Leaving the Muslim Brotherhood: Self, Society and the State

by Mustafa Menshawy

Overview

The book offers a processual and discursive perspective on how individuals exit the Muslim Brotherhood. The framework is based on an interaction of ‘micro’ psychological and emotional factors, ‘meso’ organizational factors and ‘macro’ political developments linked to the specific case of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt during the Arab Spring. Based on interviews conducted in Egypt, Turkey, Qatar and the United Kingdom, the author traces in-depth narratives of exiters while they return to their private life or resort to political activism of another stripe. This work examines thought-provoking patterns pertaining to elements long under-explored in the scholarship and stands out as it systematically identifies this unexamined subset of Brotherhood members: peaceful leavers. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030278601
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	10/09/2019
Series:	Middle East Today
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	641 KB

About the Author

Mustafa Menshawy is Assistant Professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Qatar, and Associate Fellow at University of Westminster, UK.

Table of Contents

1. Chapter 1: Introduction.- 2. Chapter 2: Affective Disengagement.- 3. Chapter 3: Ideology of the group.- 4. Chapter 4: Political Disengagement: Exiting the Brotherhood in 2011 and Afterwards.- 5. Chapter 5: Pre-2011 Disengagement: A Comparative Analysis of Change and Continuity.- 6. Chapter 6: Conclusion.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a well-studied organization, but Mustafa Menshawy offers a fresh and novel contribution. It is not simply that he focuses on individuals who leave the movement (a rich but underused source) but that this focus allows him to present the movement and its adherents in ways that have eluded scholars in the past: there is a much greater focus on the individual than the organization; more about emotion than ideology. The unusual analysis—which explores subjects like family relations and even the pronouns members and ex-member use—allows us to understand the Brotherhood better but, more important, gives a very rich picture of the range of experiences and thoughts of its members and those who leave it.” (Professor Nathan Brown, Director of Middle East Studies Program at Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University)

“In this carefully researched and strongly argued book, Mustafa Menshawy provides a lucid and original contributionto the study of the Muslim Brotherhood. He examines compellingly former members who abandoned the movement and how they make sense of their new life and identity. Based on several interviews with these members, Menshawy critically unpacks a rarely studied phenomenon in the field of Islamism; “ex-Islamists”. This very timely book is an indispensable source to understand Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and it makes a great contribution to the field Islamism and the Brotherhood in particular.” (Dr. Khalil al-Anani, Associate Professor of Political Science, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and the author of Inside the Muslim Brotherhood: Religion, Identity, and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2016))

“In the scholarship on the Muslim Brotherhood movement, ex-members have rarely been studied with such nuances and academic rigour as in this fine volume by Dr. Mustafa Menshawy. Drawing upon a rich array of autobiographies and interviews by former activists, Menshawy explores the complexities and varieties of the disengagement process as experienced by many of those who left the movement during and after the Arab Spring upheaval. A highly valuable contribution to our knowledge on the Muslim Brotherhood movement, the book also enriches our insight into social movements in general.” (Professor Brynjar Lia, the University of Oslo)