Recorded February 5, 2006
REALAUDIO
Introduction: In late 2005 and early 2006, the Islamofascist Muslim Brotherhood scored significant electoral successes in Egypt and in the Palestinian territories. Representing itself as “moderate” and “democratic,” the Brotherhood has enjoyed the encomiums of an amen chorus in parts of the West. A political ally of Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy during World War II, the Brotherhood is, in fact, an Islamic fascist organization. The parent organization of Al Qaeda, the Brotherhood has retained all of its fascist character, behind its “moderate” façade. In this program we examine the organizational structure, operational strategy and religious/philosophical roots of the Muslim Brotherhood, relying in large measure on an excellent analysis of that organization developed by the Air War College. Masking its totalitarian program and ambitions behind noble rhetoric, the Brotherhood perverts Islamic doctrine to its own ends. Utilizing Islam’s mandatory charitable functions to gain popularity in the largely impoverished Muslim world, the Muslim Brotherhood strives to translate its charity work into electoral success at the polls. When that fails, the same charitable NGO’s that are the vehicles for alms giving double as terrorist funding conduits. Central to the Brotherhood’s military and terrorist operations is a philosophical perversion of the Islamic concept of “jihad,” which is [in its original meaning and intent] peaceful. Purposely vague in its enunciation of specifics, the Brotherhood’s political vision is predicated on a mythical, idealized conception of Islam’s past.
Program Highlights Include: The Bush administration’s “democratic” agenda, which is putting the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamofascists in power in the Middle East; the primary role of foreign expatriates in Brotherhood operations around the world; the Brotherhood’s great success in using civic and constitutional protections afforded by American democracy to enhance its terrorist operations; the Brotherhood’s efforts at banning the distribution of feminine sanitary napkins at women’s high schools in Egypt; the labeling of the Holocaust as a myth by the head of the Brotherhood’s Egyptian branch; the Brotherhood’s influence on Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran; the influence of Mussolini’s “squadristi” on the Pakistani branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
1. Beginning discussion of the Muslim Brotherhood, the broadcast notes that the Brotherhood has essentially become the template for political Islam. After electoral successes in Egypt and Palestine, the Brotherhood is cultivating an image as a “moderate” organization. Just how “moderate” this fascist group is will be seen in the concluding portion of the program. For more about the Muslim Brotherhood and its history, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 343, 455, 456, 473, 537. Note that Hamas is the main Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“ . . . The Brotherhood has long been the model for Islamic political movements and has close ties with the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, which won last week’s Palestinian legislative elections. Though the Brotherhood formally renounces violence in Egypt, it provides outspoken support for Hamas’s armed campaign against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. In Egypt, the Brotherhood has tried to quickly position itself as a mainstream reform party. . . .”
2. In the wake of the Brotherhood’s electoral successes, the U.S. is apparently considering opening up discourse with these “moderates.”
“The United States has signaled the possibility of making contact with members of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood after the opposition group’s stunning success in parliamentary polls. Washington has refused to acknowledge the Islamist organization’s strong showing, recognizing only that an unprecedented number of ‘independents’ had won despite widespread violence and intimidation. But a senior State Department official suggested US officials might be in touch with victorious members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has emerged as a key player in Egyptian politics even if it is not a formal party. ‘I would expect us to meet with the independent candidates,’ said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity. The 77-year-old Brotherhood, which has renounced past ties to violence and is still tolerated in Egypt, shocked Cairo by taking 88 of 444 parliamentary seats at stake in the month-long elections that wound up on Wednesday. Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said the United States would respect Egyptian law prohibiting contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization. . . . .”
(“US Seeks Contact with Brotherhood” Business in Africa; 12/09/2005.)
3. Next, the program highlights the view of Bush administration critics that the “democratization policies” advocated by “W” are counterproductive for the United States and beneficial to its enemies. It is Mr. Emory’s considered viewpoint that Bush’s administration is a front for the Underground Reich, and that the architects of the “democratization” process deliberately intend a Brotherhood ascendance in the Muslim world as part of their geopolitical strategy. (Mr. Emory views Bush personally as a figurehead, not the generator of the policies for which he is the spokesman.) Note that the Republican Party is a repository for personnel selected by Helene Von Damm, a protégé of SS Middle East expert and CIA operative Otto Von Bolschwing. Von Bolschwing was an architect of the Third Reich’s policies in the Middle East, viewing support for Jewish immigration as a vehicle for generating Arab sympathy for the Nazis and hostility on the part of the Arab population toward nations demonstrating support for Zionism. For more about Von Bolschwing, see FTR#’s 332, 399, 465. FTR#399 highlights Von Bolschwing’s Machiavellian view of the utility of Zionist immigration for the Nazi cause.
“The Bush administration’s strategy of promoting democracy around the world is under fire from critics who say it is not only utopian but advances the interests of America’s adversities. In particular, they say, it has produced striking gains for Islamists rather than secular moderates in recent elections in the Middle East. In the wake of the progress of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the relative failure of secular parties in Iraq, the militant group Hamas—outlawed in the US as a terrorist group—appears poised to do well in Palestinian legislative elections on January 25. Nonetheless, President George W. Bush shows little sign of retreating from the principles he laid out in his second inaugural address a year ago. Invoking God, he said that ending tyranny worldwide reflected the unity of ‘America’s vital interests and our deepest beliefs.’ . . .”
4. In FTR#537 (among other programs), we examined the fascist ideology and heritage of the “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood. This program supplements that discussion with information about the Brotherhood’s aping of fascist methodology in post-World War II Pakistan:
“ . . . In Pakistan [Muslim Brotherhood chief Said] Ramadan worked closely with a young Islamist named Abul-Ala Mawdudi, who had founded a Muslim Brotherhood-style movement called the Islamic Society. Just as he had recruited angry young Muslims to take up arms in Palestine, so Ramadan helped Mawdudi mold a muscular phalanx of fanatical Islamic students into a battering ram against Pakistan’s left. Known by its Urdu initials as the IJT and modeled on Mussolini’s squadristi, the group deployed its often-armed thugs to do battle with left-wing students on campus. ‘Egg tossing gradually gave way to more serious clashes, especially in Karachi,’ writes Seyyed Vali Reza Nast, a leading expert on the movement. In the process, the IJT trained the generation of radicals who seized control of Pakistan in 1977 under the far-right dictator General Zia ul-Haq, sponsored the jihad in Afghanistan, sheltered Al Qaeda, and even today represents a threat to General Pervez Musharraf’s shaky regime. . . .”
(“Cold War, Holy Warrior” by Robert Dreyfuss; Mother Jones; January/February 2006; p. 57.)
5. Much of the program consists of reading and analysis of one of the best pieces ever written about the Muslim Brotherhood–a report on the organization written for the Air War College curriculum [at Matthews Air Force Base]. The report underscores the organization’s atavistic nature—it is preoccupied with a mythologized past and intends a return to a state of affairs based on that mythology. In the case of the Muslim Brotherhood, an idealized and mythologized vision of the Caliphate is the predominant concept in its political program.
“ . . . Bard E. O’Neill, in his book Insurgency & Terrorism: Inside Modem Revolutionary Warfare, classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a ‘reactionary-traditionalist’ type of insurgency because of their insistence on the strict adherence to ancient religious customs, traditions, and practices. O’Neill states, ‘Traditionalist insurgences also seek to displace the political system, but the values they articulate are primordial and sacred ones, rooted in ancestral ties and religion... Within the category of traditionalist insurgents one also finds more zealous groups seeking to reestablish an ancient political system that they idealized as a golden age.’ This description applies to the Muslim Brotherhood considering its avowed desire to reestablish Sharia law and the Caliphate. Sharia law is a compilation of sacred laws resulting from ijima or consensus decisions by leading Islamic scholars, qiyas or analogy reasoning by judges, lawyers and scholars, the sunna-hadith, and the Quran. The Caliphate was the religious, military, and political structure that governed the Muslim people and lands after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 632. The caliph, or successor to the prophet, served as the ruler of the Muslim community. . . While the title Caliph extended to 1924, the actual influence and control of the entire Muslim world community was minimal after the thirteenth century. The Muslim Brotherhood’s desire to see the return of the Caliphate raises substantial questions concerning their historical point of reference and definition of the Caliphate. The Muslim Brotherhood’s desire to reestablish the Caliphate hinges more on pan-Arab revivalism than on acknowledgement of the turbulent nature of the Caliphate following the first four Caliphs.”
6. As we shall see, the Brotherhood’s agenda embraces the goal of a world-wide, totalitarian Muslim theocracy—a program that does not smack of “moderation.” This agenda was articulated by Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, in an interview with John Roy Carlson (conducted in the immediate aftermath of World War II.) Cairo to Damascus—the book containing the quote—is available on the Spitfire website at the URL posted at the top of this description.
“ . . . I asked his [Al-Banna’s] views on establishing the Caliphate, the complete merger of Church and State—the Moslem equivalent of religious totalitarianism, as in Spain. ‘We want an Arabian United States with a Caliphate at its head and every Arab state subscribing wholeheartedly to the laws of the Koran. . . . The laws of the Koran are suitable for all men at all times to the end of the world.’ . . . I could not help making a mental note that the word ‘Christian’ has been similarly used and with similar fanaticism among Western exponents of authoritarianism. . . .”
(Cairo to Damascus; John Roy Carlson; Copyright 1951 by John Roy Carlson; Published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; ISBN 51–11068; p. 92.)
7. Next, the discussion returns to information from the Air War College document. One of the secrets of the Brotherhood’s success has been the organization’s successful mobilization of social welfare programs on its behalf. In the [largely] poor, disadvantaged Muslim world, these programs are very influential, because of the real relief they offer to their recipients. Acting through international NGO’s, these programs translate into grass-roots electoral success at the polling places. As will be seen later in the program, many of these NGO’s double as terrorist funding conduits. In FTR#455 (among other programs), we examined the analysis of the Brotherhood as a “Far-Right cult.” In that context, note the cult-style ideology and verbiage of the Brotherhood doctrine. Much of what it superficially espouses sounds good in its initial manifestations, ending in the goal of “mastering the world” through Islam.
“ . . . The Brotherhood uses a structure of charitable non- governmental organizations to formally pursue their youth, health, religious, education, and social welfare service programs. They establish small businesses and factories to generate income, employ members, and employ sympathizers. The Brotherhood uses membership in formal professional organization and syndicates as a vehicle to influence the national infrastructure. The main objectives of the Brotherhood are: 1. Building the Muslim individual: brother or sister with a strong body, high manners, cultured thought, ability to earn, strong faith, correct worship, conscious of time, of benefit to others, organized, and self-struggling character. 2. Building the Muslim family: choosing a good wife (husband), educating children Islamically, and inviting other families. 3. Building the Muslim society (through building individuals and families) and addressing the problems of the society realistically. 4. Building the Muslim state. 5. Building the Khilafa (basically a shape of unity between the Islamic states). 6. Mastering the world with Islam. . . .[Emphasis added.]”
8. Utilizing core principles of Islamic belief as an organizational pillar for realizing their temporal political goals, the Brotherhood uses the mosque as a place for members to network, organize and socialize.
“The basic pillars or long-term plan of action of the Muslim Brotherhood includes, first, the establishment of Islamic Sharia law; second, establishment of Muslim states; and third, the unification of Muslim nations. These steps are directly tied to their Islamic doctrine. Likewise, the Brotherhood’s objectives, goals, and funding are also directly related to Islamic doctrine. The first and foremost source of Islamic doctrine is the Quran or Koran. Muslims believe the Quran is the infallible word of God revealed through divine revelations to the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century A.D. The Quran identifies five pillars of faith: Profession of Faith to Allah and his apostle, Prayer, Almsgiving (zakat and sadaquat). Fasting, and Pilgrimage (hajj). The Quran is organized in chapters or suras that are revered as the recited words of God. The suras constitute the basis for the ritual prayers performed by devout Muslims five times a day. This pillar of the Muslim faith serves as a unifying focal point for the Muslim Brotherhood. Prayer at mosques built by the Muslim Brotherhood provides a frequent forum for contact and promulgation of their fundamentalist ideology.”
(Ibid.; pp. 56–57.)
9. The paper notes that, in its early development, the physical presence of Muslim believers in an environment populated with rival religions and non-believers mandated that the “umma”—believers—unify and solidify, particularly in the face of physical hostility. This tendency to band together becomes perverted by the Brotherhood and serves as a protofascistic unifying element.
“The Quran is a ‘doctrine of the absolute oneness of God’ that ‘refers to, and is concerned with, three religious groups: heathens, Jews, and Christians.’ Since Islam’s inception the ‘absolute oneness’ and unyielding belief that the Quran expresses the literal words of God, served as a unifying point for the community of believers or the umma. Living among rival religions and hostile tribes necessitated a strong bond between like-minded believers. Physical struggles with non-believers forced Muslims to band together. While there are divergent sects and local variations in the practice of the Islamic faith, a clear distinction exists between believers and non-believers. The Muslim Brotherhood capitalizes on this unifying force as an ideology for the creation of a greater Muslim state and Islamic world. The Muslim Brotherhood exploits and promotes this communal religious unification as a protection measure, recruiting tool, and a call to arms for Muslims to defend their brethren throughout the world. It is this sense of religious ideological unity that mobilized the ‘Arab Afghans’ to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. From Bosnia to Sudan to Indonesia to the Philippines, protection of the umma is a familiar call to arms for militant Islamic fundamentalists and the Muslim Brotherhood. The protection of the umma is tied to the Islamic concept of jihad.”
(Ibid.; p. 57.)
10. At the core of the Brotherhood’s protofascistic perversion of the concept of the umma is their distortion and cynical utilization of the concept of jihad. A complex concept, jihad in its original conception is peaceful, entailing the struggle of the believer to realize the will of God through submission to that inherently good calling. For the Brotherhood, jihad entails a chauvinistic, malevolent and violent course of action against those it calls its enemies.
“Jihad is a word that is difficult to translate from Arabic to English. Its best translation is ‘a sincere and noticeable effort (for good); an all true and unselfish striving for spiritual good.’ Jihad is a multi-dimensional concept with the primary focus on the individual. At the individual level it is striving to live a good life in accordance with the Quran, being just, performing righteous deeds, protecting people’s rights and freedoms, spreading the faith, and personally defending the faith. It is about the individual’s spiritual struggle for ‘submission’ (English for Islam) to God’s will that is good and just, not evil.”
(Idem.)
11. The Brotherhood’s membership is large, and the international diaspora of Brotherhood members from the Middle East has provided the foundation for the organization’s subsidiary NGO’s and academic institutions abroad.
“The structure of the Muslim Brotherhood is not widely known outside the membership of the organization for reasons of security and self-preservation. While the exact number of members is not known, there are other indicators of the memberships’ relative strength. In Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Sudan, and Lebanon admitted Muslim Brotherhood members hold public office; this is an indicator of the organization’s extensive strength and internationalism. A more sinister indicator of strength is the estimated number of Brotherhood members and sympathizers killed in Syria, 10,000 to 30,000, and the number of persons displaced, 800,000, in 1981. The bulging prison population of Muslim Brothers in Egypt is estimated to exceed 15,000. The rising number of Brotherhood non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Islamic Relief, Mercy International, Muslim Association, Muslim Arab Youth Movement, and the Holy Land Foundation are just the identifiable tip of the iceberg of the Muslim Brotherhood’s worldwide NGO support efforts. The Brotherhood’s identifiable presence on college and university campuses spans much of the world, University of South Florida (US), Oxford College (UK), West Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education (UK), Cairo and Al Azhar University (Egypt), Khartoum University (Sudan), Amman University (Jordan), the University of Medina (started by the Brotherhood in Saudi Arabia), 22 University of Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), and Islamic University (Pakistan). While these examples and figures do not give an exact number of members, the sheer global nature of the organization suggests a membership in the many millions.”
(Ibid.; p. 54.)
12. Utilizing a cellular structure and an informal network, the Brotherhood has insulated itself against hierarchical state control. As noted in the Air War College study, this type of informal networking is common to Middle Eastern cultures.
“The Brotherhood uses an informal social network that is relatively impervious to authoritarian state control. The informal network is an indelible component of the Middle East social fabric. The basic building block is a five-man cell known as a ‘family’ in which the initial indoctrination to the Brotherhood occurs. Through everyday interaction the networks serve as the focal point for mobilizing collective action. The Brotherhood uses weekly small group meetings (Halaqua), monthly multi group meetings (Katibah), trips, camps, course of instruction, workshops, and conferences to indoctrinate and educate members and coordinate action. . . . The Brotherhood’s worldwide branches work in accordance with the country’s local circumstances to achieve their objectives. . . .”
(Ibid.; p. 55.)
13. As noted above, the Brotherhood’s NGO’s are a source of its appeal, in that they provide very real and badly needed charitable services in the largely impoverished Muslim communities that they serve. In addition to generating and sustaining the Brotherhood’s electoral popularity, these NGO’s also double as terrorist funding conduits, making the isolation and neutralization of Brotherhood terror networks difficult, particularly in Western democracies that traditionally provide constitutional protection religious and charitable organizations.
“In Islam, alms giving or charity represents one of the five pillars of the faith. Charitable donations are as important as praying. Typically, Muslims give ‘2.5 % of their annual income’ to charitable causes. This is known in Arabic as ‘zakat.’ Much of this funding goes directly to grass root non-governmental organization (NGO) efforts. The Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy relies heavily on this pillar of the Islamic faith to fund their social welfare programs that provide their base of popular support. The Muslim Brotherhood draws heavily for financial support from diasporas from countries like Egypt, Algeria, and Syria where repression of the Islamic fundamentalists has resulted in massive relocations and emigration to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Europe, and America. A prime example of the magnitude of this phenomenon is Syria. In February 1981, the Syrian government, following a wave of Muslim Brotherhood inspired violence, brutally repressed the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood movement. The Syrian government’s repression resulted in the complete destruction of the town of Hama and the estimated death of some 10,000 to 30,000 men, women, and children. Following this brutal suppression over 800,000 Syrian Muslim Brotherhood members and Islamic fundamentalist sympathizers fled the country to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon. . . .”
(Ibid.; p. 60.)
14. Europe and America are two of the primary destinations for the Brotherhood diaspora.
“In Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt the aggressive repression of the Muslim Brotherhood and like-minded Islamic fundamentalist organizations resulted in a massive emigration to Europe, the Middle East, and America. During recent decades, the Muslim population of France has grown to over five million. Over one half of these emigrants hail from North Africa. According to U.S. Immigration records, over 78,000 legal immigrants from Egypt and Syria entered the U.S. between 1989 and 1999. In both Europe and the United States, these new immigrants, driven by a religious requirement, channel their charitable donations back to country organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood that have both a charitable and a political agenda. . . .”
(Idem.)
15. Of particular importance is the United States. For reasons enumerated in the passage that follows, the terrorist sub-groups of the Brotherhood have found the U.S. to be fertile ground. The Washington D.C.-based terrorist funding apparatus revealed by the 3/20/2002 Operation Green Quest raids channeled money to Al Qaeda, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. At the epicenter of the SAAR network targeted by the raids was the Muslim Brotherhood’s Bank Al Taqwa.
“The Muslim Brotherhood and the more violent organizations it has created, like Hamas, have found a very permissive, lucrative, and hospitable operational environment in the United States. They are following their organizational doctrine to build a coalition of likeminded fundamentalists whose non-violent, overt actions camouflage their acceptance and support of terrorist violence to accomplish their common objectives. The United States affords freedom of action, superb communication capabilities, a wealth of funding opportunities, and a recruitment base of educated talent. Working through non-profit and tax exempt foundations, the Muslim Brotherhood has constructed a network of organizations. While there is no hierarchal command structure, they share a linkage through their core Muslim Brotherhood beliefs. These organizations provide the infrastructure that facilitates dissemination of propaganda, indoctrination of members, communication between organizations, appeals for financial support, access to a larger contact population, and the conscription of future terrorist recruits.”
(Ibid.; p. 63.)
[For more about the Muslim Brotherhood’s terrorist operations in the United States, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 454, 455, 456, 462, 464, 467, 513, 515, 538. Be sure to use the search function at the top of this page to learn more about Brotherhood stateside operations such as the SAAR network, the Safa group and Ptech.]
16. When the Brotherhood’s very real charitable infrastructure fails to win success at the ballot box, the janus-faced organization turns to its “dark side”—the terrorist infrastructure that exists alongside its benevolent operations. Reflecting on the SAAR network mentioned above, it is interesting to note how the Muslim Brotherhood advocates infiltrating existing institutions in order to co-opt them to its own ends.
“The structure of the Muslim Brotherhood provides a vehicle through which terrorist organizations can cooperate on a local level without the use of the traditional pyramid command structure. As was seen in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, terrorists of five different nationalities, different organizational affiliations, and different agendas, were able to find a common ideological base in the doctrine espoused by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood’s preferred course of action is to gain control of the governments through the ballot box. With control of the government secured, they then seek to institute their objective of ‘Islamizing’ the nation. To accomplish this task the Muslim Brotherhood use a two-pronged approach. At the ‘intelligentsia’ level, they seek to control social institutions by infiltrating and attaining prominent positions in professional organizations, government offices, institutions of higher learning, and labor unions. At the ‘proletariat’ level, they seek to develop popular support through charitable and religious programs. The Brotherhood seeks to indoctrinate the population with their ideology in order to form a sympathetic voting block to push their objectives through the political system. Their slogan, ‘Islam is the solution,’ is a clever tool for drawing popular political support for their cause and is also a call to stem the modernization and globalization promoted by the Western world. . . .”
(Ibid.; pp. 63–64.)
17. Although the Brotherhood professes support for democratic values, its purposeful vagueness about its ends is revealing:
“ . . . The Brotherhood’s lack of definition as to how they would use power is a significant concern. Would they use power to reverse the democratic process to create theocratic authoritarian regimes? Their stated objectives leave little room for the democratic concepts of political compromise, majority rule, and minority rights. The Brotherhood everywhere advocates the integration of their interpretation of Islamic precepts into the existing secular government structure, the establishment of Islamic theocracies, the use of international terrorism to further their cause, the manipulation of NGOs to support their cause, and the use of Muslim Brotherhood mujahidin to serve as a Brotherhood foreign legion in the internal conflicts of other Islamic states. Everywhere it exists, the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities range from political party activism to promoting an insurgency that uses terrorism as a tool. The Muslim Brotherhood’s past strategies pointedly show how this supposedly non-violent organization aids and sustains radical Islamic groups who resort to violent means if their popular efforts are subverted. From the ranks of the Brotherhood, members have answered the call to ‘Jihad’ in Palestine, Bosnia, Afghanistan, the Philippines, and Chechnya. In Algeria, Syria, and Egypt the Brotherhood serves as the umbrella organization promoting armed struggles. . . .”
(Ibid.; pp. 71–72.)
18. Behind the empty sloganeering of the Muslim Brotherhood, their self-professed moderation shows itself to be what it is. In Egypt, Brotherhood parliamentary members lobbied against the distribution of female sanitary napkins in the women’s rooms of public high schools!! Some moderation!! [In fundamentalist Islam, menstruating women are considered to be unholy.]
“ . . . The record of Brotherhood members in the outgoing parliament provides some clues to what this could mean for Egypt . . . . [Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary member Gamal] Heshmat was stripped of his seat in parliament in 2003 when his victory was challenged by election officials but hopes to regain it in the second round on Sunday. Before he was swept aside, though, he and other Brothers in parliament railed against the Miss Egypt beauty contest and the distribution of female sanitary napkins in high schools. [Emphasis added.] . . . .”
(“Muslim Brotherhood Doubles Strength in Egypt Parliament Sunday’s Vote Could Boost Group’s Power as Opposition Bloc” by Charles Levinson; San Francisco Chronicle; 11/19/2005.)
19. Manifesting its fascist nature and its affiliation with the Underground Reich, the Muslim Brotherhood briefly let down its façade after its success in the Egyptian parliamentary elections. In December of 2005, the leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood echoed the president of Iran in labeling the Holocaust a myth. Some moderation!
“Two weeks after the Muslim Brotherhood won 88 seats in Parliament and established itself as Egypt’s only significant political opposition organization, its leader issued a statement Thursday condemning America while declaring that the Holocaust was a ‘myth’ . . . .”
(“Egyptian Leader of Muslim Group Calls Holocaust a Zionist Myth” by Michael Slackman; The New York Times; 12/23/2005; p. A9.)
20. Not even Al Jazeera could negate the fact of the Brotherhood’s Holocaust denial.
“The head of the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition force in Egypt’s parliament, has echoed Iran’s president in describing the Holocaust as a myth. ‘Western democracy has attacked everyone who does not share the vision of the sons of Zion as far as the myth of the Holocaust is concerned,’ Mohamed Akef said in a statement on Thursday. . . .”
(“Brotherhood Chief: Holocaust a Myth”; Al Jazeera; 12/23/2005.)
21. The forerunners of the Shiite fundamentalists in Iran were also deeply influenced by the Brotherhood. (As we saw in FTR#’s 352, 456, Ayatollah Khomeini’s exile in France was financed by Nazi banker Francois Genoud. For more about Genoud, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 453, 456.)
“ . . . The regime of the ayatollahs in Iran grew out of a secret society called the Devotees of Islam, a Brotherhood affiliate whose leader in the 1950’s was the mentor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. . . .”
(“Cold War, Holy Warrior” by Robert Dreyfuss; Mother Jones; January/February 2006; p. 56.)
22. Signs of “moderation to come” were evident in the wake of the furor (Fuehrer!?) that exploded over the Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohamed. The subject of “cartoongate” will be dealt with in a future broadcast.
“ . . . In London, hundreds of Muslims marched from the Regent’s Park mosque, one of the biggest Islamic centers in Europe, to the heavily protected Danish embassy, bearing placards declaring ‘Behead the one who insults the prophet’ and ‘Free speech to hell’ . . . .”
(“Muslim Outrage Gathers Pace” by Bertrand Benoit; The Financial Times; 2/3/2006; accessed at: http://news.ft.com.)
23. A picture of “moderation” is worth a thousand words. One of the splinter groups of the Muslim Brotherhood is Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Check out this photograph of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rally from April of 2005.
Discussion
No comments for “FTR #540 Moderates Like Us”