För den som följer mellanöstern är det Muslimska Brödraskapet ett intressant fenomen. Abu Aardvark har nedan en intressant artikel på engelska om MB i SaudiArabien. Islamism är ju som många i väst börjar upptäcka en mångfaceterad politisk rörelse som finns över hela den islamiska världen. Hade det tillåtis fria val hade MB troligen vunnit på platser som egypten. Nu är det förstås en väst-stödd militärdikatatur som styr. Och MB politiska bloggare som sätts i fängelse av den egyptiska diktatur som vi i väst anser vara det bästa alternativet.
Abu Aardvark: GP: The MB in Saudi Arabia
Last week I wrote about an interesting piece by Mohanna Hubayl on the state of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf. I was curious about the accuracy of his descriptions, and asked some colleagues for their take. I got some informal thoughts on the subject from Thomas Hegghammer, one of the best young(ish) scholars working on Saudi Islamism. Recall that I summarized Hubayl’s brief comments on Saudi Arabia like this: ”the MB peacefully and voluntarily liquidated itself, he claims. The main pillars of MB thought remain but many of its former members have moved to the conservative salafi trend. ”
Hegghammer: The MB in Saudi Arabia is a mysterious entity that is extremely difficult to pin down, because they do not have a formal organizational presence. Nevertheless, some people and communities are known to have more or less of a MB orientation. As such, the MB blends into the Sahwa and the two are often lumped together, especially by liberals (and by Prince Nayif). It is useful to think of the Sahwa as a spectrum with pure MB ideology on the one hand and pure wahhabism on the other. Muhammad Qutb would be far out on the left, Musa al-Qarni three-quarters to the left and Salman al-Awda somewhere in the middle. Two implications follow: first, it is extremely difficult to assess the state of the MB, and second, you never know what people mean when they speak of the MB in Saudi.
If by the MB al-Hubayl means the Sahwa, which I suspect, then I would agree with the assessment. The Sahwa, already out of steam in the late 1990s, has been further weakened by Hawali’s hospitalisation and al-Awda’s near-total cooptation. They still remain relatively popular and there is a new generation of Sahwists coming up, but their politics are not very contentious any more. I am not sure exactly who al-Hubayl has in mind when he says MB figures have moved to the salafi trend. I should say I don’t follow the Sahwa very closely; I am sure Stephane has a lot more to say about this. [editorial note: Stephane, consider this a call to action! Please phone home.]
Me: That sounds about right to me – what I can’t figure out is what it means to have the MB without an organization? Is it still the MB if it’s just a bunch of like-minded individuals?