Muslim Brotherhood survives elsewhere in North Africa, Middle East

Washington Times:

The Muslim Brotherhood — battered in Egypt and losing popularity in some Arab countries — remains a political force across the Middle East and North Africa where the Islamist group is the main beneficiary of Arab Spring protests that have toppled entrenched dictatorships since 2010.

Its affiliates, which promote Islamic law and build strong grass-roots networks by providing social services, play roles of varying significance in several countries: in Algeria as the Movement for the Society of Peace; in Bahrain as the Al Eslah Society and its political wing Al-Menbar Islamic Society; in Jordan as the Islamic Action Front; and in Kuwait as Hadas.

“Although the Brotherhood originated in Egypt, its various offshoots in other Arab countries have long had independent status and have adapted their tactics to their local political situations,” said Paul Pillar, a former CIA national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia.

“The popularity and standing of these other national branches of the Brotherhood will depend more on their roles and performance in their individual countries than on the events in Egypt,” he said.

In Syria, where a civil war has been raging for more than two years, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as one of the better-organized opponents of embattled President Bashar Assad. The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot, controls the Gaza Strip.

But support for the Brotherhood in Egypt, where it is facing an unprecedented and unrelenting crackdown by security forces, has narrowed to its base, which is “probably a few million people in a country of 80 to 90 million,” said Eric Trager, an Egypt analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

In Libya and Tunisia, the Islamists are facing public anger fueled by the assassinations of prominent critics. They are represented by the Brotherhood’s political wing, the Justice and Construction Party, in Libya, and the ruling Ennahda party, a Brotherhood-inspired group in Tunisia.

...

There is a backlash against them in much of the region and many are distancing themselves from religious bigots in Egypt.  Strangely, little has been heard from their US affiliates like CAIR.   They showed their true colors after Morsi was removed and the alienation is spreading.