The Syrian Zugzwang

... secular state. Radical pan-Arab organization the Society of Muslim Brothers (al-Ikhwan al-musilmun in Arabic) [4] has played the main role in this since the 1980s. However, the Ikhwan began its activity in Syria even earlier, in the 1940s-1960s. The Muslim Brotherhood claims that Syria became the first country to which it extended its influence from Egypt. The first Ikhwan association in Syria was established in Aleppo in 1937. By then, various religious associations had already been functioning in Syria on a semi-legal basis....