Presenter: Dr Manos Karagiannis

The Muslim Brotherhood has been Egypt’s most important and controversial Islamist organization. Following the 2011 revolution, it came to dominate the political scene before its eventual downfall. Most studies have examined either the Brotherhood’s history of militancy or its contemporary political transformation. However, since the mid-2000s, the organisation has formulated an environmental policy that is understudied. Paradoxically, the Brotherhood has ignored Shari’a rules about environmental issues and has offered only pragmatic solutions with some nationalist content.

The presentation will first describe briefly how Shari’a has approached certain environmental issues. Then, it will outline the Brotherhood’s general perspective on environment based on the writings and statements of Hassan al-Banna, Mohamed Badie and Mohamed Morsi. Moreover, it will examine the Brothethood’s proposals regarding water management, pollution and energy contained in its election programmes. Finally, it will offer an analysis of the Brotherhood’s environmentalism by examining several factors that can explain its non-religious approach.

Dr Emmanuel Karagiannis is a Senior Lecturer at King's College London’s Department of Defence Studies. He held The Defence Studies Department, JSCSC Watchfield is part of the War Studies Group, King’s College London, University of London research positions in prestigious US and British universities (University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, Princeton University, London School of Economics, U.S Military Academy at West Point). His new book The New Political Islam: Human Rights, Democracy and Justice has been published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

His articles have appeared, among others, in Journal of North African Studies, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, Middle East Quarterly, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Contemporary Security Policy, Asian Security, European Security, Mediterranean Politics, Mediterranean Quarterly, Harvard Asia Quarterly, Europe-Asia Studies, Nationalities Papers, Central Asian Survey, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, and Journal of Balkans and Near Eastern Studies. Currently, he is on sabbatical at Oxford University’s Middle East Centre.