Health Services

From the beginning of the EMB’s social activities, the founder of the EMB considered health services to be a priority in order to address the health problems in the country. Accordingly, Mitchell states, “In his early reform messages, al-Banna made public health an important part of social reform concentrating especially on the dissemination of information and the increase of facilities and personnel to tackle the vast national health problem” (Mitchell 1969, 289).

This problem continued to devastate a large portion of the population who wished to get healthcare from the public hospitals. The Brotherhood intervened through its already established rover units. “The purpose of these units was to provide physical training and athletics to supplement members’ spiritual and intellectual training” (Mitchell 1969, 174).

Based on this experience, the rovers were the first groups from the organization to become involved in providing healthcare. Mitchell says,

The first societal groups used to disseminate hygienic knowledge and bring medical care to the countryside were the rovers. Local rover units undertook the actual work of cleaning up the streets and alleys of the villages, encouraged villagers to use hospitals and clinics and provided simple first aid. These activities were part of a general ‘social programme’

established for the rovers in 1943 in revulsion against the filth and the sanitation and health problems of the mass of Egyptians, rural and urban. Although this kind of activity gradually passed to the medical section of the Society, the rovers continued to be a useful medium for dealing with the medical problems of the villages. It will also be recalled that al-Banna offered the services of the rover groups to the ministry of health during the epidemics of 1945 and 1947 to serve in the stricken areas where needed. (Mitchell 1969, 289-290)

Furthermore, the creation of a medical section within the organization facilitated the task alongside the rise of the EMB members majoring in medicine. Mitchell states, “The medical section, although conceived independently, was very rapidly made part of the larger ‘welfare and social services section’ organized in 1945 to take the place of the former ‘social assistance office.’ The new section was organized ‘independently’ of the EMB in order to benefit from government aid. In 1946, the Society registered 102 welfare agency branches with the Ministry of Social Affairs. In 1948, it claimed 500 branches all over Egypt (Mitchell

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1969, 290). The EMB’s organizational structure shows a section of ‘services.’ Under this section, there is a sub-medical section, which is still considered among the busiest sections within the organization.

In addition, there was intensive work inside the medical section to increase the number of dispensaries, clinics, hospitals, and so forth. In view of the importance of the medical section, Mitchell notes,

This largely educational programme of the Society was augmented in November 1944 by the establishment of a ‘medical section’ by the doctors in the organization. Its objectives were defined as the establishment of dispensaries, clinics, and hospitals, the intensification of the programme for ‘spreading the message of ‘hygiene and the raising of the health level of all classes’ by all means available. The first dispensary was opened at that time in the offices of the leading doctor member (Mohamed Ahmad Sulayman), and within a month it was transferred to the Society’s headquarters. In 1946, the clinic moved to its own building near the headquarters and added to itself a pharmacy headed by a registered pharmacist. This clinic, which soon professed to be a small hospital, claimed to have treated 21,677 patients in 1945; 29,039 in 1946, and 51,300 in 1947. From the time of its opening, smaller clinics were started wherever possible, and by 1948 the medical section had an annual budget of

£E3, 000. While most of the equipment and materials of the clinics and dispensaries was confiscated in 1948, activity was resumed in 1950. In 1953, it was claimed that each province of Egypt had at least one dispensary and sixteen clinics in Cairo had treated over 100,000 patients. (Mitchell 1969, 290)

However, as part of the suppressive tactic against the EMB, in January 1954, the government of the Free Officers’ revolution formally took over all the clinics then operating; what happened to them was not clear until the emergence of new political order headed by Anwar Sadat in 1981 (Mitchell 1969, 290). Taking advantage of the greater political openness of Sadat’s regime, the Brotherhood tried to reopen its social services. In doing so, it promoted a new generation of leaders. Abdurrahman al-Arian states that “[M]any of the leaders of this movement were students at Cairo University’s College of Medicine where, as part of their medical training, they treated patients in a wing of Qasr al-Aini Hospital that housed prisoners seeking medical care. It was during the course of those interactions that young leaders like Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh, Essam al-Erian, and Helmi al-Gazzar would come to meet veterans of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood for the very first time” (Al-Arian 2014, 8). This new generation helped advance the role of the health services. Since then, scholars started paying attention to the political agenda pursued by Islamist social activities. In this regard, Abdullah al-Arian notes,

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By the 1980s, scholars had begun to tackle the question of militant violence and the revolutionary potential of these same movements in the wake of the so-called ‘Islamic resurgence.’ However, as the Muslim Brotherhood’s presence in society became ‘normalized’

during Anwar Sadat’s regime, the authority turned a blind eye toward the group’s development of a robust social welfare sector. Consequently, a new wave of scholarly studies focused on the role that these institutions play in the promotion of Islamic activism.

(Al-Arian 2014).

The health services provided by the Brotherhood were improved during Hosni Moubarak’s regime. Since the new regime was attempting to adopt a democratic façade, it allowed the organization to gain more infrastructural ground and attain physical visibility through their clinics, hospitals and mosques presence. Its members joined professional syndicates, gained ground in universities, and began to expand their social welfare apparatus with more emphasis on the healthcare sector (Abdelrahman 2011, 12). However, by the turn of the 1990s, the EMB’s freedom to operate in Egyptian society was again disrupted when Moubarak’s regime saw that the Brotherhood had begun to use their achievements for political purposes and to mobilize their lower middle class supporters (or beneficiaries) against the regime’s strategic policies (Abdelrahman 2011, 12). According to Abdelrahman (2011), “[T]he strength of the EMB became apparent in 1992 when Brotherhood members were the fastest respondents to the earthquake that killed 378 and injured 3,300”

(Abdelrahman 2011, 12).

In the aftermath of the earthquake and subsequent recovery, the EMB came to the attention of people on the ground, as well as to worldwide news agencies. The regime realized that the Brotherhood’s organizational capabilities far surpassed those of the government and that their social welfare apparatus was there to stay (Abdelrahman 2011, 12).

Consequently, the government clamped down on Mostashfa AlMarkazy in Madinat Nasr. It was a multi-million-dollar charity hospital project that government forces occupied and destroyed. Abderlrahman says, “Mostashfa AlMarkazy gained state permits to build a three-story clinic in 1996 but the government backtracked in 2000, and revoked the permits.

The Muslim Brotherhood claimed it was because of election disputes, but the state maintained that it was due to improper documentation. In 2006, the courts granted the Brotherhood permits to begin constructing its seven-story hospital only for the building work to be halted in 2009 and for two already built floors to be destroyed” (Abdelrahman 2011,13).

However, this did not stop the Brotherhood from continuing their social welfare programs or from focusing on building up the group’s membership and expanding its presence (Abdelrahman 2011, 13). The EMB’s persistence to continue its healthcare activities illustrate the importance of this sector. However, the availability of the EMB’s doctors played a significant role in maintaining this particular activity. In 1998, a sympathizer of the EMB

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stated to the author of this particular study that about 70% of Egypt’s medical doctors were the EMB members or sympathizers. Although, it is difficult to get confirmation of this figure, it seems clear that the EMB’s medical doctors make up a large number in Egypt due to the organization’s focus on encouraging student members and sympathizers to join medical faculties. In Egypt, the EMB’s hospitals have a good reputation due to its good quality treatment and its affordable price as privates. As example, in Gharbia city,

[T]he Muslim Brotherhood runs only one: Tiba Hospital. It’s gained a reputable reputation due to its good quality treatment, competent doctors, low prices, and various services. The hospital brochure boasts that its services include: Separate clinics for all specializations every day of the week; an intensive care unit with the newest and most modern equipment; a complete dentistry unit; a complete x-ray unit that detects problems through the computer; a unit that detects heart descries through the latest technology of “echo”; a pediatrics and maternity ward; a surgical wing that contains four fully-equipped rooms; surgical microscope for the eyes, ear, and nose and very delicate and complicated surgeries. These services are enhanced by the fact that prices at the hospital are less than the national hospitals. That is due to the fact that the doctors are volunteers who come from very high positions; many are professors at the local medical school in Tanta. The price difference is vast, for example, Dr.

Khalid Issa, a doctor who specializes in bones, usually charges sixty-five pounds in his normal clinic, but for the hospital, he charges a mere twelve pounds. (Abdelrahman 2011, 33)

Nevertheless, during the current regime, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who became president after the coup of July 3, 2013, has suppressed the EMB. During his presidential campaign, Sisi audaciously pledged that “there will be nothing called the Muslim Brotherhood during my tenure” (Al-Arian 2014). “His strategy to fulfill that promise has centered on breaking the perceived base of Muslim Brotherhood support across Egyptian society. Over the course of the past years, the government has taken unprecedented measures to dismantle the network of all kind of social services institutions run by the Muslim Brotherhood and its sympathizers”

(Al-Arian 2014, 7). Accordingly, as public health has always been a crucial focus of contention between the State and the Brotherhood. Sisi’s regime is currently suppressing this domain as well as other important sectors, such as the EMB’s education services.