"We are the war"

The Secret Apparatus is presented as a cautionary tale about the ramifications of the Brothers, which can manifest in diverse ways, across multiple parts of the world, and over time. The book profoundly illustrates how these groups can deceive technologically superior states, societies, and intelligence organizations, as they most recently did against Israel on October 7th. Their victims pay an unusually high price, and affected societies are shaken from the ground up. In practice, the book shows that these organizations are serious when they warn of “an industry of death” designed to create a utopian Islamic order, both locally and internationally. This Industry of Deathis operationalized through mechanisms like the Rover Scouts Division (nizam al-jawala), militias created by Banna particularly for young men and teenagers, to provide preliminary paramilitary training for combat and jihad. The core of their impact lies in what the Muslim Brothers themselves call their al-jihaz al-khas or al-jihaz as-sirri (the private or secret apparatus), transforming those who join into the war itself, echoing the founder Hassan al-Banna’s assertion: “we are the war.”

Saudi Arabia banns books by Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Yousuf al-Qaradawi