The Muslim Brotherhood traces its founding philosophies to al-Afghani's "ijtihad". The Muslim Brotherhood holds that the practice of "ijtihad" will strengthen the faith of believers by compelling them to better familiarize themselves with the Quran and come to their own conclusions about its teachings. But as a political group the Muslim Brotherhood faces a major paradox between "ijtihad" as a religious matter and as a political one. "Ijtihad" weakens political unity and promotes pluralism, (which is also why many oppressive regimes reject "ijtihad"s legitimacy).