Is Muslim Brotherhood left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Muslim Brotherhood scores −01 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores +09. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Muslim Brotherhood authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, Muslim Brotherhood scores +05. Historically contested the ballot where allowed; internally hierarchical with a general guide.

Atlas / Organisations / Muslim Brotherhood

Muslim Brotherhood

Ikhwan · 1928– · Egypt, worldwide · Islamist · Movement · coding confidence medium

−01ECcollective

+09CUtraditional

+05AUmonist

+03SCcentral

+06IDascriptive

+01CHcoercive

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Islam as a complete social order, built from below through education, charity and civic organisation.

Economic model

Zakat-based welfare, small-business friendly, opposition to interest, extensive charitable networks.

Organisation of powers

Historically contested the ballot where allowed; internally hierarchical with a general guide.

Reading note

Its authority coding is one of the most disputed in the dataset — banned as a terrorist organisation in some states and a legal party in others.

Check a claim about Muslim Brotherhood. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored −01

Coded −1: zakat welfare and a small-trader base.

Documented act or statuteClinics, schools and charitable networks were the movement's principal presence for decades.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +09

Coded +9: Islam as a complete social order.

Programme textAl-Banna's slogan names the Quran as constitution and jihad as way.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +05

Coded +5: contested elections where permitted, with a hierarchical cadre structure.

Documented act or statuteWon the 2011–12 Egyptian elections and was removed by coup in 2013; banned in several states.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +03

Coded +3: a national organisation within a pan-Islamic frame.

Documented act or statuteBranches operate nationally under a general guide with a transnational identity.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +06

Coded +6 after the v2.2 review: confessional and conversion-open rather than ancestral.

ScholarshipThe movement has organised across Arab, Turkish, South Asian and diaspora communities.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +01

Coded +1: gradual Islamisation from below, with a documented paramilitary history.

Documented act or statuteThe Special Apparatus conducted assassinations in the 1940s; the movement later renounced violence.

Where it came from, and what came after

takes its doctrine fromIslamic Modernism
Al-Banna drew on the reformist current and rejected its accommodation with the West.
gave doctrine toHamas
Founded in 1987 as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
gave doctrine toJamaat-e-Islami
Maududi and al-Banna developed the vanguard model in parallel and read each other.
gave doctrine toIslamic State
The jihadist current derives from Qutb's writings, produced inside the Brotherhood and repudiated by it.

Scores that have been revised

ID +08 → +06Confessional tier. The movement's criterion is adherence, which is acquirable, and it has organised across national and ethnic lines throughout.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Egypt

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Muslim Brotherhood. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/ikhwan/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.