The people of Egypt have been protesting for nearly a week now in order to end Mubarak’s thirty-year presidency. Cairo has been in chaos but in the midst of this chaos the Muslim Brotherhood has been doing something quite intriguing. They have been trying to gain support and woo more people to join their cause and they have been doing this by means of public diplomacy.
According to an article put out by STRATFOR the Muslim Brotherhood in an attempt to gain favor and support has been systematically adding to the chaos, but as the same time helping to protect citizens. The STRATFOR article states that the group is supplying demonstrators with food, beverages and first aid. In addition to these actions they have also been organizing groups to protect public property, like the Egyptian Museum. This does not seem like a benevolent gesture to me, but a precise calculated move. Goals of PD are to influence and persuade by means of engagement and soft power. It seems that the MB are doing just this in hopes to gather more followers among the protestors, most of who are not protesting on religious grounds. Their actions have not been labeled as a PD effort, but it is interesting to see the similarities between what governments would do and what a small group can do for PD or PR purposes to gain favor.
The link to the small article is below:
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20110129-red-alert-hamas-and-muslim-brotherhood
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