Many years before the Khomeini revolution, there were continuous meetings between the Iranian leadership and Hassan Al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Al-Banna lays the foundation stone for the Brotherhood’s relations with the Shiites
He was the first to lay the foundation stone of the “Brotherhood-Shiite Convergence” in 1947 in an effort to bring Sunnis and Shiites closer together, through his famous saying that he delivered during a visit of an Iranian Shiite delegation to the headquarters of the General Centre of the Muslim Brotherhood and included the Shiite jurist “Muhammad Taqi al-Qummy.” He said, Know that Sunnis and Shiites are Muslims who are united by the word “There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”
Sayyid Qutb and the Shiite revolution
As for Sayyid Qutb, who enjoys great love and popularity in Iran, this prompted her to try to intervene to lift the gallows from his neck after a death sentence was passed in the case known as the 1965 Special Organisation, which planned terrorist operations, led by Qutb Islam and considered him the basis for the theory of the establishment of the Islamic State and the nature of Muslim society, as previously there had been strong contacts and relations between the Iranians and Sayyid Qutb.
Moreover, Sayyid Qattat’s books, especially “In the Shadow of the Quran”, were the most widely distributed books in Iran after the revolution. This was not the first time that “Milestones on the Road” went to Iran while pressing its feet. On the contrary, it went there after 1966, when it was completed. The book was printed in Beirut, and this book was very popular among the Shiites, so no one knew of a book published by a Sunni writer that was so widespread and so widespread.
Popular in a Shiite state, just like Khomeini, in his idea of the guardianship of the jurist, and in his book “The Islamic Government” was touched by Sayyid Qutb’s idea of “governance”, and in 1966, Sayyid Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Iranian Republic, a disciple of Khomeini, who was also an outstanding student of Nawab Safavi, who was known for his close ties to the Brotherhood, Khamenei translated Sayyid Qutb’s book “The Future of this Religion” into Persian.
He wrote an introduction to the translation dripping with intense sentiment, in which he described Sayyid Qutb as a mujahid thinker, and the Egyptian regime had executed Qutb on charges of forming an organisation targeting the assassination of Gamal Abdel Nasser and the overthrow of the regime by force, which Qutb admitted to in a letter he wrote before his hanging entitled “Why did they execute me? That religion is a way of life, and that its rituals are not useful unless they express its truths, has been proven in a wonderful and objective way that the world will move towards our message and the future of this religion.
Brotherhood support for the Khomeinist revolution
The Brotherhood strongly supported the Khomeinist revolution in Iran and mobilised demonstrations against the late President Anwar Sadat’s reception of the Shah of Iran, and sided with Iran in its war against Iraq.”
While the Muslim Brotherhood saw the Islamic Republic in 1979 as a victory for their vision and the first Islamic government since the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate, the Muslim Brotherhood has supported the Islamic Revolution in Iran since its inception because it was against the Shah’s regime. Reza Pahlavi, who was aligned with the Zionist enemy. Iran also considers the export of the revolution by the Muslim Brotherhood as a success.
After Khomeini came to power in Iran on 11 February 1979, one of the first planes to arrive at Tehran airport carried a delegation representing the leadership of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood organisation: Al-Alsun spread among the Syrian opposition once the delegation offered Khomeini allegiance to him as Caliph of the Muslims if he accepted a published statement saying “that the dispute over the Imamate at the time of the Companions is a political matter, not a faith”. Khomeini waited and promised them an answer later, and when the new constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran was promulgated, which says that “the Ja’fari doctrine is an official doctrine… and the guardianship of the jurist is a representative of the secret Imam”, Khomeini’s answer was clear.
Despite this, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt continued to support the new Iranian regime and organised large demonstrations against President Sadat’s hosting of the Shah of Iran in Egypt, then supported Iran in its war against Iraq and in the issue of Crescent magazine. The group’s general guide, Omar al-Telmisani, says: “I don’t know of anyone from the Muslim Brotherhood in the world who attacks Iran. An exception to this was the Syrian Brotherhood branch, which had just emerged from a bitter confrontation (1979-1982) with the Iranian-allied Syrian regime, although it was not official, but in the words of one of the Brotherhood’s leaders in Syria, Sheikh Saeed Hawa.
When Khomeini died on 4 June 1989, the General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamid Abu Al-Nasr, published an obituary that included the following words: ‘The Muslim Brotherhood counts the death of Islam, Imam Khomeini, the leader who exploded the Islamic revolution against tyrants with God. During the time of Ali Khamenei, who became “Leader” after Khomeini’s death, Sayyid Qutb’s theories were taught in the ideological training schools of the (Iranian Revolutionary Guards), and the influence of religious authorities such as Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi , Ahmadinejad’s spiritual teacher, also emerged. She hides her admiration for Sayyid Qutb and her influence on him.
The ideological similarity between the Brotherhood and the Shiites
The intellectual approach is similar between the Brotherhood and the leaders of the Khomeinist revolution, hence the belief in the universality of the message of monotheism. That Islam is the only way to a happy life and the belief in the plurality of opinions and the plurality of parties on the basis of freedom of thought and expression in Islam. Both sides share a view of the effects of the Western military onslaught on the Islamic world, and that it has not only led to military, political and economic control over Islamic countries, but has also produced strong tendencies in Islamic societies towards Westernisation of thought, culture, social life and fundamentalism, which sees that there is a starting point which is the origin, and time has been a process of deviation from it, and Muslims have to return to it. A materialistic and spiritually backward civilisation.
As for differences, they are limited to differences between them on the content of Islam, which is Sunni, the content is according to Al-Banna, the content is Shiite in Khomeini, and there is progressivism in achieving the goal according to Al-Banna The Muslim Brotherhood does not share Khomeini’s view that the American West is the Great Satan in relation to the Soviet Union, although they agree in their hostility towards both.
The scholar Dr. Ishaq Musa Al-Husseini, who was a member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo until his death in 1990, and was also a member of the Iraqi Scientific Academy, in addition to a member of the Islamic Research Academy, wrote this great scholar in his famous book “The Muslim Brotherhood. The Greatest Movement. Modern Islam” stated that the friendship was mutual between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Shiites. Indeed, the Shiites considered the Muslim Brotherhood as a branch of their branches and spokesman of their language among the Sunni nation, and what he said in this regard was “Some Shiite students who were studying in Egypt joined the Muslim Brotherhood, and it is known. The ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq included many Twelver Imami Shiites.” When the Safavi representatives went to Syria and met with Dr Mustafa al-Sibai, the Muslim Brotherhood’s general observer there, he complained to him that some young Shiites were joining the secular and nationalist movements, so the representatives went to one of the pulpits. He said to a crowd of Shiite and Sunni youth: “Whoever wants to be a true Jaafari should join the Muslim Brotherhood.
Muslim Brotherhood offers Egypt to Iran after takeover
In the wake of the January revolution, which the Iranians saw as a new model of the Islamic revolution, especially with the rise of the political ideology of Islam, to the detriment of national identity, and the rise to power of the Brotherhood, the Iranians tried to strengthen their relationship with the Brotherhood, and during the Brotherhood’s rule, Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Al-Quds Force in the Guards, visited the Iranian revolutionary in Egypt and met with many Brotherhood leaders for rapprochement between the Brotherhood and Iran.
After the Muslim Brotherhood came to power with the victory of deposed President Mohamed Morsi in the 2012 elections, the group began a series of re-establishing rapprochement and relations with Iran. Morsi took advantage of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in August 2012, after a 35-year break in official Iranian relations, amidst extreme Iranian warmth towards the Muslim Brotherhood president and a warm embrace between Morsi Ahmadinejad, but the Muslim Brotherhood’s fears of popular anger at Iranian Shiites worried them.
It is also interesting to note that the Muslim Brotherhood tried to benefit from the expertise of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and set an example in Egypt to protect the deposed president Mohamed Morsi, but they backed down amidst great popular discontent and rejected the idea completely.
What is happening today between Qatar and Iran is not insignificant, knowing that Qatar has always supported and financed the Muslim Brotherhood, especially in Europe.
To be continued ….
