Description
In the decade following the 2011 Arab Uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Europe has seen the emergence of new MENA diaspora communities due to new patterns of displacement – forced and by choice – amidst conditions of rising authoritarianism. Forced into exile, communities escaping authoritarianism and state repression have resettled into societies across Europe, reshaping transnational activist networks and establishing new patterns of diaspora activism in the process. Diasporic communities differ widely in nature and practice, including members and leaders of Islamist organizations and social movements, with different relations to the homeland. These are typically different from pre-existing Arab diasporas, since the Islamist nature of their members means that they build on decades of political participation through civil society, electoral processes, and oppositional politics, making them more politically oriented. It is this political orientation that also makes these movements and their members more likely to be subjected to different forms of repression, both from their home countries and their host states.
This paper focuses on the experience of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, whose members and supporters have been living in forced exile since the 2013 coup, mostly relocating in Turkey and the UK. The paper focuses on the changes in the Brotherhood’s activism and ideology brought about by its new diaspora dimension, and by the limitations and renewed repression on the movement that are being caused by Turkey’s growing authoritarianism and shifting foreign policy interests.
