Struggle between Brotherhood wings: Fortunes of Istanbul front decided by network of intermarriage

The conflict of the Brotherhood’s wings is still raging within the organization. So far, the matter has not been resolved in favor of the front of Mahmoud Hussein, the former Secretary-General residing in Turkey, or the front of Ibrahim Munir, the Deputy General Guide residing in England. However, the rivalry between the members of the group has become governed by intermarriage, which the Brotherhood has adopted since the 1940s, and they consider it a means to tip the balance of certain leaders over others.

Recently, there have been reports about the direction of the Hussein front to mobilize the group's bases based on blood ties and intermarriage, with the aim of obtaining declared support for the former Secretary-General and the removal of the Deputy Guide and his loyalists, in addition to the pivotal role that the group's women play in mobilizing the sisters and declaring their support for the Istanbul front led by Hussein.

Network of intermarriage

Some may think that intermarriage cannot resolve conflicts within the political group, but those following the Brotherhood’s history know very well that blood ties were never left to chance, as Ali Ashmawy, a recent leader of the group founded by Hassan al-Banna, described the relations of descent and intermarriage between elements and leaders as “environmental marriage.” He said in his memoirs entitled “The Secret History of the Muslim Brotherhood” issued in 2006 after his split from the group that it is these relations that preserve the survival of the Brotherhood family and ensure interdependence among its members, and he therefore considered it an “environmental marriage.”

Founder's constitution

In the 1940s, Banna adopted the system of intermarriage and lineage between members of the group who pledged allegiance to him on hearing and obedience. Each brother (describing the members in the group) had a sister prepared in advance from the group, without objection or discussion and perhaps without referring to a guardian, as it sufficed for their marriage to be blessed by the leaders of the group.

Economic and organizational step

Intermarriage in the early stages of the group was carried out with the aim of preserving the Brotherhood’s family members, then it turned into an organizational and economic step supported by commercial alliances between members and leaders of the group, who later presented themselves as businessmen protecting the group’s economy from collapse, in addition to the involvement of the leaders’ wives or children later in politics in order to delude the West that the group follows moderate Islamic principles, allowing women within it to reach parliament and various positions.

Intisar Abdel Moneim, who describes herself as a former sister in the group, revealed in her autobiography “My Story with the Brotherhood” published in 2012 about some of what happens in the group regarding marriage and lineage, as she confirmed that women are not allowed to advance within the group regardless of their competence or their qualifications, explaining that every “Zahra” (young Brotherhood girl) has no destiny but to wait for a “shebel” (young Brotherhood man) to propose to her and then marry, and any dreams she has of holding any positions within the group will end.

“In all cases, the sister must submit to the way they explain the Sharia to her without discussion. Thus, the marital relationship is reduced to one concept of negative direction, which is the woman's obedience to the husband, whether he is good or bad,” Abdel Moneim added.

Conditional intermarriage

Abdel Moneim also pointed out that intermarriage takes place according to the degree within the group. Members of the Guidance Office marry among themselves, while the leaders choose their wives from the daughters or sisters of the leaders, and likewise for the lower-ranking elements.

The evidence of the group’s intransigence in the issue of marriage and intermarriage was the dismissal decisions issued against girls and young men who married outside the group in 2014 following the fall of the Brotherhood’s rule in Egypt after the revolution on June 30, 2013, where young people tended to marry the sons and daughters of the Salafist movement or any other current out of fear of arrest, and they were surprised when their membership was frozen and they were expelled from the group, which did not bless this type of marriage.

Some leaders also took advantage of the opportunity of their presence in prisons to agree on intermarriage after the end of the sentence in the cases in which they are being tried. The most prominent examples of this case were the group’s former guides, Mahdi Akef and Mahmoud Ezzat, when the two met in one cell. Akef agreed with Ezzat to marry the latter’s sister of the second, even though Akef was at least a quarter of a century older than her.

Family Time

According to writer Yasser Thabet, author of the book “Family Time” published in 2014, clan loyalty, which was governed by group affiliations, kinship relations, intermarriage, and a network of interests, plunged Egypt into an endless cycle of crises, noting that the group adopts the philosophy of the concept of the family with unmistakable political and economic pragmatism.

Thabet explained in his book that stagnation or closure resulting from intermarriage is the scourge of many secret organizations, which find that their regression to their members is the secret of their strength; therefore, it rejects calls for reform or change from within and gets rid of those who talk about the virtue of thinking or the necessity of change. He added that the danger of secrecy is that it inherits the duality between secrecy and publicity, and it also becomes a justification for tyranny of opinion and unilateral decision-making under the pretext that the leadership, or the large family, knows more, so the organization turns into a correlative device that inherits despotism, lethargy and stagnation.