Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 16

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Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online

The Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's Succession Crisis: The Politics of Liberalisation and Reform in the
Middle East
By: Mohammad Zahid
The Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's Succession Crisis: The Politics of Liberalisation and Reform in the Middle East. New
York: I.B.Tauris, 2010. 224pp. $85.00. ISBN: 1845119797. Pbk: $28.00. ISBN: 978178076217.
Volume: 1 Issue: 1
April 2013
Review by
Fatih Varol, ABD
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
Ilinois
Mohammed Zahid’s The Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s Succession Crisis focuses on the economic and political reform process in Egypt in the
last few decades and examines the impact of this reform process on power dynamics. Although the book has three major themes—the economic and
political reform process based on neo-liberalization in Egypt, the increasing power of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), and the rise of Gamal
Mubarak in the political life of Egypt—Zahid briefly deals with a large number of theoretical and popular issues, such as the lack of democracy in
the Middle East, the relationship between economic and political liberalization, civil society in the Middle East, western intervention, “9 /11,” etc.,
in order to support his ideas in this short book.
Zahid firstly examines the neo-liberalization process of Egypt and its usual results, such as the increase in unemployment rates, the decrease in
social policies and state subsidies, and the extent of poverty. Zahid then argues that these developments lead to the emergence of NGOs providing
some basic services due the decline of state’s social policies. At this point, Zahid takes into account the MB and shows how the MB uses the
opportunities created by the economic and political reform process in order to challenge the Mubarak regime within civil society and to
delegitimize it in the eyes of people. Therefore, Zahid focuses on MB’s syndical activities as an “art of politics” and the mobilization of the middle
class through the politicization of syndicates.
Zahid believes that the adaptation of the MB into new developments, such as participation in syndicates and parliamentary elections, is the result of
the emergence of a new pragmatic generation within the MB in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He examines the transformation of the MB from its
beginning to recent times, and tries to show how the MB became a political movement at the hands of a new pragmatic generation, although
initially, it was a religious movement aiming to increase spiritual piety.
Zahid’s book can be useful in order to construct background knowledge about the emergence of Egypt’s Arab Spring, the collapse of the Mubarek
regime, and the rise of the MB; however, it is going to be disappointing to expect rigorous and advanced research because of the book’s
rudimentary approach to a large number of important issues.

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