RADICAL SHAKE-UP Obama’s edict to negotiate with the Brotherhood’s Egyptian leaders raises uneasy questions.
Chechnya, Bosnia, and Palestinian territory all military occupations, and therefore exceptions to its non- violence policy. It also has offered enthusiastic support to terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Human rights activist and best- selling author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was recruited into the Brotherhood as a teenage girl before she fl ed Somalia, wrote in The Christian ScienceM
Science Monitor about the “alarming” prospect
huge concern in the Middle East, where ostensible reformers have a history of
history of becoming despots. “Repre
human r crisis, an wrote Hir of the B to wa
do r
prospect of a Muslim Brotherhood dominate
dominated government in Egypt. It is a huge where os
“Repression at home will cause human rights violations, economic crisis, and an exodus of refugees,” wrote Hirsi Ali. She warned the rise of the Brotherhood also could lead to war with Israel.
The organization’s leaders do not believe in separation of religion and state, and main- tain Islam should infl u- ence every aspect of life. In June, Brotherhood leader Kamal al-Hil- bawi told the Arabic
life.
infl uential Islamic movement in the Arab world. Their motto: “God is our goal/the Prophet Muhammad is our leader/the Koran is our law.” Muslim Brotherhood leaders say they believe in the virtues of demo- cratic governance. But skeptics warn that the group remains committed to a worldwide “jihad” that would usher in the global epoch of Muslim rule known as the “caliphate.” One alarming sign for those hop-
ing the Arab Spring will sow the seeds of Middle Eastern democracy: When Seal Team Six took out Osama bin Laden, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood released a statement using the hon- orifi c “sheik.” It voiced support for “legitimate resistance against for- eign occupation for any country.” And its leaders have stated that the group considers Iraq, Afghanistan,
newspaper Asharq Alawsat: “The Brotherhood does not agree with the saying, ‘What belongs to Caesar, belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, belongs to God.’ It believes that everything belongs to God.” If the Muslim Brotherhood in
The with esar, ongs eves
ood appears any way moderate,
it is only in comparison to other groups that are even worse. Already, Brotherhood splinter groups like the Gamaa Islamiyah — which mas- sacred 62 Egyptians and Westerntern tourists in 1997 in Luxor — are cam- paigning openly. They do so while sparking deadly attacks on Egypt’s Coptic Christians, a community of believers pre-dating Muhammad who make up roughly 10 percent of the Egyptian population.
rate, ther ady, the
am-
while ypt’s y of mad nt of
The Muslim Brotherhood may seem like unusual company for the
the SEPTEMBER 2011 / NEWSMAX 45
Obama administration to keep dip- lomatically, but it is not alone. The British, too, have also sought out the Brotherhood in hopes of steering it toward democratic change. And it has been controversial there as well. James Brandon, head of research at the Quilliam Foundation, a think tank that studies extremist move- ments, told The Jerusalem Post that diplomacy will only embolden the Brotherhood, which he called a “past master of using such ‘engagement’ to further its own anti-Western agenda and to sideline more liberal Muslim voices.”
McCarthy, who has witnessed
fi rst-hand the devastation wrought by radical Islamists on U.S. soil, tells Newsmax that while the Brotherhood has had “some tactical disagree- ments” with al-Qaida, “they both support terrorism. And they want Shariah implemented as the nec- essary precondition to Islamicizing societies
and, ultimately, uniting them under a global caliphate.” TAWFIK HAMID SAYS . . .
“The Muslim Brotherhood does not seem to be as violent as al-Qaida. That said, it is hard to separate them from radical Islam. The word they use for their slogan is ‘Wa-aidou’ which
is Arabic for prepare. This is taken from verse 8:60 of the Koran, which states, ‘Prepare [Wa- aidou] against them [the unbelievers] to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into [the hearts of] the enemies of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know.’
“The Muslim Brotherhood is a reality on the ground. Ignoring its existence does not change the reality. Due to its radical ideology, it cannot be a sincere ally to the United States. It will embrace U.S. support — indeed, any support it deems useful — until it becomes more powerful, or until that support becomes disadvantageous.’’
— Dr. Tawfi k Hamid is an Islamic thinker and reformer, and a senior fellow and chair for the Study of Islamic Radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies
OBAMA/AP IMAGES
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116
