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When we lived in Phoenix, it was common procedure to close whatever road on which a fatality had occurred until law enforcement was finished with the scene.
Thanks for the link Ian. Network news this AM discussed the possibility of rising oil prices due to the storm and its effect on oil rigs. If anyone blinks sideways they'll go up IMHO, storm or no storm. Noting media NOT covering rising oil company profits while consumer prices are causing hardship to schools, cities and low income workers.
Thanks for the ping, Oorang. Good to hear from you again. :)
Good luck with that move to school.
I hope it goes smoothly and is uneventful.
You're welcome and ditto.
You're very welcome Granny.
It's good to see how fast he made it back on the airwaves.
Maybe they will stay home and fight each other.
I haven't heard that 93 was closed, on the radio for a year or so for accidents.
It had to be bad, the lady who had recorded the message, as a rule records all the news at about 3 am, it is rare to hear alerts on our local station.
Thanks to penguino for the ping to this thread:
===
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1471681/posts
"Islamic snipers coming to USA, targeting Tancredo, radio hosts?"
Jihad Watch ^ | August 26, 2005 | Robert Spencer
Posted on 08/26/2005 8:21:51 PM PDT by george76
http://www.washingtontimes.com/business/20050826-103041-4237r.htm
Front Page > Business Page
Page 1 of 2 next » | Email | Print | Subscribe
"9/11 seen as sparking Arab economic boom"
By Jim Krane
ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 27, 2005
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
http://www.komotv.com/stories/38792.htm
"Who Blew Up A Homemade Bomb On Sheriff's Patrol Boat?"
August 26, 2005
By April Zepeda
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "SNOHOMISH COUNTY - Snohomish County Sheriff's investigators want to catch the person who detonated a homemade bomb on their patrol boat.
Someone taped a bomb made of sparklers and BB's to the dash. It blasted out the windows and damaged the boat's interior."
From the article:
"Call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded,
to comply with God's order to kill the Americans
and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it."
Each line is a link on the site, to a page of history, 1990 to 1993.....interesting.
granny
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/american/adl/hamas/ as
To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:SHowjoY8xwwJ:www.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/american/adl/hamas/+muslim+brotherhood&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&client=googlet
These search terms have been highlighted:
muslim
brotherhood
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood:
Islamic Extremists and the Threat to America
Anti-Defamation League, 1993, ADL New York
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Holy War: Now or Later?
Refuge in Mosques
Support From Abroad: Money No Object
Haven in the Land of the Free
"Positive Works" in America
"Our Battle Is With the Jewish Enemy Today"
Support for HAMAS' Jailed Leader
Brother Nosair: Victim of an International Political Conspiracy
"Ramadan is the Month of Sacrifice"
Advocating Violence: "The Intifada Must Be Rejuvenated"
Preaching Holy War From Brooklyn
The "Brooklyn Jihad Office"
Afterword: Terror at the Twin Towers
Conclusion
Footnotes
Appendix of Organizations
The original plaintext version of this file is available via ftp.
[ Index ]
Home · Funding · Search · Site Map ·
What's New? ·
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2005
Excellent, up to date article, too long to post: granny
This item is available on the Middle East Forum website, at
http://www.meforum.org/article/687
The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of
Europe
by Lorenzo Vidino
Middle East Quarterly
Winter 2005
Since its founding in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood (Hizb al-Ikhwan
al-Muslimun) has profoundly influenced the political life of the Middle
East. Its motto is telling: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our
leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of
Allah is our highest hope."[1]
While the Brotherhood's radical ideas have shaped the beliefs of
generations of Islamists, over the past two decades, it has lost some
of its power and appeal in the Middle East, crushed by harsh
repression from local regimes and snubbed by the younger
generations of Islamists who often prefer more radical organizations.
But the Middle East is only one part of the Muslim world. Europe has
become an incubator for Islamist thought and political development.
Since the early 1960s, Muslim Brotherhood members and
sympathizers have moved to Europe and slowly but steadily
established a wide and well-organized network of mosques, charities,
and Islamic organizations. Unlike the larger Islamic community, 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.[2]
Four decades of teaching and cultivation have paid off. The student
refugees who migrated from the Middle East forty years ago and their
descendants now lead organizations that represent the local Muslim
communities in their engagement with Europe's political elite. Funded
by generous contributors from the Persian Gulf, they preside over a
centralized network that spans nearly every European country.
These organizations represent themselves as mainstream, even as
they continue to embrace the Brotherhood's radical views and
maintain links to terrorists. With moderate rhetoric and well-spoken
German, Dutch, and French, they have gained acceptance among
European governments and media alike. Politicians across the political
spectrum rush to engage them whenever an issue involving Muslims
arises or, more parochially, when they seek the vote of the
burgeoning Muslim community.
But, speaking Arabic or Turkish before their fellows Muslims, they drop
their facade and embrace radicalism. While their representatives
speak about interfaith dialogue and integration on television, their
mosques preach hate and warn worshippers about the evils of
Western society. While they publicly condemn the murder of
commuters in Madrid and school children in Russia, they continue to
raise money for Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Europeans,
eager to create a dialogue with their increasingly disaffected Muslim
minority, overlook this duplicity. The case is particularly visible in
Germany, which retains a place of key importance in Europe, not only
because of its location at the heart of Europe, but also because it
played host to the first major wave of Muslim Brotherhood immigrants
and is host to the best-organized Brotherhood presence. The German
government's reaction is also instructive if only to show the dangers of
accepting Muslim Brotherhood rhetoric at face value, without looking
at the broader scope of its activities.
The Muslim Brotherhood
The situation in Germany is particularly telling. More than anywhere
else in Europe, the Muslim Brotherhood in Germany has gained
significant power and political acceptance. Islamist organizations in
other European countries now consciously follow the model pioneered
by their German peers.
During the 1950s and 1960s, thousands of Muslim students left the
Middle East to study at German universities, drawn not only by the
German institutions' technical reputations but also by a desire to
escape repressive regimes. Egyptian ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser's
regime was especially vigorous in its attempts to root out the Islamist
opposition. Beginning in 1954, several members of the Muslim
Brotherhood fled Egypt to escape arrest or assassination. West
Germany provided a welcome refuge. Bonn's motivations were not
simply altruistic. As terrorism expert Khalid Durán explained in his
studies on jihadism in Europe,[3] the West German government had
decided to cut diplomatic relations with countries that recognized East
Germany. When Egypt and Syria established diplomatic relations with
the communist government, Bonn decided to welcome Syrian and
Egyptian political refugees. Often, these dissidents were Islamists.
Many members of the Muslim Brotherhood were already familiar with
Germany. Several had cooperated with the Nazis before and during
World War II.[4] Some had even, reportedly, fought in the infamous
Bosnian Handschar division of the Schutzstaffel (SS).[5]
One of the Muslim Brotherhood's first pioneers in Germany was Sa‘id
Ramadan, the personal secretary of Muslim Brotherhood founder
Hassan al-Banna.[6] Ramadan, an Egyptian who had led the Muslim
Brotherhood's irregulars in Palestine in 1948,[7] moved to Geneva in
1958 and attended law school in Cologne.[8] In Germany, he founded
what has become one of Germany's three main Muslim organizations,
the Islamische Gemeinschaft Deutschland (Islamic Society of
Germany, IGD), over which he presided from 1958 to 1968.[9]
Ramadan also cofounded the Muslim World League,[10] a well-funded
organization that the Saudi establishment uses to spread its radical
interpretation of Islam throughout the world. The U.S. government
closely monitors the activities of the Muslim World League, which it
accuses of financing terrorism. In March 2002, a U.S. Treasury
Department-led task force raided the group's Northern Virginia offices
looking for documents tying the group to Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and
Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In January 2004, the Senate Finance
Committee asked the Internal Revenue Service for its records on the
Muslim World League "as part of an investigation into possible links
between nongovernmental organizations and terrorist financing
networks."[11] This privileged relationship with the oil-rich kingdom
granted Ramadan an influx of money, which he used to fund the
powerful Islamic Center of Geneva and to bankroll several financial
and religious activities. Hani Ramadan, Sa‘id's son, currently runs the
Islamic Center. Among its other board members is Sa‘id's other son,
Tariq Ramadan, who recently made headlines in the United States
when the Department of Homeland Security revoked his visa to teach
at Notre Dame University.[12] Sa‘id Ramadan's case is not
isolated.[13]
Following Ramadan's ten-year presidency of the IGD, Pakistani
national Fazal Yazdani briefly led the IGD before Ghaleb Himmat, a
Syrian with Italian citizenship, took the helm. During his long
stewardship (1973-2002), Himmat shuttled between Italy, Austria,
Germany, Switzerland and the United States.[14] Intelligence
agencies around the world have long scrutinized Himmat's terrorist
connections. He is one of the founders of the Bank al-Taqwa, a
powerful conglomerate dubbed by Italian intelligence, "Bank of the
Muslim Brotherhood," which has financed terrorist groups since the
mid-1990s if not earlier.[15] Himmat helped Youssef Nada, one of the
Muslim Brotherhood's financial masterminds, run Al-Taqwa and a web
of companies headquartered in locations such as Switzerland,
Liechtenstein, and the Bahamas, which maintain few regulations on
monetary origin or destination. Both Himmat and Nada reportedly
funneled large sums to groups such as Hamas and the Algerian Islamic
Salvation Front[16] and set up a secret credit line for a top associate
of Osama bin Laden.[17]
In November 2001, the U.S. Treasury Department designated both
Himmat and Nada as terrorism financiers.[18] According to Italian
intelligence, the Al-Taqwa network also financed several Islamic
centers throughout Europe[19] and many Islamist publications,
including Risalatul Ikhwan,[20] the official magazine of the Muslim
Brotherhood. After the U.S. Treasury Department designation, Himmat
resigned from the IGD's presidency. His successor was Ibrahim
el-Zayat, a 36-year-old of Egyptian descent and the charismatic
leader of numerous student organizations.
The fact that IGD leaders Ramadan and Himmat are among the most
prominent Muslim Brotherhood members of the last half-century
suggests the links between the IGD and the Ikhwan. Moreover, reports
issued by internal intelligence agencies from various German states
openly call the IGD an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.[21] In
particular, according to one intelligence report, the Egyptian branch of
the Muslim Brotherhood has dominated the IGD since its early
days.[22]
The Muslim Brotherhood—led by Ramadan and
Himmat[23]—sponsored the construction of the imposing Islamic
Center of Munich in 1960,[24] aided by large donations from Middle
Eastern rulers such as King Fahd of Saudi Arabia who, according to a
1967 Sueddeutsche Zeitung article, donated 80,000 marks.[25] The
Ministry of Interior of Nordrhein-Westfalen states that the Islamic
Center of Munich has been one of the European headquarters for the
Brotherhood since its foundation.[26] The center publishes a
magazine, Al-Islam, whose efforts (according to an Italian intelligence
dossier),[27] are financed by the Bank al-Taqwa. According to the
interior minister of Baden-Württemberg, Al-Islam shows explicitly how
the German Brothers reject the concept of a secular state.[28] Its
February 2002 issue, for example, states,
In the long run, Muslims cannot be satisfied with the
acceptance of German family, estate, and trial law. … Muslims
should aim at an agreement between the Muslims and the
German state with the goal of a separate jurisdiction for
Muslims.
The IGD, of which the Islamic Center of Munich is one of the most
important members, represents the main offshoot of the Egyptian
Brotherhood in Germany. But the IGD is also the quintessential
example of how the Muslim Brotherhood has gained power in Europe.
The IGD has grown significantly over the years, and it now
incorporates dozens of Islamic organizations throughout the country.
Islamic centers from more than thirty German cities have joined its
umbrella.[29] Today, the IGD's real strength lies in its cooperation
with and sponsorship of many Islamic youth and student organizations
across Germany.
This focus on youth organizations came after Zayat's succession. He
understood the importance of focusing on the next generation of
German Muslims and launched recruitment drives to get young
Muslims involved in Islamic organizations. But a Meckenheim police
report on the sharply dressed Zayat also reveals alarming
connections. German authorities openly say he is a member of the
Muslim Brotherhood. They also link him to the World Assembly of
Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi nongovernmental organization that
seeks to spread Wahhabism, the radical and intolerant Saudi
interpretation of Islam, throughout the world with its literature and
schools.[30] WAMY, which falls under the umbrella of the Muslim
World League, has the stated goal of "arming the Muslim youth with
full confidence in the supremacy of the Islamic system over other
systems." It is the largest Muslim youth organization in the world and
can boast unparalleled resources.[31] In 1991 WAMY published a book
called Tawjihat Islamiya (Islamic Views) that stated, "Teach our
children to love taking revenge on the Jews and the oppressors, and
teach them that our youngsters will liberate Palestine and Al-Quds
[Jerusalem] when they go back to Islam and make jihad for the sake
of Allah."[32] The sentiments in Tawjihat Islamiya are the rule rather
than the exception. Many other WAMY publications are filled with
strong anti-Semitic and anti-Christian rhetoric.
Meckenheim police also link Zayat to Institut Européen des Sciences
Humaines, a French school that prepares European imams. Several
radical clerics lecture at the school and several European intelligence
agencies accuse the school of spreading religious hatred.[33] German
authorities also highlight the fact that he is involved in several money
laundering investigations.[34] Zayat has never been indicted for
terrorist activity, but he has dubious financial dealings and maintains
associations with many organizations that spread religious hatred. The
IGD may have changed leadership after the U.S. Treasury's
designation of Himmat, but it did not change direction.
While the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood has chosen
Munich as its base of operations in Germany, its Syrian branch is
headquartered in Aachen, a German town near the Dutch border. The
former Carolingian capital, with its famous university, is now home to
a large Muslim population including the prominent Syrian Al-Attar
family. The first Attar to move to Aachen was Issam, who fled
persecution in his native country in the 1950s when he was leader of
the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Other members of the
Syrian Muslim Brotherhood soon followed. With time, Islamists from
other countries adopted Attar's Bilal mosque in Aachen as their base
of operations.[35] From hosting exiled Algerian terrorists[36] to
operating a charity designated by the U.S. Department of Treasury as
a financial front for Hamas,[37] Aachen is well known to intelligence
agencies throughout the world.
The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood base in Aachen kept close relations
with their Egyptian counterparts. For example, confirming the
tendency of important Muslim Brotherhood families to close alliance
through intermarriage, Issam al-Attar's son married the daughter of
Al-Taqwa banker Youssef Nada.[38] Links between the two Muslim
Brotherhood branches are more extensive than a single marriage,
however. The Aachen Islamic Center reportedly received funding from
Al-Taqwa.[39] Staff members have rotated between the Islamic
Centers in Aachen and Munich. For example, Ahmed von Denffer,
editor of the Islamic Center of Munich's Al-Islam magazine, came to
Munich from Aachen.[40] Nevertheless, some distance remains. The
Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has never joined the IGD, instead
preferring to keep some form of independence.
Milli Görü?
Of all of Zayat's financial activities, the one that has attracted the
German authorities' greatest suspicion has been his association with
officials of Milli Görü? (National Vision, in Turkish). Milli Görü?, which
has 30,000 members and perhaps another 100,000 sympathizers,[41]
claims to defend the rights of Germany's immigrant Turkish
population, giving them a voice in the democratic political arena while
"preserving their Islamic identity."[42] But Milli Görü? has another
agenda. While publicly declaring its interest in democratic debate and
a willingness to see Turkish immigrants integrated into European
societies, some Milli Görü? leaders have expressed contempt for
democracy and Western values. The Bundesverfassungsschutz,
Germany's domestic intelligence agency, has repeatedly warned about
Milli Görü?' activities, describing the group in its annual reports as a
"foreign extremist organization."[43] The agency also reported that
"although Milli Görü?, in public statements, pretends to adhere to the
basic principles of Western democracies, abolition of the laicist
government system in Turkey and the establishment of an Islamic
state and social system are, as before, among its goals."[44]
Milli Görü?' history alone indicates why the group should be
considered radical. Former Turkish prime minister Nehmettin Erbakan,
whose Refah Party was banned by the Turkish Constitutional Court in
January of 1998 for "activities against the country's secular
regime,"[45] is still Milli Görü?' undisputed leader, even if his nephew
Mehmet Sabri Erbakan is its president. The 2002 European Milli Görü?
meeting held in the Dutch city of Arnhem, where Nehmettin Erbakan
was the keynote speaker, provides a glimpse into Milli Görü?'
ideology. After a tirade against the evils of integration in the West and
U.S. policies, Erbakan declared that "after the fall of the wall, the
West has found an enemy in Islam."[46] A Bundesverfassungsschutz
report reveals Milli Görü?' real aims:
While in recent times, the Milli Görü? has increasingly
emphasized the readiness of its members to be integrated into
German society and asserts its adherence to the basic law,
such statements stem from tactical calculation rather than
from any inner change of the organization.[47]
Milli Görü? pushes an agenda similar to that of the IGD, even if its
target is more limited. Nevertheless, both Milli Görü? and the IGD
collaborate on many initiatives. There is also a family connection.
Zayat married Sabiha Erbakan, the sister of Mehmet Sabri
Erbakan.[48] The siblings' mother is also involved in politics and runs
an important Islamic women's organization in Germany. The Zayat
family is active as well. Ibrahim el-Zayat's father is the imam of the
Marburg mosque; other members of his family are involved in Islamic
organizations. As Udo Ulfkotte, a political science professor
specializing in counterespionage at the University of Lueneburg and an
expert on Islamic terrorism, notes, the Erbakans and the Zayats lead
networks of organizations that aim at the radicalization, respectively,
of the Turkish and Arab communities in Germany.[49]
IGD and Milli Görü? are active in their efforts to increase political
influence and become the official representatives of the entire German
Muslim community. With well-endowed budgets, their mosques
provide social services, organize conferences, and distribute literature
nationwide. As the Office for the Protection of the Constitution
(Landesverfassungsschutz) in Hessen[50] notes:
The threat of Islamism for Germany is posed … primarily by
Milli Görü? and other affiliated groups. They try to spread
Islamist views within the boundaries of the law. Then they try
to implement … for all Muslims in Germany a strict
interpretation of the Qur'an and of the Shari‘a. … Their public
support of tolerance and religious freedom should be treated
with caution.[51]
It presents a problem that politicians and security services in Germany
view the IGD and Milli Görü? so differently. But, as Ulfkotte wrote
about Zayat in his book, Der Krieg in unseren Staedten (The War in
Our Cities),[52] "politicians of all colors and parties try to reach out to
him."[53] For example, the prestigious Berlin Catholic Academy
invited Zayat to represent the Muslim point of view in an
inter-religious meeting organized by the academy in October
2002.[54] German politicians and Christian institutions regularly
partner themselves with Milli Görü? in various initiatives. Milli Gazete,
the official journal of Milli Görü?, once stated that "Milli Görü? is a
shield protecting our fellow citizens from assimilation into barbaric
Europe."[55] Nevertheless, German politicians meet regularly with
Milli Görü? officials to discuss immigration and integration issues. The
fact that an official like Ahmed al-Khalifah, IGD secretary general,
represents Islam before members of parliament who are discussing
religious tolerance,[56] shows the success of Brotherhood-linked
organizations' efforts to gain acceptance as the representatives of
German Muslims. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution well
described these efforts, saying that Milli Görü? (and the IGD) "strives
to dominate regional or nationwide federations and umbrella
organizations for Muslims which are increasingly gaining importance
as interlocutors for state and ecclesiastical authorities and thus to
expand its influence within society."[57]
Zentralrat, the Islamist Umbrella
In 1989, under the auspices of Abdullah at-Turki, powerful dean of Bin
Saud University in Riyadh, the Saudis created the Islamische Konzil
Deutschland (Islamic Council of Germany). Turki assumed the
presidency with other top positions held by Ibrahim el-Zayat, Hasan
Özdögan, a high-ranking Milli Görü? official, and Ahmad Khalifa, an
officer from the Islamic Center of Munich.[58] While an official
German parliament report describes the Islamische Konzil as just
"another Sunni organization," such an assumption indicates a
dangerous misunderstanding of the Saudi relationship to German
Islamists.[59]
The trend toward consolidation took a step forward in 1994 when
German Islamists realized that a united coalition translated into
greater political relevance and influence. Nineteen organizations,
including the IGD, the Islamic Center of Munich, and the Islamic
Center of Aachen, created an umbrella organization, the Zentralrat
der Muslime. According to a senior German intelligence official, at
least nine out of these nineteen organizations belong to the Muslim
Brotherhood.[60] The German press has recently investigated the
Zentralrat president, Nadeem Elyas, a German-educated Saudi
physician and an official of the Islamic Center of Aachen. Die Welt
linked Elyas to Christian Ganczarski, an Al-Qaeda operative currently
jailed as one of the masterminds of the 2002 attack on a synagogue in
Tunisia.[61] Ganczarski, a German of Polish descent who converted to
Islam, told authorities that Al-Qaeda recruited him at the Islamic
University of Medina where Elyas sent him to study.[62] Elyas said he
could not remember meeting him but did not deny the possibility that
Ganczarski, who never completed high school, might have been one of
the many individuals he had sent over the years to radical schools in
Saudi Arabia.[63] Saudi donors paid all of Ganczarski's expenses.[64]
Ganczarski was not alone. Elyas admitted to having sent hundreds of
German Muslims to study at one of the most radical universities in
Saudi Arabia.[65]
The Zentralrat, which portrays itself as the umbrella organization for
German Muslim organizations, has become, together with the IGD and
Milli Görü?, the de facto representative of three million German
Muslims. Even though the IGD is a member of the Zentralrat, the two
organizations often operate independently. Their apparent
independence is planned. With many organizations operating under
different names, the Muslim Brotherhood fools German politicians who
believe they are consulting a spectrum of opinion.[66] The media seek
the Zentralrat's officials when they want the Muslim view on
everything from the debate about the admissibility of the hijab
(headscarf) in public schools, to the war in Iraq, and so forth.
Politicians seek the Zentralrat's endorsement when they want to reach
out to the Muslim community. Many German politicians are
uninformed about Islam and do not understand that the view and the
interpretation of Islam that the Zentralrat expresses, as does the IGD
and Milli Görü?, is that of the Muslim Brotherhood and not that of
traditional Islam. Accordingly, the Zentralrat expresses total
opposition to any ban of the hijab, supports Wahhabi-influenced
Islamic education in schools, and endorses a radical position on the
Middle East situation.[67] While many Muslims endorse these views,
the problem is that the Zentralrat neither represents nor tolerates
those with divergent views. Moderate German Muslim groups lack the
funding and organization of Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups. In
terms of numbers, influence on the Muslim community, and political
relevance, the Zentralrat and its two most important constituent parts,
the IGD and Milli Görü?, dominate the scene. With ample Saudi
financing, the Muslim Brotherhood has managed to become the voice
of the Muslims in Germany.
Recently, the German public was shocked to hear what is preached
inside Saudi-funded mosques and schools. In the fall of 2003, a hidden
camera-equipped journalist from Germany's ARD television infiltrated
the Saudi-built King Fahd Academy in Bonn and taped what it taught
to young Muslim children. One teacher called for jihad against the
infidels.[68] While the images elicited a rebuke from German
politicians, the rather sterile debate about Saudi influence on German
Muslims has not effected tangible change. Saudi officials and
Saudi-run nongovernmental organizations continue to groom Muslim
Brotherhood organizations.
First Germany, Then Europe
While the Muslim Brotherhood and their Saudi financiers have worked
to cement Islamist influence over Germany's Muslim community, they
have not limited their infiltration to Germany. Thanks to generous
foreign funding, meticulous organization, and the naïveté of European
elites, Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations have gained
prominent positions throughout Europe. In France, the extremist Union
des Organisations Islamiques de France (Union of Islamic
Organizations of France) has become the predominant organization in
the government's Islamic Council.[69] In Italy, the extremist Unione
delle Comunita' ed Organizzazioni Islamiche in Italia (Union of the
Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy) is the government's
prime partner in dialogue regarding Italian Islamic issues.[70]
In parallel to European Union integration efforts, the Muslim
Brotherhood is also seeking to integrate its various European proxies.
Over the past fifteen years, the Muslim Brotherhood has created a
series of pan-European organizations such as the Federation of
Islamic Organizations in Europe, in which representatives from
national organizations can meet and plan initiatives.[71] Perhaps the
Muslim Brotherhood's greatest pan-European impact has, as with the
Islamische Gemeinschaft Deutschland, been with its youth
organization. In June 1996, Muslim youth organizations from Sweden,
France, and England joined forces with the Federation of Islamic
Organizations in Europe and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth to
create a European Islamic youth organization.[72] Three months
later, thirty-five delegates from eleven countries met in Leicester and
formally launched the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student
Organizations (FEMYSO), which maintains its headquarters in
Brussels.[73]
According to its official publications, FEMYSO is "a network of 42
national and international organizations bringing together youth from
over 26 different countries." FEMYSO proudly stated in 2003 that over
the preceding four years it had become
The de facto voice of the Muslim youth in Europe. It is
regularly consulted on issues pertaining to Muslims in Europe.
It has also developed useful links with: the European
Parliament, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, the
European Youth Forum, and numerous relevant NGOs at the
European level.[74]
Ibrahim el-Zayat, who held the presidency until his commitments in
Germany forced him to step down, even used the FEMYSO perch to
address the European Parliament.[75] Because the Muslim
Brotherhood provides the bulk of FEMYSO's constituent organizations,
it provides the "de facto voice of the Muslim youth in Europe." While
FEMYSO claims that it "is committed to fighting prejudices at all the
levels, so that the future of Europe is a multicultural, inclusive and
respectful one,"[76] such statements ring hollow given the position of
sponsors like the World Assembly of Muslim Youth which believes that
"the Jews are enemies of the faithful, God, and the Angels; the Jews
are humanity's enemies. … Every tragedy that inflicts the Muslims is
caused by the Jews."[77]
The Muslim Brotherhood's ample funds and organization have
contributed to their success in Europe. But their acceptance into
mainstream society and their unchallenged rise to power would not
have been possible had European elites been more vigilant, valued
substance over rhetoric, and understood the motivations of those
financing and building these Islamist organizations. Why have
Europeans been so naïve? Bassam Tibi, a German professor of Syrian
descent and an expert on Islam in Europe, thinks that Europeans—and
Germans in particular—fear the accusation of racism.[78] Radicals in
sheep's clothing have learned that they can silence almost everybody
with the accusation of xenophobia. Any criticism of Muslim
Brotherhood-linked organizations is followed by outcries of racism and
anti-Muslim persecution. Journalists who are not frightened by these
appellatives are swamped with baseless and unsuccessful but
expensive lawsuits.
In some cases, politicians simply fail to check the backgrounds of
those who claim to be legitimate representatives for the Muslim
community. As in the United States, self-described representatives for
the Muslim community are far more radical than the populations they
represent. In other cases, politicians realize that these organizations
are not the ideal counterparts in a constructive dialogue but do not
take the time to seek other less visible but more moderate
organizations, several of which exist only at the grassroots level,
impeded by financial constraints.
What most European politicians fail to understand is that by meeting
with radical organizations, they empower them and grant the Muslim
Brotherhood legitimacy. There is an implied endorsement to any
meeting, especially when the same politicians ignore moderate voices
that do not have access to generous Saudi funding. This creates a
self-perpetuating cycle of radicalization because the greater the
political legitimacy of the Muslim Brotherhood, the more opportunity it
and its proxy grou
Yes there were I believe 7 people who were killed az granny. Two semi's collided and burst into flames there was another care caught in it as well. It was on the news last night.
"and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it." <<<<
I think the money is the real goal.
Money, draws people like flies.
Thank you for the rest of the story.
How very sad.
Prayers for the families and all involved.
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