Eurasia Press & News
A recent article by Dr. Ahmed Muwaffaq Zaidan on Al Jazeera, urging the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, has stirred debate. Some welcomed the idea as a way to move beyond a long-burdensome legacy; others saw it as a worrying signal of exclusion at a moment that calls for unity.
A Legacy of Conflict
Founded in the 1940s, the Brotherhood once played a major role in Syrian politics, particularly in Hama, Aleppo, and Damascus. Its confrontation with the Ba’athist regime ended in the Hama massacre of the early 1980s and the death-penalty law against its members. Forced into exile, it became detached from Syrian realities and has since survived largely on the symbolism of victimhood.
In this light, Zaidan’s proposal is understandable: the Brotherhood no longer enjoys popular legitimacy and often weighs down the political scene. Yet the real issue is timing. After years of war and fragmentation, Syria needs to widen the political space, not shrink it. Calls for dissolution, even of a weakened group, risk appearing as exclusion rather than renewal.
The sensitivity lies less in Zaidan’s personal view than in his current position as media adviser to President Ahmad al-Sharaa. His words are inevitably read as reflecting the new government’s stance. That perception risks casting the transitional state as exclusionary when what Syrians need most is pluralism and inclusion.
A Question of Priorities
Across the region, movements linked to the Brotherhood have at times reinvented themselves, whether in Turkey or Morocco. In Syria too, transformation should come from within, not through state decrees. The real priority today is building institutions, securing the return of the displaced, and rebuilding trust—not erasing one political current.
President Sharaa’s remark that he is not an extension of Islamist groups or the Arab Spring reflects public fatigue with ideologies that fueled division. Yet the tone of rejection risks closing doors rather than opening them. Lasting change comes not through bans but by creating a civic, democratic space where all movements can redefine themselves.
The call to dissolve the Brotherhood may be valid in principle, but at this fragile moment it is misplaced. Syria’s transition requires integration over exclusion, transformation over erasure. Only by embracing all currents can the country move forward and ensure its democratic experiment takes root.
