The Muslim Brotherhood and the test of power - Egypt, Tunisia (2011-2021)

In Egypt and Tunisia, the Muslim Brotherhood were the big winners of the "Arab Spring" of 2011. A few months after the uprisings, which they had not anticipated, elections brought them to power. So what happened between their unexpected arrival at the head of the two states and their brutal ousting, supported by the people, in 2013 in Egypt and in 2021 in Tunisia? How can we explain their meteoric rise followed by their surprising fall, albeit more slowly in the case of Tunisia? Drawing on their knowledge of the terrain and the literature of the Muslim Brotherhood, the authors reveal the divorce between their project for a global Islamic state and societies characterised by their attachment to the nation-state. They show that their inability to adapt to social change is characteristic of the Brotherhood: a sectarian organisation, powerful and disciplined but lacking in elites, skills or imagination. By analysing their failure, this book feeds the debate within Islam and Islamism, and suggests that a cultural revolution in Muslim societies is possible.