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GIOR AnalysisApril 7 2025, 8:00 am

Echoes of Revival: MAGA, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Italian Fascism

Polit­i­cal move­ments that appear worlds apart often reveal their true nature when seen side by side. Con­sid­er three such move­ments: the MAGA move­ment in the Unit­ed States, the Egypt­ian Mus­lim Broth­er­hood , and Ital­ian Fas­cism under Mus­soli­ni. Their ori­gins, ide­olo­gies, and goals dif­fer dramatically—MAGA emerged from anx­i­eties over Amer­i­can decline, the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood from post-colo­nial upheaval, and Ital­ian Fas­cism from the chaos after World War I. They cham­pi­on pop­ulist con­ser­vatism, Islam­ic revival­ism, and nation­al­ist total­i­tar­i­an­ism, respectively.

Yet their tac­ti­cal sim­i­lar­i­ties are strik­ing. Like con­ver­gent evo­lu­tion in nature—where unre­lat­ed species devel­op sim­i­lar traits to solve shared challenges—these move­ments inde­pen­dent­ly arrived at remark­ably par­al­lel meth­ods for gain­ing and hold­ing pow­er. This con­ver­gence sug­gests more than coin­ci­dence: it reveals recur­ring pat­terns in how dis­con­tent is chan­neled into polit­i­cal con­trol, regard­less of ide­ol­o­gy or culture.


1. The Myth of a Golden Era

At the heart of each move­ment lies an ide­al­ized vision of a lost past. Mus­soli­ni glo­ri­fied the Roman Empire. MAGA yearns for an Amer­i­ca of unchal­lenged pow­er and tra­di­tion­al male author­i­ty. The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood invokes the uni­ty of the ear­ly Islam­ic caliphates. Though these “gold­en eras” dif­fer wild­ly in con­tent, each func­tions the same way—simplifying com­plex real­i­ties and promis­ing restora­tion through strong leadership.

This nos­tal­gia isn’t benign. It often serves to jus­ti­fy the con­cen­tra­tion of pow­er, bypass­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic insti­tu­tions in pur­suit of a sup­posed nation­al or spir­i­tu­al revival.


2. Opposing the ‘Elite’

Each move­ment casts the rul­ing elite as the ene­my of the peo­ple. Mus­soli­ni vil­i­fied lib­er­al democ­rats and com­mu­nists. MAGA tar­gets the “deep state” and lib­er­al elites. The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood frames sec­u­lar rulers and West­ern pow­ers as trai­tors to Islam­ic values.

This anti-elite rhetoric under­mines trust in institutions—judiciaries, leg­is­la­tures, the press—clearing the way for lead­ers to cen­tral­ize pow­er as the only legit­i­mate voice of the people.


3. Mass Mobilization: Building Power from Below

Grass­roots mobi­liza­tion is a defin­ing strength across all three. Mus­soli­ni orches­trat­ed mas­sive ral­lies and wield­ed state pro­pa­gan­da. MAGA lever­ages social media and live events. The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood builds influ­ence through mosques and com­mu­ni­ty networks.

These meth­ods cul­ti­vate loy­al­ty and momentum—but also serve to chal­lenge or bypass demo­c­ra­t­ic norms. Over time, alle­giance to the move­ment often eclipses alle­giance to laws or constitutions.


4. Us vs. Them Rhetoric

Each move­ment thrives on divi­sion. Mus­soli­ni cast social­ists as inter­nal ene­mies, accus­ing them of betray­ing nation­al uni­ty. Trump labeled jour­nal­ists “ene­mies of the peo­ple,” turn­ing pub­lic dis­trust into a polit­i­cal weapon. The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood por­trayed sec­u­lar lead­ers as cor­rupt­ed by West­ern influ­ence, unfit to rep­re­sent Islam­ic society.

Though their tar­gets dif­fer, the tac­tic is the same: dele­git­imize oppo­si­tion, inflame loy­al­ty, and jus­ti­fy author­i­tar­i­an con­trol under the guise of moral or nation­al restoration.


5. Leadership Cults and the One-Man Rule

Despite struc­tur­al differences—from fas­cist state to pop­ulist move­ment to reli­gious-polit­i­cal hybrid—each of these move­ments devel­oped around a dom­i­nant fig­ure. Mus­soli­ni embod­ied Ital­ian Fas­cism. Trump remains the irre­place­able face of MAGA. Has­san al-Ban­na and oth­er ear­ly Broth­er­hood fig­ures became icons of ide­o­log­i­cal purity.

That such per­son­al­i­ty cults emerged inde­pen­dent­ly across these move­ments is no acci­dent. It reflects a recur­ring strat­e­gy for con­sol­i­dat­ing pow­er: embody the move­ment in one man, and loy­al­ty becomes per­son­al, not institutional.


The Broader Implications

When move­ments from vast­ly dif­fer­ent cul­tures and ide­olo­gies arrive at the same tac­tics, we should take notice. These aren’t shared beliefs—they’re shared strate­gies for cap­tur­ing pow­er in times of cri­sis. Whether in Mussolini’s Italy, the con­tem­po­rary U.S., or the mod­ern Mid­dle East, the pat­terns repeat.

Each taps into real grievances—economic hard­ship, cul­tur­al anx­i­ety, polit­i­cal alien­ation. But the solu­tions offered are decep­tive­ly sim­ple, appeal­ing to emo­tion rather than com­plex­i­ty. The result is often a cor­ro­sion of demo­c­ra­t­ic norms, replaced by move­ments that promise sal­va­tion but deliv­er division.

Democ­ra­cies can’t afford to mis­take these tac­tics for ideology—they’re tools, not beliefs. The dan­ger lies not in what these move­ments say they stand for, but in how they gain and wield pow­er. Only by rec­og­niz­ing the pat­terns can we defend the prin­ci­ples they threat­en to erode.

Ref­er­ences

The Mus­lim Brotherhood

Fas­cism Shat­tered Europe a Cen­tu­ry Ago — and His­to­ri­ans Hear Echoes Today in the U.S.

‘Islam­o­fas­cism’: Four Com­pet­ing Dis­cours­es on the Islamism-Fas­cism Comparison

The MAGA Movement’s Big Umbrella

 

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