by Robert Spencer
http://www.humanevents.com
The suicidal side of the Western elites’ pervasive tendency toward fantasy-based policy making was on full display last week when the U.S. and the European Union both announced that they were opening formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood, a group dedicated, in its own words, to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within, and sabotaging its miserable house.”
“We believe, given the changing political landscape in Egypt,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “that it is in the interests of the United States to engage with all parties that are peaceful and committed to nonviolence, that intend to compete for the parliament and the presidency. And we welcome, therefore, dialogue with those Muslim Brotherhood members who wish to talk with us.”
“Peaceful and committed to nonviolence”—this is the basis in both America and Europe for the legitimization of the Muslim Brotherhood. For following quickly after the Obama administration’s announcement came a similar one from the European Union. Michael Mann, a spokesperson for European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, explained: “We are always open to dialogue with anyone who is interested in democracy.”
Clinton and Ashton thus join the long line of Western officials who have confused democracy with the practice of voting itself, and taken the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is not committing terrorist acts in Egypt as an indication that it shares Western values, ignoring the obvious fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated to ideals that all free societies should oppose.
The Muslim Brotherhood, contrary to “intelligence” chief James Clapper’s laughable claim that it is “largely secular,” is dedicated to establishing an Islamic state in Egypt and implementing the Islamic law that has no room for democratic principles, does indeed employ violence against dissenters and miscreants, and tramples upon minority rights and women’s rights.
Obama and the EU should take careful note of all that, but given their own hard-line anti-Israel stances, they’re less likely to be concerned about the movement’s inveterate anti-Semitism. Yet not only does the jihad terrorist group Hamas style itself as the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine, but recently the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie said: “Allah has warned us the tricks of the Jews, and their role in igniting the fire of wars … and they labor hard to spread corruption on Earth. And Allah does not love the spreaders of corruption.”
The Brotherhood’s spiritual father, the internationally renowned Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, recently returned to Cairo to be greeted by huge and rapturous crowds after the end of his 50-year exile from the country. In January 2009, during a Friday sermon broadcast on Al Jazeera, he prayed that Allah would kill all the Jews: “Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one.” He also declared: “Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the people [Jews] who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by [Adolf] Hitler.”
And regarding America, a Muslim Brotherhood memorandum had this to say: The Muslim Brotherhood “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” So wrote Brotherhood operative Mohamed Akram, in “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America.”
And just weeks ago, Kamal Al-Helbawy, former Muslim Brotherhood spokesman in the West, declared: “Our thinking and our affiliation are to the exalted Allah. Our affiliation is to Islam. The global state of Islam is our ideal. … How will countries like Bahrain or Qatar defend themselves? Why shouldn’t we have a country called ‘The United States of Islam’?”
Given all that, it takes a stratospherically high degree of separation from reality to think that the Brotherhood has any interest in democracy except as a means to an end, and that end is radically opposed to the freedoms that the Western world enjoys.
The stance toward the Muslim Brotherhood that is now being adopted by both the United States and the European Union puts all free people in danger. The West is courting its own destruction.
http://www.humanevents.com
07/12/2011
The suicidal side of the Western elites’ pervasive tendency toward fantasy-based policy making was on full display last week when the U.S. and the European Union both announced that they were opening formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood, a group dedicated, in its own words, to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within, and sabotaging its miserable house.”
“We believe, given the changing political landscape in Egypt,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “that it is in the interests of the United States to engage with all parties that are peaceful and committed to nonviolence, that intend to compete for the parliament and the presidency. And we welcome, therefore, dialogue with those Muslim Brotherhood members who wish to talk with us.”
“Peaceful and committed to nonviolence”—this is the basis in both America and Europe for the legitimization of the Muslim Brotherhood. For following quickly after the Obama administration’s announcement came a similar one from the European Union. Michael Mann, a spokesperson for European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, explained: “We are always open to dialogue with anyone who is interested in democracy.”
Clinton and Ashton thus join the long line of Western officials who have confused democracy with the practice of voting itself, and taken the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is not committing terrorist acts in Egypt as an indication that it shares Western values, ignoring the obvious fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated to ideals that all free societies should oppose.
The Muslim Brotherhood, contrary to “intelligence” chief James Clapper’s laughable claim that it is “largely secular,” is dedicated to establishing an Islamic state in Egypt and implementing the Islamic law that has no room for democratic principles, does indeed employ violence against dissenters and miscreants, and tramples upon minority rights and women’s rights.
Obama and the EU should take careful note of all that, but given their own hard-line anti-Israel stances, they’re less likely to be concerned about the movement’s inveterate anti-Semitism. Yet not only does the jihad terrorist group Hamas style itself as the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine, but recently the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie said: “Allah has warned us the tricks of the Jews, and their role in igniting the fire of wars … and they labor hard to spread corruption on Earth. And Allah does not love the spreaders of corruption.”
The Brotherhood’s spiritual father, the internationally renowned Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, recently returned to Cairo to be greeted by huge and rapturous crowds after the end of his 50-year exile from the country. In January 2009, during a Friday sermon broadcast on Al Jazeera, he prayed that Allah would kill all the Jews: “Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one.” He also declared: “Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the people [Jews] who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by [Adolf] Hitler.”
And regarding America, a Muslim Brotherhood memorandum had this to say: The Muslim Brotherhood “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” So wrote Brotherhood operative Mohamed Akram, in “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America.”
And just weeks ago, Kamal Al-Helbawy, former Muslim Brotherhood spokesman in the West, declared: “Our thinking and our affiliation are to the exalted Allah. Our affiliation is to Islam. The global state of Islam is our ideal. … How will countries like Bahrain or Qatar defend themselves? Why shouldn’t we have a country called ‘The United States of Islam’?”
Given all that, it takes a stratospherically high degree of separation from reality to think that the Brotherhood has any interest in democracy except as a means to an end, and that end is radically opposed to the freedoms that the Western world enjoys.
The stance toward the Muslim Brotherhood that is now being adopted by both the United States and the European Union puts all free people in danger. The West is courting its own destruction.
Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, Stealth Jihad and The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran (all from Regnery-a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).
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