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Muslim Brotherhood the main opposition party has vowed to ‘respect the will of the people’ if Mubarak’s regime falls Egypt’s Islamist opposition has vowed to “respect the will of the Egyptian people” if Hosni Mubarak’s regime falls, amid concern from western leaders that religious extremism might proliferate following the anti-government uprising. Tony Blair, the Middle East peace envoy, warned that Egypt might take a backward step “into a very reactionary form of religious autocracy”. But his words carried limited resonance in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood – the country’s largest opposition force – has played little more than a walk-on role in the unprecedented protests that have shaken one of the Middle East’s oldest and most entrenched dictatorships. “There is widespread exaggeration about the role of the Brotherhood in Egyptian society, and I think these demonstrations have exposed that,” said Khalil al-Anani, an expert on Egypt’s political Islamists at Durham University. “At first the movement showed little interest in the protests and announced they weren’t going to participate; later they were overtaken by events and forced to get involved or risk losing all credibility.” Egypt’s ongoing intifada or uprising has been largely leaderless, planned initially by secular online activist groups and quickly gathering a momentum of its own, as protesters managed to beat riot police off the streets and inspire belief that Mubarak’s security forces could be overcome. Even on Friday, when the Brotherhood finally threw its weight behind efforts to bring down the government – a stance its leadership initially held back from – Islamist slogans were noticeable by their absence, and the formal contribution of the movement remained limited. “Like many others, I participated in these protests not as a Brotherhood member but as an Egyptian, even though both labels apply to me,” said Mohamed al-Assas, a 35-year-old media production worker in Cairo. “Many of the older political leaders, not just of the Brotherhood, but of other formal parties as well, were not so enthusiastic about the demonstrations. But that doesn’t matter because this is a youth revolution – we don’t need leaders to tell us what to do.” The group was formed in 1928 and is still officially outlawed. Hundreds of Brotherhood members have been jailed in periodic crackdowns, yet it is from the existence of the Brotherhood, and the regime’s perceived ability to suppress its influence, that Mubarak has derived much of his legitimacy in international circles. This, combined with the fact that the Brotherhood’s current leadership has often devoted more of its energies to “dawa”, or social evangelism, than overtly political projects, has led many analysts to accuse it of a symbiotic relationship with the government it claims to resist. At crucial moments of popular public tension with the Mubarak regime in recent years, such as the killing of three people in the Delta town of El Mahalla El Kubra in April 2008, and during an attempted general strike one year later, the Brotherhood has opted to take a relatively non-combative stand towards the authorities. “The Mubarak regime was adept at inflating the influence of the Brotherhood and painting them as a threat to Egyptian society and to the west,” said Anani. “It was the pretext for Mubarak’s rule, and it was a lie. I think that if Egypt held free and fair elections tomorrow the Brotherhood would not get a majority; it would enjoy a significant presence in parliament, but the overall makeup of seats would be pluralistic.” Mindful of the limitations of their popular support, and the danger of their involvement in protests being used as an excuse for the west to maintain support for Mubarak, the leadership of the Brotherhood therefore stood back as the past week’s revolt unfolded. Only in the past two days have senior figures begun publicly taking part in the jockeying for position in a post-Mubarak Egypt, and they have done so as unobtrusively as possible, mandating the non-Islamist Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei to help lead any transitional government and promising a “populist stance” in the future. “The Brotherhood realises the sensitivities, especially in the west, towards the Islamists, and we’re not keen to be at the forefront,” announced Mohamed el-Beltagui, a senior Brotherhood leader, on Monday. “We’re trying to build a democratic arena before we start playing in it,” said Essam El Arian, a reformist leader, and one of dozens of Brotherhood members who have escaped from jail in recent days following the disappearance of the country’s police force. “The Brotherhood does not take decisions on its own,” he insisted. The Brotherhood’s leadership continues to claim it does not aim to take control. “We are not for governing, we have no ambitions in this area,” media coordinator Waleed Shalabi told the Guardian today. “What the Brotherhood really want to get out of this revolution is official recognition, the end of legal prohibition,” said Anani. “That’s its minimum demand, but beyond that, if a post-Mubarak Egypt offers genuine avenues of political participation and a fair electoral system, then the movement will be happy.” But amid all the discussion about the impact the Muslim Brotherhood is having on Egypt’s uprising, another story of these remarkable few days might be about the impact the uprising is having on the Brotherhood. Anani believes the protests have shifted the balance of power within the organisation, boosting the influence of younger reformists and weakening the more conservative old guard. “Egypt is witnessing the creation of a new regime, and is reconfiguring all its internal political structures – obviously the Muslim Brotherhood will not be immune to that process,” Anani said. “The revolution has brought us into much closer contact with other secular protest groups with whom we’re working now on a regular basis. The elder leadership respects those new links, because they have to,” confirmed Assas, the 35 year olde Brotherhood member. Indeed many believe the triumphant surge of youth activism seen in Egypt this past week could have as significant effecti on the Brotherhood as on Mubarak’s beleaguered National Democratic Party. “Ongoing internal debate within the MB leadership oddly mirrors claims of an old-guard/new-guard clash within the ruling NDP,” observed the US ambassador to Cairo, Margaret Scobey, in a secret cable in 2009. “The concern expressed by the current leadership of both the NDP and the MB about the impact of rapid or aggressive reform is a common thread. “All of Egypt is changing, and of course the Brotherhood is part of that,” said Assas. “The youth is leading the way, and leaders are heeding our call.” Egypt Middle East Islam Religion Jack Shenker guardian.co.uk