The Clampdown

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood: What’s happened to the Islamist group after being banned?

By Abir Sorour

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Posted on November 26, 2021 16:41

A Muslim Brotherhood member shouts slogans in front of riot police during a demonstration protesting the government’s decision to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, in front of the Press Syndicate in Cairo
A Muslim Brotherhood member shouts slogans in front of riot police during a demonstration in front of the Press Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt, April 15, 2016. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

After Egypt’s revolution in 2011, the first elections installed Mohamed Morsi – a member of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), who won the elections through his Freedom and Justice party – as president. The coup that ended his tenure on 14 August 2013 was followed by a deadly uprising of MB supporters known as the Rabaa Massacre. The uprising killed hundreds. Nine years later, some members and affiliates who survived the massacre believe the Muslim Brotherhood is no longer relevant. Is this true?

It is 15 August 2013, a day after the deadly dispersal of the Rabaa Adwayia Islamist sit-in in Cairo, and the military have sacked Morsi. Two Islamist men in their 30s, Abdallah and his friend Galal, among dozens of others, had taken the fight to the streets against thousands of police and military forces. Right outside Cairo’s historic train station, near al-Fatah mosque, both took cover from the live rounds fired at different groups of protesters and some masked militants armed with shotguns.

The two, believing in the cause of ‘revolting to save Islam and restore the presidency of former President Mohamed Morsi’, repeated the Shehada – a statement of faith in Islam – knowing the end might be near, Abdallah tells The Africa Report.

As both ran for cover from the tear gas and live rounds, the upper part of Abdallah’s grey jalabiya turned red, seconds after Glalal was shot dead in the

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