Transnational authoritarianism: How 'Muslim Brotherhood' labels weaponize state power to dismantle civic freedoms globally
Original framing: “The Brotherhood bogeyman: How Europe and the US criminalise Muslim civic life” — Middle East Eye
Historically, authoritarian regimes have used 'terrorist' labels to dismantle opposition groups, from Egypt's 1950s crackdowns on the Muslim Brotherhood to Indonesia's 1965-66 anti-communist purges. In the West, Cold War-era 'red scares' mirrored today's 'green scares,' where Muslim civic organizations are conflated with extremism to justify repression. The transnational export of these tactics reveals a pattern of authoritarian learning, where states adopt and adapt repressive tools from one another to maintain power.
The 'Muslim Brotherhood bogeyman' narrative is not a domestic security issue but a transnational authoritarian tool exported by regimes like Egypt and the UAE, adopted by Western states to justify the dismantling of Muslim civic life.
This phenomenon reflects a broader pattern of securitization, where marginalized communities are framed as existential threats to justify state repression, a tactic with roots in colonial-era control and Cold War-era 'red scares.' The erasure of indigenous civic frameworks, historical parallels, and marginalized voices in mainstream discourse obscures the structural nature of this repression, which is rooted in Islamophobia and authoritarian learning. Solution pathways must therefore address both the transnational dimensions of this repression and the local manifestations of systemic Islamophobia, centering community-led security models and decolonizing security frameworks. The trickster's lens reveals the absurdity of these narratives, while future modelling underscores the urgency of action to prevent a feedback loop of ever-expanding state control. Only by dismantling the securitization paradigm can Muslim civic life thrive as a cornerstone of democratic pluralism.