E gypt, I slamists, and the Internet: The Case of the M uslim Brotherhood and Its Rhetoric of Dialectics in I khwanweb

This essay offers an ideological analysis of the rhetoric of the I slamist E gyptian Muslim B rotherhood ( MB ) in its official E nglish‐language Web site, I khwanweb, between 2005 and 2010 — years preceding the E gyptian uprising of J anuary 2011. The purpose was to examine the ideology manifest in the rhetoric and uncover the instrumental function the rhetoric served. Analysis brought forth a post‐Islamist ideology manifest through a rhetoric of dialectics. The instrumental function of the E gyptian MB 's rhetoric in Ikhwanweb was to alter W estern societies' monolithic understanding of I slamism — radical, undemocratic, inflexible. The cyber‐rhetoric was also used as a means to disapprove certain W estern agents' support for authoritarian regimes. During M ubarak's rule, I khwanweb was used as a communicative medium to demonstrate to the W est the E gyptian MB 's need to be valued — respected regardless of ideological differences, understood rather than essentialized, stereotyped, and prejudged, and supported as a pragmatic, political entity within E gypt.