KHALIL AL- ANANI

As a social movement the Brotherhood has built a distinctive form of identity that differentiates it and its members from other groups and allows it to maintain its activism. I call this identity ikhwanism, referring to the cognitive code of norms, values, and regulations that guides and directs members in their everyday lives.

In fact the uniqueness of the Brotherhood’s identity is that its members have multiple layers of identity that facilitate the dissemination of its ideology in society.

As the Brotherhood’s code of identity ikhwanism consists of five key norms and values: allegiance (bay’a), obedience (ta’ah), trust (thiqa), com-mitment (iltizam), and loyalty (intima).

I call this the jama‘a (groupness) paradigm: an organizational framework that connects the movement’s religious, social, and organizational aspects and galva-nizes them in everyday life. This framework also responds to the spiritual, material, and social needs of the Brotherhood’s members by enhancing their solidarity and strengthening their social bonds. Furthermore this organizational structure has generated a unique system of values and norms that defines the Brotherhood’s disciplined and cohesive character.

The jama‘a paradigm is the outcome of complex processes of social networking and indoctrination. As a social movement the Brotherhood al-locates resources, mobilizes individuals, and sets ideological frameworks that bind members together and foster their commitment. It consistently capitalizes on social networks, familial relationships, and religious bonds in order to expand its constituency. The jama‘a paradigm is the lynchpin of the Brotherhood’s collective identity and serves as the foundation for its activism and unity.

Repression sometimes plays into the hands of the Brotherhood and enables it to achieve three key goals: garnering public support, reinforcing 8 inside T he Musl iM broT her hood

internal coherence, and avoiding internal change.

the Brotherhood’s identity is the culmination of intricate and intensive pro-cesses of recruitment, identification, socialization, and indoctrination.

Once detected these individuals become subject to a gradual yet intensive process of in-doctrination that reshapes their mindset and worldview. A second recruit-ment tool is the Brotherhood’s religious rituals and weekly gatherings. Several members I interviewed emphasized the role of these meetings in fostering a sense of belonging and commitment to the Brotherhood’s ideology and leadership.

Lisa Anderson argues that the appeal of Islamist movements is not confined to the crisis of Arab nationalism but is the result of structural and institutional problems of Arab states. She explains that the persis-tence of absolute monarchies and authoritarian regimes in the region cre-ated political and social grievances that were then seized on by Islamist movements.31 Gudrun Krämer expands on Anderson’s idea by exploring the consequences of restricted political liberalization policies on Islamist activism. She argues that Islamist movements became a key oppositional force as a result of the unavoidable political opening that occurred in the Arab world during the 1980s and 1990s. According to Krämer, restricted political pluralism coupled with economic deprivation and social turmoil paved the way for the emergence of Islamists

Over the past few years several scholars from different academic and disciplinary backgrounds have produced a useful and influential body of literature on the Brotherhood. This literature can be divided into four main streams: the history of the Brotherhood, the social activism of the movement, the relationship between the Brotherhood and the Egyptian regime, and the ideological and organizational transformation of the movement.