On July 17, Rachid Ghannouchi, the 85-year-old founder of Ennahda, the Tunisian political party inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, passed out in his cell. At every religious holiday President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issues pardons — but rarely for the Brothers. When the Assad regime fell in 2024, it was Sunni jihadists who took Damascus, not the Brotherhood. Jordanian police block the entrance to the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters after group were banned in the country in April. The brotherhood laid its roots with social-welfare programmes and a strong appeal to Arab dignity, both sorely lacking in leadership across the Middle East.