Apart from the rather crucial detail of what the “failure of political Islam” means, there is no misunderstanding between Hillel Fradkin and me, but rather a decisive difference in approach and perspective. Fradkin is concerned about what constitutes the essence of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as an ideological movement, whereas I concentrate on how the Muslim Brothers, as political and social actors, are shaped by the political, social, and religious context in which they now find themselves.