What Is the Muslim Brotherhood?
"Brian Ross Investigates" examines Egypt's leading opposition party.
Feb. 26, 2011 — -- When Hosni Mubarak stepped down from the presidency in Egypt, ending a 30-year reign, an interim military government was set in place in order to help placate the protesters' demands for reform, including new, free elections.
But in the north African nation that has been dominated by one man's regime for three decades, suddenly the long-banned Islamist organization the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as one of the most powerful opposition groups in the country. It's a group that, according to one former White House security advisor, "wants the same end as al Qaeda."
"They want to caliphate a sort of European Union of Islamic countries spreading from Indonesia to Morocco, and this is a place where they would enforce Sharia law, not terribly different than what the Taliban enforced in Afghanistan," said Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant, on "Brian Ross Investigates". "No rights for women and perhaps, no opportunity through a democratic process to change things once they establish the Islamic state."
ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross and Clarke discussed the controversy within the intelligence and academic communities over the Brotherhood, which was formed in Egypt in 1928.
"There are two camps," Clarke said. "One that says this is a nonviolent, political, social movement that just wants Islamic values. Another camp that says this is a very secret society with cell structures that wants to create the same end state that al Qaeda does, the only difference is al Qaeda says do it through violence and the Muslim Brotherhood says no, do it through social means and maybe even elections."
Other segments of the show explore the case of American CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who sits in a Pakistan prison accused of murder as the U.S. and Pakistan go head to head over his diplomatic immunity.
In the show, international law expert John Quigley Skypes in with Ross from Ohio State University to discuss Davis' case and answer viewer questions from Twitter. In Davis' case, it's not enough to have a diplomatic passport, Quigley said.
Click on the following links to view this week's reports from "Brian Ross Investigates": What Is the Muslim Brotherhood? and No Diplomatic Immunity for CIA Worker.
Related Stories
ABC News Live