The Society of Muslim Brothers was founded in 1928 as a religious organization created for the promotion of Muslim values and the building of mosques and Islamic schools. The focus of the group was “not limited to the establishment of a charitable group or association for the undertaking of social services, but was a broader and more comprehensive organization to reach society in its entirety” (al-Bishri 1983). The goal, therefore, was not to create a Muslim state, per se, but rather to Islamize Egyptian society in a way that reflected a reform of the political, economic, and social life of the country (Mitchell 1969; el-Ghobashy 2005). The contemporary Muslim Brotherhood defies classification as it combines aspects of a religious movement, social movement, charitable association, and political party.

There are a number of excellent books and studies that have focused on the history, ideology, and tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood over time. This chapter is meant to serve as a complement to these studies by specifically focusing on a few narrow aspects of Brotherhood activity that are particularly related to the issue of electoral participation. My primary objective is to discuss Muslim Brotherhood electoral participation with an eye toward answering three questions: Why does the Muslim Brotherhood participate in parliamentary elections that are, as I have argued, key to maintaining the stability of the authoritarian regime? What are the electoral bases of Muslim Brotherhood support?