Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna is killed near his office in Cairo by Egyptian government security service agents. The Brotherhood becomes the most important “radical” Islamic organization until it is eclipsed by groups created as a result of its suppression, and by Saudi support, either in response to continued colonial occupation of the Middle East, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iranian revolution, when Tehran also begins to fund its own groups.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is active during the anti-British riots and the end of British rule. After Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seized absolute power in 1954, he suspends the constitution, disbands parliament, and abolishes political parties, eventually repressing and then banning the Brotherhood after it opposed government policies. Hundreds of Muslim Brothers are imprisoned and tortured, and thousands flee to other Arab countries (where they establish additional organizations). Saudi Arabia also funds the Muslim Brotherhood (and these additional organizations), opposing Nasser’s secularism and socialism.
In prison under Nasser, the Egyptian intellectual Sayyid Qutb writes his most famous book Malim if al-Tariq (Milestones), published in April 1964, much of the basis for al Qaeda and a book that influences the thinking of Mohammed Atta – the only Egyptian amongst the nineteen 9/11 plotters (see April 25). In 1990, as a student, Atta joins the Engineers Syndicate, which is one of three professional associations controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.