In the last five years, Egypt has had two revolutions. The first overthrew President Hosni Mubarak, the second toppled his successor Mohammed Mursi and got the Muslim Brotherhood out of politics. Attempts at a third revolution to oust the current government and return the Brotherhood to power have failed.
To carry out a third revolution, the organization conducted the largest media and political campaign in its history. Internationally, the Brotherhood worked hard to marshal human rights organizations, research centers and western government institutions. It succeeded in raising media attention and sympathy from some international NGOs.
Western governments tried to pressure Cairo to cancel the ban on Brotherhood’s political activities, but to no avail. The party was unable to mobilize the Egyptian masses against the government, or convince the international community to impose sanctions on Cairo.
New TV channels were launched to mobilize the masses. Many large channels, newspapers and websites teamed up with new ones to conduct social media campaigns urging the youth to rise up. Agreements were made with western public relations companies for solidarity with the Brotherhood against the government, but all these attempts miserably failed.
The party even failed in exploiting violence, which was carried out by extremist groups in the Sinai and elsewhere, and which the Brotherhood rushed to justify, claiming that the only solution would be its return to power so terrorism would not engulf Egypt. I believe that the Brotherhood knows it is unable to bring about a rapid change. It believes in grassroots change via education, media, culture, mosques, syndicates and charities. However, this time it rushed into battle.
It was naive to think the Brotherhood could confront the Egyptian Army and authorities. It believed that what happened to Mubarak could happen to any president, disregarding the fact that his regime was weak and old. The Brotherhood did not understand that had the army not supported the uprising against Mubarak, it would have failed.
The party might justify its failure by saying security forces prevented people from taking to the streets. However, they tried to do so five years ago, yet people still went out and toppled Mubarak. Egyptians are tired of the Brotherhood and of regional chaos. They want to give the current government the chance to work and succeed. I believe that the Brotherhood’s failure will delay its chances for another decade at least. There is no place for it in Arab politics unless it embraces new ideas, such as the abolition of the concept of itself as an international organization.
This concept goes against nationalism — to be Jordanian, Kuwaiti, Saudi or Yemeni is a main requirement to belong to the modern state. There is also a need to enlighten the Brotherhood about many social issues. Fundamentally, there needs to be a revolution within the organization itself.
