What is the Ihvan Movement?

The Ottoman Empire was dissolved at the end of the First World War and the Turks and Arabs, the two main Muslim elements of the State, were separated. This separation later turned into a partial alienation due to the differentiation of regimes and other reasons. Turkey's adoption of a Western identity in line with the European nation-state model and the authoritarian Baathist nationalism of some Arab states, especially Egypt, further deepened the division. Since the Western-based and socially oriented modernization movements in Arab state policies do not have a full counterpart in society, a separation began to occur between the people and the state. Western-supported and power-based authoritarian regimes have emerged in Arab countries that do not derive their legitimacy from the people. The main reason for Western countries to support these regimes is undoubtedly their political, military and, more importantly, economic interests and colonial policies. While these policies were being pursued at the level of states, the peoples followed a different line of development based on their historical identity and the values ​​of faith they nurtured. In this regard, the Ikhwan movement in the Arab social structure attracts a lot of attention.

FOUNDATION AND DEVELOPMENTS

“Brotherhood”; It is the plural form of the word "al-Ahu", which means "brother, friend, comrade" in Arabic. “Ihvan ul-Muslimin” is also translated into our language as “Muslim Brothers”. The founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, the world's first international Islamic organization, is Hasan al-Banna.

In 1928, six people, who were included in the group he formed from his conversations in the city of Ismailiyya, Egypt, come to visit El-Banna in his shanty house. These people reproached with national and religious feelings and asked Al-Banna what should be done. Here, al-Banna took the first step towards creating an Islamic community, which he stated by saying, "If the scientific power of Azhar and the spiritual power of the sects come together, and if the practical power of Islamic communities is added to them, an unprecedented ummah will emerge." Thus, he formed the core of the Muslim Brotherhood here.

After 1928, the Brotherhood continued to work for years. He made journal publications. They opened schools, mosques, institutes and continued their work by organizing many conferences. The movement soon grew and spread to many parts of the country. The Brotherhood as its purpose;

-- Egypt's independence from colonization,

-- Re-establishing Islam on the platform of sound creed,

-- He adopted jihad until Islam became a state.

While the Brotherhood's message is mainly about the establishment of the Islamic order, the Islamic State is the main element in this order. This situation has been clearly demonstrated in the following statement, which will be developed in the future and will be the slogan of the Brotherhood until today; “Our aim is Allah, our law is the Qur'an, our leader is the Prophet; our way is struggle; It is our highest desire to die for the sake of God”.

By 1949, the Muslim Brotherhood had become Egypt's largest social organization. With the end of the Second World War, the Egyptian administration started to move towards the movement and started an operation against the inhabitants of the new city in the outer quarters of Cairo. Hundreds of Ikhwan members were arrested and imprisoned, all of the top executives of the organization were arrested on the grounds that they assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi Nukrashi, and some of them were sentenced to death and their sentences were executed.

After Benna; Hasan İsmail in 1951, Ömer Tilmisani in 1973, M. Hamid Ebu Nasr in 1986, Mustafa Meshur in 1996, Memun Hudeybi in 2002, M. Mehdi Akif in 2004 and Muhammed Bedii in 2010 assumed the leadership of the organization.

Because they were seen as a danger by the regime, those who assumed the leadership of the Brotherhood spent years in prison and were subjected to torture. Its members were also arrested and tortured. This process continued in this way until the Arab Spring, which started in 2011, and then gained a different dimension.

The Brotherhood, which was not officially involved in the early days of the Arab spring movement, played an important role in the success of the protests in the following periods.

-- He used his soles to fill the squares. This situation also directed the neutral segments to the square,

-- They have been at the forefront of protecting the protesters from regime violence.

The Brotherhood, which protected the anti-Mubarak Christians during the Sunday ritual, also did not allow any symbols other than the Egyptian flag, took sides with the rebellion instead of leading the rebellion, and ensured the use of the slogan "Mubarak should resign, the regime should change" as a single voice in the squares.

Undoubtedly, the military forces, whose approach is a matter of curiosity and which is at the same time the most powerful economic power in Egypt, could prevent all these, but remain silent.

and did not intervene in the overthrow of Mubarak.

After Hosni Mubarak was overthrown, in the second round of the presidential elections held in June 2012, in the elections with 33 percent turnout, Mohammed Morsi received 51.8% of the votes, becoming the first elected President in Egyptian history.

The failure of the decisions taken to realize the democratic transition, the allegations that Morsi started to become authoritarian, the increase in anti-Ikhwan movements, as well as the deaths of dozens of people and hundreds of injuries in the clashes between the supporters of Morsi and the opposition led Egypt to a military coup. President Morsi was arrested and died of a heart attack during his trial.

INTELLECTUAL FOUNDATIONS, IHVAN IDEOLOGY

The religious and political ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood was mainly developed by Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb. The main factor that played a role in the spread of its influence to a wide geography resulted from the establishment of the organization in a time when the Islamic world was in a serious political and cultural chaos and presenting an Islamic administration as an alternative.

The three basic teachings of Hasan Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, are expressed as "religious education, awakening and organization". In the process of establishing an Islamic state, Banna envisages the restructuring of the social structure within the framework of Islamic consciousness rather than military struggle. It envisages that the Islamic State can be established after the transformation of the society at the level of education and organization, as well as cultural and consciousness.

The social movement that al-Banna started has three independent variables. These; political Islam (shar-i state), anti-imperialism due to the British occupation, and Arab nationalism, which is not in conflict with ummahism.

In his thought, al-Banna proposes that the concept of "jihad" should be reactivated in order to "puritanize religious belief and practice" and to establish an independent Islamic nation-state confederation. Since the concept of "jihad" evokes war, it is promised that "the organization will never use force to achieve its purpose". It has been stated that jihad is needed for "Islam to become universal". The proposition was put forward that "all Muslims should unite in order to strengthen the Islamic world and Islam against the "materialist Western threat".

Sayyid Qutb is the second most important name after Hasan al-Banna, who is known with the name of Ikhwan. Every Islamic armed group that emerged after Sayyid Qutb's ideas was more or less influenced by Qutb's ideas.

Moderation is the most important feature of the traditional Islamic movement in Egypt. Until the 1990s, the clergy avoided confronting the people with the order, as they did not believe that an Islamic government could exist through violence.

The Brotherhood is considered not only as a political movement, but also as a kind of religious sect. Because their actions have been in the direction of Islamizing a concrete society by seizing power rather than establishing a state.

In the 1990s, the Brotherhood turned to democracy and liberal tendencies in its discourse and styles, and adopted the understanding of coexistence with the state, leaving aside the elements of violence and conflict. When the activities of the movement in these years are carefully examined, it is seen that the statements made to the public have begun to move away from political criticism. The reason for this policy change is the idea of ​​protecting themselves from the violent jihadist movements that emerged in Egypt in those years.

Although the Brotherhood movement initially aimed at the same goals, it later preferred to achieve its goals through state power by using politics, that is, a top-down style of action. This type of action resulted in the killing of important intellectual and movement cadres of the Ikhwan, especially Hasan al-Banna. Of course, the Ikhwan movement's view of democracy is not in the Western sense, but it is underlined that matters such as the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, the existence of the council in state administration, the legitimate source of power from the people, the responsibility of administrators to the people, and the determination of the boundaries of state authorities by law are not against Islam. From this point of view, the idea that the Ikhwan movement is the source of power in Islam is not inconsistent with democracy, which has the same meaning in the West. However, the evaluation of freedoms within the framework of the Islamic legal system, alcohol, adultery, interest, etc., which are considered haram in Islam. actions must be prevented.

Ikhwan is an Islamic movement.

It attaches special importance to jihad, like almost all Islamic movements. However, the Ikhwan's view of jihad and its practices are quite different from many Islamic movements. First of all, the Brotherhood not only gave place to jihad at the level of discourse, but also put it at the center of their actions. Moreover, the Brotherhood did not see jihad only as conflict, but also focused on softer but more effective methods such as preaching and invitation. In cases where it used violence as a method of jihad, it generally complied with the rules of the law of war and avoided attacks against civilians.

The Brotherhood, which is the most important of the movements that want to use Islamic methods and the most important source of inspiration for similar movements outside itself, can still play an effective role in today's Middle East politics, although it has been a long time since its establishment. Despite having a slippery social base, the movement never lost its activist character, which kept the movement alive. In this way, the movement is frequently mentioned as the only civil movement in the Arab world.

However, the movement has not been able to show a real example of non-governmental organization from time to time. This gave rise to significant doubts about the movement. Although he did not adopt violence as a method, he could not express clearly and precisely that he rejected violence from time to time. The Brotherhood, which sometimes failed to keep a clear distance between other currents that followed a violence-centered method and saw itself as an Islamic movement, was generally met with suspicion outside of its own base. The Brotherhood does not deny that some of its members have committed radical acts.

The actions of radical organizations that use terror and violence in the name of Islam have been influential in the Ikhwan movement's adoption of the policy of spreading the religion of Islam not through violence, but through preaching and guidance activities. Having come to the point that coming to power is only possible with elections, which is one of the tools of democracy, the Brotherhood made a commitment to comply with democratic rules by reaching an agreement with other parties.

EVALUATION

1. In the vacuum that emerged with the abolition of the caliphate in Turkey on March 3, 1924, there are claims that Britain supported such a structure that was established in 1928, a recent date, with the aim of controlling Muslims from a single source.

2. The Brotherhood sees democracy as a means rather than an end. Its reconciliation with democracy in the Western sense appears to be a taqiyyah in this context.

3. U.S. imperialism, which tried to design the entire Middle East through the Egypt-based Ikhwan movement by taking advantage of the effects of the Arab spring movement, supported the Brotherhood for a long time. With the desire to create a generation of moderate Islamist governments, the Ikhwan movement was guarded, protected and nurtured. This relationship was interrupted after a while, after secular opponents revolted against the "moderate Islam by the Brotherhood" project. After the mass demonstrations against the Brotherhood power, the USA, seeing that the throne of the Brotherhood was shaky, abandoned the movement. When the political Islam project went bankrupt, the long-term US-Ikhwan relationship came to an end. The Trump administration put the Brotherhood on the list of foreign terrorist organizations.

4. The techniques and tactics applied by FETÖ and the techniques and tactics applied by the Brotherhood are similar. The discourse was developed under the leadership of an Islamist structure, which appears to be intellectual at a high level, and at the bottom, it went to alternative health, education, social aid and trade structuring to state institutions in order to create a mass base in the society. A significant portion of their income comes from donations. There are many high-ranking Brotherhood members infiltrating Egyptian state institutions.

5. The Brotherhood, which initially showed an anti-imperialist approach against British colonialism, carried out a propaganda activity that portrayed the current governments as enemies identical to the colonialists after the colonists left the country.

6. His active involvement in the Arab Spring movement, which was initiated with the support of the West in order to liquidate authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, and even Morsi's coming to power through elections in Egypt, led to discussions that he had tacitly agreed with the West, which he constantly rejected. However, Morsi's harsh and uncompromising attitude towards secular segments caused this partnership to last a short time and the Ikhwan rule to be ended with a military coup.

7. The Brotherhood is not just an organization operating in Egypt. It is active in other Arab countries, especially Syria and Gulf countries. Turkey, from time to time, supported the Brotherhood, which was generally against the regime, within the framework of cyclical policies, and gave a hug to its exiled members. No Islamic organization in Turkey has openly said that they adopt the Ikhwan ideology, but it is not difficult to guess that the Ikhvan has relations with the political Islamists of Turkey.