Arab Spring: Impact of the Muslim Brotherhood

Hello. My name is Mia Beltran, and I'm going to

be looking at how the Muslim Brotherhood impacted the A

RAB spring in Egypt.

So in understanding this, it's first important to know what

the Arab spring revolutions were.

So, um, they were political movement.

Um, that arose in the Middle East, where people were

fighting for individual and political rights, mostly fighting to take

down the authoritarian regime in the Middle East.

And these revolutions were interesting because they brought together people

from different backgrounds who had different beliefs and religions, which

was not the case for many revolutions that took place

in the Middle East, which made this one very special.

So what stands out is having a major influence in

these revolutions.

First of all, social media and technology played a big

part in the revolution.

It encouraged more involvement of people around the area where

it was happening because they got to see what was

happening and where it was happening.

It helps show the progress of the movement and also

helps show the mistreatment towards those who are protesting.

And social media still does have an impact today on

major revolutions such as black lives matter in the US

so it's just interesting to look at how that had

so much of an influence during the RAB spring in

Egypt and seeing how that still applies today.

Another huge impact was how the Revolution was able to

bring people together despite their differences toward a common goal.

Um, a lot of the time in the Middle East

for revolutions it was focused on religion and kind of

people were separated based on that.

So here for the RAB spring religion wasn't the main

importance and religious beliefs and differences who that did cause

separation was not a problem here because it brought people

together and they were able to work together and put

their differences aside for the common good and for everyone

to have their individual rights, which I thought was very

cool. Yeah.

Yeah. So I will specifically be looking at the RAB

spring in, um Egypt and what happened there.

So it took place on January 25th of 2011.

Protesters gathered in the square and they were very persistent

in bringing down the authoritarian regime which included Mubarak, who

was the leader at the time, and the military was

very resistant to the protesters, and they were forceful using

force against them, such as water cannons, tear gas, rubber

bullets, Um, which was very harmful.

And that's where social Media kind of came in, where

they were able to show how they were being treated.

There was no basis in religion in these protests.

It was focused more on individual rights for everybody, so

there was no religious chance that happened.

After Mubarak did, um, leave office, they decided to leave

the square because it was seen as an accomplishment.

However, the authoritarian regime was still in power at that

time, even though Mubarak fell.

So they started to fight again, protesting in the square

and eventually led to the first free election.

And this is kind of where the Muslim Brotherhood comes

in, and I will go more into that.

Mhm. So it's also important to understand, um, what the

Muslim Brotherhood is so as a religious organization based in

Islamic law in restoring the Islamic state, it was established

by Hassan al Banna in 1928 and the Brotherhood often

resorted to violence in terrorist attacks, which was destructive to

how other people viewed the organization because they were seen

as a violent organization.

They were very strict that they required their members to

follow strict rules.

And it was very hard to become a member due

to, um having to, you know, be very based in

religion and all the rules that they had to follow.

And the main belief of the Brotherhood was ultimately in

restoring the Islamic state in the Middle East, and they

did not focus as much on democracy.

Okay, so now we look at how the Muslim Brotherhood

rose to power.

So when the Brotherhood decided to get involved in the

revolution, they said they were not taking part in it

to gain power, They wanted to fight for the people

like everyone was.

They wanted to fight for individual rights.

And once Mubarak fell, the Brotherhood created the Freedom and

Justice Party, and they pledged not to dominate the political

parliament because people didn't want them in their, um, they

said that they were just doing it to help the

people. So they said that they wouldn't run for office

or any of that.

And then the Brotherhood and Skaff, which is the Supreme

Council of Armed Forces.

They did not agree on a lot of things, and

both were reluctant to like the other game power.

So the Supreme Council of Armed Forces was actually in

charge after Mubarak fell.

So they were the leaders, and they were very reluctant

to release their power.

Once things were arranged for an election, This ultimately resulted

in the brotherhood running for office because they didn't want

Skaff to maintain power.

And they wanted to do anything they could to not

let them gain power or keep their power.

And some, once they saw that sketch had a good

chance of actually maintaining the power, They decided that they

would rather go back on their word and go against

graft and letting them gain the power.

So the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, they gained control

after the fall of Mubarak.

So, um, again, they were reluctant to relinquish their power

after that and the conflict between staff and the Brotherhood.

Um, they both wanted the political privileges, and they did

not want to see the other in power.

Which is kind of what led to the brotherhood fighting

for power.

Yeah. Um, ultimately, the Brotherhood decided to run for office

to make sure that Skaff didn't maintain power.

And the Supreme Council of Armed Forces.

They kind of represented the authoritarian regime.

So ultimately, Egypt decided to take its chance on the

Brotherhood despite their mistrust for them because they ultimately want

to take down the authoritarian regime.

So that included taking down staff.

So the brotherhood, even though they didn't like them, it

seemed like the better option to elect them.

Okay. Yeah.

Uh huh.

So, even though the Muslim Brotherhood did gain the power

they didn't.

It didn't last long.

So President Morsi became president.

That represented the Brotherhood.

And the brother had really lacked governing skills and tactics

because the history of the organization, they were excluded from

the political sphere and they were unable to hold positions

of power and politics due to their status and what

the brotherhood stood for and the violence that came along

with it.

So because of this lack of experience, they were unprepared.

And because of the mistrust that Egypt had for them

after the election, um, they faced a lot of resistant.

And this resulted in other political parties working together to

seize the brotherhood's power.

Yeah, The Post Coop regime was happened after the Brotherhood

seizure of power.

So they were very against the Brotherhood, and they wanted

to do what they could to take them down.

So they arrested and massacred members of the Brotherhood, and

they created policies to eliminate the Brotherhood's political activities.

So this included, like, financial assets for the organization, and

they declared them a terrorist organization, which really hurt their

image. So this resulted in members leaving the Brotherhood because

of their new status and the public anger and disappointment

that the Brotherhood had towards, um, or that people had

towards. The Brotherhood made the seizure of power successful because

they were all against them.

So now just a conclusion to look at what the

overall impact of the brotherhood was on the wrap spring

in Egypt.

Overall, their involvement changed the focus from individual freedom to

more religious and political environment.

They did not help people of Egypt gain their rights,

even though the authoritarian regime fell and Mubarak was no

longer in power.

Egypt did not get the outcome that they wanted because

they still didn't have their individual rights.

They still didn't have as much of us in the

political sphere that they wanted.

They heard the political environment more than helping them by,

you know, lying to the people in gaining power.

And they really weren't prepared.

And they were more focused on themselves and restoring the

Islamic state than actually helping the people.

So overall they negatively impacted the movement and the progress

for the people of Egypt who worked so hard and

protesting. And they brought down Mubarak.

They eventually brought down the authoritarian regime.

But in the end, they didn't get the results that

they wanted.

Thank you.

Arab Spring: Impact of the Muslim Brotherhood

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