The role of the muslim brotherhood in the syrian civil war

Ever since the start of the unrest in Syria, in March 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood has been identified as a leader of the campaign to overthrow Bashar al-Assad. In truth, the Syrian president himself had a hand in the efforts to highlight the Brotherhood's role in organizing the violence and even blamed it for acts of terrorism against the Syrian people. There is no doubt that the regime wanted to remind the world of the movement's violent history and the years of the rebellion against the Baathist government (1976–82). That bloody episode still haunts the movement today.1 In practice, however, after the massacre in Hama and the crushing of the rebellion, the Muslim Brotherhood became a pale shadow of its past self. Many years and a long process of rehabilitation were required for it to retrieve a modicum of its former strength. The movement lost its bases of power and support in Syria, its leaders were dispersed, and its center of activity was relocated outside the country, primarily to Europe.

The main aim of this article is to examine the status, role and activity of the Muslim Brotherhood since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria. It follows the transformation of the Brotherhood from an establishment movement involved in governing the country into a violent organization opposed to the Baathist regime. It also examines the years of reconstruction in exile and the return to a conciliatory line, and even a willingness to engage in dialogue with Assad. Finally, it offers an in-depth analysis of the Brotherhood's activity and its role in the opposition, from the start of the Arab Spring in Syria until early 2015, including the need to react to the radical Islamist organizations that entered Syria and began imposing their religious and political worldviews in the territories they overran.