Jerusalem Issue Briefs
Vol. 10, No. 26 2 February 2011

The Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Crisis

Dore Gold
http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=442&PID=0&IID=5953

* Will the Obama administration's policy toward Egypt be based on a
perception that the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood would be extremely
dangerous? Or have they taken the position - voiced in parts of the U.S.
foreign policy establishment - that the Brotherhood has become moderate and
can be talked to? Initial administration reactions indicate that it does not
rule out Muslim Brotherhood participation in a future Egyptian coalition
government.

* Since January 28, the Muslim Brotherhood's involvement has become more
prominent, with its support of Mohamed ElBaradei to lead the opposition
forces against the government. In the streets of Cairo, Muslim Brotherhood
demonstrators disdainfully call people like ElBaradei "donkeys of the
revolution" (hamir al-thawra) - to be used and then pushed away - a scenario
that sees the Muslim Brotherhood exploit ElBaradei in order to hijack the
Egyptian revolution at a later stage.

* There has been a great deal of confusion about the Muslim
Brotherhood.In the years after it was founded in 1928, it developed a
"secret apparatus" that engaged in political terrorism against Egyptian
Copts as well as government officials. In December 1948, the Muslim
Brotherhood assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmoud al-Nuqrashi Pasha.
It also sought to kill Egyptian leader Abdul Nasser in October 1954.

* Former Brotherhood Supreme Guide Muhammad Akef declared in 2004 his
"complete faith that Islam will invade Europe and America." In 2001, the
Muslim Brotherhood's publication in London, Risalat al-Ikhwan, featured at
the top of its cover page the slogan: "Our Mission: World Domination." This
header was changed after 9/11.

* The current Supreme Guide, Muhammad Badi', gave a sermon in September
2010 stating that "the improvement and change that the [Muslim] nation seeks
can only be attained through jihad and sacrifice and by raising a jihadi
generation that pursues death, just as the enemies pursue life."

Initially, it was widely observed that the Muslim Brotherhood has been very
low-key during the current crisis in Egypt. Most analysts admitted that it
is the best organized and largest opposition group in Egypt, but they played
down its role. Yet since January 28, the Muslim Brotherhood's involvement
has become more prominent. One tangible example is the support the
Brotherhood has given to Mohamed ElBaradei to lead the opposition forces
against the government.

In the streets of Cairo, Muslim Brotherhood demonstrators disdainfully call
people like ElBaradei "donkeys of the revolution" (hamir al-thawra), to be
used and then pushed away.1 Thus, there is a scenario that sees the Muslim
Brotherhood exploit a figure like ElBaradei in order to hijack the Egyptian
revolution at a later stage.

What is the Muslim Brotherhood? It is known as Ikhwan al-Muslimun in Arabic,
or just Ikhwan, established in 1928 by an Egyptian schoolteacher, Hassan
al-Banna. Outwardly, it was a social and religious organization, but over
the years it developed a "secret apparatus" that engaged in military
training of its cadres and political terrorism against Egyptian Copts as
well as government officials. This dualism continued years later. In
December 1948, the Muslim Brotherhood assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister
Mahmoud al-Nuqrashi Pasha. It also sought to kill Egyptian leader Abdul
Nasser in October 1954.

The Muslim Brotherhood also had an expansionist agenda right from the start,
and called for the re-establishment of the Islamic Empire. In the late
1930s, its newspaper called for retaking "former Islamic colonies" in
Andalus (Spain), southern Italy, and the Balkans.2 This theme was maintained
in recent years by its former Supreme Guide, Muhammad Akef, who in 2004
declared his "complete faith that Islam will invade Europe and America,"
with the caveat that Westerners will join Islam by conviction.3 Others have
also made this point. According to Sheikh Yousef Qaradawi, widely regarded
as the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood:

Constantinople was conquered in 1453 by a 23-year-old Ottoman named
Muhammad ibn Murad, whom we call Muhammad the Conqueror. Now what remains is
to conquer Rome. That is what we wish for, and that is what we believe in.
After having been expelled twice, Islam will be victorious and reconquer
Europe....I am certain that this time, victory will be won not by the sword
but by preaching.4

Over the years, the Muslim Brotherhood opened branches in a number of Arab
countries and even has front organizations in the UK, France, and the U.S.
But it has not disavowed its original commitment to Islamic militancy and
its global ambitions. For example, the Muslim Brotherhood's publication in
London, Risalat al-Ikhwan, has maintained a clearly jihadist orientation; in
2001 it featured at the top of its cover page the slogan: "Our Mission:
World Domination" (siyadat al-dunya). This header was changed after 9/11,
but the publication still carries the Muslim Brotherhood's motto which
includes: "Jihad is our path; martyrdom is our aspiration."5

The current Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Muhammad
Badi', gave a sermon in September 2010 stating that Muslims today "need to
understand that the improvement and change that the [Muslim] nation seeks
can only be attained through jihad and sacrifice and by raising a jihadi
generation that pursues death, just as the enemies pursue life."6 In short,
the Muslim Brotherhood remains committed to supporting militant activities
in order to advance its political aims. From looking at the biographies of
its most prominent graduates, one can immediately understand the
organization's long-term commitment to jihadism:

1. Abdullah Azzam (of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood) and Muhammad
Qutb (of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood) taught at King Abdul Aziz
University in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, where they had a student named Osama bin
Laden. Azzam went off to Pakistan with his student, bin Laden, to help the
mujahidin fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.

2. Ayman al-Zawahiri (bin Laden's deputy) grew up in the Egyptian
Muslim Brotherhood.

3. Khalid Sheikh Muhammad (the al-Qaeda mastermind of the 9/11
attacks) came out of the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood.

Given this background, the Muslim Brotherhood has been widely regarded in
the Arab world as the incubator of the jihadist ideology. A former Kuwaiti
Minister of Education, Dr. Ahmad Al-Rab'i, argued in Al-Sharq al-Awsat on
July 25, 2005, that the founders of most modern terrorist groups in the
Middle East emerged from "the mantle" of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Many columnists in the Middle East have warned in recent years about the
Brotherhood's hostile intentions. Tariq Hasan, a columnist for the Egyptian
government daily Al-Ahram, alerted his readers on June 23, 2007, that the
Muslim Brotherhood was preparing a violent takeover in Egypt, using its
"masked militias" in order to replicate the Hamas seizure of power in the
Gaza Strip. And columnist Hussein Shobokshi, writing in the Saudi-owned
Al-Sharq al-Awsat on October 23, 2007, said that "to this day" the Muslim
Brotherhood "has brought nothing but fanaticism, divisions, and extremism,
and in some cases bloodshed and killings." Thus, both Arab regimes and
leading opinion-makers in Arab states still have serious reservations about
the claim of a new moderation in the Muslim Brotherhood.7

Ironically, in the last five years, prominent voices in the West have
considered opening a political dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood. For
example, Dr. Robert S. Leiken and Steven Brooke published an article in the
March-April 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs called "The Moderate Muslim
Brotherhood" in which they advised the Bush administration to enter into a
strategic alliance with the organization, which they referred to as
"moderate," calling it a "notable opportunity" to use the Brotherhood to
promote American interests. James Traub echoed many of their arguments in
the New York Times Magazine on April 29, 2007, in which he claimed that "the
Muslim Brotherhood, for all its rhetorical support of Hamas, could well be
precisely the kind of moderate Islamic body that the administration says it
seeks." In addition, a committee in the British House of Commons also
advocated the UK opening a dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood, as well.

At the same time, some U.S. officials and dignitaries seemed to have
softened their approach to the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2005, Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice pressed President Mubarak to open up participation in
the Egyptian parliamentary elections, resulting in a major increase of
elected Muslim Brotherhood members from 15 to 88. Subsequently, Mubarak
became more reluctant to take U.S. advice.

Visiting U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer met twice in 2007 with the
head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's parliamentary bloc, Mohammed Saad
el-Katatni, according to Brotherhood spokesman Hamdi Hassan.

The critical question is whether the Obama administration's policy toward
Egypt will be based on a perception that the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood
would be extremely dangerous. Or have they taken the position - voiced in
parts of the U.S. foreign policy establishment - that the Muslim Brotherhood
has become moderate and can be talked to? The initial reactions of the Obama
administration indicate that it does not rule out Muslim Brotherhood
participation in a future Egyptian coalition government.8 Unfortunately,
there is a dangerous misconception about the Muslim Brotherhood in parts of
the foreign policy community in the West that could affect calculations in
Washington and London in the weeks ahead.

* * *

Notes

1. Yoni Ben Menahem, Israel Radio - Reshet Bet, February 1, 2011.

2. Brynjar Lia, The Society of the Muslim Brothers in Egypt - The Rise of an
Islamic Mass Movement 1928-1942 (Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 1998) p. 80.

3. Lorenzo Vidino, The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2010), p. 92.

4. Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi, "The Muslim Brotherhood: A
Moderate Islamic Alternative to al-Qaeda or a Partner in Global Jihad?"
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jerusalem Viewpoints, No. 558, 1
November 2007.

5. Ibid.

6. "Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide: ‘The U.S. Is Now Experiencing the
Beginning of Its End'; Improvement and Change in the Muslim World ‘Can Only
Be Attained Through Jihad and Sacrifice,'" MEMRI (Middle East Media Research
Institute), Special Dispatch No. 3274, October 6, 2010;

http://www.memri.org/report/en/print4650.htm.

7. Halevi, "The Muslim Brotherhood."

8. Paul Richter and Peter Nicholas, "U.S. Open to a Role for Islamists in
New Egypt Government: But the Muslim Brotherhood Must Renounce Violence and
Support Democracy, the White House Says," Los Angeles Times, Latimes.com,
January 31, 2011;
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-fg-us-egypt-20110201,0,2958266.story/.

* * *

Ambassador Dore Gold, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs,
was the eleventh Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations
(1997-1999). Dr. Gold served as foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu during his first government and has advised Israeli
governments since that time on U.S.-Israel relations. He is the author of
the best-selling books: The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West,
and the Future of the Holy City (Regnery, 2007), and The Rise of Nuclear
Iran: How Tehran Defies the West (Regnery, 2009).