It is decision time for the British government! Prime Minister David Cameron’s probe into the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood has placed him between a rock and a hard place. If the government concludes that the organisation is engaged in terrorist activities, it not only risks a violent backlash on the United Kingdom’s home soil, but will inevitably be met with the Obama administration’s disapproval.
It is an open secret that US President Barack Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood’s takeover of Egypt. Indeed, as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the US government has been obliged to release internal emails outlining a 2010/2011 policy review that concluded the Muslim Brotherhood was fit to “rule” Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. A talking points memo written for then secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, praises the Muslim Brotherhood for “its inclusion of women”, which is utterly laughable when the Brotherhood’s constitution in Egypt advised women to stay at home and look after the children.
A US State Department document shows that the US maintained ties with the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood and arranged for its PR director to address a Carnegie Endowment conference. The US military has been hiring Muslim Brotherhood chaplains; Brotherhood leaders were given VIP treatment at US airports and there are claims by a former FBI agent, revealed by the Guardian, that the Brotherhood has infiltrated the US government, a premise that is backed by Representative Michelle Bachman.
“It appears that there has been deep penetration in the halls of our United States government by the Muslim Brotherhood,” Bachman said. “The Muslim Brotherhood has been found to be an unindicted co-conspirator on terrorism cases and yet it appears that there are individuals who are associated with the Muslim Brotherhood who have positions, very sensitive positions, in our Department of Justice, our Department of Homeland Security, potentially even in the National Intelligence Agency.” Bachmann plans to introduce a bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist outfit, which may get through the House, but in all probability will not be passed in the Senate due to the Majority Leader’s opposition. FBI Director Robert Mueller is in accord with Bachmann. He told a House Committee that elements of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group whose ideology has inspired terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden, are in the US and have supported terrorism there and overseas.
For those of us who have kept a close eye on the Muslim Brotherhood, the results of the UK probe should be a no-contest and here’s why:
— One of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founders, Syed Qutb — ‘dubbed the Father of modern fundamentalism’, who was executed for his part in a conspiracy to assassinate president Jamal Abdul Nasser — laid the ideological foundations for radical Islam. Almost all Al Qaida chiefs were Muslim Brotherhood members, including Bin Laden, Ayman Al Zawahiri and Saif Al Adel. Gaffar Hussain, writing in the Independent, rightly points out that groups like Al Qaida and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) “emerged from the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose jihadist “offshoots” have been struggling to overthrow Muslim-majority governments in order to establish a ‘caliphate’ since the 1920s.
— Article 2 of the charter of Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist group by the US and Britain, states: “The Islamic Resistance movement is one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine.” The founder of the Islamist Jihad, Nabeel Naeem, announced that Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, a terrorist group operating in Gaza and Sinai, is funded by the Muslim Brotherhood.
— Brotherhood followers have been causing mayhem in Egypt. They have been convicted of killing security personnel, bombing buildings, shooting passersby and firing at churches. Just days ago, four bomb-makers blew themselves up in a farm owned by Ahmad Arafa, a Brotherhood regional leader in Fayoum, who had turned his home into a bomb-making factory. In recent days, similar homemade bombs have exploded on an Egyptian train, in metro stations and outside the presidential palace, causing fatalities and injuries.
— Following the announcement of Cameron’s review, the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain warned of attacks on Britain in response to the probe, as this could be interpreted by its followers that “violence was an option” — and vowed to thwart any attempt to “improperly restrict its activities”.
— The Brotherhood is considered a “terrorist” group by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Likewise, a retired Libyan general, Khalifa Haftar, has launched an operation dubbed Al Karama (dignity) to “cleanse” Libya of the Muslim Brotherhood, which he asserts is the “driving force behind extremists arriving in Libya”.
The Muslim Brotherhood in the UK is going all out to whitewash itself. Its appointed advocate, Lord MacDonald, a former director of public prosecutions, has been afforded numerous column inches in the Telegraph to expound — for which he is no doubt being generously paid — that the Muslim Brotherhood is entirely peaceful. This establishment stalwart slams Cameron for his “cack-handed” review because it risks creating would-be jihadists. Former head of the French Security Intelligence Service, Alain Chouet, has their measure. “Like every fascist movement on the trail to power, the Brotherhood has achieved perfect fluency in double-speak,” he has noted.
I can only hope Cameron has the sense to see through it. If he caves in, he will certainly risk alienating many of Middle East and Gulf allies but, more than that, he will be perceived as a lily-livered appeaser in a country threatened by the increased radicalisation of its youth.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com
