The Muslim Brotherhood movement is viewed by many as the mother of salafi Islam that tends to return to the fundamentals of Islam as practised by the founding fathers, the salaf. This article examines the movement’s development in Syria following the state’s independence in 1946. It also studies its involvement in Syrian parliamentary politics during the period 1947-1958, when two issues were at the center of politics in post-World War II Syria : the relationship of Islam to the Syrian state and Syria’s position vis-à-vis the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Full Text: “The Muslim Brotherhood and the ‘Struggle For Syria’, 1947-1958: Between Accommodation and Ideology,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 40 (May 2004), pp. 134-158.