was established in the 1940s, although this was
not as successful as the Brotherhood in recruiting
members. An independent Syrian branch of the
Brotherhood was created in the 1930s by Mustafa
al-Sibai (1915–64), a Syrian who had studied
in Egypt and met al-Banna. Egyptian members
had visited Palestine and Transjordan during
the 1930s, but the first independent Jordanian
branch did not officially open until 1946, headed
by Abd al-Latif Qurah (d. 1953), a Jordanian.
In 1948 the Brotherhood recruited volunteers
to fight in Palestine against the Israelis, reflect-
ing their concern for pan-Arab causes. Sudanese
who had studied in Cairo established the first
branches in the Sudan in the late 1940s, but the
official headquarters of the Sudanese Muslim
Brotherhood did not open until 1954. Perhaps the
most prominent leader to arise from this branch
was Hasan al-Turabi (b. 1932), who had joined
the Brotherhood as a student and rose to promi-
nence in the organization in the 1960s and 1970s.
He became the chief ideologist of the Sudanese
National Islamic Front, the Brotherhood’s politi-
cal party, in the 1980s.
From the beginning, the Brotherhood made
effective use of the print media to spread its mes-
sage. In Egypt it launched several periodicals in
the 1930s, then took over al-Manar (Lighthouse),
the Islamic reformist magazine, when its chief
editor Rashid Rida died in 1935. In 1942 it began
publishing a weekly magazine called al-Ikhwan
al-Muslimin, which was replaced by a daily news-
paper of the same name in 1946. This publica-
tion was shut down when the Brotherhood was
banned by the government in 1948. From 1951
to 1956 it published al-Daawa magazine, which
was also banned, but allowed to resume in 1976,
until banned again by the government in 1981.
Since the 1980s the Brotherhood has published a
weekly periodical known as Liwa al-Islam (Banner
of Islam), and it has also been able to disseminate
its ideology through numerous books and other
oppositional newspapers, even when its official
publications have been banned.
In a development that proved to be a significant
one with respect to its status in the eyes of Egyp-
tian authorities, the Brotherhood formed a Jihad
unit (known as the “secret apparatus”) designed
to defend the organization against police crack-
downs and to attack the British during World War
II. After the war it conducted a campaign of terror
that included attacks on the British, government
officials, popular cinemas, and Egyptian Jews. This
cycle of violence culminated with the assassina-
tion of Egypt’s prime minister, al-Nuqrashi Pasha,
in 1948, followed by the government’s retaliatory
assassination of al-Banna in 1949. The jihad unit
was also implicated in an attempt on the life of
President Nasir in 1954, which resulted in wide-
spread arrests and executions of key members of
the Brotherhood. One of those imprisoned at this
time was sayyid qUtb (1906–66), a former literary
critic and recent Muslim Brotherhood convert,
whose experience and torture in prison shaped his
vision of a united Islamic struggle against modern
idolatry and corruption. Two of the major works
he wrote at this time were a multivolume Quran
commentary and Maalim fi’l-tariq (Milestones). He
became the foremost ideologist of the Brotherhood
after al-Banna’s death, and his ideas have inspired
numerous new radical Islamist movements since
the 1970s in many Muslim countries.
A great resurgence of islamism swept through
Middle Eastern lands when many of the newly
independent national regimes were unable to
meet the expectations of their people and turned
to secular authoritarianism to stay in power.
Democratic impulses that had emerged earlier in
the 20th century were stifled. The defeat of Arab
armies in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war in particular
served as a catalyst for the popular turn to religion.
Egyptian president anWar al-sadat (r. 1970–81),
Nasir’s successor, took advantage of this religious
turn to consolidate his power against Nasirite
loyalists and leftists, releasing members of the
Brotherhood from prison and allowing Islamic
student groups to become active on university
campuses. Although the leadership of the MuslimMuslim Brotherhood 507 J