The "moderate" fascists: 'Muslim Brotherhood'

The "moderate" fascist 'Muslim Brotherhood'

(a) The 'core' of today's violent Islamic fundamentalism *.

(b) Inspired by (European) Fascism *.

(c) Hitler admirer * - Distributor of Mein Kampf in Arabic *.

(d) Anti-Christian agitator in Egypt *. The 9/11 attack - connection *.

FundamentalismIn 1928, Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood, a rigidly conservative and highly secretive Egyptian-based organization dedicated to resurrecting a Muslim empire. According to al-Banna, "It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet." Al-Banna also gave the group the motto it still uses today: "God is our purpose, the Prophet our leader, the Quran our constitution, jihad our way and dying for God our supreme objective." The 9/11 Commission Report describes the Brotherhood's influence on Osama bin Laden, stating that "Bin Laden relies heavily on the Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb." Qutb is one of the most influential, early Brotherhood theoreticians. The 9/11 Commission Report also describes the Muslim Brotherhood's influence on Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman: "In speeches and writings, the sightless Rahman, often called the "Blind Sheikh," preached the message of Sayyid Qutb's Milestones, characterizing the United States as the oppressor of Muslims worldwide and asserting that it was their religious duty to fight against God's enemies. An FBI informant learned of a plan to bomb major New York landmarks, including the Holland and Lincoln tunnels. Disrupting this "landmarks plot," the FBI in June 1993 arrested Rahman and various confederates."
http://counterterror.typepad.com/t he_counterterrorism_blog/2005/08/the_muslim_brot.html

The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice Since 1967 - by Fouad Ajami - 1992 (page 135)
Fascism found an expression in the Young Egypt party, which was a parody of the fascist movement that swept Europe in the 1930s and 1940s; the Muslim Brotherhood thrived at a time of crisis and continues to survive at the present...
http://books.google.com/books?id=Qj-UEPal-cwC&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135

Danger: Tariq Ramadan is coming to the US For starters, he is the grandson of Hassan Al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist terrorist organization born in Egypt in 1928...
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php? article_id=3523

The Muslim Brotherhood "Project" by ...Since its formation, the Muslim Brotherhood has advocated the use of terrorism as a means of advancing its agenda of global Islamic domination. ...
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle. asp ?ID=22415

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Egyptian Brethren appear in court Senior Muslim brotherhood figure Khayrat al-Shatir ... Defendants pleaded not guilty to charges including terrorism and money laundering and the trial was ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6718001.stm

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Analysis: THE ROOTS OF JIHAD IN EGYPT:
The origins of Bin Laden's concept of jihad can be traced back to two early 20th century figures, who started powerful Islamic revivalist movements in response to colonialism and its aftermath.
Pakistan and Egypt - both Muslim countries with a strong intellectual tradition - produced the movements and ideology that would transform the concept of jihad in the modern world.
In Egypt, Hassan al-Banna's Muslim Brotherhood and in Pakistan, Syed Abul Ala Maududi's Jamaat Islami sought to restore the Islamic ideal of the union of religion and state.
They blamed the western idea of the separation of religion and politics for the decline of Muslim societies.
This, they believed, could only be corrected through a return to Islam in its traditional form, in which society was governed by a strict code of Islamic law.
Al-Banna and Maudoudi breathed new life into the concept of jihad as a holy war to end the foreign occupation of Muslim lands.

WIDE ACCEPTANCE:

In the 1950s Sayed Qutb, a prominent member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, took the arguments of al-Banna and Maududi a stage further.
For Qutb, all non-Muslims were infidels - even the so-called "people of the book", the Christians and Jews - and he predicted an eventual clash of civilisations between Islam and the west.
Qutb was executed by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1966.
According to Dr Azzam Tamimi, director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought in London, Qutb's writings in response to Nasser's persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood, "acquired wide acceptance throughout the Arab world, especially after his execution and more so following the defeat of the Arabs in the 1967 war with Israel".
Qutb and Maududi inspired a whole generation of Islamists, including Ayatollah Khomeini, who developed a Persian version of their works in the 1970s.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/middle_east/1603 178.stm

Pakistan Christian Post

MAHATHIR MOHAMAD AND MUSLIM ANTI-SEMITISM. ISIC BRIEFING. PCP REPORT.
[...]
Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), the Egyptian ideologue of modern Islamism and a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, was one of the first to combine the two strands. His writings have been read by millions of Muslims around the world and have been a major influence in the development of contemporary Muslim anti-Semitism. Qutb used racist stereotypes and forgeries of Western anti-Semitism such as the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" (translated into Arabic and widely distributed in the Muslim world). As a result, Islamism today sees itself involved in a cosmic struggle against "the Jews" which has to fought to the bitter end: "Therefore the struggle between Islam and the Jews continues in force and will continue, because the Jews will be satisfied only with the destruction of this religion (Islam)." For Qutb, modern-day Jews are identical to their forefathers at the time of Muhammad, who "confronted Islam with Enmity from the moment that the Islamic state was established in Medina. They plotted against the Muslim Community from the first day it became a Community." [9] Since then, says Qutb, all Jews have always been wicked enemies of Islam, and contemporary
[...]
Following Qutb, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist movements came to identify all Jews as inherently and genetically evil, disregarding any distinctions between different types of Jews: Jews are evil in whatever guise they appear.

Khomeini, leader of the Iranian Revolution and Supreme Guardian of the Islamic Republic of Iran until his death in1989, also had anti-Semitic attitudes and did his best to spread them around the Shi'a world: "Since its inception, Islam was afflicted with the Jews when they started their counter-activity by distorting the reputation of Islam, by assaulting it and by slandering it. This has continued to our present day."
http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/headlinenewsd.php?hnewsid=204

BBC NEWS | Europe | Russia names 'terrorist' groups Russia names 17 groups it regards as "terrorist organisations", ... The list also includes: the Muslim Brotherhood...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5223458.stm

Antisemitism: the longest hatred Robert S. Wistrich - 1994 - 341 pages - [Page 226]
...Brotherhood advocated a war of Arabism and Jihad against the British and the Jews.
http://books.google.com/books?id=brotherhood&hl=en

Muslim Brotherhood (1) -- ADL Terrorist Symbol Database, Terrorist groups use symbols that express their goals and violent ideologies. By examining the distinct symbols used by terrorists...
http://www.adl.org/terrorism/symbols/muslim_broth erhood_ 1.asp

The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe - Middle East Quarterly. the Muslim Brotherhood's ultimate goal may not be simply "to help Muslims be the best citizens they can be," but rather to extend Islamic law throughout Europe and the United States.
http://www.meforum.org/article/687

In 1928, an Islamic scholar named Hassan Al Banna founded an organization in Egypt called the Muslim Brotherhood. Born out of the extreme Muslim right wing's desire to counter the ideology of modernization, the Brotherhood's platform included a strict interpretation of the Koran that glorified suicidal violence to rid the world of Judaism. Along with Al Banna, the grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj-al Amin Al-Husseini was also an enormously influencial Muslim leader of the time. Together, the two created a powerful and popular Islamist party by classically appealing to fundamentalist Islamic principals while blaming the world's problems on the Jews.
http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/content/view/551/5/

Contemporary Islamist Ideology Authorizing Genocidal Murder
January 27, 2004
[...]
Contemporary Islamism, however, holds that Islam is now under attack, and therefore Jihad is now a war of defense, and as such has become not only a collective duty but an individual duty without restrictions or limitations. That is, to the Islamists, Jihad is a total, all-encompassing duty to be carried out by all Muslims ג€“ men and women, young and old. All infidels, without exception, are to be fought and annihilated, and no weapons or types of warfare are barred. Furthermore, according to them, current Muslim rulers allied with the West are considered apostates and infidels.
One major ideological influence in Islamist thought was Sayyid Qutb. Qutb, an Egyptian, was the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. He was convicted of treason for plotting to assassinate Egyptian president Gamal Abd Al-Nasser and was executed in 1966. He wrote extensively on a wide range of Islamic issues. According to Qutb, "There are two parties in all the world: the Party of Allah and the Party of Satan ג€“ the Party of Allah which stands under the banner of Allah and bears his insignia, and the Party of Satan, which includes every community, group, race, and individual that does not stand under the banner of Allah."
http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SR2504

The Koran: Suicide playbook ...
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria, which according to Safa has helped the Palestinians against the Israelis, has this as its slogan:
"The Koran is our constitution, the prophet is our guide; Death for the glory of Allah is our greatest ambition."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27149

Muslim Brotherhood's papers detail plan to seize U.S. | News for ...Sep 17, 2007 ... Group's takeover plot emerges in Holy Land case ....
the most provocative has turned out to be a handful of previously classified evidence detailing Islamist extremists' ambitious plans for a U.S. takeover.
A knot of terrorism researchers say the memos and audiotapes, many translated from Arabic and containing detailed strategies by the international Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, are proof that extremists have long sought to replace the Constitution with Shariah, or Islamic law.
[...] The goal of the Palestinian Committee, which trial documents indicate existed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was to raise money in the U.S. to fund Hamas.
This was to be accomplished by forming a complex network of seemingly benign Muslim organizations whose real job, according to the government, was to spread militant propaganda and raise money.
The Muslim Brotherhood created some American Muslim groups and sought influence in others, many of which are listed as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land case.
On the list are several prominent groups, including the Islamic Society of North America, the North American Islamic Trust and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). All have protested their inclusion on the list.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/091707dnmetbrotherhood.35ce2b6.html

Hamas, Gaza and Muslim Brotherhood's project...
Initially Hamas claimed to be involved with "charities", and as it was opposed to Yasser Arafat's PLO, it gained some support from Israel.
http://www.dailyestimate.com/article.asp? idcategory=35&idSub=185&idArticle=10400

Al-Qaeda & the Muslim Brotherhood: United by Strategy, Divided by ...For the Muslim Brotherhood, Islam cannot be separated from governance or .... He clarifies his position by claiming that terrorism is not a criminal act, ...
http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/artic le.php?articleid=2369939

On a website devoted to Ramadhan, the Muslim Brotherhood posted a series of articles by Dr. Ahmad 'Abd Al-Khaleq about Al-Walaa Wa'l-Baraa, an Islamic doctrine which, in its fundamentalist interpretation, stipulates absolute allegiance to the community of Muslims and total rejection of non-Muslims and of Muslims who have strayed from the path of Islam.
In his articles, the writer argues that according to this principle, a Muslim can come closer to Allah by hating all non-Muslims - Christians, Jews, atheists, or polytheists - and by waging jihad against them in every possible manner.
http://www.memriiwmp.org/content/en/report.htm?report=2877

The Battle within Syria: An Interview with Muslim Brotherhood Leader Ali Bayanouni ...
http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.ph p? articleid=2369769

The Muslim Brotherhood's Propaganda Offensive Indeed, the U.S.- designated terrorist organization Hamas, which is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, took over the Palestinian Authority in ...
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/04/th e_muslim_brotherhoods_propag.html

Muslim Brotherhood - Egypt They start to perform terrorist attacks inside Egypt. ” December: The Muslim Brotherhood is banned by the authorities. .
http://i- cias.com/e.o/mus_br_egypt.htm

The British, Muslim Terrorism and September 11, This led to the assassination of Sadat, by members of Islamic Jihad, an offshoot group of the Muslim Brotherhood, on October 6, 1981. ...
http://www.redmoonrising.com/Ikhwan/BritIslam.htm

The Muslim Brotherhood, also called Muslim Brethren (... jamiat al-Ikhwan al-muslimun, literally Society of Muslim Brothers) is an Islamic organization with a political approach to Islam. It was founded in 1928 by Hassan al Banna in Egypt after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Ideology:

The Muslim Brotherhood opposes secular tendencies of Islamic nations and wants return to the precepts of the Qur'an, and rejection of Western influences. They also reject extreme Sufism. They organize events from prayer meetings to sport clubs for socializing.
The organization's motto is as follows: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope".
An important aspect of the Muslim Brotherhood ideology is the sanctioning of Jihad such as the 2004 fatwa issued by Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi making it a religious obligation of Muslims to abduct and kill U.S. citizens in Iraq.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/muslimbrotherhood.html

Family Security Matters, The Muslim Brotherhood's Long- Standing War On The West.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which from 1948 until the 1970s engaged in assassinations and terrorism in Egypt, has indoctrinated many who went on to commit acts of terror.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/terrorism.php? id=1040982

The muslim brotherhood in france Increasingly, the Muslim Brotherhood is making France their ..... Islam in France, International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, May 10, 2004
http://www.inthenationalintere st.com/Articles/September2005Feder.html

"Jihad and Jew-hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the roots of 9/11," Matthias Kֳ¼ntzel, Telos Press Publishing, 2007, (ISBN 0914386360, 9780914386360, 180 pages), pp. 20-24

Paramilitary rallies by the pro-fascist Young Egypt movement founded in 1933, the Young Men's Muslim Association (YMMA) and the Muslim Brotherhood increasingly dominant the street-scene, announcing...

In October 1933, when the Jewish-led anti-German boycott movement was still going strong, the Cairo Nazi group discussed the reasons for the failure of their anti-Jewish campaign to date. How could "the broad masses" be awakened to an understanding of the "Jewish threat?" In their report to the Foreign Office in Berlin they drew the conclusion that the value of publicity campaigns "for the creation of an anti- Jewish mood among the Arab population is relatively small" and that "we must therefore focus far more on the point where real conflicts of interest between Arabs and Jews exist: Palestine. The conflict between Arabs and Jews there must be transplanted to Egypt."..

p. 21
In April 1936 the Mufti called for an Arab general strike... "Arab revolt of 1936-39."

This strike gave the Muslim Brothers the green light to launch their first fanatical solidarity campaign, in which the idea of jihad was linked to the clashes in Palestine. Only now did the Brotherhood become a mass organization, growing between 1936 and 1938 from 800 to 200,000 members.

In May 1936 the Muslim Brothers called for a boycott of the Business of Egyptian Jews. The Central Comittee for Aid to Palestine established by Al-Banna developed into the Brotherhood's stronghold and the centre of its new mission. Pro-Palestinian fund-raising and anti-Jewish boycott campaigns, leafleting and demonstrations were now organized. In mosques, schools and workplaces the Brotherhood worked out the believers with the legend that the Jews and British wished to destroy the holy places of Jerusalem and tear up the Koran
and trample it underfoot. Yet initially these activities encountered strong opposition precisely among the Egyptian religious establisment...
met with a lot of resistance on the part of the mosque imams, who tried to stop them physically or have (p. 22) them taken to the police station... the Al-Azhar mosque-university, whose rector, Mustafa al-Maragi, forbade his Palestinian students from indulging in any anti-Jewish ...

p. 23
The Muslim Brothers' campaign struck a different note. "On violent student demonstrations in Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta in April and May 1938 calls such as "down with the Jews", "Jews out of Egypt and Palestine" rang out...... Leaflets reiterated calls for a boycott of Jewish shops and business." At the same time its newspaper, al-Nadhir, ran a regular column with the title "the threat of the Jews in Egypt" in which the names and addresses of Jewish business propritetors and the owners of allegedly Jewish newspapers all over the world were published and all evil - from Communism to brothels - was attributed to the "Jewish threat."

An Appeal was made to young Egyptians to wear and consume only Islamic products and to prepare themselves in all parts of Egypt for jihad in defence of the Al-Aqsa mosque. Al-Nadhir called on children to give up their presents "for Palestine," while their mothers were to sacrifice their very selves. "I shall carry my life in my own hands and offer it as a sacrifice on the altar in defence of the Holy Place in order to win the honour of jihad" boasted one female fanatic in the paper. In 1939 the first bombs were placed in a Cairo synagogue and Jewish private homes.

These anti-Jewish excesses were by then supported by other Islamist organizations such as the Young Men's Muslims Association (YMMA)..

The Muslim Brotherhood began to expand in scope and influence during World War II. They even had a Palestinian section headed by the grand Mufti of Jerusalem, one of the great bigots of all time. Here, too, was a man ג€” The grand Mufti of Jerusalem was the Muslim Brotherhood representative for Palestine. These were undoubtedly Arab Nazis. The Grand Mufti, for example, went to Germany during the war and helped recruit an international SS division of Arab Nazis. They based it in Croatia and called it the "Handjar" Muslim Division, but it was to become the core of Hitler's new army of Arab fascists that would conquer the Arab peninsula from then on to Africa ” grand dreams.

At the end of World War II, the Muslim Brotherhood was wanted for war crimes. Their German intelligence handlers were captured in Cairo. The whole net was rolled up by the British Secret Service. Then a horrible thing happened.

Instead of prosecuting the Nazis ” the Muslim Brotherhood ” the British government hired them. They brought all the fugitive Nazi war criminals of Arab and Muslim descent into Egypt, and for three years they were trained on a special mission. The British Secret Service wanted to use the fascists of the Muslim Brotherhood to strike down the infant state of Israel in 1948. Only a few people in the Mossad know this, but many of the members of the Arab Armies and terrorist groups that tried to strangle the infant State of Israel were the Arab Nazis of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Britain was not alone. The French intelligence service cooperated by releasing the Grand Mufti and smuggling him to Egypt, so all of the Arab Nazis came together. So, from 1945 to 1948, the British Secret Service protected every Arab Nazi they could, but they failed to quash the State of Israel.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.aspx?GUID={0F956A35-69D8-4CC4-A05A-0F01651F14D9}

How Islam Plans to Change the World - Page 25 - William Wagner - (Kregel Publications) 2004 (ISBN 0825439655) - 287 pages - Preview
THE NEW DAWN FOR ISLAM (1945-1969)
A little-known fact today is that the Muslim Brotherhood grew in Egypt in the 1920s as an imitation of European fascism, which it self was a revolt against modernity. In Italy and Germany they were known by their black or brown shirts. In Egypt they had green shirts, which symbolized the Muslim Brotherhood. Fascism failed in Europe but survived in Egypt and spread to other parts of the Islamic world. The influence of this radical movement is still very powerful in Egypt. It became fiercely anti-Western in the 1940s and 1950s under the direction of Sayd Qutb, an Egyptian fundamentalist. This movement was credited with many assassinations, including that of Anwar Sadat.
http://books.google.com/books?id=EvyP0zY1-tsC&pg=PA25

Encyclopedia of modern worldwide extremists and extremist groups - Page 40 - Stephen E. Atkins - 2004 - 404 pages - Preview The Muslim Brotherhood continued to grow during World War II, reaching a membership of nearly 500000 in 1945. Al-Banna was always vague about his political goals, but he expressed his admiration for Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler and ...
http://books.google.com/books?id=b8k4rEPvq_8C&pg=PA40

Yad Vashem studies: Volume 37, Part 1 - Page 125 - Yad ב¹¿a-shem, rashut ha-zikaron la-Shoֺ¼ah ב¹¿ela-gevurah - 2009 - Preview
In 1928, the cleric Hassan al-Banna had established the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. It formed the core cell of modern Islamic fundamentalism... The driving factor behind this upsurge was mobilization for the Arab uprising in Palestine, as passages of the Koran hostile to Jews were interwoven with antisemitic formulations of struggle from the Third Reich, and the hatred of the Jews was transformed into jihad, "holy war." The consequence was boycott campaigns and violent demonstrations under the slogan, "Jews out of Egypt and Palestine!" In October 1938, a conference of Islamic parliamentarians "for the defense of Palestine" was held in Cairo; antisemitic tractates were distributed, including the Arabic versions of Hitler's Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
http://books.google.com/books?id=JcDXaeukt4sC&pg=PA125

Issues in Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class: Selections From CQ Researcher, CQ Researcher, [Pine Forge Press] 2009 [ISBN 1412980372, 9781412980371] - Page 158
The Nazis funded the burgeoning growth of Muslim fundamentalism, helping the radical Muslim Brotherhood distribute Arabic translations of Mein Kampf, ...
http://books.google.com/books?id=6HPB3DlB-m8C&pg=PA158

The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle Over God, Truth, and Power - Page 237, Melanie Phillips - 2010 - 280 pages - Preview
...During the war, the Muslim Brotherhood distributed Mein Kampf in Arabic throughout Palestine, along with German money and weapons to help the Arab revolt against Jewish immigration from Nazi-occupied Europe. Husseini also supported the Nazis via ...
http://books.google.com/books?id=GJN7TZtT1UIC&pg=PA237

Human Rights Internet reporter: Volume 8, Human Rights Internet - 1982 - p. 244
Egypt's nine million Christians, some 20 percent of the nation's population, are in imminent danger of being cut off ... who were former members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Since then the persecution of the Copts has continued unabated.
http://books.google.com/books?&id=TvUvAQAAIAAJ&dq=copts

Dateline Jerusalem - Page 53 - Zola Levitt - 2005 - 214 pages - Preview
Coptic acceptance of this subservient status should not, however, be attributed to a lack of courage. Copts represent only 10 percent of ... The virulently anti-Christian and anti-Jewish Muslim Brotherhood was founded there in 1928,
http://books.google.com/books?id=9519CiuzSOIC&pg=PA53

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Copts
Written by Magdi Khalil
Friday, April 21, 2006

Many have recently wondered about the evident concern of the Copts over the Muslim Brotherhood’s victory of 88 seats in the last parliamentary elections in Egypt. Why, exactly, are the Copts so upset, and would they stand against democracy if it works in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood?

Actually, the Copts are not the only ones to have serious misgivings about this latest development in Egypt’s political life; women, liberals, civil society supporters, leftists, and other advocates of democracy share the same sentiment. The champions of civil society are haunted by the nightmarish vision of a religious government, and it goes without saying that the Copts, as a religious minority, are particularly concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood’s agenda with regard to the creation of an Islamic state and Islamic nationalism.

In response to these concerns, the Muslim Brotherhood claims that it does not seek to establish a religious state, but rather a “civil state with an Islamic framework” or an “Islamic democracy.” I am challenging to learn, however, if there is any person out there who can pinpoint the exact definition of those ambiguous terms, give accurate details as to what an Islamic democracy entails, or what it means to have a civil state with an Islamic framework.

Most importantly, the Muslim Brotherhood’s history, actions, website statements, and newspaper articles confirm the intent to establish a state that has a religious nature and not a civil one. To illustrate:

• Mustafa Mashour, the former supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, was quoted as saying “Whoever stands against the Muslim Brotherhood is also standing against God and His Prophet.” The implication here is that Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood are on an equal standing or are one and the same. The same feeling is reflected in the statement made by Hassan Hanafi: “What is so terrifying about the Muslim Brotherhood? The Western media is ruining their image in the same pattern it has been ruining the image of Islam and Muslims.” (Al-Arabi, No. 989)

• Essam Al Erian: “The Muslim Brotherhood believes that a comprehensive reform will not have the power to inspire real public participation unless it is resting on an Islamic foundation… We seek to build an Islamic civilization under an umbrella of faith in God and in the after-life, a civilization that would re-establish man’s psychological balance and restore his lost soul.” (Al-Hayat, November 30, 2005). I wonder who told Mr. Erian that our souls are lost, and who can possibly determine the meaning of loss and restoration?

• The current supreme guide, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, responded to the civil society advocates’ request for a constitutional amendment which would provide for a civil framework for the state by saying: “This is a futile and foolish request, and we will say no more about it, except to call on the people to protect their own faith.” His deputy, Mohammed Habib, commented by saying, “This request crosses a line that shouldn’t even be touched, because just touching it can trigger a civil war in Egypt.”

• A spectacle that needs no comments: Members of Egypt’s Parliament from the Muslim Brotherhood standing in line to kiss the hand of the supreme guide!

• Mustafa Mashour’s declaration: “For now we accept the principle of party plurality, but when we will have an Islamic rule we will either accept or reject this principle” (in Refaat Al-Said’s Against Islamization). The clear reference to an “Islamic rule,” or in other words, a “religious state,” is proof enough that our fears are well founded.

• Mohammed Mahdi Akef’s statement: “The public opinion is ruled by Shari’a. We should not forget that the Egyptian Constitution states that ‘the Islamic law is the principal source of legislation’” (Akher Saa, July 20, 2005).

• According to Mohammed Habib, even the separation of powers should be guided and inspired by the rules of Islamic Shari’a (Asharq Al-Awsat, November 27, 2005).

• The Muslim Brotherhood’s main slogan is “Islam is the Solution,” a mysterious slogan that excludes “infidels” such as the Christians and the Jews. The Brotherhood’s flag pictures two swords and the Qur’an and a Qur’anic verse which states: “Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies of Allah and your enemies.” (Spoils of War Surah – El-Ghanaem: 60)

• Their proclaimed purpose is to “restore the Islamic Caliphate (Islamic political system and rule). Their former supreme guide, Mustafa Mashour, has frankly stated: “We will not give up our mission to restore the lost Islamic Caliphate.” (Asharq Al-Awsat, August 9, 2002)

• The professional syndicates in Egypt bear the mark of the Muslim Brotherhood’s intrusion. For example, the solemn Hippocratic Oath was replaced by a Muslim oath in the Physicians’ Syndicate; hard-earned Egyptian money is being donated to the “brothers” in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya and Kashmir; and the syndicates’ funds are wasted on Islamic projects that belong to the Muslim Brotherhood.

When it is so obvious that public affairs have been turned into “holy” affairs, and the debate revolves around religious credentials and how to best abide by Islam’s rule, it seems pointless to expect that their promised state would be a civil state.

When asked about the program of action for this alleged civil state, the Muslim Brotherhood usually refers to the reform initiative issued in March 2004 in the Journalists’ Syndicate, and which is posted on the Muslim Brotherhood’s website. A study of the initiative leads to the undeniable conclusion that this document is, in fact, a proposal for an Islamic state.

It plainly states: “Our mission is to implement a comprehensive reform in order to uphold God’s law which is good for both secular and religious affairs.” It goes on to state that “Our only hope, if we wish to achieve any type of progress, is to go back to our faith, and to apply the Shari’a,” clearly confirming “our mission is to build a Muslim individual, a Muslim family, a Muslim government, and an Islamic rule to lead other Islamic states.”

The document touches briefly on what we can expect if that mission is accomplished:

- Regarding the media: “The media will be cleansed of anything that disagrees with the decrees of Islam.”

- Regarding the economy: “We believe in an economic system that is derived from Islam… usury should be outlawed as a source of funding.”

- Regarding politics: “The state should have a democratic system that is compatible with Islam, and within Islamic boundaries.”

- Regarding the social system: “The zakah (alms) institutions should be in charge of the distribution of income.”

- Regarding education: “To increase the number of kuttab (a rudimentary religious school) and nurseries, and the focus of education should be on learning the Qur’an by heart.”

- Regarding women: “Women should only hold the kind of posts that would preserve their virtue.”

- Regarding culture: “Our culture has to be derived from Islamic sources.” This would also impact television: “Improper drama and offensive television shows should be banned.”

The notion of a civil state is nowhere to be found in the sole document offered by the Muslim Brotherhood.

I have yet to meet anyone who knows what Islamic democracy means. As Ragaa ben Salama says: “If we have no doubt that a Muslim can live within a democracy, and remain a practicing believer, can we say the same about democracy surviving an Islamic label? Democracy basically means the supremacy of the people, a rule by the people for the people, so can we call democrats those who opt for an Islamic state which, according to Rashid al-Ghanoushi, is ruled by the highest legislative authority issued by God, the Qur’an and Sunna (the Prophet’s traditions)?

How will we proceed in finding a middle ground between the Holy Texts and human rights principles, and do we have viable suggestions in that respect?

It seems that with that type of “democracy” we will only be trading one tyranny for another, to live under the rule of Shari’a is to experience the greatest level of tyranny, because every tiny detail in human life, whether public or private, is subject to the haram and halal (permissible and forbidden) rules (Middle East Transparent, December 21, 2004).

As we can see, the notion of a religious state is a scary one for all, particularly for the Copts, who have not, throughout the history of Islam, enjoyed equal treatment as full citizens while living under a religious Islamic state.

I have met Muslim Brotherhood leaders more than once in the course of television interviews, and it did not take me long to realize that we come from two different worlds and spoke different languages: our civil perspective versus their religious perspective. However, they have been strangely determined to force this delusion of a “common civil ground” on their audience by using a plethora of mysterious expressions and misleading theories. Needless to say, the “delusion” can only work until you discuss the details of their proposals, then their religious orientation will ultimately reveal itself.

The problem with the Muslim Brotherhood is that they are hard to pin down, with their elusive style, word play, taqiyya, contradictory statements, and double language. They are all-set to accommodate different clients: The West and Americans, the Copts, women, liberals, as well as Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri. To this moment they refuse to condemn the writings of Said Kutb, the philosopher of terror and violence.

Meanwhile, the Copts have particular reasons to fear the Muslim Brotherhood:

First: The Muslim Brotherhood’s racist declarations against the Copts.

• A famous fatwa (a legal pronouncement in Islam) prohibited the construction of new churches in Egypt. The fatwa was published in Al-Dawaa magazine, which speaks for the Muslim Brotherhood, in December 1980, and was issued by Mohammed Al-Khatib who was, and still is, a member of the guidance council of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. Twenty-five years later, the Muslim Brotherhood still acknowledges the validity of this fatwa.

• Another outrageous fatwa issued by Mustafa Mashhour stated that: “Islamic law, Shari’a, is the principal point of reference (authority) for governance. Copts must pay the jizyah instead of joining the army, lest they ally themselves with the enemy, if that enemy happens to be a Christian country" (Al-Ahram Weekly 13 April 1997). A calculated change was later made by Mashhour, who still would not deny the validity of his statement. Recently, on 22 December 2005, Mohammed Akef used the same tactic to contain the angry responses to his statement about the holocaust being a “myth,” but he neither denied the statement nor offered an apology.

• In an interview with the newspaper Azzaman, Mohammed Habib said: “The Muslim Brotherhood rejects any constitution based on secular and civil laws, and as a consequence the Copts can not take on the form of a political entity in this country. When the movement will come to power, it will replace the current constitution with an Islamic one, according to which a non-Muslim will not be allowed to hold a senior post, whether in the state or the army, because this right should be exclusively granted to Muslims. If the Egyptians decide to elect a Copt for the presidential post, we will issue a protest against such an action, on the basis that this choice should be ours” (Azzaman, May 17, 2005).

On another occasion he stated that the Copts should submit to Islamic law like the rest of Egyptians” (Mona Al-Tahawi, Asharq Al-Awsat, August 18, 2005). Later, when it became obvious that his statements provoked an angry reaction, he wrote an article in Asharq Al-Awsat where he stated: “We consider the Copts as citizens who are entitled to the full rights of citizenship, and consequently they have the full right to hold all sorts of public positions except for the presidential post.” (Asharq Al-Awsat, November 27, 2005)

The danger here lies in the reasoning behind such statements: the presidential post is considered welaya kobra (major governance) and in this case a non-Muslim is not allowed to govern a Muslim, which completely shatters the basic notion of citizenship. It is a given that a non-Muslim Egyptian will have serious obstacles to be elected president. But, the problem is if an obstacle is based on a religious rule advocated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

While Habib seems to be adjusting his original statement, he is in fact joining his fellows in making a tactical change, given that this principle applies not only to the presidential post but to all senior official posts, as previously mentioned by another Islamist, Dr. Neemat Ahmed Fouad: “Those who are making a big issue out of the fact that there are no Christian governors in Egypt forget that the governor is ruling his governorate on behalf of the president, who is Egypt’s ruler…the same logic and same criteria are applicable” (Al-Ahram, August 4, 1992).

This explains Milad Hanna’s prediction: “The Muslim Brotherhood will resort to taqiyya (deceit). They will claim that they believe in citizenship, but I know that the principle of their religious ideology has more power than the intentions of its followers” (Asharq Al-Awsat, November 27, 2005).

• In an interview with Sameh Fawzi in 1996, Mamoun Al-Hudaibi answered the question about whether the Copts were considered citizens or dhimmi by replying that they were both. When pressed for a specific answer, he clearly states: “They are dhimmi” (Al-Hayat, November 30, 2005).

Second: While the Muslim Brotherhood’s statements and declarations inspire concern, what they have left unsaid is as much a source of concern as what they actually said.

In the reform document, their only one to date, there was not even an allusion to the issue of citizenship, no specific details about other issues, and much general talk. For instance, in talking about their vision, Mohammed Habib says: “To have open and strong relations with the Arab and Islamic regimes, and to achieve a high level of cooperation in the economic, cultural, information and defense fields” (Asharq Al-Awsat, November 27, 2005). He avoided mentioning Egypt’s international relations, and its relation with Israel. They have followed that same pattern in dealing--or rather in not dealing--with critical issues, intent on hiding pertinent political and moral details.

Third: The Muslim Brotherhood’s discourse bears a religious and superior tone, with constant references to the “other,” often in a belittling and hurtful manner. Their frequent use of terms such as infidels, crusades, the triumph of the Islamic nation, and the armies of Muslims is guaranteed to antagonize Christians.

The discourse can turn downright hostile, as Hassan Al-Banna was quoted to literally say: “it is necessary to kill ahl el-ketab (Christians and Jews), and God will give a double recompense for those who fight them.” Al-Banna also tackled the issues of employment for non-Muslims in a haughty tone: “It is alright to employ non-Muslims, but only when it is necessary, and in posts that do not deal with matters of public governance” (Messages of Hassan Al-Banna, The Legitimate Printing, 1990, p. 280 & 394 – Samir Morkos, Middle East Transparent, December 24, 2005).

At best, the Muslim Brotherhood resorts to vague conciliatory statements such as the famous quote which states: “They (Christians) have the same rights as we do and the same duties as we do.” Yet, there is no way to reconcile the theory of peaceful coexistence on the basis of equality and citizenship and the prospect of a religious majority imposing its rules and perspective on the minority--in that case, we are no longer talking about a citizenship status but about dhimmi status.”

Fourth: The Muslim Brotherhood and their allies insist that the Coptic population amounts to only 6% of Egypt’s total population, in spite of a recent official declaration by Osama Al-Baz that the Copts constitute 12.5% of Egypt’s population, and despite the fact that other organizations have estimated the number of Copts to be 15 millions, i.e., 20% of the population. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood claims that the Shi’a amount to 30% of the total population of Iraq, while it is a well-known fact that they constitute 50-60% of the population (Mona Al-Tahawi, Asharq Al-Awsat, 8 Aug 2005). This purposeful twisting of numbers and percentages is a strategy used by the Muslim Brotherhood to deny the rights of their opponents, and on this point, they are worse in deceit compared to the current Egyptian regime.

Finally: Egyptian liberals, advocates of democracy, and the national movement strive towards the achievement of “national integration” for all elements of society, but the Muslim Brotherhood has in mind for the Copts a sort of “religious assimilation,” and there is a large difference between the two. Islamization is the first enemy of national integration, it pushes for the religious assimilation of the Coptic minority through a gradual desertion of their faith, or at the very least through a loss of their cultural and religious identity as it melts into the majority’s Islamic culture.

Evidently, Hassan Al-Banna and his followers have managed to sabotage the good work of the national movement. The Muslim Brotherhood is constantly praising the Copts who have accepted the idea of religious assimilation such as Rafik Habib, who promotes this idea among the Copts; Gamal Asaad, a candidate who adopted the slogan “Islam is the Solution” in his parliamentary campaign; and Hani Labib, who accepted a membership in the labor party under the same slogan, and whose books bear prefaces written by Islamic fundamentalists Tarek el-Beshri and Selim el-Awa. According to the Muslim Brotherhood, those Copts represent a commended Coptic ideal. [...]

About the Writer: Magdi Khalil is a political analyst, researcher, author, and executive editor of the Egyptian weekly Watani International. He is also a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, London, a free-lance writer for several Arabic language newspapers, and a frequent contributor to Middle East broadcast news TV. Mr. Khalil has also published three books and written numerous research papers on citizenship rights, civil society, and the situation of minorities in the Middle East...
http://web.archive.org/web/20060619095630/http://chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=20734

9/11 suspects ask to confess but postpone pleas - Yahoo! News The self-proclaimed architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants said they will plead guilty to terror charges ...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081209/pl_afp/usattacksjusticeguantanamo

Score one for the Muslim Brotherhood.
SPECIAL REPORT: The Bush administration has decided that calling the enemy by his name is too risky, too politically incorrect, or oddly, somehow too laudatory...
The U.S. government seems to think that declaring such links don't exist will make it so. Score one for the Muslim Brotherhood.
As Walid Phares describes in his post-9/11 three-book series on the meaning...
What motivates the international Islamic jihad movement is a literal textual interpretation of doctrinal Islam as laid out in the Koran, hadith, and Sunna plus centuries of Islamic scholarship and consensus on the concept of just war. Within this construct, it is true that words such as jihad, mujahedin, and Caliphate carry intensely positive and honorable connotations ג€“ for the Muslim jihadis ג€“ but hardly for the rest of us, their intended targets for subjugation within the totalitarian system that Sharia would impose.
In any case, use or non-use by infidels of the very terms by which jihadis identify themselves, to the extent that it might even be noticed, cannot possibly confer any additional measure of legitimacy on what has been for the mujahedin a centuries-old campaign of duty to spread their faith.
What Americans need to understand is that Islamic jihadis, whether part of a formal terrorist organization such as al-Qaida or the Muslim Brotherhood, or merely ideologically driven by the actions and proclamations of such groups, are internally motivated by what they believe is a divine mandate to fight and kill until the entire world comes under the sway of Dar al-Islam (where Sharia law prevails). The only relevance for this enemy that the choice of descriptive words may have is in the area of psychological operations.
If the jihadi enemy can achieve such a state of muddled confusion among the top administrative, legislative, and military leadership of its primary enemy (the United States of America) that we no longer even permit ourselves to utter the name of those sworn to our destruction, then truly they are winning the "War of Ideas."
From a series of excellent recent media pieces, as well as extensive documentation entered into evidence in last year's Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial, we now know the extent of Muslim Brotherhood activity throughout our society.
Muslim Brotherhood organizations such as the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), all three listed by the Department of Justice as unindicted co-conspirators, have achieved unprecedented access to the Department of Defense and even the White House.
But aware now of the enemy's stealth and cunning in seeking to influence U.S. national security policy, the nation is obligated to reject his agenda ” an agenda that prioritizes concealment until it is too late of the true nature of their campaign of conquest, whether by Dawa (persuasion, including by way of deception) or terrorist attack.
http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2008/04/28/score_one_for_the_muslim_brotherhood/9562/

Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide: Bin Laden is a Jihad Fighter, Special Dispatch Series - No. 2001 - July 25, 2008
http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP200108

Islamic terrorism linked to Nazi fascists
[August 15, 2006]
Despite some weak politically correct attempts, the fact is there is a radical, heretical brand of Islam fostering terrorism that is indeed a by-product of Fascism and a hatred of Jews
By Robert Duncan
[...]
"Islamism, or fascism with an Islamic face, was born with and of the Muslim Brotherhood. It proved (and improved) its fascist core convictions and practices through collaboration with the Nazis in the run-up to and during World War II. It proved it during the same period through its collaboration with the overtly fascist "Young Egypt" (Misr al-Fatah) movement, founded in October 1933 by lawyer Ahmed Hussein and modeled directly on the Hitler party, complete with paramilitary Green Shirts aping the Nazi Brown Shirts, Nazi salute and literal translations of Nazi slogans. Among its members, Young Egypt counted two promising youngsters and later presidents, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar El-Sadat," so begins an Asia Times article by Marc Erikson.

"The "Supreme Guide" of the brethren knew that faith, good works and numbers alone do not a political victory make. Thus, modeled on Mussolini's blackshirts (al-Banna much admired "Il Duce" and soul brother "Fuehrer" Adolf Hitler), he set up a paramilitary wing (slogan: "action, obedience, silence," quite superior to the blackshirts' "believe, obey, fight") and a "secret apparatus" (al-jihaz al-sirri) and intelligence arm of al-Ikhwan to handle the dirtier side — terrorist attacks, assassinations, and so on — of the struggle for power," writes Erikson elsewhere.

According to John Loftus, a former prosecutor with the US Justice Department, "Al-Banna formed this nationalist group called the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Banna was a devout admirer of Adolf Hitler and wrote to him frequently."

Loftus adds that Al-Banna was so persistent in his "admiration of the new Nazi Party that in the 1930s Al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood became a secret arm of Nazi Intelligence. With the goal of the Third Reich to develop the Muslim Brotherhood as an army inside Egypt."

So what was Al-Banna teaching?

Well, for one thing Al-Banna idealized death.

"To a nation that perfects the industry of death and which knows how to die nobly, God gives proud life in this world and eternal grace in the life to come" and "We are not afraid of death, we desire it... Let us die in redemption for Muslims," Al-Banna once wrote.

The Muslim Brotherhood also "used and disseminated a quotation from the Koran that Jews are to be considered 'the worst enemy of the believers.' In addition, they evoked old stories of the early history of Islam by pointing to the example set by Mohammed who, as legend has it, succeeded not only in expelling two Jewish tribes from Medina during the 7th century, but killed the entire male population of the third tribe and sold all the women and children into slavery."

Spreading their hate-filled message toward Jews, the Muslim Brotherhood found a soul-mate in Amin el-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem who held the highest political and religious posts in Palestine from 1921 until after World War II.

Loftus and other authors note that the Muslim Brotherhood and Mufti had common goals with the new Nazi doctrines: a hatred for Western culture, democracy and Jews.

The Mufti with the Muslim Brotherhood and Nazi ideology was a dangerous cocktail.

"As early as 1929, a Mufti-led pogrom killed 133 autochthonous Jews in Jerusalem and Hebron. Shortly thereafter, the Mufti declared the relentless fight against the Jews as the most important responsibility of all believers. Those who dared to resist his anti-Jewish orders were publicly denounced and publicly threatened in the mosques during Friday prayers."

"In a letter to Adolf Hitler, the Mufti emphasized his unflagging and successful efforts to use the "the Palestine question'' in order 'to coalesce all Arab countries in a common hatred against the British and the Jews.'"

Starting in 1933, the Mufti repeatedly offered to serve the German Nazi government. In the beginning, however, the Mufti's fight against Jews was only supported in terms of ideology. That soon, however, changed.

The Palestine's 1936 "Arab Revolt" was in a large part incited by the Mufti, with cries of "Down with the Jews!" and "Jews get out of Egypt and Palestine!"

It was not until 1937 that the Mufti's "Holy War" began to receive substantial financial support and weapons from Nazi Germany, which allowed Hitler's Islamist agents both in Palestine and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to spread their anti-Jewish hatred.

Klaus Gensicke writes in his dissertation on the Mufti's collaboration with the Nazis: "The Mufti himself admitted that it was entirely due to the money contributed by the Germans that allowed him at that time to carry out the uprising in Palestine."

"The Mufti's so-called "Arab Revolt" took place against the background of the swastika: Arab leaflets and signs on walls were prominently marked with this Nazi symbol; the youth organization of the Mufti's political party paraded as "Nazi-scouts," and Arab children greeted each other with the Nazi salute. Those who had to pass through the rebellious quarters of Palestine attached a flag bearing the swastika to their vehicles so as to insure protection against assaults by the Mufti's volunteers."
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/duncan/060815

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