In recent months, Egyptian publishing houses have seen a surge in memoirs and exposés written by former leaders and long-time members of the Muslim Brotherhood who eventually broke away from the organization. These publications unveil the inner workings of a group that had long operated in secrecy, revealing how it thinks, governs, and manages its operations—both overt and covert.
These books shed light on the internal power dynamics between the hardliners (“hawks”) and moderates (“doves”) within the Brotherhood, expose how the organization manages its finances and executes terror plots, and detail how it forges connections with foreign entities. The value of these revelations often depends on the author’s former rank within the group—the higher their status, the more significant and credible the information they provide.
A Glimpse Inside a Closed and Corrupt System
Some of these works reflect a notable intellectual maturity and deep awareness of the ideological currents within the broader Islamic movement. More importantly, they offer unique insight into the Brotherhood’s subversive agenda and the destructive ideologies it shares with other similar movements. Their importance is not limited to internal testimony but extends to their potential in raising awareness among vulnerable youth who might be susceptible to extremist thinking.
Hesham Al-Naggar, a researcher specialized in Islamist groups, noted that these books reveal disturbing practices within the Brotherhood that few could have imagined—particularly the level of corruption and opportunism rampant among its leadership, which often hides behind religious rhetoric to pursue wealth and power.
Al-Naggar emphasized that some books delve into theological deviations and ideological distortions that underpin the Brotherhood’s methods. He argued that the group’s leaders effectively “sold out” their religion, manipulating sacred texts and concealing truths for political and financial gain. He credited high-profile defectors such as Tharwat El-Kherbawy with playing a pivotal role in exposing the Brotherhood’s deceit and showing how it had become an insular entity that distorted religion to serve its worldly ambitions.
“I Was a Brother, Now I’m Egyptian”
One notable example is I Was a Brother, Now I’m Egyptian, by former Brotherhood member Tarek Al-Bishbishi. The author details his 25-year involvement in various Brotherhood departments, particularly the political division, which he says worked relentlessly to portray the group as a peaceful religious movement. Al-Bishbishi himself was recruited at 18 through “individual da’wah” (private religious outreach) due to his regular mosque attendance and introverted personality.
However, he says the mask fell off after Egypt’s 2011 revolution, revealing the Brotherhood’s true face. “They pounced on the country like rabid wolves,” he writes, describing how his former peers embraced violence. He began to challenge their rhetoric and gradually distanced himself. “The more they betrayed Egypt, the more I opposed them,” he says, concluding that the Brotherhood is a destructive entity serving as a proxy for foreign powers, one that manipulates religion to dismantle state institutions and fracture societies.
Al-Bishbishi believes it’s vital for such personal accounts to reach the public—not just through books, but also via short videos on social media. He called on the state to support former members who have defected and wish to speak out, arguing that individual efforts, while valuable, are insufficient without broader institutional backing.
“Like Hashish Addicts, Their Minds Are Numb”
Dr. Mokhtar Nouh, a prominent lawyer and veteran dissenter from the Brotherhood, provides another damning account in his book The Encyclopedia of Violence in Armed Islamist Movements: Fifty Years of Blood. He explains how the Brotherhood showed fierce hostility toward religious scholars who disagreed with its views—going so far as to label some of them apostates.
He recounts the group’s particularly bitter stance toward the esteemed scholar Sheikh Mohammed Al-Ghazali after he left its secretive “Special Apparatus.” Al-Ghazali was shunned completely, as though he had ceased to exist in Brotherhood circles. Even Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, at one point estranged from the Brotherhood, was regarded as an opponent until he regained influence—at which point attitudes toward him shifted dramatically.
Nouh questioned this kind of blind groupthink: “How can minds change so fast, so absolutely? It’s as if their awareness is numbed, like a drugged person who has no capacity for critical thought.” He likened Brotherhood members to addicts who cannot see reality without external intervention.
The group, he says, considers defectors “traitors of the highest order,” even though they might welcome ideological opponents or non-Muslims and invite them to Islam. But when it comes to insiders who leave the fold—especially from the Special Apparatus—they are cast aside as enemies.
Nouh recalled how he and other members once dismissed the group’s failed assassination attempt on President Gamal Abdel Nasser as a fabricated event. “We lived in denial. Even the bullets were said to be staged,” he said. “But later I reviewed the case and confirmed that it was a real, premeditated attempt with six live rounds fired.”
He also referenced televised interviews by the late journalist Hamdi Qandil with Brotherhood members, during which some openly admitted to planning assassinations and sabotage operations—including targeting figures like Umm Kulthum and Mohamed Abdel Wahab. Similar confessions were shared in a program hosted by journalist Helmy Al-Balk, which have since mysteriously disappeared from public archives.
Nouh compared the Brotherhood to the infamous medieval Hashashin sect, both of which, he argued, rely on intellectual manipulation, incite hatred, and reject dialogue or dissent—especially from insiders who see through the façade.
The Brotherhood’s Doctrine of Obedience
Tharwat El-Kherbawy, another high-profile defector and author of The Secret of the Temple, recalled a conversation with Zainab Al-Ghazali, a prominent female Brotherhood figure. She admitted that the group had planned 19 attempts to assassinate Nasser, with two serious efforts undertaken—one of which involved future Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie.
El-Kherbawy emphasized how new recruits were conditioned to obey blindly, trained to suppress independent thought. Comparing the Brotherhood to the moon, he said: “From afar, it looks bright. But once you land on its surface, it’s dark—just rocks and craters.” He reflected on how the group viewed itself as superior even to mainstream Muslims, placing its members in a status akin to the Prophet’s companions.
Members, he said, were subjected to rigorous training in obedience, including general and special pledges of allegiance (bay’ah). These oaths were seen as religious obligations, even though Islamic doctrine reserves bay’ah for God and His Messenger alone. Disobedience was punished by physical tasks like long-distance runs or food deprivation to “test patience and loyalty.”
“Back From the Brotherhood’s Paradise”
Another compelling account comes from Back From the Brotherhood’s Paradise by Samah Faiz. In it, he chronicles his childhood recruitment into the group and the indoctrination techniques it employed—promising its young members that they were destined to restore Islam’s glory and triumph on Judgment Day.
The group identified and groomed bright children through free tutoring sessions supervised by carefully selected Brotherhood members. Faiz didn’t even realize he had joined the Brotherhood until he stumbled upon Hassan Al-Banna’s “Ten Commandments” at a friend’s house.
Once disillusioned, he feared leaving the group would make him an apostate. But after reading critical works and learning that secularists and Nasser were not the monsters the Brotherhood claimed, he officially left in 2005.
Faiz explains that the Brotherhood suppresses any form of questioning, which it sees as the first step toward defection. “To ask is to doubt, and doubt is a sign of weak faith,” he wrote. He added that members were forbidden from associating with Christians or girls, both of whom were labeled as impure and devilish distractions.
Faiz eventually sought to return to the group’s religious sessions only, but they demanded total ideological submission—a condition he refused. He cut ties permanently in 2009.
“They Are Neither Brothers Nor Muslims”
Dr. Abdel Sattar Al-Meligy, an early defector, said the events following the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi proved that Egypt was ruled by the Brotherhood’s secret apparatus—not the formal group. He recalled Hassan Al-Banna’s warning that such elements “are neither Brothers nor Muslims.”
Al-Meligy believes that the mass protests of June 30, 2013, shifted the confrontation from being between the Brotherhood and the state to one between the Brotherhood and the people. “Egyptians now view the group as synonymous with ignorance and terror,” he said. While the group was once banned by the state, it has since become “banned by the people,” with no hope of revival.
Between Truth and Opportunism
In her memoir My Story with the Brotherhood, Entessar Abdel Moneim recounts her personal experience with the group and how she was recruited—only to later discover a vast gap between Islamic teachings and the Brotherhood’s self-serving interpretations. She highlights how the group distorted religious values to pursue unrelated political goals.
Despite the risk of defamation and character assassination, she chose reason over allegiance, walking away from the group. Her book explores themes such as the Brotherhood’s rigid gender roles and its binary view of society—where women are either hidden or excluded.
A New Era of Revelations
It’s worth noting that defections from the Muslim Brotherhood began as early as the group’s founding. One of the earliest cases was Sheikh Ahmed Al-Sukari, co-founder of the Brotherhood with Hassan Al-Banna. Over the years, defections continued, though most defectors remained publicly silent, rarely documenting their experiences.
That changed after the Arab Spring. Today, nearly every major defector has published a memoir. Readers now have unprecedented access to the Brotherhood’s darkest secrets—once locked away behind closed doors—finally pulled into the light of public scrutiny.
