The parade of kings and presidents who pepper the Middle Eastern landscape must be watching the Palestinian situation tensely. Hot on the heels of the Israeli decision to withold tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the United States’ demand for aid money to be returned , came Ikhwan al-Muslimoon’s (Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt) announcement that they will step in to help raise funds for the Hamas-led authority.
Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Ikhwan al-Muslimoon has been banned from the very beginning of its inception in 1928, but succeeded in cultivating a reputation of being adamant opposers to tyrannical and corrupt (both financially and morally) regimes. Their message of upright living and clean governance directly exploits the resentment that most Arabs have for their governments.
Not that these goverments are totally bereft of their own ‘big sticks’. Aside from the state apparatus of the police and army, the cartoon controvosy has managed to salvage some of their prestige; but it is likely that the Ikhwan’s pledge of assistance to the Palestinians would have a far lasting impact on popular imagination. After all, the Palestinian cause remains an emotive one for both Arabs and Muslims.
The Ikhwan is well-liked by the grassroots for their seeming incorruptibility and reformist ideology. Most of its members are ostentatiously religious and highly-educated; and the recent influx of Ikhwan members into the Egyptian parliment only spells trouble for governments who have thus far paid lip-service to democracy.
Furthermore, Hamas is an offshoot of the Ikhwan movement in Egypt. Though its recent success in democratic elections hardly qualifies as an “Islamic revolution”, it is still a warning shot across the bow of many Arab governments. Egypt and Syria in particular, host sizable Ikhwan branches.
The odds are that the Ikhwan will make use of the situation to stamp their influence in the region. Any action taken now by governments would seem reactionary and invite the comment that they had acted only because of the Ikhwan’s initiative. It would still remain, essentially, a Brotherhood project, in name if not in deed.
Once again, both the United States and Israel have displayed stunning short-sightedness on the ramifications of their policies in the Middle East, which would ultimately strenghten an enemy infinitely more effective than the Palestinian Authority led by Yasser Arafat.
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