Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD • 461return of those who had fled Egypt in 1954, and permitted limitedparticipation of the Ikhwan in elections. Sadat hoped to co-opt theIkhwan to bolster his image among the Egyptian public as a believing,religious president. In fact, by 1978 the Ikhwan had infiltratedand co-opted the majority of the 1,000 legal Islamic associationschartered in Egypt and had become the largest legal source of oppositionto Sadat’s free trade and investment policies as well as tohis policy of seeking a separate peace agreement with Israel. Sadaterred also in believing that by indulging a chastised Ikhwan, he couldthereby split and weaken the Islamic fundamentalist opposition.Although the Ikhwan and the more radical, illegal Islamic fundamentalistgroups, such as the Munazzamat al Jihad and the Takfirwal Higrah, maintained an appearance of mutual disapproval andrivalry, in fact, according to research by American University inCairo sociologist Sa’adeddin Ibrahim, the Ikhwan functions verymuch as the generator of these more radical groups and as their legalfront organization as circumstances require. In this light, Sadat’sassassination a little over one month after his 3 September 1981crackdown on the Ikhwan appears less coincidental. This would alsoexplain why the same radical groups that did not hesitate to murdera former minister of religious affairs or Sadat himself have nonethelessnever attacked or killed members of the Ikhwan despite theirapparent disapproval of the Ikhwan for having allowed itself to beco-opted by the abhorred official regime. By the late 1980s, the Ikhwanwas Egypt’s leading opposition party, which together with theother illegal fundamentalist groups had between 70,000 and 100,000adherents, according to research by Sa’adeddin Ibrahim.On 30 July 1995 the Egyptian government cracked down on 15prominent members of the Ikhwan, including Sheikh Sayid Askar, thedirector of public information of Al Azhar University. Also arrestedwere a former deputy minister of industry, Rashad Nigmeldine, threeformer members of the Egyptian parliament, a banker, and severalpublic school officials. On 23 November 1995, 54 of 80 Ikhwanmembers put on trial were sentenced to prison for antigovernmentagitation, and the Muslim Brotherhood head office was shut down.This crackdown was a result of the Hosni Mubarak government’sdetermination that the Ikhwan served as the front and support networkfor some 3,000 militants engaged in political violence againstthe regime. Ikhwan supporters believe that this was merely a pretext