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Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Becoming More Radical

(Foreign Affairs) Eric Trager and Marina Shalabi - A group of exiled young Muslim Brotherhood members have rebelled against the group's older leaders, rejecting their calls for a patient, long-term struggle against Egypt's military-backed government. They advocated instead for revolutionary and violent tactics to destabilize the government sooner rather than later. The younger, revolutionary wing of the Brotherhood won the organization's latest internal elections in February. Yet they are escalating a fight they are unlikely to win. The Muslim Brotherhood's central aims are uncompromising: the Sisi government must be destroyed. The Brotherhood's political party in North Sinai recently posted photos on Facebook showing off its work: burned tires blocking train tracks and an arson attack on an electricity transformer. Other Muslim Brotherhood branches across the country have posted photos of Molotov cocktail-toting Islamist youths, roads set ablaze, and police stations engulfed in flames. However, the Brotherhood faces declining relevance within Egypt as a result of its failures in government. According to the Brotherhood's own estimates, 70% of antiregime activity within Egypt is occurring without the Muslim Brothers.
2015-05-22 00:00:00
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