Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf: Allies or Enemies?

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A talk by Dr. Ali A. Alkandari, at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Dr Alkandari is an instructor of Modern and Contemporary GCC History at Kuwait University. He holds a PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from University of Exeter and Master of Arts in Arab Studies from Georgetown University. Ali works on Islamism and Political Legitimacy in GCC where he published few of articles and participated in several talks on media, conferences, and universities

Since the establishment of the Muslim brotherhood branches in the Gulf, both governments and Arab Nationalist movements looked at the MB as an ally to the current conservative governments in the Gulf. Since 1990, the good relationship between the GCC governments and the GCC branches of MB started to change for ambiguous reasons led to different interpretations. Before looking at the reasons of this change in relationship, it is important to look at the story from the beginning. Also, it is important to look at the socio-political milieu in which these branches emerged; the political legitimacy of the ruling families, the role of societal groups in politics, the continuation of the traditional socio-political structure from medieval Islam in the Gulf, and et cetera.