"O Brotherhood, What Art Thou?"
Baran, Zeyno
O Brotherhood, What Art Thou? Don't mistake Islamic extremists for moderates. by Zeynq Baran Even though Congress was in recess the first week of April, a number of lawmakers kept busy. A...
...Yet a devout, conservative Muslim immigrant to Europe—one who does not even speak any Western languages but rejects Islamist ideology—could be...
...Whether at home or abroad, such a policy is leading to disaster, as liberal, non-Islamist Muslims—having already been denounced by Islamists as apostates—are now being told by Western governments that they do not represent "real" Islam...
...Empowering Islamists at the expense of non-Islamists hardly seems a wise strategy for the United States to pursue if it wants to win the war of ideas...
...At the core of Islamist terrorism is the ideological machinery that works to promote sedition and hatred...
...Allies in this war cannot be chosen on the basis of their tactics—that is, whether or not they eschew violent methods...
...Yet engagement is worse than no engagement if it legitimizes Islamist ideology and alienates non-Islamists...
...The argument for a strategy of engagement flows from the incorrect belief that if Islamist groups that denounce violence are strengthened, they will then confront their more violent brethren and rob them of their support base...
...At the same time, many moderates are deterred from speaking out because of the ire doing so would provoke from Islamist groups...
...Under no circumstances should we do them the favor of extolling Islamist ideologues as "moderates...
...Moderate, non-Islamist Muslims have long tried to explain the inherent incompatibility of Islamism with a Western society that extols pluralism and equality...
...This tactic has been enthusiastically supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose unofficial spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi has repeatedly advised European Muslims to create their own "Muslim ghettos" to avoid cultural assimilation...
...Islamists seek the total imposition of Islamic law upon society at large...
...Instead, the deciding factor must be ideology: Is the group Islamist or not...
...Although various Islamist groups do quarrel over tactics and often bear considerable animosity towards one another, a "divide and conquer" strategy will only push them closer together...
...They are creating self-segregated societies in a process that has been called "voluntary apartheid...
...As the Muslim Brotherhood declares in its motto, "Allah is our objective, the Prophet is our leader, the Koran is our law, jihad is our way, dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope...
...After all, non-Islamists are already tremendously disadvantaged in terms of organization and funding...
...Recognizing and responding to the threat posed by the Islamist ideology is an important part of the war on terror...
...Thus, American policymakers who advocate pursuing such a strategy are actually facilitating Islamism by endorsing it as a mainstream ideology...
...Making the case for such engagement, Robert Leiken and Steven Brooke wrote an article in the March/ April issue of Foreign Affairs entitled "The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood...
...That the tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood are nonviolent (or at least less violent) does not make the ideology behind those tactics any less antagonistic to the United States...
...To the Brotherhood and groups like it, the Koran and Islam are not a source of law but the only source of law...
...Indeed, Islamist organizations have flourished in the tolerant environment of the West, taking advantage of the freedom of speech to spread their hate-filled, anti-Semitic ideas without fear of reprisal...
...In the process, they actively and openly create a fifth column of activists who work to undermine the very systems under which Western societies operate...
...Any American or Western engagement with Islamists should be critical in nature...
...bombings in London...
...Hoyer's contacts with the Brotherhood have added new intensity to the debate over whether or not the U.S...
...It may be that, when compared with al Qaeda or Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood is the lesser evil...
...In essence, this means that a nonviolent, British-born Islamist should not be considered an ally...
...Islamist groups are engaged in a long-term social engineering project, by which they hope to lead Muslims to reject Western norms of pluralism, individual rights, and the rule of law...
...Yet this could not be further from the truth...
...In the West, not only do critics have to worry about a fatwa calling for their death, but they are also faced with the prospect of getting sued for millions of dollars...
...Sadly, HT's effort was successful and Blair was forced to withdraw his proposal...
...The Muslim Brotherhood has well-established networks of institutions, educational centers, and think tanks, as well as millions of dollars in donations from the Middle East...
...Some have already endorsed organizations that were founded by Brotherhood members and maintain a close ideological affiliation with the group, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA...
...A bipartisan delegation led by House majority leader Steny Hoyer paid a visit to Cairo, meeting with several Egyptian members of parliament, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a controversial Islamist group officially banned in Egypt...
...government should "engage" with the group as an ally in the war on terror...
...They conclude that the Brotherhood consists of "moderate Muslims with active community support" and that engaging with its members "makes strong strategic sense...
...This is illustrated perfectly by the response to Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to ban the revolutionary Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) after the July 7, 2005, Zeyno Baran is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute...
...Moreover, engaging with Islamist organizations such as the Brotherhood lends legitimacy to an ideology that does not, in fact, represent the views of the majority of Muslims...
...HT reached out to various British Islamist organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood (despite their intense historical rivalry), and urged them all to stand united or "be the next in line to be proscribed...
Vol. 12 • April 2007 • No. 30
