Information on Muslim Brotherhood of Syria, other than that found in Revolutionary and Dissident Movements

A number of political parties and organizations are outlawed by the Syrian government. Foremost among them is the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been described as Asad's main foe. [ John Kifner, "Syria's Worrying Winter: Political and Financial Ills, and Plentiful Statues," The New York Times, 29 December 1986.] Established in many Arab countries in the 1930s the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria is reportedly composed of middle and lower class urban Muslims opposed to liberal and leftist forces that would "weaken Islamic institutions and norms in the country". [ Ma'oz, Moshe. Asad: The Sphinx of Damascus. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988, p. 149.]

 The term "Muslim Brotherhood" has often been used as a "blanket phrase" to describe a variety of Muslim fundamentalist guerilla groups in the country, and it is often unknown whether a new group represents just a renaming of an already established force, or whether the rebel groups formed in the 1960s still exist (The latter include the Phalanxes of Muhammad, founded in 1965 by Marwan Hadid, a central figure in the Muslim Brotherhood until the mid-1970s). [ Seale, Patrick: Asad of Syria: The Struggle for the Middle East, (London: I.B. Taurus and Co Ltd., 1988), pp. 322-3.]

In December 1980, the Islamic Front was created as an organization to group all anti-Asad opposition forces together. Although the extent to which fundamentalist forces maintained a leading position in this organization is unknown, it was reportedly led from abroad by a triumvirate which received support from Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. [ Seale, p. 331.] By the early 1980s, the Muslim Brotherhood had acquired sophisticated weaponry and was reportedly receiving training in the Ivory Coast and Jordan, with financial support sent by Egypt and Saudi Arabia. [ Ma'oz, p. 152.] Many observers hold the Muslim Brotherhood responsible for numerous attacks against the Syrian government in the late 1970s and early 1980s. [Revolutionary and Dissident Movements, (London: Longman, 1988), p. 358.]

A series of violent disturbances which took place between February and May 1973, were reportedly led by the Muslim Brotherhood in response to the proposed removal of a clause in the constitution stipulating that the president must by a Muslim. [Ma'oz, p. 151.] In 1976 Marwan Hadid, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, died in jail after his arrest, and was replaced by Adnan Sa'd al-Din, who reportedly radicalized the organization under the name "mujahidin" (holy warriors). [Ma'oz, p. 152.]

Reports indicate that, in June 1979, a member of the Aleppo Artillery School staff assembled 200 Alawite cadets in a hall and then allowed entrance to Muslim Brotherhood gunmen who shot and killed between 60 an 65 cadets. [ Delury, George E., ed. World Encyclopedia of Political Systems and Parties: Syrian Arab Republic. New York: Facts on File, 1987, p. 1073; Revolutionary and Dissident Movements, pp. 358-9; and Seale, p.316.] From 1979 to 1981, the Muslim Brotherhood was estimated to have killed 300 in the city of Aleppo alone, [ Seale, p. 325.] including ten Soviet military advisors killed in a series of attacks in January 1980. [ Seale, p. 324.] In July 1980, government forces sought out six fugitives of the Muslim Brotherhood who had fled to the town of Sarmada. They were eventually found and killed, and large scale arrests followed, in which many were reportedly interrogated, beaten and, in some cases, shot to death. [ Report by Amnesty International to the Government of Syria, (London: Amnesty International, 1983), p.35.] That month, after an assassination attempt on President Asad which many attributed to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Syrian parliament passed a law making membership in the Muslim Brotherhood punishable by death, although it also provided for an amnesty for those leaving the organization within a month. [Ma'oz, p. 161.] In late August of that year, it was reported that one thousand members of the organization had surrendered under the terms of the amnesty. [ "1000 Syrians surrender," The Globe and Mail, 28 August 1980, p. 20.] In December 1980, the Muslim Brotherhood reportedly attacked the headquarters of Rifat Asad in Aleppo. [ Ma'oz, pp. 154-5] The same report indicates that in March 1981, in an attempt to kill Isam al-Attar, a Muslim Brotherhood activist living in Aachen, West Germany, Syrian agents killed his wife. [ Ma'oz, p. 172.] In April of that year, the Muslim Brotherhood reportedly attacked Alawite villages near Latakia, staging an open revolt in Hama. [ Ma'oz, p. 155.] Between August and November 1981, guerillas believed by some to belong to the Muslim Brotherhood, detonated bombs in Damascus; the last of this series of bombings, on 29 November, was reported to have killed and wounded hundreds of people. [ Seale, p. 331.] The Muslim Brotherhood was also one of the groups suspected of bombings in March and April 1986 which resulted in well over 100 deaths. [ Kifner, "Syrian President Reported to Face Harsh Challenges", in The New York Times, 18 May 1986..] One source, however, states that there is no conclusive evidence that the 1986 killings were the work of the Muslim Brotherhood. [ Patrick Martin, "Syria cracks down on outbreak of bombings, attacks on military," The Globe and Mail [Toronto], 7 May 1986, p. A1.] A decisive setback for the organization occurred in February 1982 in the city of Hama, reported as the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood and a stronghold of Sunni Muslim puritanism, considered by some as the nucleus of the Muslim Brotherhood's insurrection. [ Ma'oz, p. 162.] As 12,000 government troops combed Hama for Brotherhood leaders on 2 February, the group began a general insurrection in an attempt to capture the city, and by February 3, this had reportedly resulted in the death of between 70 and 250 Baath officials. [ Ma'oz, p. 162 and Seale, pp. 332-33.] The operation resulted in a battle that lasted three weeks, as government forces bombarded the city, causing casualties reported to be between 3,000 and 20,000 or more. [Seale, p. 334; and Revolutionary and Dissident Movements, p. 359.] One source puts the minimum number at 5000 civilian and Muslim Brotherhood casualties while the highest figure quoted is 15,000. [ The low figure is from Delury, pp. 1070-71, while the high figure is from Revolutionary and Dissident Movements, p. 359.] Hama was said to represent "by far the most serious challenge to Mr Asad's government since he assumed power." [ P. Martin, "Syria cracks down...".] The attack on Hama was reportedly ordered to destroy the last stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood and eliminate all remnants of Sunni puritanism in the city. [ Seale, p. 334.] However, some authors report that most Sunnis have dissociated themselves from the violent tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood. [ Seale, p. 337, Delury, p. 1070, Ma'oz, p. 52.]

In January 1985, five leading members of the Brotherhood were allowed to return to Syria, reportedly after they had expressed "new convictions" to Syrian officials in Europe. [ Revolutionary and Dissident Movements, p. 360.]