Broken Bonds: The Existential Crisis of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

Based on unprecedented access to Brotherhood leaders, rank-and-file members, and internal dissenters, Broken Bonds: The Existential Crisis of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, 2013–22 takes a revisionist, granular view of the organisation. The Brotherhood and its detractors alike have misunderstood it as a mass ideological organisation, missing its evolution into an elite membership organisation disconnected from its constituents. 

In this original Century International book, researchers Abdelrahman Ayyash, Amr ElAfifi, and Noha Ezzat argue that the Brotherhood is experiencing multiple crises—of identity, legitimacy, and membership—which accelerated after Egypt’s military coup in July 2013. Through myriad stories and voices from within a fragmenting movement, the authors present a nuanced portrait of a once-formidable grassroots organization.

Copies of the book will be available at this event.

Meet the speakers

Abdelrahman Ayyash is a fellow at Century International and director of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood working group. He holds an MA in global affairs from Bahcesehir University in Istanbul, Turkey. He translated three books on civil-military relations and the Muslim Brotherhood. He has published reports and articles about the Muslim Brotherhood for institutions including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Arab Reform Initiative.

Amr ElAfifi is the Research Manager at the Freedom Initiative, a DC-based NGO focused on human rights in the Middle East. His current dissertation research at Syracuse University explores the political psychology of trauma amongst political prisoners.

Noha Ezzat is a Writer and Researcher working on Historical Sociology and Global Politics. She holds an MA in International Relations from Durham University.

Jeroen Gunning is Visiting Professor at the LSE Middle East Centre and Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and Conflict Studies at King's College London. His research focuses on political contestation in the Middle East, with a specific focus on the interplay between social movements, religion, electoral politics, repression, violence and structural change.

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