Leaving the Muslim Brotherhood: Self, Society and the State (Middle East Today)

The book offers a processual and discursive perspective on how individuals exit the Muslim Brotherhood. The framework is based on an interaction of 'micro' psychological and emotional factors, 'meso' organizational factors and 'macro' political developments linked to the specific case of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt during the Arab Spring. Based on interviews conducted in Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and the United Kingdom, the author traces in-depth narratives of exiters while they return to their private life or resort to political activism of another stripe. This work examines thought-provoking patterns pertaining to elements long under-explored in the scholarship and stands out as it systematically identifies this unexamined subset of Brotherhood members: peaceful leavers. Mustafa Menshawy is Assistant Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar, and Associate Fellow at University of Westminster, UK Acknowledgements 6 Contents 10 List of Tables 11 Chapter 1 Introduction 12 Disengagement: Language and Identity 19 Sources of Data 22 Methodology 28 Caveat 30 Mapping the Book: An Overview 32 Conclusion 34 Bibliography 34 Chapter 2 Affective Disengagement 38 Introduction 38 Losing the ‘We’: The Real Kinship 42 The Wife Factor 42 Discipline and Punishment 45 The Mother/Father Factor 48 The Whole Family Factor: Status and Role 51 Losing the ‘We’: Imagined Kinship 54 Gaining the ‘I’ 60 Gaining the ‘I’: Exiting by Evaluation 64 Gaining the ‘I’: Exiting Through Accommodation and Assimilation 70 Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem 73 Rituals 76 ‘Affective Disengagement’ Contextualized: Opportunities and Resources 79 Conclusion 83 Bibliography 85 Chapter 3 Ideological Disengagement 90 Introduction 90 Ideology of the Brotherhood: A Case of ‘Anti-intellectualism’ 92 The ‘No Mind’ Frame 92 The ‘Hearing and Obedience’ Frame 96 The ‘Brotherhood Is Army’ Frame 99 Disengagement by Intellectualism 101 Ideology of the Founder: On and Of Challenges 106 Ideas on El-Banna 106 The Ideas of El-Banna 110 The Ideology of the Current Leaders: Disconnecting the Connected 113 The ‘Unlike El-Banna’ Leaders 113 Interests and Values 115 The Battle on God: The Rabaniyya Frame 117 Conclusion 125 Bibliography 126 Chapter 4 Political Disengagement: Exiting the Brotherhood in 2011 and Afterwards 131 Introduction 131 The Pre-takeover Disillusionment 132 Identification with the ‘National’ 139 The Fall of Mubarak: Frames Consolidated 144 Resources and Rising Opportunities 145 Framing Policies: The ‘Brotherhood’s Regime, or Mubarak’s? 150 Framing Leaders: Disengagement Personalized 156 Disillusionment with Leaders 160 Disillusionment Personalized: The Shater Effect 163 Resources and Opportunities: The Effects of Imprisonment 165 Conclusion 171 Bibliography 173 Chapter 5 Pre-2011 Disengagement: A Comparative Analysis of Change and Continuity 177 Introduction 177 The Mahmoud El-Tahawy Case: ‘Affective Disengagement’ 180 Ideological Disengagement 181 Away from Discourse and the Political 184 Miral El-Tahawy 191 Conclusion 196 Bibliography 197 Chapter 6 Conclusion 198 Bibliography 205 Appendix 206 Index 209 Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Introduction (Mustafa Menshawy)....Pages 1-26 Affective Disengagement (Mustafa Menshawy)....Pages 27-78 Ideological Disengagement (Mustafa Menshawy)....Pages 79-119 Political Disengagement: Exiting the Brotherhood in 2011 and Afterwards (Mustafa Menshawy)....Pages 121-166 Pre-2011 Disengagement: A Comparative Analysis of Change and Continuity (Mustafa Menshawy)....Pages 167-187 Conclusion (Mustafa Menshawy)....Pages 189-196 Back Matter ....Pages 197-203