Anwar al-Sadat: The Military Leader

One of the most prominent assassination in modern times was that of Anwar al-Sadat the President of Egypt and the successor to Nasser who died under the strain of leadership on 29 September 1970. This paper will attempt to link the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and assassination of Sadat to the overthrow of Mubarak and the brief rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2011 - 2013. The long term goal of the Muslim Brotherhood cannot be ignored and while there are current links to the Muslim Brotherhood in western countries currently that case can't be made during the time of Sadat's rule.

Sadat was born in 1918 one of thirteen children north of Cairo. At the time of Sadat's birth Egypt had become a British colony and was in bad financial straits, most notably massive debt had forced Egypt to sell its large stake in the Suez canal an French engineered endeavor. The dynamics to Sadat's an untested leader came through the British and the then Egyptian Wafd parties agreement to set up a military academy in 1936. Once graduating from the military academy Sadat was stationed at an outpost with Gamal Abdel Nasser and soon plotted to overthrow the long British colonial rule. After some brief jail time Sadat reconnect with Nasser and he rose to be a dependable ally and public relations minister leading to the over through of the monarchy and the eventual addiction of King Farouk by the Free Officers Organization which Nasser headed (UNC at Chapel Hill). The real fact are chilling between 1978 and 1981 there were 38 assassination attempts on Sadat's or his cabinet members and one flat out coup attempt (Aboul-Enein 2004, 91). One of the most notable attempts besides the last one was Operation Kennedy which was a Libyan sponsored operation using a educated Egyptian working in Libya. The assailant was trained in sharpshooting, bolt operated rifle single and semi automatic. The assailant was flown to Rome where the plan came together with poisoned tipped ammunition was sent along with the assailant, the plan failed when Libyan Intelligence approached Egyptian intelligence with the details.

The politics or socio-political reasons of the assassination of Anwar al-Sadat are deep routed in problems of religion and alliances which haunt the middle east to today. The assassination is a current reflection in the split in Islamic society and their willingness to use violence to achieve their goals. In the case of the successful assassination the politics of the assailant were clear, through interviews with one of the assailants Abdul-Salam Abdul-Al the mind set was a declining Egypt under Sadat. That decline was manifested by consumerism, women declining the wearing of the hijab, use of alcohol, the jailing of religious scholars (Aboul-Enein 2004, 91), and the peace accords with Israel. Abdul-Al saw the Iranian revolution as a success in shaking off the American influence in that country but since it was a Sunni lead revolt Abdul-Al thought it needed a Shiite counterweight in Egypt. In short the assailants wanted to introduce an Shiite Islamic country in region and used thirteen century writings to guide them, the assailants used the writings of Ibn Taymiyya and his 13th century writings that referenced the Tartar society and the Fatwa Taymiyya issued against the Mongolian rulers for not following Sharia law, while at the same time allowing Mosques (Hunt and Kahlmeyer 2007, 79).

The political forces at play in the Sadat assassination on the assailants side was clearly the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood and its sub groups Al Gamaa al-Islamiyya and its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri a the current High Value Target #1 in the fight against terror, where reportedly behind the plot. The Muslim Brotherhood who was also behind a plot to kill former President Nasser in 1954 were actually aligned with Nasser's group the Free Officers Organization but after the abdication of King Farouk the alignment broke apart. After the Nasser assassination attempt the Egyptian government jailed thousands of the Muslim Brotherhood and made it illegal for them to operate in Egypt openly. Sadat later allowed to Muslim Brotherhood to operate religious outlets in trade for support against his political rivals (Laub 2014). The irony of the Muslim Brotherhood involvement is that after Sadat's assassination it would take 30 more years for the Muslim Brotherhood to take charge in Eygpt albeit for a very short time until they were overthrown and jailed once again. The politics on Sadat's side was one of a country that sought ties with the west verses the old Soviet Union and through battles with Israel sought an peace accord and maintained at least polite relations with it. The politics of an Israeli link was one that was abhorrent to the Muslim Brotherhood and many Egyptians mainly due to the Palestine situation. The entire plot and execution of the assassination through reliable accounts appeared to be one of an internal making in Egypt, it can be argued that the involvement of the Muslim Brotherhood made external links obvious but at the time of Sadat's assassination it appears the Muslim Brotherhood was relatively confined to Egypt.

On October 6th 1981 the eighth anniversary of the Yom Kipper War Anwar al-Sadat sitting in the reviewing stands was assassinated by five Egyptian nationals while Mirage Jet fighters soared overhead. Sadat had many layers of security that day among them his republican guard , his personal security detachment, the Ministry of Interior and Central security Services which poised snipers around the event, and regular military and civilian police detachments. Then parade participants were chosen from a wide area and were told that the day before the event to remove the firing pin from their guns, and to give them to their 1st Sergeant this occurred in some units but not in all. As the jets flew over the five man team aggressed to the bystander area , as the bystanders looked the assailant team pumped small arms and grenades towards the leader. The first bullet that entered Sadat turned out to be fatal with the leader saying impossible.. impossible (Aboul-Enein 2004, 92).

The consequences of the assassination were surprisingly little, Mubarak the successor signaled his desire to repair the riff with other middle east allies but not at the cost of the relationship with Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) under Mubarak era was suppressed and as the Muslim Brotherhoods influence grew Mubarak sought to quiet it. The repression of the MB is the direct cause for the uprising in 2011 in Egypt which lead to Mubarak's ouster. In the long term the MB goals were achieved with the gain of control of the Egyptian political system and the shift be it incremental to Sharia law. It had been thirty years since the assassination and one could say it the ultimate outcome had nothing to do with the assassination.

The real outcome after 30 years allowed the MB to control the politics in Egypt the Freedom and Justice Party won primary victories first and the Salafist Nour party came in second giving the MB control of 70 % of the Egyptian government in their lower house. This allowed the MB to control the drafting of a new Egyptian constitution (BBC 2014). The shift in Egyptian policies was too much for the population to handle and the brief leadership by the Muslim Brotherhood was ended by a military overthrow on 3 July 2013.

It took the MB 30 years to achieve its goal after the assassination of Sadat but the population that was exposed to freedom in a religious country with a largely secular population denied the MB its goal of control . This goal was set with the overthrow of King Farouk and culminated in the overthrow of Presidents Mubarak Sadat's heir apparent but the population with its western ways decided that what once sounded attractive in a goal of an Islamic state in fact was too much to swallow and rejected it. The Muslim Brotherhood is not dismantled but is greatly diminished in its home of Egypt.

Bibliography

Aboul-Enein, Joussef H. "Islamic Militant Cells and Sadat's Assassination." Military Review 84, no. 4: 91-95. ProQuest Military Collection (225309017).

Janin, Hunt, and Andre Kahlmeyer. Islamic law : the Sharia from Muhammad's time to the present. N.p.:McFarland and Co, 2007.

"Profile: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood." BBC, December 23, 2013, sec. MId Ea. Accessed September 28, 2014. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle- east-12313405.

Laub, Zachaty. Council on Foreign Relations. Accessed September 28, 2014. http://www.cfr.org/egypt/egypts-muslim-brotherhood/p23991.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Accessed September 28, 2014. http://www.ibiblio.org/sullivan/bios/Sadat-bio.html.