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Does Morsi's Fall Mark Failure of Islamism?

The decades-old ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood has failed its test as a mode of governance in a modern state.
A supporter of former Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi performs prayers near Cairo University in Cairo July 4, 2013. The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood was arrested by Egyptian security forces on Thursday in a crackdown against the Islamist movement after the army ousted the country's first democratically elected president Mursi. At least 16 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in street clashes across Egypt since Mursi's overthrow. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX1

Eighty-five years after its establishment and only one year after one of its followers was elected the president of Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is experiencing an unprecedented nakba (catastrophe), whose effects are being felt throughout the region.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded as a Sunni Islamist religious, political and social movement in Ismailia, Egypt, by Hassan al-Banna in March 1928. It has survived government crackdowns and imprisonment, and it succeeded in gaining power in Egypt in large due to the splintering of the votes between various secular leaders vying for the post-January 25 revolution presidency.

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