Book · Co-author
Broken Bonds
الأواصر الممزقة: الأزمة الوجودية للإخوان المسلمين في مصر، ٢٠١٣–٢٠٢٢
Broken Bonds: The Existential Crisis of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, 2013–22
- Authors
- Abdelrahman Ayyash, Amr ElAfifi and Noha Ezzat
- Publisher
- The Century Foundation (TCF Press), New York
- Published
- 20 February 2023
- Arabic edition
- Translated by Hassan Hassani
- Respondent
- Elizabeth R. Nugent at the launch; she also commented on the manuscript
- ISBN
- 9780870785627
About the book
The book follows Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood from 2013 to 2022, as its leaders were jailed, killed or exiled. It reads the group through the experience of its members, as an organisation facing overlapping crises rather than through the lens of religious extremism.
It looks at how the tools of repression were tried on the Brotherhood after 2013 and then turned on others, and at how opposition politics moved into exile. It engages the moderation-inclusion hypothesis and offers a counter-narrative to claims of post-2013 radicalisation among members.
The authors drew on interviews with members and former members. Ayyash conducted many of them with members in exile during his years in Turkey, 2012 to 2019; his analysis opens with a short prologue on his own former membership.
Drawn from the authors’ own account of the book in their Jadaliyya interview.
Recorded talks
TalkLSE Middle East Centre24 October 2023English
Broken Bonds: The Existential Crisis of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
With Amr ElAfifi, chaired by Jeroen Gunning
The book presented and discussed in London.
TalkThe Century Foundation1 March 2023English
The Collapse and Inevitable Return of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
With Amr ElAfifi and Noha Ezzat; moderated by Thanassis Cambanis, with Elizabeth Nugent responding
The online launch of the book.
Order From Ashes podcast series
The Century Foundation gave the book five episodes. Ayyash appears in three.
PodcastOrder From Ashes, The Century Foundation21 February 2023English
Broken Bonds: My Life as a Muslim Brother
With Thanassis Cambanis
The first episode of the Broken Bonds series, on his own years in the Brotherhood.
PodcastOrder From Ashes, The Century Foundation23 February 2023English
Broken Bonds: Existential Crises
With Amr ElAfifi, Noha Ezzat and Thanassis Cambanis
From the Broken Bonds series.
PodcastOrder From Ashes, The Century Foundation2 March 2023English
Broken Bonds: Leaders without Legitimacy
With Thanassis Cambanis
From the Broken Bonds series.
Interviews
InterviewQantara.de15 November 2023English
Egypt’s Muslim Brothers: “Who determines the future of the Brotherhood remains unclear”
Interview by Hannah El-Hitami
On Broken Bonds and the Brotherhood’s crises of identity and legitimacy since 2013. Published in English, then in German and Arabic.
InterviewJadaliyya16 March 2023English
Abdelrahman Ayyash, Amr ElAfifi, and Noha Ezzat, Broken Bonds: The Existential Crisis of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, 2013–22 (New Texts Out Now)
New Texts Out Now
Questions and answers with the three authors on why they wrote the book, what it covers and how.
Reviews and citations
- ReviewWhat happened to the Muslim Brotherhood?Marc Lynch · Abu Aardvark · 28 February 2023
- ReviewThe Existential Crisis of the Muslim BrotherhoodMarc Martorell Junyent · Informed Comment · 21 July 2023
- A report that draws on the bookWhat does the future hold for the Muslim Brotherhood?Ahmed Ibrahim · Al Jazeera English · 14 August 2023
- Cites his workA Wave of Unbelief? Conservative Muslims and the Challenge of Ilḥād in the Post-2013 Arab WorldSebastian Elsässer · Religions 16 (6): 670 · 2025Quotes Broken Bonds on the blogger generation and draws on its chapters on young members’ doubts after 2013.
- Cites his workThe AKP and the Muslim Brotherhood: Making and Unmaking an Islamist Alliance in the Middle East and EuropeJan-Markus Vömel · Dokumentationsstelle Politischer Islam (Vienna), Study Report 07 · 2025Cites “The Turkish Future of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood” and Broken Bonds.
- Cites his workA movement in exile: the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s survival action frames in the post-coup era (2013–2023)Carmen Fulco and Doha S. Abdelgawad · The Journal of North African Studies 30 (3) · 2024Cites four of his works: the Carnegie analysis (2015), the Arab Reform Initiative paper (2019), the Century Foundation paper (2020) and Broken Bonds (2023).
A citation records use of the book. It is not an endorsement either way.