and Tom Perry Reuters The Muslim Brotherhood has quietly spread its influence far beyond Egypt in its 84-year history, but Arab revolts have opened broad new political horizons the group hopes will reflect its founder's vision for the Arab and Islamic world. "There is no doubt that Hassan Al-Banna believed in Islamic unity and not just Arab unity. But with such a vision we must consider reality and what is possible," said Mahmoud Ghozlan, a member of the Brotherhood's executive bureau. Interviewed at the group's new headquarters in Cairo, he called such unity a "long-term objective", but seemed alive to the possibilities thrown up by a ferment in which Islamists are driving mainstream politics across North Africa and beyond. "This region is in a period of deep-rooted change," the 64-year-old said. "Starting from Tunisia and ending with Syria, the nature of the region and alliances will change." The Brotherhood, banned and repressed under President Hosni Mubarak, did not instigate the uprising against him, but like Islamist parties elsewhere it has been the main beneficiary, using free elections to sweep to the brink of power. Its success, along with election wins by Islamists in Tunisia and Morocco, and the emergence of powerful Islamist players in Libya and inside Syria's opposition, is forcing the world to rethink how it deals with political Islam. The Brotherhood, the oldest and most established contemporary Islamist movement, could find itself at the center of an arc of influence from the Atlantic to the eastern Mediterranean. "We can start to talk of an emerging Islamist bloc from North Africa all the way potentially to Syria. I think the Brotherhood is the most important part of that," said Shadi Hamid, research director at the Doha Brookings Center in Qatar. "They are part of a broader movement, and it is that movement that is going to reshape the regional architecture." The extent of the transformation may yet depend on how Islamists perform in office as they grapple with dysfunctional economies and exaggerated expectations, but change is afoot. The rise of Egypt's Brotherhood, the inspiration for Islamist groups throughout the region, is helping to redraw political alliances across the Middle East in a historic shift that is eroding the influence of Iran in the Arab world. Spurred on by an uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, the Brotherhood's emergence has helped draw Palestinian group Hamas out of the orbit of Syria, Iran and Hezbollah, splintering an axis that has been a defining feature of regional politics and conflicts for more than a decade. Western states with long-held suspicions about Islamist influence are nevertheless meeting the new players. Conservative Gulf monarchies, some of them wary that regional unrest may be contagious, are cautiously assessing their new interlocutors. Turkey, outside the Arab fold but part of the Muslim world, may engage more directly. Turkey's AK Party, with its Islamist roots, has delivered stellar economic growth that Arab states faced with sky-high popular aspirations are keen to emulate. "Turkey will have more soft power than in the past and Turkey will exercise that power in a positive way," said Turkish Ambassador Husseyin Avni Botsali in Cairo, adding that Egypt and Turkey could become an "axis of moderation and dialogue".
