In the decade before the Arab Spring, political and structural conditions led to internal and external evolution of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood found itself a social movement, a political party, and an ideology. These three faces caused several tensions in the 2005 parliamentary elections, the conduct of the Brotherhood parliamentary bloc between 2005-2010, their involvement in the revolution, the subsequent election of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi, and their subsequent fall from power. In this paper, I will trace the three faces of the Brotherhood during these important moments of transition, the tensions that arise, and finally end with a discussion of how the Brotherhood can reconstitute itself in the face of increased repression and exclusion and what the means for the socio-political role of political Islam.
Middle East/Near East Studies