7 - The Beginning of the Fourth Ordeal (2013–2018)

Summary

This chapter looks at the Brotherhood’s post-2013 history up until 2018 – a period that saw a growing confrontation between a new class of second-rank apparatchiks in Egypt and the traditional leaders abroad. It highlights the key debates that shaped the internal political climate during that time, and how geopolitical events occurring in the larger Middle East and North Africa region affected the Brotherhood’s organizational evolution. The chapter further reveals how, within the context of an aggravating security crackdown in Egypt, the leaders of the respective coalitions set up different committees and offices, which led to growing organizational splits that further weakened an already subdued Society. Based on over forty Oral History interviews with Brotherhood leaders, rank-and-file members and youth members, conducted during a combined six months of fieldwork in Istanbul, Doha, London, Berlin and Geneva between 2015 and 2019, a close reading of the narratives that were propagated on different Brotherhood-affiliated websites, and an overview of relevant policy analyses and legal documents, the chapter shows how the leadership struggles having marred the Brotherhood’s internal political life before the Egyptian uprising of 2011 exacerbated the organization’s gradual fragmentation in the post-2013 period.