Muslim Brotherhood Sticks With Bin Laden

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Muslim Brotherhood Sticks With Bin Laden

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• Publié par: ycyzadom
• Nombre de lectures: 103
• Langue: Français

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www.TeachingFaith.com

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Sticks With Bin Laden

By Eric Trager

Most of yesterday's headlines proclaiming the death of Osama bin Laden used epithets

like "

terror mastermind

" or "

bastard

" to refer to the internationally feared mass murderer.

(That latter headline is from the New York Post.) But in its first

public statement

on the

killing of bin Laden, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood used the honorific term "sheikh" to

refer to the al-Qaeda leader. It also accused Western governments of linking Islam and

terrorism, and defended "resistance" against the U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan as

"legitimate."

The Muslim Brotherhood's response to bin Laden's death may finally end the mythology -

- espoused frequently in the U.S. -- that the organization

is moderate

or, at the very least,

could moderate

once in power. This is, after all, precisely how Muslim Brothers describe

their creed -- "moderate," as opposed to al-Qaeda, which is radical. "Moderate Islam

means not using violence, denouncing terrorism, and not working with jihadists," said

Muslim Brotherhood youth activist Khaled Hamza, for whom the organization's embrace

of "moderate Islam" was the primary reason he joined.

Yet the Muslim Brotherhood's promise that its "moderation" means rejecting violence

includes a gaping exception: the organization endorses violence against military

occupations, which its leaders have told me include Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia,

and Palestine -- in other words, nearly every major conflict on the Eurasian continent. "I

never fought in Afghanistan," Mehdi Akef, the former Supreme Guide of the Muslim

Brotherhood, told me in January, just before the revolt. "But I encouraged them and sent

money to Bosnia and Palestine until now." Muslim Brotherhood leaders have endorsed

attacks on Israeli civilians as an exception to their no-violence-except-against-occupation

exception, viewing all of Israel as an occupation. "Zionism is gangs," said Akef. "It's not

a country. So we will resist them until they don't have a country."

The attacks of September 11, 2001, however, created a real problem for the Muslim

Brotherhood's paradigms, since it was a violent attack against civilians on territory that

could not be considered occupied. Rather than denounce the attacks, however, the

organization chose to argue, outrageously, that Islamists were not responsible.

In some cases, Muslim Brothers have simply expressed doubts about the "theory" that al-

Qaeda was behind the attacks. "I don't believe it was jihadists. It was too big an

operation," said Abdel Monem Aboul Fotouh, a former member of the Muslim

Brotherhood Guidance Office who is often

touted

as one of the organization's reformers.

"This was done by a country, not individuals. It's not a conspiracy theory -- it's just

logical. They didn't bring this crime before the U.S. justice system until now. Why?

Because it's part of a conspiracy."

More frequently, Muslim Brotherhood leaders blame a more predictable target. "The

Jews and the Zionist lobby," Muslim Brotherhood legal thinker and former