A few weeks ago, Egypt went through a violent political change. The Obama administration can avoid calling this event a coup d'etat, for political reasons. Part of the explanation for the governments misreading of the situation in Egypt is a faulty understanding of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The State Department needs to become good Students of History!
The Muslim Brotherhood backed government under President Morsi has been overthrown, and the Brotherhood has taken to the streets to regain power, thus causing a tension filled situation and regional instability. To really understand what is going on politically, religiously, and socially requires an understanding of the Muslim Brotherhood and its history.
The Brotherhood was a group of little significance in 1928 when it was formed by a handful of devout Egyptian Muslims. Unlike most Middle Eastern nations, Egypt had achieved a high level of independence from Great Britain by 1922 as a result of a revolution against the imperial power in 1918. The agreement signed by the new constitutional monarchy in Egypt and Great Britain allowed for a British military presence along the Suez Canal Zone, but gave the new government complete domestic independence. It is within this new found Egyptian democracy that the Muslim Brotherhood began to thrive in the 1930s.
Originally the Muslim Brotherhood was kind of like a mix of the YMCA and Salvation Army.
Originally, the Brotherhood was a religious and charitable organization that lobbied the Egyptian Parliament on behalf of the poor and fundamentalists. Anything that emphasized sharia law and Muslim ideals was demanded by the increasingly influential group. It also funded and provided education opportunities for the poor that emphasized a fundamentalist/radical interpretation of Islam. Through the 1930s the organization grew so that by World War Two it numbered almost a half million members in Egypt with branches springing up in other Middle Eastern countries.
It is also during the late 1930s and the war years that the radicalization of the Muslim Brotherhood accelerated. It conducted espionage, sabotage, and other early terrorist activities to drive the British completely out of Egypt and even conspired with the Nazis during the North African campaign.
As decolonization began under the auspices of the United Nations in the latter 1940s, the Brotherhood intensified operations in many Muslim nations to hasten the departure of its European occupiers. Success during this era, from 1946-1960, increased membership in the Brotherhood across the Muslim world to where it numbered nearly three million.
It was during this era of decolonization that the Muslim Brotherhood adopted its current mission statement:
"Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations."
The fringe groups that conducted terror in the 1930s and 1940s had permeated the whole organization. Instead of political lobbying and promoting help for the poor, The Brotherhood was advocating violence and jihad (Holy War) against its enemies, both Muslim and non-Muslim.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the political wing, financial supporter, and primary instigator of many terrorist groups.
This position put the Muslim Brotherhood in an awkward position. Though large and influential, the Nasser government, which took power in a 1952 coup, banned the organization because it threatened the secular based government. Although the largest single Islamic fundamentalist organization in the world, the Brotherhood had a see-saw affair with the Egyptian government with some leaders cracking down on them and others releasing Brotherhood prisoners and using the group's power and influence. The main concern of the Muslim Brotherhood since 1970 has been to re-educate the Egyptian population regarding their duties as good Muslims. Secularism had taken its spiritual toll, and the Brotherhood was prepared to change that.
Unlike radical groups such as Hamas (who the Brotherhood supports and sponsors), Hezbollah, or al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood took the path of the PLO and began to change its ways to become more acceptable by the powers that be, both Muslim and Western. As a result both Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak used the manpower and influence of the Brotherhood to solidify their power but also cracked down when the influence of the Islamist group grew too large.
The revolution of 2011 opened the door again for the Muslim Brotherhood when elections were held. With the Brotherhood getting the vote out, Morsi came to power and the Brotherhood had influence once again. Now that Morsi appears out of the picture, it is unclear what road the Muslim Brotherhood will take. But the trends within the organization are clear: one, they are a radical Muslim organization viewing jihad as a literal war; two, they hate Western Civilization and values; three, they want to institute a Muslim based caliphate under Sharia law; four, they have large numbers and are politically astute; finally, they are unpredictable. As I think President Obama would now admit, the Muslim Brotherhood is not an organization that can be trusted.
History has shown that the Muslim Brotherhood can not be trusted.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment