"The Emergence and Historical Evolution of the Muslim Brothers 1906-1940: Analyzing the Militarization of Islamic Revivalism"
OGAWA Hiroshi
last update: 20151224
The Emergence and Historical Evolution of the Muslim Brothers 1906-1940: Analyzing the Militarization of Islamic Revivalism
OGAWA Hiroshi
Abstract:
Many papers in Islamic studies have tried to improve the negative images of the Islamic revivalism. This
kind of academic trend has also affected the recent studies of the Muslim Brothers. Brynjar Lia criticizes views
on the Muslim Brothers as a group dedicated to fanaticism or violent Muslim reactionism, and recognizes it as
a modern political movement instead. Although I agree with his point of view, I dare to focus on a violent aspect
of the Muslim Brothers' activities. By analyzing the history of the Muslim Brothers, I argue that the foundation
of the militant section of the society was an inevitable process of modernization in Islamic countries.
I describe the history of the Muslim Brothers from the society's birth until the foundation of its militant
section and divide the history into three sections. The Muslim Brothers was born as a social movement to carry
into Egyptian society the idea of Salafiya recreated at the time by Islamic scholars. The Muslim Brothers was
one of many charitable institutions but it transformed into a social movement which constructed systems to
reproduce its ideology. In response to increasing violence in the Palestine Revolts, militant radicals emerged
and, later, in reaction to the onset of World War II and the split off of radical members, a militant section of the
Muslim Brothers was formally established.
By conceptualizing the history of the Muslim Brothers, I point out that the group's militarization is
inevitably linked to the radicalization of political student movements as a consequence of the modernization of
Egyptian society, and European domination of the political situation in the wider Islamic world.
Keywords: Islamic Revivalism, Modernization, Student Movement, Fascism, War
REV: 20151224