Muslim Brotherhood

The Society of the Muslim Brothers (Arabic: جماعة الإخوان المسلمين, romanized: Jamāʿat al-Ikhwān al-Muslimīn), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood (الإخوان المسلمون, al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn), is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings spread far beyond Egypt, influencing various Islamist movements from charitable organizations to political parties.

Initially, as a pan-Islamist, religious, and social movement, its members preached Islam in Egypt, taught the illiterate, and set up hospitals and business enterprises. The group later advanced into the political arena, aiming to end British colonial rule in Egypt. The movement's self-stated aim is the establishment of a state ruled by Sharia under a caliphate, with one of its most well-known slogans being "Islam is the solution". The group combines political activism with Islamic charity work.

The group spread to other Muslim countries but still has one of its largest organizations in Egypt, despite a succession of government crackdowns since 1948. It remained a fringe group in the politics of the Arab world until the 1967 Six-Day War, when Islamism replaced popular secular Arab nationalism after a resounding Arab defeat by the State of Israel. The movement was also supported by Saudi Arabia, with which it shared mutual enemies like communism.

The Arab Spring initially brought the group legalization and substantial political power, but that expansion had suffered reversals by 2013. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood was legalized in 2011 and won several elections, including the 2012 Egyptian presidential election, in which its candidate, Mohamed Morsi, became Egypt's first democratically elected president. Following massive demonstrations and unrest, Morsi was overthrown in the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état orchestrated by the military and placed under house arrest; a later review found that the Muslim Brotherhood had failed to moderate its views or embrace democratic values during its time in power. The group was then banned in Egypt and declared a terrorist organization. The Persian Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates followed suit.

The group's founder accepted the utility of political violence, and members of the Brotherhood conducted assassinations and attempted assassinations on Egyptian state figures during his lifetime, including Egyptian prime minister Mahmoud El Nokrashy Pasha in 1948. In his 1964 book Milestones (معالم في الطريق, Maʿālim fī aṭ-Ṭarīq), Sayyid Qutb, one of the group's most prominent thinkers, promoted takfirism, a doctrine permitting "the stigmatisation of other Muslims as infidel or apostate, and of existing states as un-Islamic, and the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society"; the doctrine continues to inspire many jihadist movements. The group abandoned the use of violence in the 1970s. However, Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, is an offshoot of the Brotherhood that continues to use violence. The Muslim Brotherhood does not have a clear ideological platform on violence.

In recent years, the primary state backers of the Muslim Brotherhood have been Qatar and AKP-ruled Turkey. As of 2026, the flagship group or specific chapters are considered a terrorist organization by the governments of Argentina, Kenya, Germany, Bahrain, Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.