Part Two A - The Muslim Brotherhood

Sunny - Hi 109 Lo 79 for Baghdad, Iraq
Rain - Hi 65 Lo 51 for Northern KY, USA

Song of the week: Don't Panic, Coldplay

Ramble:

All right... I'm in a grumpy mood because I somehow deleted the guts of my post from last week.... crap!!

Be that as it may, I wanted to pick up where I left off a couple of weeks ago. I started here with a Timeline of Islamic Terrorist Attacks.

However, I need to first back up a bit. My interest in understanding the historical basis for this deep seeded hatred for the United States came from Jedi Master Rob's post...Same As It Ever Was. Rob explored the early history of Islam and where the two tribes Sunni and Shia (Sharia) originated. If you don't understand or were unaware (like me) of these buidling blocks of history, please go read it now- read it here.

"The result of these medieval Islamic wars are still very much alive in the opposing "Sunna" and "Shia" (Sharia) factions. The Sunni who are descended in religious and political thought from Yazid and refer to themselves as the "Followers of Tradition" and the "Shia" (Sharia) who still hold true to the claims that Ali ibn Abi Talib was the true successor to Muhamad."

OK... My intentions are to explore one terrorist organization at a time as I complete research. This is a lot of work and I was never good at researching things... especially now with the internet and since I am self diagnosed ADD... I tend to stray from my subject... for instance... in looking for information on the Muslim Brotherhood I ended up looking at some information on archeologists studying current day Egypt and the Great Pyramid of Giza and the similarities with the Mayan pyramids... go figure...

I am starting with the Muslim Brotherhood because it is still active today, but more importantly it has spawned many many deadly organizations of which I will explore one by one eventually...

Muslim Brotherhood
aka:
Muslim Brothers
al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin
Jama'at al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun
Hizb Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon
al-Ikhwan ("The Brothers")

Their credo: "God is our objective, the Quran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, struggle is our way, and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations."

The Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hassan al Banna, a son of an imam (faith teacher or prayer leader). At the age of 12 years old, al Banna became a member of the Sufi order. Traditional orders assert that almost all the famous Sufi masters of the Islamic Caliphate times were also experts in Shia and were renowned as people with great faith and excellent practice. Many were also Shia law judges. They held that Sufism was never distinct from Islam and to fully comprehend and live correct with Sufism one must be a practicing Muslim obeying the Shia (Sharia).

"Al-Banna based his ideas that Islam was not only a religious observance, but a comprehensive way of life, on the tenets of Wahhabism, better known today as "Islamism", and he supplemented the traditional Islamic education for the Society's male students with jihadia training.

The Brotherhood grew as a popular movement over the next 20 years, encompassing not only religion and education, but also politics, through the Party of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon. It blamed the Egyptian government for being passive against "Zionists" and joined the Palestinian side in the war against Israel; and started performing terrorist acts inside of Egypt, which led to a ban on the movement by the Egyptian government. A Muslim Brother assassinated the Prime Minister of Egypt, Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi, on December 28, 1948. Al-Banna himself was killed by government agents in Cairo in February, 1949.

The Egyptian government legalized the Brotherhood again in 1948, but only as a religious organization; it was banned again in 1954 because it insisted that Egypt be governed under shari'a (Islamic law).

Abdul Munim Abdul Rauf, a Brotherhood activist, attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Nasser in 1954 and was executed, along with five other Brothers. Four thousand Brothers were also arrested, and thousands more fled to Syria, Saudia Arabia, Jordan, and Lebanon.

In 1964, Nasser granted amnesty to the imprisoned Brothers, hoping that their release would weaken interest in the recently formed Arab Socialist Union party; the result was three more assassination attempts by the Brothers on Nasser’s life. The top leaders of the Brotherhood were executed in 1966, and many others were imprisoned.

Nasser's successor, Anwar-as-Sadat, promised the Brothers that shari'a would be implemented as the Egyptian law and released all of the Brotherhood prisoners; however, the Brothers lost their trust in Sadat when he signed the peace agreement with Israel in 1979; four Brothers assassinated Sadat in September, 1981.

Although officially banned by the Egyptian government since 1954, the Muslim Brothers captured 17 seats in the Egyptian Parliament running as independents; they also hold important offices in professional organizations in Egypt.

Today, a very complex financial network connects the operations of over seventy branches of the Muslim Brothers worldwide. During the Muslim Brothers' seventy-plus years of existence, there have been cycles of growth, followed by divisions into factions, including clandestine financial networks, and violent jihad groups, such as al-Jihad and al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya in Egypt, HAMAS in Palestine and mujahideen groups in Afghanistan."

Today, Hassan al Banna's grandson, Tariq Ramadan advocates that:

"[...]Muslims living in the West should not view themselves as foreigners or temporary residents of their countries, but rather as full citizens with full rights and responsibilities. In some respects, he argues for integration and not alienation from the surrounding society. Indeed, the main theme of his book, To Be a European Muslim attempts to bridge the gap between being a Muslim and being European.

He also advocates that immigrant parents not confuse culture with religion. So, Muslims born in Western countries should adopt the tastes and cultural norms of their country, and not those of their parents' homeland. "

Neither Europe nor the West can survive, if we continue to attempt to define ourselves by excluding, and by distancing ourselves from, the Other-from Islam, from the Muslims-whom we fear. Perhaps what Europe needs most today is not a dialogue with other civilizations, but a true dialogue with itself, with those facets of itself that it has for too long refused to recognize, that even today prevent it from fully benefiting from the richness of its constituent religious and philosophical traditions. Europe must learn to reconcile itself with the diversity of its past in order to master the imperative pluralism of its future."

In 2004, Tariq was to relocate to South Bend, Indiana to teach at Notre Dame. The Department of Homeland Security revoked his Visa without providing a reason. (This was one of those moments where we needed to trust our government to do the right thing and not question why this decision was made-- if a source proves to be viable, lets not expose it for the bad guys to see).

The darling of the New York Times, Tariq Ramadan offers commentary and opinion on his thoughts on the Pope's remarks about Islam here. Read it carefully and completely...

Tariq from what I have found on the internet speaks softly and calmly of peace and assimilation with Americans and Europeans. However, he speaks of violence and death to other Muslims. Doublespeak...

So, make no mistake, while blatant acts of terrorism are occurring, a battle is being waged on an intellectual front as well. We must be vigilant to all of it...

Related Articles:

Front Page - France's Wake Up Call 12/23/03
ACLU - New York Times, Time Magazine and the ACLU love Tariq....
The Counterterrorism Blog

Sources:

CDI
Wikipedia
Terroris Exclusion List
ICT - Institute for Counter Terrorism
Council on Foreign Relations
Passia
Jewish Virtual Library
Council on Foreign Relations
FAS - Federation of American Scientists

Housekeeping:

I am still reading through Project 2996 and it is slow going, but I promised myself I would read every single tribute. In the meantime I have placed two tabs at the top of my blog- one for 2996 and one to my tribute for Marion.

Have a great week everyone!