Ideological Deviancy: Roots of generational conflict within Muslim Brotherhood

Cairo - The internal crisis within the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has exacerbated to unprecedented levels, and will not be resolved soon. It has grown to become an ideological, generational conflict, not just a difference of views, said Jamal Heshmat, an MB leader.

Heshmat said in a statement for an online website on Thursday: “At the beginning of the generational conflict, I was the first to call for a truce between the two sides. I also appealed to Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi to intervene in order to put an end to this mutual criticism between group members.”

Heshmat emphasized that he refuses to accuse divergent voices within the group of deflection; and that he is totally against suspending their membership.

The MB has been reportedly staggering under a hot internecine crisis that is pitting its youth against its elders. Since February 2015, MB membership has been shrinking as many youth have defected, and/or rebelled against the politics and methods of their elders, calling for a re-election or a reshuffle that has always been met with rejection from the group’s movers and shakers; historically known as the “MB’s top elite or elders,” such as Mahmoud Ezzat, the Brotherhood’s acting leader.  

This year, the MB even announced its intention to embark on ‘historical and ideological revisions’ of its long-standing views, theories, and doctrines, especially a revision of the group situation, events, and activities that have integrated since the eruption of the January 2011 Revolution to date.

While some pundits have doubted the sincerity of the quest, others have welcomed and hailed the move. Al-Za'farani Khaled, a Muslim Brotherhood dissenter, said: “It [intellectual revisionism] is just to settle scores with the Brotherhood’s elders, or to pursue personal vendetta against some members within the group.”

This comes against the backdrop that the Brotherhood has been reportedly experiencing internecine conflicts between its youth and the elder leaders, as was reported by Al-Bawaba News Portal.