Moderate Egyptians say Muslim Brotherhood
less powerful than media thinks. Nonetheless, conspiracy theorists
blame Brotherhood for violence that's beset Cairo.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s power, or lack thereof, is one of the most discussed undercurrents of the January 25 revolution among media pundits and international leaders. For years, Hosni Mubarak has held onto his international support by stating firmly: It’s me, or it’s them.
Now that Mubarak will be out of the picture in the near future, Israel and the United States are worried about a government controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.
“All of us hate Israel,” said Muhammad, who is a lecture assistant in the engineering faculty at a government university in Cairo. “Israel is the best friend for Mubarak, they said clearly that he’s strategic for them.”. But he cautioned that Egypt needed to concentrate on its internal politics before dealing with the problem of Israel. “Regarding Israel, Egypt has a peace agreement with Israel and any new government should respect that agreement,” Muhammad said. “However, if the government wanted to change that agreement, it has the right after taking the opinion of the people. No agreement is eternal.”
Indeed, many moderates denounced the Brotherhood and insisted that its importance has been overblown by the foreign media looking for a villain. Even Muhammad explained that the Brotherhood was only one group of many calling for change in Egypt. “The Muslim Brotherhood did not organize this,” he said, gesturing around the square. “All of us in the square represent all the colors in the Egyptian political map.”
WHO'S THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD?
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is an Islamic transnational movement and the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. The group is the world's oldest and largest Islamic political group, and the "world's most influential Islamist movement.". It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and Sufi schoolteacher Hassan Al-Banna.
WHAT'S A SUFI AND WHO IS HASSAN AL-BANNA?
Sufism is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a ṣūfī. There is a debate on how the word originated. Some say the term "Sufism" in Arabic "Sufiyyah" refers to a group of people who existed during the time of the prophet of Islam who used to wear cloth made of wool "Soof" as a sign of humbleness and piety (no cotton, silk, etc). The adjective form derived from "soof" is "Soofi", thus in English "Sufi". Others say the term is derived from the Greek word "Sophia", the Goodess of wisdom in Greek mythology.
Well, regardless of the of how the word "Sufi" came about, a Sufi is a man who is humble, and pious.
Hassan Al-Banna was a schoolteacher and imam (prayer leader), and best known for founding the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the largest and most influential 20th century Muslim revivalist organizations.. Al-Banna's father was also and imam and mosque teacher. When Al-Banna was twelve years old, he became involved in a Sufi order, and became a fully initiated member in 1922. At the age of thirteen, he participated in demonstrations during the revolution of 1919 against British rule .
Al;-Banna was appalled by the many conspicuous signs of foreign military and economic domination in Isma'iliyya: the British military camps, the public utilities owned by foreign interests, and the luxurious residences of the foreign employees of the Suez Canal Company, next to the squalid dwellings of the Egyptian workers. Hence Al-Banna endeavored to bring about the changes he hoped for through institution-building, relentless activism at the grassroots level, and a reliance on mass communication.
Al-Banna proceeded to build a complex mass movement that featured sophisticated governance structures; sections in charge of furthering the society's values among peasants, workers, and professionals; units entrusted with key functions, including propagation of the message, liaison with the Islamic world, and press and translation; and specialized committees for finances and legal affairs.
Between 1948 and 1949, shortly after the society sent volunteers to fight in the war in Palestine, the conflict between the monarchy and the society reached its climax. Concerned with the increasing assertiveness and popularity of the brotherhood, as well as with rumors that it was plotting a coup, Prime Minister Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha disbanded it in December 1948. The organization's assets were impounded and scores of its members sent to jail. Less than three weeks later, the prime minister was assassinated by a member of the brotherhood, Abdul Majid Ahmad Hasan.
Following the assassination, Al-Banna promptly released a statement condemning the assassination, stating that terror is not an acceptable way in Islam. This in turn prompted the assassination of Al-Banna.
To help consecrate the Islamic order, Al-Banna called for banning all Western influences from education and ordered that all primary schools should be part of the mosques. As far as Jihad is concerned, Al-Banna saw Jihad as a God-ordained defensive strategy, stating that most Islamic scholars: "Agree unanimously that jihad is a communal defensive obligation imposed upon the Islamic ummah (nation) in order to broadcast the summons (to embrace Islam), and that it is an individual obligation to repulse the attack of unbelievers upon it." As a result of unbelievers (British, French, Italian, Dutch, etc) ruling Muslim lands and humbling Muslim honor: "It has become an individual obligation, which there is no evading, on every Muslim to prepare his equipment, to make up his mind to engage in jihad, and to get ready for it until the opportunity is ripe and God decrees a matter which is sure to be accomplished"
The Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Qur'an and Sunnah as the "sole reference point for ... ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community ... and state". Since its inception in 1928 the movement has officially opposed violent means to achieve its goals. Nonetheless there were exceptions as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or to overthrow secular Ba'athist dictators in Syria where members of brotherhood were routinely massacred (see Hama massacre). Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor, says "Unlike the jihadis, it does not believe it is at war with the West. It is conservative and non-violent," and "untested in government and poorly understood - especially in the West".
This position has been questioned, particularly by the Nationalist Secularist NDP Egyptian government currently headed by Hosni Mubarak, which accused the group of a campaign of killings in Egypt after World War II "to oppose British rule"
The Muslim Brotherhood is banned in Egypt, and members have been arrested for their participation in it. As a means of circumventing the ban, supporters run for office as independents.
The Brotherhood condemned terrorism and the 9/11 attacks, but whether or not it has ties to terrorism is a matter of dispute. Its position on violence has also caused disputes within the movement, with advocates of violence at times breaking away to form groups such as the Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group) and Al Takfir Wal Hijra (Excommunication and Migration).
Among the Brotherhood's more influential members was Sayyid Qutb. Qutb was the author of one of most important books, Milestones, which called for the restoration of Islam by re-establishing the Sharia and by using "physical power and Jihad for abolishing the organizations and authorities of the Jahili system, which he believed to include the entire Muslim world.
The book also reveals that Qutb no longer held the Brotherhood's ideas and that he was closer to the ideas of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is concluded in the introduction and dedication of the book.
Brotherhood preaches that Islam enjoins man to strive for social justice, the eradication of poverty and corruption, and political freedom to the extent allowed by the laws of Islam. The Brotherhood strongly opposes Western colonialism, and helped overthrow the pro-western monarchies in Egypt and other Muslim nations during the early 20th century.
An important belief on the part of intellectuals who have assisted the organization is the reemergence of Islamic Civilization because Western Civilization is perceived to be in decline; in the words of a 2007 essay, "More than forty years ago the premise was made clear: The period of the Western system has come to an end primarily because it is deprived of those life-giving values, which enabled it to be the leader of mankind."
As Sayyid Qutb, an Islamic intellectual and supporter of the Brotherhood wrote in his 1963 book, Milestones, (Ma'alim fi al-Tariq), "The leadership of mankind by Western man is now on the decline, not because Western culture has become poor materially or because its economic and military power has become weak. The period of the Western system has come to an end primarily because it is deprived of those life-giving values, which enabled it to be the leader of mankind. It is necessary for the new leadership to preserve and develop the material fruits of the creative genius of Europe, and also to provide mankind with such high ideals and values as have so far remained undiscovered by mankind, and which will also acquaint humanity with a way of life which is harmonious with human nature, which is positive and constructive, and which is practicable. Islam is the only System which possesses these values and this way of life."
The Muslim Brotherhood is a movement, not a political party, but members have created political parties in several countries, such as the Islamic Action Front in Jordan and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank. These parties are staffed by Brotherhood members but kept independent from the Muslim Brotherhood to some degree, unlike Hizb ut-Tahrir which is highly centralized.
The Brotherhood is financed by contributions from its members, who are required to allocate a portion of their income to the movement. Some of these contributions are from members who live in oil-rich countries.
In simple terms and to sum up the above, if the Muslim Brotherhood is a monster, which it is not, this monster is a natural effect to the cause which is the Western imperialism, colonialism, arrogance and discrimination and the bleeding of the Muslim nations resources while Muslims are poverty stricken , humiliated; their pride and dignity taken away from them.
I have never been a political activist in my whole life. My opinion on politics and politicians is that politicians are a band of thieves and hypocrites, and politics is a field where seeds of self-interest, hypocrisy, deception and cunning, dishonesty, are thrown and looked after so that it will grow and produce a society of its own.
I have never been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sufi society or Muslim activists group. Nonetheless, I have read many books written by prominent Brotherhood's members like Hassan Al-Banna and Sayyed Qutb and found that the writers were intellectual, wise, non-violent and their intentions were good contrary to what is said about them. Indeed, loss of such great men has been a dent in the Armour of the Muslim society.
That is said, I do not necessarily agree on all what they called for.
In addition, members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been maltreated, persecuted, harassed, round up and thrown in prison with or without trials only because of a secular dictator ruling the country.
In the light of the above, and under the current circumstance occurring in Egypt, don't the Muslim brotherhood members democratically have the right to participate and have a word in what is being done? I believe they do as they are Egyptians, too.
But some conspiracy theorists blamed the Brotherhood for the violence that has beset Cairo. One prominent blogger who also works in the Egyptian stock market told The Jerusalem Post that it was in the Muslim Brotherhood’s interest that the city descend into lawlessness.
I am not surprised that such a person would make such a baseless allegation. Since he works in the Egyptian stock market, he must have been making lucrative deals which he would not be able to do under different circumstance or different regime. Therefore I find his testimony tainted.
In an article published in The Jerusalem Post; title: Dangerously underestimating the Muslim Brotherhood By David Horovitz on 02/06/2011 01:56, the writer wrote the following:
QUOTE
Far from benign, the Brotherhood is committed to death-cult jihad in the cause of widened Islamist rule, was the progenitor of Hamas and central to Islamist radicalization among the Palestinians.
And its popularity was evident in that impressive 2005 parliamentary performance, achieved, it should be stressed, despite the Mubarak-orchestrated unfavorable circumstances. Yet readers of the New York Times on Thursday, for instance, were treated to a page-leading op-ed article headlined “Egypt’s Bumbling Brotherhood,” which depicted the Islamists as a veritable Keystone Kops rabble of incompetents who have “botched every opportunity” for 83 years to revive Islamic power. Their purported 20-30 percent support, according to author Scott Atran, “is less a matter of true attachment than an accident of circumstances.”. Tony Blair’s warning that the Islamists could take the unfolding Egyptian revolution in the wrong direction was blithely dismissed by the author with the assertion that the Brotherhood’s “failure to support the initial uprising… has made it marginal to the spirit of revolt now spreading through the Arab world.”
On CNN that same day, scholars Michele Dunne and Robert Kagan, while not entirely deriding the notion of Islamist influence, nevertheless scathingly marginalized the threat, with Dunne, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, citing the centrality and dependability of the secular Egyptian military and judiciary as though Turkey’s seismic shift had not been unfolding before our very eyes in recent years.
Some commentators made much of the fact that the Brotherhood kept a low profile early in the uprising, interpreting this as evidence of disorganization and/or a lack of ambition. But the restraints have come off since then: Islamist rhetoric has become more prominent, and Brotherhood spokesmen are now ubiquitous in the media.
Experiences elsewhere have demonstrated the patience that Islamist organizations can exercise, building and gaining power and influence over years, over decades. Yet the absence of the Brotherhood from the protest frontlines for a matter of mere days – an astute tactic to ensure the watching world was not alienated and to maximize domestic support for the uprising – was apparently widely misread as proof of its irrelevance.
On CNN that same day, scholars Michele Dunne and Robert Kagan, while not entirely deriding the notion of Islamist influence, nevertheless scathingly marginalized the threat, with Dunne, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, citing the centrality and dependability of the secular Egyptian military and judiciary as though Turkey’s seismic shift had not been unfolding before our very eyes in recent years.
Some commentators made much of the fact that the Brotherhood kept a low profile early in the uprising, interpreting this as evidence of disorganization and/or a lack of ambition. But the restraints have come off since then: Islamist rhetoric has become more prominent, and Brotherhood spokesmen are now ubiquitous in the media.
Experiences elsewhere have demonstrated the patience that Islamist organizations can exercise, building and gaining power and influence over years, over decades. Yet the absence of the Brotherhood from the protest frontlines for a matter of mere days – an astute tactic to ensure the watching world was not alienated and to maximize domestic support for the uprising – was apparently widely misread as proof of its irrelevance.
UNQUOTE.
What a Jewish crockpot full a steaming and stinky bullshit! Jews, Jews, Jews, Israel, Israel, Israel!!!...arrogant, self-centered, paranoid, deceptive, liars and propagandists who smear anybody and everybody as long as one is not talking their syllables and walking in their steps; either one submits to the gang or else be smeared or assassinated.
Long live Egypt,
long live Palestine, and down with
Zionist Israel!
Very educational post mon ami. Good education for me, thank you.
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