Muslim Brotherhood
"Allah is our objective.
The Prophet is our leader.
Qur'an is our law.
Jihad is our way.
Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."
-Muslim Brotherhood
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna, a 22-year-old elementary school teacher. The Brotherhood asserted itself as an Islamic revivalist movement following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the caliphate system of government that had united Muslims for hundreds of years. Al-Banna emphasized the comprehensive nature of his faith. Islam was not only a religion, but a fundamental force in society and politics.
During World War II, the Muslim Brotherhood in both Egypt and Palestine strongly supported the Nazis, an association that continued until the fall of the Third Reich. Throughout those years of support, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership would organize mass demonstrations, meting out extreme violence against the Jewish community. One leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, who ran its branch in Palestine was Haj Amin al-Husseini, born in Ottoman Jerusalem in 1893. With al-Husseini having lived in Palestine during the start of the First World War, he had sworn his allegiance to the Ottoman Empire, and had become an officer in the Ottoman Turkish army. The rise of the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, came about amid the founding of the Balfour Declaration by the British government, the implementation of which brought about the founding of Israel. It was on 3 January 1919, the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann and the Arab leader Emir Feisal, son of the King of Hejaz, came to an agreement over the implementation of the Balfour Declaration, which came to fruition from the November 1917 British government’s pledge to bring about “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”, with an added proviso that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” In 1920, in response to the signing of the agreement, violent rioting took place between Jews and Arabs, and through his response in organizing opposition to the agreement, al-Husseini became a leading figure in the nationalist campaign to destabilise the British mandatory government in Palestine. With the rioting over, al-Husseini was charged with incitement over his role in the four-day uprising, which had left 47 Jews dead and dozens more wounded, for which he received a ten-year sentence in absentia, and to escape imprisonment, had fled the country for Syria. Then in July 1922, without any form of consultation with the Palestinian population, the League of Nations approved the terms of the British Mandate over Palestine, the objective of which was to secure the establishment of the Jewish national homeland, as laid down in the Balfour Declaration. It was during 1922, a year after the death of Haj Amin al-Husseini’s half-brother Kamel, who was the Mufti of Jerusalem, the British authorities were desperate to restore order, and coming up with the new title of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, they bestowed it upon Amin, in the hope that his new position might quell his violent tendencies. During the period that al-Husseini held the position of president of the Supreme Muslim Council, he had the power to appoint or dismiss judges and other officers connected to the Muslim religious court, and during his time in office, he imposed a rigid form of Islam in Palestine, which he enforced with an iron fist. Throughout al-Husseinis’ tenure, many riots had taken place in Palestine, which resulted in dozens of deaths, caused by his associates spreading false rumours about Jewish activity, to incite the Arab population to revolt. In the aftermath of the riots in 1936, which became known as the Arab Revolt, al-Husseini recruited armed militias to attack the Jews, things got completely out of hand. With the Jews now having fully organized themselves, the riots couldn’t be quelled, and the British had to use military force. In late 1937, due to his part in the riots, al-Husseini was stripped of office, and in fear of arrest, escaped into exile in Lebanon. Then after moving onto Iraq, which at the time was controlled by a pro-Axis regime, he eventually headed for Germany, where he assisted the Nazis in anti-Jewish propaganda, and aided in the recruiting of Muslims for a special SS division, with most conscripts coming from Bosnia. During World War II, the Muslim Brotherhood in both Egypt and Palestine strongly supported the Nazis, an association that continued until the fall of the Third Reich. Throughout those years of support, the Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership would organize mass demonstrations, meting out extreme violence against the Jewish community. Dan Michman wrote "One of the claims raised from time to time in this context is that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Hussayni, convinced Hitler to embark upon (what the Germans called) the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” the comprehensive and systematic murder campaign against the Jewish people by Nazi Germany, during their meeting on November 28, 1941, prior to the so-called “Wannsee Conference”... The well documented meeting between Hitler and the Mufti clearly demonstrates the power relations between the two personalities. The Mufti was not in a position to “convince” Hitler, nor did the Mufti actually suggest genocide on this occasion. In a recent study, the British historian David Motadel noted that “al-Hussayni had little influence on the decision-making process in Berlin. The Germans consulted and used him when necessary, but he had no power of his own.”... "Though not involved in the decision-making process concerning the “Final Solution,” the Mufti’s Middle East politics, political strategies, and visions, including his contempt for Jews, drove him to collaborate intensively with the Nazis. As he was in contact with many senior German officials at the time, among them those involved in implementing anti-Jewish policies, he must have known of the slaughter being conducted by Nazi Germany.... A broad group of individuals, political movements, organizations, and states within occupied and non-occupied Europe and outside the European borders collaborated with Nazi Germany before and during World War II out of ideological affinity and agreement with some or many of its goals, or in the hope of achieving political and material benefits." The Third Reich appealed to Islam to rally Muslims against Axis enemies and attempted to equate Nazism with the core principles of Islam. Though the Third Reich presented themselves as friends to Muslims and defenders of the faith, Nazi Germany ultimately failed to garner enough Arab and Muslim support to turn the tide of the war. The Brotherhood grew as a popular movement over the years. It blamed the Egyptian government for being passive against "Zionists" and joined the Palestinian side in the war against Israel (1948). The Muslim Brothers also performed terrorist acts inside of Egypt, which led to a ban on the movement by the Egyptian government. A Muslim Brother assassinated the Prime Minister of Egypt, Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi, on December 28, 1948. Al-Banna himself was killed by government agents in Cairo on February 1949.
Hamas was created in December 1987 as the Muslim Brotherhood’s armed wing in Palestine, its leader Shaykh Ahmad Yassin had joined the Brotherhood in the 1960s, and with him being a great admirer of Hassan al-Banna and other MB members, Hamas’s covenant mirrors that of its founder party.
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