2011 the intellectual project of the group has caused the split of those who are not convinced by it, such as “Shabab Mohamed” who object against the concept of degradation of the call, and “the alternative stream” which was headed by doctor Ali Abdel Hafez in addition to a number of writers who affiliated to the brotherhood such as Anis Mansour, Nasr Hamed Abou Zeid, and Salah Eissa.

The schism over the methods of running the group was the reason for the split of Sheikh Hassan al-Baqouri, who was nominated by the late president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1956-1970) to take over the Ministry of Awqaf and accepted it so the call will not to be affected, but the brotherhood asked him either to refuse the ministry or to resign from the brotherhood, and he chose to resign.

Many like al-Baqouri, split for the same reason, most notably Sheikh Muhammad al-Ghazali (one of the group’s thinkers) and the centrist group in the 1990s headed by Abu Ala Madi, who broke away from the group over a dispute around founding a political party for the brotherhood.

At the same time, the phenomenon of “Muslim Brotherhood” and “double allegiance” led to the dissolution of many as the group tended to some of the sheikhs of the Salafi movement and the Salafist sect which significantly led to spreading the Salafi stream inside the Muslim brotherhood,

this was followed by the tendency of another faction towards Sufism, which was manifested in the incident of splitting a group of youth into the north of Cairo in 2003 after belonging to a Sufi method, known as the “double allegiance” for the guide and the sheikh of the method.

Sources revealed to “El Margaa”, the change in the causes of the split after the revolution of January 25, 2011, which is the rebellion of youth over the principles of hearing and obedience,

they refused to abide by the administrative decisions, these reasons pushed them out of the mantle of leaders who control of everything, in addition to the struggle over political positions through the Party of Freedom and Justice (the political arm of the group).

The sources added that there were certain characters who took over the economic projects of the brotherhood after the revolution, especially that many of the projects were assigned directly in the sectors of government and trade unions and private institutions to entities and companies affiliated to the brotherhood group, the thing that was rejected by some of the brotherhood’s members and so they left the group, in addition to the emergence of an armed jihadist within the group, as a result of the opening of camps in areas of conflict inside Syria and Iraq since 2011. ”

While there were other reasons, such as the dispute over the appointment in government institutions and the penetration of a number of institutions with dormant elements and cells, as well as conflict over the administrative positions within the group, such as the presidency of the administrative offices and major sectors and provincial councils of the governorates, so parallel partisan entities were created in which the dissidents were involved while retaining the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. These entities represented an extension of the group’s intellectual project.

The sources pointed out that there have been changes in the Brotherhood also after the revolution of 30 June 2013, and the fall of the rule of the President belonging to the group Mohammed Morsi (2012-2013); as the failure of the group was confirmed and it was revealed that it was only seeking personal interests, and many scandals and thefts among the elements of the organization came to the surface, as well as their trend towards expansion in the atonement of societies and  forming armed entities.

Some people also resorted to freezing their membership; fearing security pursuits under the current conflict between the group’s internal wings, the group was also involved in armed confrontations with the army and police, and the formation of a militia in the name of the Muslim Brotherhood, including “revolutionary punishment, Helwan Brigades, … and others, and a lot of leaders flee to Libya, Sudan, Iraq and Syria, and join the cells of the organization “Daesh” and “Al Qaeda

According to the sources, the group was alerted to these cases after the revolution of January 25, and so it took several decisions, the first was the formation of the Committee “reunification” that targets dissident elements that did not enter with them in media confrontations, especially youth, away from influential leaders that appeared in the media, and tarnished the Brotherhood’s reputation.

The committee of “returnees” was formed. It was dedicated to the splintering elements that could be returned to the group. The “Pre-Empowerment Brothers” project was put forward, which included the closed organizational structure and gave them advantages within the group and the party, especially the leadership positions.

The group’s theoreticians and historians described those who split as “dissidents are on the path of da’wa”, Fathi Yakin, secretary-general of the Islamic group, the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Lebanon (1962-1992), wrote his book “dissidents are on the path of da’wah.” He explained that the dissidents do not accept regulatory restrictions and tend to disorder and so they leave the group.

“There are people who may be attracted to the movement in a circumstance and for some reason, then it turns out that they are unable to adapt to the movement’s policy and to listen and obey it,” Yakin said.

From those who can not abide by the regulatory constraints, so they try to leave the group by various means and justifications, as well as those who refuse to dissolve in the collective structure, and is keen to preserve his character, and when they feel that there are what may help in dissolving their personalities and their opinions are not accepted, they leave the group using all the justifications and excuses.

The lack of full obedience, and the rebellion against hearing and obedience, was a crime according to Yakin who identified the reasons of the split in factors that pertain to the individual and others of the group, including vanity and love of appearance, jealousy of others,  leniency , extremism and fear, and that the individual is of non-discipline person.

Among the reasons related to the movement are: the weakness of the educational aspect, the lack of placement of the individual in the right place, the non-employment of all individuals at work, the lack of following-up  individuals, and the failure to resolve things quickly, in addition to external reasons summarized by the pressure of adversity, and pressure of relatives.

While Tariq Abu al-Saad, researcher of Islamic movements (dismissed from the group), retained the term schism, stressing that the Brotherhood did not witness a schism throughout the life of the founder, except in the group “Shabab Mohammed”, but otherwise they are dismissed or resigned in an individual way, even if they were in groups; the reason is one in both cases.

He explained to the “El Margaa”, that many of those – whether resigned or dismissed – did not join other parties or groups at that time, and some of them returned to the group again, pointing out that the Brotherhood distort all those who come out of the group, or who disagree with them in the way of thinking or management techniques.