I have been doing some research on the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimeen) for some time and am still a little bit unsure about whether to classify them as a moderate or radical group. They may belong to a special category or even to more than one category - after all, this is a group of largely autonomous Muslim Brotherhood organizations that exist in many countries (some say as many as seventy countries). Also, the groups in different countries have gone through phases of violence and non-violence, depending on the disposition of leaders and the organization’s relationship with the government. Also, Muslim Brotherhood organizations don’t always work under the official name of the international organization that inspires them. The Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood happens to call itself by another name: HAMAS - hardly a moderate group.

Thanks to a blog post by Patrick Poole, a number of recent articles on the subject of the Muslim Brotherhood have come to my attention. Poole is actually being critical of at least three sources that encourage U.S. engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood. I’m currently holding back on answering the question in the title of this post - but I’ll admit I’m a bit of a skeptic when it comes to this group. Rather than try and tell people what to think (at least for now), I’ll just link to some papers and articles. It might be interesting to hear what others think on the subject.

“Mainstreaming the Muslim Brotherhood” by Patrick Poole at Frontpage Magazine (March 26, 2007)

“The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood” by Robert Leiken and Steven Brooke in Foreign Affairs March/April 2007

“The Little Explored Offshore Empire of the International Muslim Brotherhood” by Douglas Farah (April 18, 2006)

“Islam is only place to turn” by Mitch Potter in the Toronto Star (March 24, 2007)

“Hear out Muslim Brotherhood” by Joshua Stacher and Samer Shehata in the Boston Globe (March 25, 2007)

“A More Islamic Islam” by Geneive Abdo in the Washington Post (March 17, 2007)