The “secret division” or the military wing of the

Brotherhood was founded by Hassan Al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. The secret

division was meant to defend it [the group] against competing parties and to counter the British

occupation of Egypt at the time. But Abdel Rahman El Sandi, the executive leader of the army,

used to carry out assassinations without Banna’s consent. These confrontations at the end led the

government to plot the assassination of Banna in 1949.