The Muslim Brotherhood: It's All There In The Motto
Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the WSJ on the Muslim Brotherhood and the kind of Egypt they really want:
'Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." So goes the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood.What's extraordinary about this maxim is the succinct way that it captures the political dimension of Islam. Even more extraordinary is the capacity of these five pillars of faith to attract true believers. But the most remarkable thing of all is the way the Brotherhood's motto seduces Western liberals.
Readers of this paper are familiar with the genesis of the Muslim Brotherhood: its establishment in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna; its history of terrorism; its violent offshoots such as al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamait Islamiya, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and others across the Muslim world. Readers may also recall the brutal crackdowns on the Brothers by autocratic regimes in the Middle East--particularly in Egypt under Nasser and in Syria during the Hama massacre of 1982.
As a result of these crackdowns, the Brotherhood renounced violence in the 1970s (after Nasser's regime executed the Islamist philosopher Sayyid Qutb in 1966) and started a gradual process to participate in conventional politics. This renunciation--and the Brotherhood's involvement in the Egyptian uprising, neither violent nor dominant--has prompted some commentators to encourage the American government to engage with the Brothers as legitimate partners in Middle Eastern affairs.
...Rather than running op-eds by the likes of Mr. Ramadan, the Western press would better serve Egyptians by exposing the Brotherhood's hidden agenda. Due to the limits on press freedom in Egypt, many educated Egyptians and other Arabs depend on the Western media for news and analysis. To deny them close scrutiny of the Brotherhood's past and future plans is unforgivable.
Instead of simply pushing for elections at the earliest opportunity, Western commentators should be pushing for more time--above all, to allow the drafting of a new Egyptian constitution. Such a constitution would introduce checks and balances, eliminate the one-party system, and guarantee the protection of human rights. In particular, it would safeguard Egypt against the imposition of Shariah law.
True, constitutions can be discarded by tyrants or religious fanatics if they assume power. But the introduction of a well-designed constitution would make it harder for them to do so. It would also make it easier for the U.S. and other foreign observers to ensure that any future elections are free and fair.
Anyone who believes that a truly democratic outcome in Egypt is the real goal of the Muslim Brotherhood has failed to understand--or purposefully ignored--the group's motto.
On a related note, Joe Scarborough tweeted:
@JoeNBC Keep Calm and Carry On. And try to be tolerant of those who don't share your beliefs.
What hogwash. People parrot that sort of thing without actually running it through their thoughts. I tweeted back:
@amyalkonWhy? Some beliefs are odious. I'm intolerant of Islamic hanging of gays RT @JoeNBC try to be tolerant of those who don't share your beliefs.
(I didn't have room within Twitter's 140 characters, but what I meant was that I'm intolerant of not only the practice, thanks to Islam, of hanging gays, but the religious thinking behind it.)
As I have stated publicly since *before* 2001, Islam is the most dangerous superstition on the planet.
Tx CHL Instructor at February 20, 2011 5:56 AM
This blog item caused me to remember I hadn't had time to find out some details of the overthrow in Egypt. I had heard that Lara Logan was raped after Mubarak had stepped down.
I googled it. All the top links did not do a single thing to condemn the culture, or the people who committed the act. The links all talked about how many rapes happened in the U.S. (or Britain for one link) and went unreported.
Whether there was a full up rape or just a sexually oriented assault -- the end result is that the reporters fail to talk about the barbarians at the gate and say how bad their own society is.
I agree that rape is disgusting. It has happened for thousands of years. But not a single reporter is condemning Islam for requiring four witnesses to prove the rape happened.
All I can think is that there is an overwhelming cognitive dissonance in mainstream media that can't wrap its head around the facts.
Jim P. at February 20, 2011 6:33 AM
Of course it's a good idea to try to tolerate non-harmful beliefs that differ from your own. Reasonable people can disagree.
But it's stupid to tolerate (and even romanticize) a belief system that advocates killing gays, rape victims, non-believers, etc. That is a perversion of the idea of tolerance.
Sue at February 20, 2011 6:41 AM
For a really interesting article about homosexuality in the Arab world, read The Kingdom In the Closet via The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/05/the-kingdom-in-the-closet/5774/
>> That is a perversion of the idea of tolerance.
Well said. On Bill Maher this week there was a moronic talking head that was comparing women's rights in the Muslim World with women's rights in America, and trying to argue they were roughly equal.
Eric at February 20, 2011 8:10 AM
They are afraid of the truth.
MarkD at February 20, 2011 9:03 AM
Near as I can tell, the Left considers Muslims an oppressed minority. Because of that, they get a pass on things like gay-bashing and misogyny, just as the Louis Farrakhans of the world get a pass on racist hate speech.
Rex Little at February 20, 2011 9:30 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/02/the-muslim-brot.html#comment-1847726">comment from Rex LittleI just don't know how you find it within yourself to give a pass to a religion that commands murdering gays and apostates and women, should they be raped and not have the good fortune to have it happen in front of a bunch of male witnesses who will attest that it was, indeed, a rape. It's barbarianism.
Amy Alkon
at February 20, 2011 9:38 AM
Hey, barbarians are an oppressed minority too, dontcha know?
Rex Little at February 20, 2011 9:50 AM
Hah.
Meanwhile, here's a Muslim leader calling for the overthrow of America -- specifically for Muslims to "rise up and establish Islamic state in America":
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358792/Anjem-Choudary-lead-White-House-protest-calling-Muslims-rise-up.html
Amy Alkon at February 20, 2011 10:16 AM
The ayatollahs in Iran can prop up their Islamic utopia with oil & gas. Egypt can't. Look at the numbers - $ 55 billion of imports in 2009, just $ 29 billion of exports. Food was a big slice of those imports. The country can't even begin to feed itself. Infidel tourists spent $ 15 billion in Egypt that year. An Islamic state under the Muslim Brotherhood would kill tourism dead and turn Egypt into a land of starving beggars. It would serve them right.
Martin at February 20, 2011 11:20 AM
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