Raphael Thelen

Giza, Egypt – “Mursi! Mursi! Mursi!” shout the men to the beat of the drum, lifting their hands to their mouths to cheer for their presidential candidate.
 
For Waleed Ahmed and thousands of other Muslim Brothers marching in Giza, the visit of presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Brotherhood’s political arm, is a long-awaited event. “The beautiful thing about this march is the variety of people,” says Ahmed. “Men, women, old people, kids; everyone is here.”

Ahmed joined the Muslim Brotherhood after he was released from prison for several years for taking part in Islamist activities. The memories still linger. “The conditions were terrible, especially the food. Since my release my mother cooks twice as much. But I have to lose weight, otherwise I’ll get problems with my joints,” he says with a broad smile.
 
He joined the Brotherhood to help his country, he says. “The Quran says that you should help your fellow human beings. And the Brotherhood is just the best-organized group in Egypt.”
 
Hundred thousands of people like Ahmed volunteer their time all across the country to sustain a network of free hospitals, schools and food hand-outs to help the poor. The Muslim Brotherhood’s social services network is unrivaled in a country in which 40 percent of the population lives on less than two US dollars a day.
 
The six-lane street where Mursi will speak is already crowded when Ahmed and the other Brothers he is with finally arrive. There is no chance of getting close to the big, red-draped concert stage, where Mursi and other FJP-officials are seated on white sofas. One by one they take the microphone to praise their presidential candidate. Cameras on tall cranes zoom over the crowd broadcasting everything live on giant screens. “Only the Brotherhood is able to organize something like this,” says Ahmed proudly.
 
“We have a project and we have the organization to realize it,” says Ayman Said Saied, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Political Committee, which decides the ideological guidelines for the Brotherhood. Its larger goal is the “Nahda,” or Renaissance, project, which aims to Islamize the country. “Our project is more than a program. We aim to change the minds of the people,” Saied says. “And we have been doing this already, for more than 80 years.”
 
The 37-year old accountant sits in the headquarters of the FJP in an apartment building in the heart of Tolbeya. The yellow FJP-logo hangs on the outside, and families sit underneath at a popular juice stand. From here, the FJP coordinates its activities.

Tolbeya is one of the many working-class neighborhoods in Giza. Unfinished multi-story buildings flank the narrow streets. The ground is coated in litter. Tuk Tuks, or three-wheeled mini taxis, roam the area looking for customers. A ride costs about 10 cents. More than 40 families in Tolbeya alone are dependent on financial help from the Brotherhood. The area has been neglected since before the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. It is neighborhoods like Tolbeya from where the Brotherhood draws its strength and attracts masses of supporters at events like the Mursi rally.

In reaction to decades of harsh oppression by successive regimes, the Brotherhood has built structures that help it survive. The main principles its members adhere to are obedience, a strict hierarchy and work on the grass-roots level. It is these strengths that the Brotherhood can fully bank on, since the revolution ended their oppression.
 
Saied, at the FJP office, says goodbye to the last of the attendees of the weekly members’ meeting. “Why are they supposed to vote for Mursi? Because he is not an individual person, but stands for the organization,” Saied says.

 “We use classical methods to campaign for our candidate,” he adds as he gets ready to leave the office. It’s almost midnight. “We knock on the people’s doors, hand our flyers and put up posters.”  The local Brotherhood members pay the costs for all the materials.
 
Two days later, the Brothers meet at Tolbeya’s central mosque to pray. About a thousand people gather around a pick-up truck with speakers mounted in the back. Posters with Mursi’s fatherly face are handed out. Right after they are done, the Brothers march out onto the narrow streets of the neighborhood. “Don’t believe what strangers tell you!” blast the speakers on their trucks. “Trust the people from your neighborhood.”

“Visit every house, that is our strategy,” says Mohammed Faroul al-Gawhery, walking at the head of the march.  The 43-yer old and others hand out flyers to passersby.
 
“Everyone can become a member of the FJP,” says Gawhery. “But it takes up to two years to become a member of the Brotherhood. We have to get to know the newcomer, and the newcomer has to get to know us. Being a Brother includes many duties.” These duties are listed on weekly schedule that every member gets. Additionally, everyone gets a reminder text message for big events like the neighborhood march.

After almost three hours, the march reaches its final destination. A couple of Brothers race forward to block off a road they have to cross. Gawhery looks at the orderly march, the truck and the hundreds of identical Mursi posters. “Only the Brotherhood is able to organize something like this.”