Issam al attar biography template

The Syrian uprising has given the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) a chance to emerge as an integral part of the opposition. Following years in exile, leadership crises, and numerous political challenges, the group is now a central political player in the country. Interestingly, though, women are becoming an important part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Commonly referred to as the “Syrian Sisterhood,” these women are taking on an increasingly bigger role both within the organization and in its national role. Most recently, six women were elected to the group’s Majlis al-Shura, or consultative body, two of whom now form part of the organization’s leadership—a number set to rapidly grow according to a source close to the leaders. 

The roots of Syrian women’s involvement into the Muslim Brotherhood go back to the early 1950s when the young activist Amina Sheikha met Mustapha al-Sibai, the Syrian group’s charismatic leader, and then decided to set up a Syrian Sisterhood tasked with recruiting

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The Brotherhood's Westward Expansion

The Muslim Brotherhood exerts one of the greatest influences on Islam in the West, both in terms of how Islam is practiced and how governments and the public perceive Islam. Despite the Brotherhood’s important influence, the history of the Brotherhood’s spread to the West has never been written. This article is an effort to help fill that gap by looking at some key aspects and people involved with its rapid rise over the past half-century.

While there is some evidence that the Brotherhood was active in Europe before World War II¹, this seems to have been just a one-man operation that left no long-lasting traces. It was Egypt’s persecution of the group that sent its organizers abroad in the 1950s. The Brotherhood’s European presence was later strengthened by the arrival of economic migrants from Turkey, the Middle East and South Asia who subsequently became affiliated with the Brotherhood. These immigrants, however, did not bring

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Issam al-Attar

Muslim Brotherhood leader

Issam al-Attar (Arabic: عصام العطار; 1927 – 3 May 2024) was a Syrian dissident politician and Islamic preacher who was the former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. He was a symbol of dissent and resistance against the rule of Hafez al-Assad during the 1970s, and later went into exile in Aachen, Germany where he resided for the remainder of his life.

Biography

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Al-Attar was born in 1927 in Damascus, Syria. His father was the jurist Mohammed Reda al-Attar. As an eleven-year-old, he became a member of the Youth of Mohammed, which was founded by Mustafa al-Siba'i, who later became the first head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. Following his criticism of Adib Shishakli in 1951, he was forced to settle in Egypt, where he met Sayyid Qutb, Mohamed Bachir El Ibrahimi, Mahmoud Mohamed Shaker and Abd al-Wahhāb Azzām. Later on, he returned to Syria following his father's illness. In 1954, he accompanied Hassan al-Hudaybi du