The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt says that it has managed to survive despite what it has been subjected to for 7 years, while critics say that it is "denying the fading and claiming cohesion", on the seventh anniversary of the Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square massacre, according to an analysis by Anadolu Agency.
About 7 years ago, prominent leaders of the Brotherhood, led by their mentor, who is currently imprisoned, Muhammad Badi ', stood on the stage of the sit-in in Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square (east of Cairo), rejecting the ouster of Muhammad Morsi - a member of the group - from the presidency, and bearing great hopes for his return to power.
With the advent of the seventh anniversary of the dispersal of the "Rabaa Al-Adawiya" and "Nahdet Misr" square sit-ins, on August 14, 2013; The group completely lost Morsi by his death during his trial a year ago, and it revealed the banner of legitimacy that it clung to, thus losing many pragmatic opportunities to save the organization, while Badie is still imprisoned, like most of the leaders and cadres of the group, while it is still classified as a "banned group" in Egypt.
Accordingly, the comparative language quickly settles the scene that the Brotherhood continues its "losses", during the "seven lean years" it has faced since the dispersal, after it had a year before it had an elected presidential candidate who won the seat of government, ministers and governors, and a public presence in local and international headquarters and bodies.
But the group - according to what it publishes on its media platforms - has a slightly different view, as it turns these losses into gains by saying many times that they have remained despite all the "repression" it has suffered over many previous eras, and will remain despite what it is currently facing in the "Lean Seven".
Indeed, Ibrahim Mounir, the group’s deputy guide, went even further, saying a year ago, “Thanks to God, the community remained intact (…) and now the first century is approaching its age (it was established in 1928) and it has not been lost or changed.”
A recurring history of crises
The "denial of decline" and "claim to cohesion", which the group has been pursuing during the "seven years", may go back - according to observers - to what it has lived in Egypt since its inception; The group was in an almost permanent struggle with power, and accusations of violence were unending in exchange for repeated denials.
Perhaps one of its most severe stops was the death and imprisonment sentences during the era of the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1956-1970), when the group passed its time in great ordeal and leaders left outside Egypt.
The regime of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (1970-1981) was able to absorb the group and restore it to public life through amnesty and merger decisions that appeared in 1971.
The Brotherhood lived under a low ceiling during the reign of the late President Hosni Mubarak (1981-2011), amid trials against the backdrop of repeated accusations of trying to overthrow the regime, which the group denies.
Powerfully, the group emerged after the January 2011 revolution that toppled Mubarak, and then returned to fading after Morsi's ouster from the presidency in 2013, to go through a new great ordeal and migrate leaders, cadres and elements of it abroad.
Tribulation and survival strategy
The foregoing suggests that the group has gone through repeated historical milestones, but it seems - according to the data of its current crisis - that the matter is different from the previous crises.
After the security forces dispersed the "Rab'a" sit-in, all those affiliated with the group in power or in the organization could not resolve understandings to overcome the crisis of overthrowing Morsi, and the stick of "legitimacy" remained waving by the group and its supporters.
This strictness in raising the banner of "legality and grievance" - according to Anadolu Agency - came in parallel with facing severe security strikes that hit the neck of the hierarchical organization, its wings, and most of its bases, while calling them terrorism and confiscating the funds of most leaders.
And the group, which had just been forced to leave power, tried to return to its past, and in some of it great tribulations, in an attempt to prove the pillars of its idea and protect it, believing in its success in similar stages.
Indeed, the group has confirmed that it has succeeded in survival, perhaps thanks to its adherence to its religious dimension, which is usually associated with strict ties, in contrast to dry political and economic dimensions that may disintegrate for years in the event of any confrontation.
Stick to the regulation
In this context, this adaptation to the situation, which the group declares, can be explained in 3 main axes: The first is the adherence to the survival of the organization at any cost, as the council considers it a time of crisis, according to its previous history.
Consequently, the group rejected any calls to dissolve the organization, rather it froze the membership of leaders who attacked its performance and established a parallel entity in 2016.
The group sought with all its might to maintain the organization despite criticism, relying on religious and social ties and movement aspirations hoping for revenge, change, or preserving its organization from disappearing.
The second axis for the group’s ability to cope with the disastrous situations in its history is relying on technology, communication platforms, and satellite channels supporting it or opposing the regime, and thus it kept its voice present, even if it was described as a "vocal phenomenon" without a public impact or living its weakest state.
As for the third axis, it is based on adherence to being a comprehensive religious group that teaches its members that victory comes after defeat and tribulations, and it calls from the marches and historical situations what raises the morale of the supporters. There is no doubt that the religious dimension is usually a factor of cohesion and survival.
7 lean
Ibrahim Mounir, the deputy guide, said in an article published by the group’s platforms recently that Egypt, since the dispersal of Rab'a, has gone through “seven leanness”, presenting crises related to poverty, water rights and injustice.
But not far from that - according to observers - the same group lived the "Lean Seven" within its organization as well.
The group was not able to resolve a single file within its crises with the regime, and kept all its battles "zero", reiterating that the regime is the one that completely rejects the group and has not and will not extend a hand to a solution, even though it believed in the low ceiling in dealing with the regimes, especially during the Mubarak era.
The group was mathematically damaged by the "legitimacy" paper, despite its belief that it respects the will of the people. President Morsi, who had said that he had been granted popular legitimacy, died without the group’s efforts to release him, his return to power, or stop the bleeding of trials and prosecutions facing it.
Simultaneously, it was unable to obtain the rights of those killed in "Rab'a" and "Al-Nahda", who are in the hundreds according to official estimates and more than two thousand according to the opposition. For many reasons, many efforts adopted by the group failed to achieve progress in this file despite the possibility of moving in it outside Egypt.
Radical contradictions
According to observers, the crisis of the opposition from outside is still a burden on the ideas of the group, which believed in refusing to interfere in internal affairs, and thus the group lived in radical contradictions with its ideas, in exchange for its permanent justification that it exists externally for fear of "great persecution and repression" at home, which it denies. Egyptian authorities.
Despite numerous calls directed to opponents of the regime inside and outside Egypt, the group was unable to break or resolve its radical differences with the secular forces, in order for the opposition to unite in an entity that rejects the regime and can change the "zero equation."
The group is still suffering from internal disagreements that it could not resolve with leaders and cadres at home and abroad, and it was also unable to conduct political and jurisprudential reviews in its approach, which some of its activists and symbols demanded, despite its call a year ago for "class members" to return to it and issue a new recognition that it is She was right and wrong, but she was not bored with violence.
The group also faced severe financial crises, which affected its supporters abroad and at home, in exchange for criticism of the reported exorbitant spending in other files and meetings, which formed - among other things - a somewhat negative mental image, in light of complaints from within the inability to fulfill obligations The "political detainees" are in the thousands, as the group estimates them.
The idea never dies
A follower of the group’s situation may be able to observe many phenomena of the "seven lean years" that it has lived since the "Rab'a" dispersal. However, "denying the decline and claiming cohesion" does not represent, in the tradition of reformers, a solution that can remove it from a tunnel that is the darkest since its inception.
As for the future approach of the Brotherhood, Mounir defined it by saying a few months ago that it "will remain attached to its rejection of the current regime until its change or departure, and the Brotherhood will remain an idea, and the idea does not die, does not end and is able to return and change."
This means that the group is waiting for what fate sends and great difficulties, in light of the stagnation of the opposition movement, and the refusal of countries in the region to accept the return of a movement component, such as the Brotherhood, and therefore there is no solution for the group except for a "dramatic change" in the region, and this is currently unlikely, according to some.
As for the most optimists, the group’s style and thought may change for many reasons, perhaps related to the long-term stability of the scene and the lack of successes, the emergence of a new reading from the leaders, pressures from within the group, regional changes, or the response of other opposition factions to the group, Here, the Brotherhood may return to the scene, as the group has done in more than one historical stage.