THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD’S AMBITION: ISLAM ABOVE THE STATE? Founded in 1928, this Sunni Islamist movement seeks to transform society through a comprehensive religious and political project. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Ismailia, Egypt, in 1928, by Hassan al-Banna. It emerged amid the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate, European colonial influence, and debates over the future of Muslim-majority societies. Its foundational premise is that Islam is not merely a personal faith. It is a comprehensive system governing individual conduct, family life, education, economics, law, social relations, and political authority. Its defining slogans express that ambition: “The Quran is our constitution” and “Islam is the solution.” This raises a fundamental constitutional question: what happens when a political movement regards divine religious authority as superior to the constitution, laws, and democratic decisions of the state in which it operates? The Brotherhood's Sunni Islamist ideology must be distinguished from Sunni Islam as a whole. Nevertheless, its vision of comprehensive Islamic governance deserves direct scrutiny wherever it conflicts with constitutional democracy, equal citizenship, freedom of conscience, or the supremacy of civil law. A religious belief is one thing. A political programme to reorder the state around that belief is another.