The defeat of the Ottoman Empire and its allies led to the Empire’s dissolution as a unified entity in July 1923, and the establishment of the modern state of Turkey by Mustapha Kemal, who was given the title “Ataturk” or “Father of the Turks.”177
Determined to tie his country firmly to the West, Ataturk sought to diminish its Islamic character, notably by abolishing the caliphate in favor of secular rule. Ataturk also banned the growing of beards by men and wearing of headscarves by women; banned the call to prayer by muezzins; abolished the Turkish language’s script and replaced it with Latin script; and made the Turkish military the custodians of secular tradition.
The dissolution of the caliphate and the transformation of Turkey from the center of the Islamic world to a secular nation did not sit well with some in the global Islamic community (ummah). One of those determined to restore the caliphate was Hassan al Banna, the son of a Muslim imam who lived outside of Cairo, Egypt. In 1928, he founded an organization known as the al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin, the Society of Mus67lim Brothers or the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), for the purpose of unifying the Islamic states under a new caliphate and subordinating all lands the Caliph’s rule pursuant to shariah.178
The Muslim Brotherhood’s bylaws make clear the Ikhwan’s objectives and means to achieve them:179
“The Muslim Brotherhood is an International Muslim body which seeks to establish Allah’s law in the land by achieving the spiritual goals of Islam and the true religion which are namely the following:
F) The need to work on establishing the Islamic State;
G) The sincere support for a global cooperation in accordance with the provisions of the Islamic Sharia.
Chapter II, Article 3: The Muslim Brotherhood in achieving these objectives depends on the following means:
D) Make every effort for the establishment of educational, social, economic, and scientific institutions and the establishment of mosques, schools, clinics, shelters, clubs, as well as the formation of committees to regulate zakat affairs and alms;
E) The Islamic nation must be fully prepared to fight the tyrants and the enemies of Allah as a prelude to establishing the Islamic state.” (Emphasis added.)
By the early 1930’s, the Brotherhood had developed a formal organizational structure around groups of men with special spiritual and physical training called “Battalions.” By 1940, the Brotherhood created the “secret apparatus” which was the military wing of the Society of Muslim Brothers, and in 1943 abandoned the Battalions. The MB’s military wing continues to operate today, and is referred to as the “Special Chapter.” Its operations are known as “special work,” meaning military fighting or operations.180
During the Second World War, and the years that followed, the Brotherhood became increasingly aggressive and violent, and called for the removal of all British forces (“non-Muslim Forces”) from Egypt (“Muslim Lands”), as required by Islamic Law (shariah). During the late 1940’s, the Brotherhood targeted Egyptian officials, British soldiers, and their families, and in December of 1948, a Muslim Brother assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi.181 In February 1949, the Egyptian security services killed Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna in Cairo.
The period following the assassination of al Banna was marked with significant MB violence against the Egyptian monarchy and the British. After a ban on Brotherhood activities was lifted in 1951, the MB coordinated actively with Gamal Abdel Nasser and the young officers who overthrew King Farouk in 1952. As soon as the Ikhwan felt powerful enough to confront the government on their own, however, it turned against the new president Nasser. Nasser launched a crackdown against the Brotherhood in 1954 that accelerated an exodus of many top Brothers and the expansion of the organization around the world, including into the West.