The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

Having played a role in every iteration of Syrian politics since the country gained independence in 1946, the Muslim Brotherhood were the most prominent opposition group in Syria on the eve of the 2011 uprising. But when unrest broke out in March 2011, few Brotherhood flags and slogans were to be found within the burgeoning protest movement. Drawing on extensive primary research including interviews with Brotherhood members, Dara Conduit looks to the group's history to understand why it failed to capitalise on this advantage as the conflict unfolded, addressing significant gaps in accounts of the group's past to assess whether its reputation for violence and dogmatism is justified. In doing so, Conduit reveals a party that was neither as violent nor as undemocratic as expected, but whose potential to stage a long-awaited comeback was hampered by the shadow of its own history.

Introduction; Part I. The History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria: 1. A brief history of Syria and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood; 2. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood's founding ideas; 3. The Brotherhood's political experiences; 4. The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria and violence; 5. International relations and exile; Part II. The Syrian Uprising: 6. The Brotherhood re-enters the political fray; 7. Looking beyond the opposition in exile; 8. Military uprising; Conclusion.

Dara Conduit is Associate Research Fellow in the Middle East Studies Forum at the Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University, Victoria. She was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge, is a board member of the Syrian Studies Association and has provided advice to the UN OHCHR's Working Group on Mercenaries. Author of articles in The Middle East Journal, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism and Journal of Contemporary China, she gained her M.Litt. from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and her Ph.D. from Monash University where her thesis was a finalist for the Terrorism Research Institute's annual thesis award.