Brotherhood now favored implementing Islamic
law through peaceful participation in the politi-
cal process, more radical Islamist groups arose,
incited by the ideology of Qutb and the success
of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolution in Iran
(1978–79). One of these radical organizations,
the Jihad Group, assassinated al-Sadat in October
1981, because of their anger at his increasingly
oppressive rule and the peace agreement he had
signed with israel. In Syria, meanwhile, the
Muslim Brotherhood had become the most seri-
ous domestic threat to the government of Hafiz
al-Asad and the ruling baath party. In 1982 it led
a popular uprising in the city of Hama, which was
quelled violently by Syrian troops, resulting in the
loss of thousands of lives. It has never recovered
from this blow. Syrian and Egyptian members or
former members of the Muslim Brotherhood car-
ried its ideology to Saudi Arabia, where it became
combined with Wahhabism. This fusion of radical
Islamic jihadist ideas influenced Usama bin ladin
(b. 1957) and others, who used them to recruit
followers to fight against the Soviets in aFghani-
stan, as well as other Arab governments, and to
conduct terrorist attacks against U.S. and Euro-
pean interests. In Palestine, former members of
the Muslim Brotherhood created hamas in 1987.
This was an Islamist organization opposed to
Yasir Arafat’s secular palestine liberation orga-
nization. Moreover, Hamas sought to engage in a
jihad to bring the illegal Israeli occupation of the
Palestinian homeland. At the same time, however,
the nonviolent tactics of the mainline branches of
the Muslim Brotherhood have allowed it to suc-
cessfully compete in legislative elections in both
Egypt and Jordan, despite having to face periodic
restrictions and government crackdowns.
See also arab-israeli conFlicts; colonialism;
ghazali, zaynab al-; Jihad movements; reneWal
and reForm movements.
Further reading: Nazih N. Ayubi, Political Islam: Reli-
gion and Politics in the Arab World (London: Routledge,
1991); Gilles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The
Prophet and the Pharaoh. Translated by Jon Rothschild
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985); Richard
P. Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1993 [1969]); John O. Voll,
“Fundamentalism in the Sunni Arab World: Egypt and
the Sudan.” In Fundamentalisms Observed, edited by
Martin Marty and R. Scott Appleby, 345–402 (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1991).Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Abu al-Husayn See
hadith.Muslim League See all-india muslim league.
Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
Founded as the Political Action Committee of
Southern California in 1986, the Muslim Public
Affairs Council assumed its present name in- It is an American Muslim advocacy orga-
nization that works with city, state, and national
officials to promote issues involving the civil
and hUman rights of Muslims and other minori-
ties in the United states. Its early leadership
developed from members of the Islamic Society
of Southern California, one of the first mosqUes
established in Los Angeles, California. This cen-
ter has played an active role in the public sphere
and interfaith dialogue since the 1980s. One of
MPAC’s founding members was Maher Hathout,
an Egyptian physician who has become a lead-
ing spokesman for Muslims in the United States
since he arrived in 1971. He is currently the
senior adviser to the MPAC board of directors.
MPAC’s executive director since about 1990 has
been Salam al-Maryati (b. 1960), who was born
in baghdad, Iraq, and came to the United States
with his family in 1964. He holds a bachelor’s
degree in biochemistry from the University of
California at Los Angeles and a master’s degree
in business administration from the University
of California at Irvine. His wife, Laila al-Mary-
K 508 Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Abu al-Husayn