Muslim Brotherhood advocates Egyptian modesty police

Call adds to concerns among liberals that the country is going Islamic after attacks on Muslim mystic tombs, Christians.

 

Officials of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's leading Islamic group, have called for the establishment of a Saudi-style modesty police to combat "immoral" behavior in public areas in what observers say in another sign  of a growing Islamic self-confidence in the post-Mubarak era.

In the political sphere, the Brotherhood led a successful drive to get voters to approve a package of constitutional amendments. On the street level, at least 20 attacks were perpetrated against the tombs of Muslim mystics (suffis), who are the subject of popular veneration but disparaged by Islamic fundamentalists, or salafis. After some initial hesitation, Islamic leaders have publicly praised the revolution.

"This is incredibly worrying to many Egyptians," Maye Kassem, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo (AUC), told The Media Line. "The salafis were always undercover in Egypt and now they are emerging as a political force. They are getting too vocal."

Newly freed from the political strictures of the Mubarak era, Egypt has turned into a battleground between those who envision a liberal, secular state and those who advocate various shades if Islam. The conflict mirrors those taking place elsewhere in the region. In Bahrain, unrest has evolved into a conflict between Sunni- and Shiite Muslims and the US has pulled back from supporting Libyan rebels over concerns they are dominated by Islamists.

Issam Durbala, a member of the Brotherhood's Shura council, told the Egyptian daily Al-Masri Al-Youm on Sunday, that he supported the establishment of a virtue police, or Hisbah, which had existed in medieval Islamic societies to oversee public virtue and modesty, mostly in the marketplace and other public gathering spaces.

But he seemed to stop short of advocating a force along then lines of that which operates in Saudi Arabia today under the auspices of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. It enforces a dress code, separation of sexes and the observances of prayer times.

"The new police must have a department with limited authorities to arrest those who commit immoral acts,” Durbala told the newspaper.

Nevertheless, liberal, secular Egyptians, who led the protests that brought down President Hosni  Mubarak and ushered in a new but as yet undefined era in Egypt, regard the proposal as the latest sign that Islamists are emerging as the dominant force in the country.

Sa'id Abd Al-Azim, a leader of the salafi movement in Alexandria, attacked Egyptian "liberals" for waging a media campaign against his movement.

"Despite the attacks against the salafi movement, it is constantly advancing – untouched by the attack," Abd Al-Azim told Al-Masry Al-Youm. "If the Christians want safety they should submit to the rule of God and be confident that the Islamic sharia [law] will protect them."

But it was not only Islamic fundamentalists who foresaw a growing role for Islam in Egypt. In an editorial published in the New York Times April 1, Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the country's leading religious figure, condemned the attacks saying they harmed Islamic unity.  But he said the world must expect a more Islamic, albeit tolerant, Egypt.   

"Egypt is a deeply religious society," Gomaa wrote. "It is inevitable that Islam will have a place in our democratic political order … while religion cannot be completely separated from politics, we can ensure that it is not abused for political gain."

Last Tuesday, Egypt's foreign minister, Nabil Al-Arabi, said his country was interested in "opening a new page with all countries, including Iran," which he said was "not an enemy state." Egypt and Iran have not enjoyed full diplomatic relations since 1979, when Iran's Islamic revolution took place and Egypt signed a historic peace treaty with Israel and gave shelter to the ailing Shah of Iran. On Wednesday, Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi welcomed the Egyptian overture and said he hoped to witness an "expansion of ties" between the two countries.

Nagib Gibrail, a Coptic attorney and head of the Egyptian Union of Human Rights, said the Egyptian revolution had been kidnapped by Islamist radicals.

"There are areas in Egypt where Christian girls can't walk outside after eight o'clock in the evening for fear of being kidnapped," Gibrail told The Media Line. "Moderate Muslims should be more scared than Christians. It is very worrying that the military regime hasn't issued a statement declaring Egypt a secular state." 

Maye Kassem of AUC said parliamentary elections should be postponed in order to allow smaller liberal opposition groups to properly organize. Parliamentary elections are to be held by September, with presidential elections following a month or two later, according to a timetable announced by the government last week.

"We need a longer transition period," Kassem said. "Otherwise, we will revert to a dictatorship which is not what we were fighting for."  

In a four-page essay titled "The Tsunami of Change," American-Yemeni cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, an Al-Qaeda propagandist, referred last week to the popular protest movements sweeping the Arab world.

"I wonder whether the West is aware of the upsurge of mujahedeen activity in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Arabia, Algeria and Morocco?" Al-Awlaki wrote in the English language Al-Qaeda magazine Inspire. "The mujahedeen around the world are going through a moment of elation.”

Western Media Discover Egyptian Revolution Not So Moderate; Muslim Brotherhood is Powerful, Still Deny That It's Radical

It seems mere days ago that every reporter and expert on all television channels and newspapers was preaching that Egypt's revolution was a great thing, run by Facebook-savvy liberals, inspired by President Barack Obama and "universal values." Those silly, paranoid Israelis had nothing to worry about. Christians were backing the revolution and everyone was going to be brothers, but not Muslim Brothers because the Muslim Brotherhood was weak, moderate, opposed to violence, and full of great people.

Anyone who said anything different was screened out and vilified.

Now, with no soul-searching, apologies, or even examining what false assumptions misled them, places like the New York Times are starting to admit they were completely wrong.

You mean they helped foist a policy that is a disaster for U.S. interests and regional stability? You mean the result might well be new repressive regimes, heightened terrorism, wars on Israel, and discrediting the United States as reliable ally or enemy worth fearing?

Oh well, what are a few hundred thousand lives lost, a whole region destabilized, and entire countries taken over by anti-American radicals who sponsor terrorism, and a couple of wars, more or less?

So now the New York Times tells us such things as “religion has emerged as a powerful political force.” How do they cover their past mistakes? They erroneously add, “Following an uprising that was based on secular ideals.” They have discovered that a lot of army officers like the Muslim Brotherhood, which we knew about long before simply by watching how officers’ wives were transformed from imitators of European fashions to being swathed in pious Islamic garb.

The newspaper explains, “It is also clear that the young, educated secular activists who initially propelled the non-ideological revolution are no longer the driving political force — at least not at the moment.”

Note how they again cover their mistakes. First, the revolution is based on “secular ideals” but then it is “non-ideological.” The Facebook kids are out but perhaps only for the “moment,” meaning they might be back on top next week. But we warned from the start that this was ridiculous because there are no more than 100,000 Facebook kids and tens of millions of Brotherhood kids.

Last month the Brotherhood was weak and disorganized, now it is “the best organized and most extensive opposition movement in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood was expected to have an edge in the contest for influence.”

“We are all worried,” said Amr Koura, 55, a television producer, reflecting the opinions of the secular minority. “The young people have no control of the revolution anymore. It was evident in the last few weeks when you saw a lot of bearded people taking charge. The youth are gone.”

Funny, I didn’t have any trouble finding plenty of people in Egypt worried during the revolution. Yet the Times and the other newspapers only wanted to quote people who said how great everything was, even as Christians sent out desperate messages about how scared they were.

Incidentally, the only person quoted as an expert in the article comes from the left-wing International Crisis Group, headed by an anti-American who hangs out with U.S. policymakers. The analyst tells us that the Muslim Brotherhood didn’t want the revolution, despite the fact that every action and statement of the group said the exact opposite.

Whether or not the Times reporters are “useful idiots,” they are certainly idiots. It isn’t just political slant but the violation of the most basic concepts of politics and logic. Consider this passage:

“This is not to say that the Brotherhood is intent on establishing an Islamic state. From the first days of the protests, Brotherhood leaders proclaimed their dedication to religious tolerance and a democratic and pluralist form of government. They said they would not offer a candidate

for president, that they would contest only a bit more than a third of the total seats in Parliament, and that Coptic Christians and women would be welcomed into the political party affiliated with the movement.

“None of that has changed, Mr. Erian, the spokesman, said in an interview. `We are keen to spread our ideas and our values,’ he said. `We are not keen for power.’”

Now, why is this nonsense? Simple:

First, political groups—especially revolutionary groups that want to impose ideological dictatorships—do not always speak the truth. They say what will benefit them. And the Brotherhood benefits by pretending to be moderate.

So statements about tolerance don’t show us where a movement is going: its ideology, record, and longer-term goals show us where it is going.

Second, seeking to create an Islamist state next Thursday does not have to be the Brotherhood’s aim. What all this material shows is merely that they see the process as longer-term and that the basis must be prepared.

It’s sort of like saying: The Communists aren’t intent on creating a Communist state. Oh no, they only want to spread their ideas and values! They say they are happy to work with capitalists and would be happy with thirty-three percent of the seats in parliament. And anyone who wants can join their party. So there isn’t any threat.

Reporters who write things like "Israeli authorities claim that the killing of its civilians are 'terrorist attacks'" are quite willing to take the Muslim Brotherhood at its word. They never recount the fact that this was a Nazi ally whose words for decades have stressed virulent hatred of America, democracy, Christians, and Jews. They never explain that it is a pro-terrorist group that endorsed killing Americans in Iraq and only last October called for Jihad against the United States.

Why go on? It’s as if the most prized institutions of the Western world—universities and media—have forgotten their mission, lost track of their values, thrown away their principles, and dropped one hundred points in IQ. And when they are proven to be terribly wrong, they merely shift to a slightly different position.

This farce has gone beyond embarrassing through disgraceful and has ended up being both deadly and ridiculous.
References:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/world/middleeast/25egypt.html?_r=1&hp

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/egypt/index.html?inline=nyt-geo,

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/m/muslim_brotherhood_egypt/index.html?inline=nyt-org,

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/essam_a_sharaf/index.html?inline=nyt-per

http://www.youm7.com/News.asp?NewsID=362933

Muslim Brotherhood Poised to Take Egypt

Well, what did you think was going to happen?:

Islamist reformers seemed to be gaining the upper hand over their secular rivals in Egypt on Monday, after gaining a boost in a referendum on constitutional change.
The Muslim Brotherhood, outlawed for decades by Egypt’s military rulers, took an important stride towards winning political power for the first time after voters overwhelmingly backed its call for a “yes” vote in polls over the weekend.
Some 77 per cent of voters gave their approval to a hastily prepared package of constitutional reforms that will limit the overarching powers of the presidency and pave the way for quick legislative and presidential elections in the autumn.
The youth movements and other secular figures who led hundreds of thousands of protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and other parts of the country had opposed the vote, saying the reforms were too piecemeal.
More importantly, elections so soon will give the reformers little time to organise. Under the autocratic rule of Hosni Mubarak, genuine opposition parties did not exist, meaning the reformers will have to start from scratch.
Although outlawed, the Muslim Brotherhood, whose goals are murky, operated a highly efficient, underground movement.
The referendum was considered one of the cleanest votes held in Egypt and turnout was almost unprecedented, but the Muslim Brotherhood was accused of intimidating voters by telling them it was their “religious duty” to vote “yes”.

‘The Islamic Resistance Movement [Hamas] is one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times. It is characterised by its deep understanding, accurate comprehension and its complete embrace of all Islamic concepts of all aspects of life, culture, creed, politics, economics, education, society, justice and judgement, the spreading of Islam, education, art, information, science of the occult and conversion to Islam.’ Article Two, Muslim Brotherhood Charter

We have repeated a single, consistent mantra since the uprisings in Islamic countries began late last year: Be careful what you wish for.
While it is without doubt an appealing notion that poor and downtrodden people (most Muslims are poor and most Muslim countries are poor) can, empowered by modern communications and media, throw off the shackles of their kleptocratic dictators and march towards the sunlit uplands of peace, prosperity and democracy; it is largely a fantasy.
Forget it. It isn’t going to happen.
One venal, unprincipled dictatorship will, inevitably, be replaced by another. And in the case of Egypt (and as we also pointed out in the case of Tunisia) Islamists are waiting in the wings, enabled by the West’s interventions and the pronouncements of its élites – it’s almost as if our ‘World Government’ is willing this to happen.
The Muslim Brotherhood are almost certain to take Egypt – we wouldn’t be surprised in the least if they did so by the end of the year. And with Hezbollah effectively running things in Lebanon, and tinderbox conditions prevailing the length and breadth of the Middle East and the Maghreb, make no mistake – hard Islamism is resurgent and things are not looking good for Israel – the only peaceful, educated developed democracy in a region rapidly being subsumed by a vicious Seventh Century political and religious doctrine, that despises her and her people with equal vehemence- and threatens the rest of us, too.

"Blood Brothers" - Who Is the Muslim Brotherhood

There has been much speculation as to who or "what" the Muslim Brotherhood is. But, one thing is for sure, it is NOT a "secular" organization. In fact, its ideology has spawned some of the most violent terrorist organizations in the world. If democracy is to prevail in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood is not the organization to bring it.

Muslim Brotherhood says Camp David already null and void

Last week, a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman tried to allay fears that the group would rip up the Camp David agreement:

"The decision on the treaty does not belong to the Brotherhood, it belongs to the entire Egyptian people," said Essam al-Erian, a spokesman for the Islamist group, in an interview with Al Arabiya.

"The important thing is the position of the Egyptian people and not the Brotherhood," Erian said. "The Brotherhood will not impose their vision on the Egyptian people. The Brotherhood are part of society that accepts what the Egyptians accept and nobody can wipe out a treaty with a pen," he added.

To Iran, however, MB leaders are singing a different tune:

A senior member of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood said there is virtually no peace agreement with the Zionist regime following the recent developments in the country, adding that any treaty not approved by the Egyptian nation must be abrogated.

The Egyptian nation considers as null and void any agreement between the toppled regime and the Zionist regime which has no respect for justice and rights of the Egyptian people.

He said the world was witnessing massive changes. “People worldwide want to see unjust laws scraped. It is no surprise for the Egyptians to want the same,” he said.

Halbavi then touched on the dismantling of Berlin wall, adding that following the dismantling, many previously signed treaties were abrogated.

He said the time was over for surrender to treaties which have brought humiliation to the Egyptian nation.

Halbavi also called for permanent opening of Gaza crossing and said the closing of the crossing has been a joint conspiracy by the US, Zionist regime and Mubarak’s regime.

But of course the hard-line statements are simply posturing and the more moderate-sounding statements are the correct ones. Because it has to be that way in order for the media to continue with their memes of a progressive, socially-active, uninfluential, non-political Muslim Brotherhood.

Islam's Hitler: Qaradawi and The Treason of the Intellectuals

Last Friday (2/18/11) marked the triumphal return to Cairo of Muslim Brotherhood "Spiritual Guide" Yusuf al-Qaradawi. After years of exile, his public re-emergence in Egypt was sanctioned by the nation's provisional military rulers. Qaradawi's own words were accompanied by images and actions during his appearance which should have shattered the delusive view that the turmoil leading to President Mubarak's resignation augured the emergence of a modern, democratic Egyptian society devoted to Western conceptions of individual liberty and equality before the law.

Egyptian cleric Safwat Higazi can be seen prominently behind al-Qaradawi for the duration of the latter's speech.  Recently Higazi, during his Arabic-language program "Age of Glory," broadcast on the Egyptian al-Nas satellite television network, issued an unabashed call for aggressive violent, jihad. He quoted a hadith from ‘Ali, the son-in-law of the Muslim prophet Muhammad and Islam's fourth "Rightly Guided" caliph, in which ‘Ali tells his sons:"Go, fight, and please your grandfather [i.e. Muhammad]. Let him be pleased with you. Fighting is what pleases the prophet (peace be upon him)." Higazi also urged jihadists, graphically, when attacking non-Muslim infidels to "Strike and split the head, and cut it in half." Equally plain are Higazi's goals for  this brutal jihadism -- the re-creation of a transnational Muslim Caliphate:

I am convinced that Islam is imminent, the caliphate is imminent. One of these days, the United States of Islam will be established. Allah willing, it will be soon. Egypt will be one state in this [United States of Islam.] Morocco and Saudi Arabia will be states as well.

And of course the requisite accompaniment to Higazi's jihadism would be a jihad genocide of Israeli Jews, as described in other media pronouncements the cleric has made, such as,

"Dispatch Those Sons of Apes [Koran 2:65; 7:166] and Pigs[Koran 5:60] to the Hellfire," and "Yes, I Am an Antisemite; If Not for the Arab Rulers, We Would Devour the Jews with Our Teeth."

Contrast the prominence afforded Higazi, with the treatment of Google executive Wael Ghonim. Upheld by a fawning Western media as the putative embodiment of Egypt's "democracy uprising," Ghonim was forcibly barred from the platform where Qaradawi spoke in Cairo's Tahrir Square. According to an Al-Arabiya report,          

Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, but men who appeared to be guarding Qaradawi barred him from doing so. Ghonim, who was angered by the episode, then left the square with his face hidden by an Egyptian flag.

But notwithstanding MEMRI, and my colleague Al-Mutarjim (whose translation follows), no mainstream media outlets have reported that Qaradawi himself issued a clarion call for the jihad re-conquest of Al-Aqsa mosque, i.e., Jerusalem. This pronouncement was met with thunderous applause.

A message to our brothers in Palestine: I have hope that Almighty Allah, as I have been pleased with the victory in Egypt, that He will also please me with the conquest of the al-Aqsa Mosque, to prepare the way for me to preach in the al-Aqsa Mosque. May Allah prepare the way for us to (preach) in the al-Aqsa Mosque in safety-not in fear, not in haste. May Allah achieve this clear conquest for us. O sons of Palestine, I am confident that you will be victorious.

The media's egregious omission was hardly accidental. Qaradawi's statement immediately following this deleted jihad rallying cry -- about having the Egyptian Army open the Rafah border crossing into Gaza to facilitate "delivering aid to our brethren" -- was widely reported. The deliberate omission of Qaradawi's bellicose incitement to re-capture Jerusalem reflects a larger, sustained campaign by both the mainstream media, and the warped pseudo-academics whom they choose, selectively, to provide their background information. The poisonous fruit of this incestuous relationship has been a concerted effort to characterize as "pluralist, reform Islam" Qaradawi's obscurantist, albeit mainstream Islamic Weltanschauung of Sharia (Islamic Law)-based, aggressive jihadism, and its corollary -- virulent Jew, and other infidel hatred.

John Esposito, who heads the lavishly Saudi-funded (i.e., 20 million dollars donated in 2005, according to theNew York Times) Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, is the doyen of American academic apologists for jihadism. Esposito, despite being a distressingly shallow and transparent shill for the House of Saud, who nonetheless continues to proffer geostrategic "advice" on the Muslim world to the American government, opined in a fall 2003 Boston Review essay that Qaradawi embodied a,  "...reformist interpretation of Islam and its relationship to democracy, pluralism and human rights."

Nearly a decade later, Esposito's distorted, malignant assessment of Qaradawi has become standard fare regurgitated by both the mainstream media and the next generation of Esposito-like pseudo-academics these journalists seek out for comment. Witness the New York Times coverage of Qaradawi's Tahrir Square oration. Consistent with the unchallenged Esposito-indoctrinated narrative, we are told that the cleric's speech, "...struck themes of democracy and pluralism, long hallmarks of his writing and preaching." This assertion is followed by a reiteration that "[s]cholars" -- doubtless, of Esposito's ilk -- "...who have studied his work say Sheik Qaradawi has long argued that Islamic law supports the idea of a pluralistic, multiparty, civil democracy."  But then the rather witless Times reporter stumbles when he clumsily invokes his selected "academic Qaradawi expert," Notre Dame Professor Imad Shahin. Acknowledging that Qaradawi has openly endorsed violence against both Israeli Jews, and American troops in Iraq, Shahin, unmasking his own jihadist mindset, stated, "You call it violence; I call it resistance." Earlier at Qaradawi's own website, Islam Online, Professor Shahin decried as the "dismantling of Islam... tearing Islam apart from within," the suggestion that Islam's Sharia-based "hadd" punishments might be abrogated. Shahin argued that these punishments were intrinsic and essential to Islam, concluding,  

The marginalization of certain aspects of Shari`ah can have grave consequences in the future...Should Shari`ah be twisted to suit societal behavior or should it be the guide for it? 

What are the so-called "hadd" punishments condoned by Shahin, and the "pluralistic" modernist he champions, Qaradawi? Defined by the Muslim prophet Muhammad either in the Koran, or the hadith (the canonical collections of Muhammad's deeds and pronouncements), these draconian punishments include: (lethal) stoning for adultery; death for apostasy; death for highway robbery, when accompanied by murder of the robbery victim; for simple highway robbery, the loss of hands and feet; for simple theft, cutting off of the right hand; for "fornication," a hundred lashes; for drinking wine, eighty lashes. Muhammad Abu Zahra (d. 1974), was a prominent member of Al-Azhar's Academy of Islamic Research, Professor of Islamic Law at Cairo University, and prolific author. These extracts from Abu Zahra's "Punishment in Islam," featured in the seminal 935 pp. Proceedings of the Fourth Conference of the Academy of Islamic Research, September 1968, provide the mainstream institutional Islamic context for the contemporary views expressed by Shahin and Qaradawi:

The hadd punishments being prescribed for the protection of society, their execution is tantamount to an act of worship and equivalent to a holy war [jihad] in the cause of Allah. To purge the community of pernicious elements is a sort of holy war to safeguard religion and morals...Hadd punishments are imposed by Allah as [a] deterrent from his prohibitions and the omission of His commandments.

An unusually frank observation by Shadi Hamid of Brookings Institute's Doha Center, Qatar, published in the 2/18/11 Christian Science Monitor report of Qaradawi's speech, captured the Muslim Brotherhood "Spiritual Guide's" appeal to the Egyptian masses.

Qaradawi is very much in the mainstream of Egyptian society, he's in the religious mainstream, he's not offering something that's particularly distinctive or radical in the context of Egypt... He's an Islamist and he's part of the Brotherhood school of thought, but his appeal goes beyond the Islamist spectrum, and in that sense he's not just an Islamist figure, he's an Egyptian figure with a national profile.

Yet even this more honest assessment omits any of the ubiquitous concrete examples of Qaradawi's odious vision, articulated, repeatedly in the clerics own words.

During two recent interviews (from 2/9/06, and 9/25/08) published at the Muslim Brotherhood's English website "IkhwanWeb," Qaradawi elucidated his overarching beliefs and goals. He extolled the putative "moderate vision" of MB founder and paragon, Hassan al-Banna. Qaradawi lauds al-Banna's "approach" as representing,

...balance and integration, as it adopts a propagative educational methodology which  includes the development of the Muslim individual, family, community, state, and nation, as it seeks to liberate and unite the Islamic  nation.

Qaradawi further promoted the notion that the MB govern Egypt, while expressing his personal desire to be a spiritual guide for the entire Egyptian nation, not merely the MB. He also espoused the direct political expression of Islam as articulated by the MB.

One can be content with his role of calling for Islam if he finds that the political duties have been taken care of and that people's needs are being met, but if this is absent then it becomes everyone's duty to take on the political role.

Qaradawi concludes with an ostensible call for "freedom and democracy," but only as a vehicle for the imposition of Sharia-the standard modern era jihadist formulation, "Islamic State by the will of the people."

A vast array of readily available fatwas, sermons, and interviews put ugly flesh on the structural bones of Qaradawi's Weltanschauung as articulated in the 2/9/06, and 9/25/08 IkhwanWeb postings. As salient examples, Qaradawi has publicly advocated all of the following:

• That Muslims emulate their prophet Muhammad as a model for violent, expansionist jihad, which includes the sanctioning of so-called jihad "martyrdom operations"
• The re-creation of a formal transnational United Islamic State (Islamic Caliphate)
• The jihad conquests of Europe and the Americas
• Universal application of the Sharia, including Islamic blasphemy law, and the hadd punishments (for example, notably, executing so-called "apostates" from Islam)
• Homicide "martyrdom" bombings of all Israeli Jews, including non-combatants, and subsequently, invoking Hitler and expanding the circle of hatred, a call for the frank jihad genocide of all Jews ("This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.") Qaradawi also expressed a personal longing to die in a homicidal "martyrdom" operation targeting Jews: "I'd like to say that the only thing I hope for is that as my life approaches its end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will seal my life with martyrdom. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. Allah's mercy and blessings upon you.")
• Contextualizing his superficial message of "brotherhood" towards Egypt's Coptic Christians in the 2/18/11 Tahrir Square speech, he issued a fatwa prohibiting Southern Sudanese Muslims from joining the Christian Southern Sudanese majority in voting to peacefully secede from the brutally discriminatory Sharia state government of the Arab Muslim Khartoum regime

Julien Benda in his classic 1928 La Trahison des Clercs (The Treason of the Intellectuals) decried with prophetic accuracy how the abandonment of objective truth abetted totalitarian ideologies, which lead to the cataclysmic destruction of World War II.  The Treason of the Intellectuals of our time remains the nearly complete failure of Western intellectuals to study, understand, or acknowledge the heinous consequences of the living, corollary Islamic institutions of jihad war, and Jew/infidel hatred.

Victor Klemperer, a Dresden University Literature Professor of Jewish descent, recorded the following apposite diary entry on August 16, 1936 in  "I Will Bear Witness," his chronicle documenting the horrific brutality of daily life under Nazi tyranny:

If one day the situation were reversed and the fate of the vanquished lay in my hands, then I would let all the ordinary folk go and even some of the leaders, who might perhaps after all have had honorable intentions and not known what they were doing. But I would have all the intellectuals strung up, and the professors three feet higher than the rest; they would be left hanging from the lamp posts for as long as was compatible with hygiene.

Exposing Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood: Jihad Against Jews, Judaism, and Israel

Against the backdrop of the historic changes in Egypt, the Simon Wiesenthal Center is releasing a riveting expose on Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

“Hitler Put Them in Their Place”: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood’s Jihad Against Jews, Judaism, and Israel, is authored by Dr. Harold Brackman, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Senior Historic Consultant.

This impactful report presents an "unsanitized history of the Muslim Brotherhood," and traces the evolution of its beliefs, goals and tactics. It presents an unflinching look at the Brotherhood's genocidal Jew-hatred and sheds light on The Brotherhood's global reach and its emerging impact on Egypt in the balance.

CAMERA: Tariq Ramadan Obscures the Truth about Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood is set to play a significant role in Egyptian politics after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. The organization may have been caught flat-footed by the protests that drove Mubarak from office, but the Muslim Brotherhood will not remain in the wings now that Mubarak is gone. On Feb. 15, 2011, the Associated Press reported that the Muslim Brotherhood plans to form a political party to participate in future elections.

The Muslim Brotherhood's participation in elections does not translate into a commitment to democracy and individual rights. The behavior of Hamas since its electoral victory in early 2006 and the recent hijacking of Lebanon's government by Hezbollah demonstrate that well-organized Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood can use violence, or the threat of violence, to seize the reins of power after an election. The manner in which Muslim extremists came to dominate Iran after a broad coalition of groups including secularists and Marxists ousted the Shah of Iran in 1979 is instructive.

Given the consequences, American people have great need for accurate information and insightful commentary about Muslim Brotherhood and its ideology. One place many Americans will look for this information and commentary is the pages of The New York Times, which in the past few days have been graced by Tariq Ramadan, whose grandfather founded the organization in 1928 and Essam El-Errian, a leader of the organization itself. Both of these articles portray the Muslim brotherhood as a peace-loving reform group intent on playing by the rules of democracy in the years ahead.

Ample evidence suggests that readers of The New York Times who rely on Ramadan and El-Errian's testimony about the true nature of the Muslim Brotherhood will be making a mistake similar to the one made by people who trusted Walter Duranty's blinkered coverage of the Stalinist regime in Soviet Union in the 1930s.

Numerous sources demonstrate that the organization's leaders have embraced a violent authoritarian agenda that could threaten whatever freedom the Egyptian people have won for themselves with Mubarak's ouster.

The Article

Tariq Ramadan's piece, “Whither the Muslim Brotherhood?” appeared in the International Edition New York Times on Feb. 8, 2011. In this piece, Ramadan, a well-known Muslim scholar born and raised in Switzerland, writes that the Muslim Brotherhood

… began in the 1930s as a legalist, anti-colonialist and nonviolent movement that claimed legitimacy for armed resistance in Palestine against Zionist expansionism during the period before World War II. The writings from between 1930 and 1945 of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Brotherhood, show that he opposed colonialism and strongly criticized the fascist governments in Germany and Italy. He rejected use of violence in Egypt, even though he considered it legitimate in Palestine, in resistance to the Zionist Stern and Irgun terror gangs. He believed that the British parliamentary model represented the kind closest to Islamic principles.

There is an obvious contradiction between Ramadan's description of the Muslim Brotherhood as a “nonviolent” movement that nevertheless supported “armed resistance” in pre-1948 Palestine. Moreover, Ramadan's assertion that Muslim Brotherhood was opposed to violence in Egypt is false. In addition to engaging in acts of violence against Jews in Palestine, the Muslim Brotherhood's military wing was responsible for the murder of several prominent Egyptian politicians – including the prime minister – in the 1940s.

The Muslim Brotherhood was also responsible for stoking anti-Jewish hostility – not just in Palestine – but in Egypt as well. Matthias Küntzel, author ofJihad and Jew Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11 (2009, Telos) reports that the Muslim Brotherhood was a “driving force” behind “a shift in direction in Egypt from a rather neutral or pro-Jewish mood to a rabidly anti-Zionist or anti-Jewish one, a shift that changed the whole Araab world and affects it to this day.” This shift, Küntzel states, took place between 1925 and 1945 and was stoked by a 1936 boycott against Jewish business owners in Egypt organized by the Muslim Brotherhood. Küntzel writes “In mosques, schools, and workplaces, the Brotherhood worked up the believers with the legend that the Jews and British wished to destroy the holy places of Jerusalem, tear up the Koran, and trample it underfoot.” (Page 21)

Ramadan's Grandfather

Ramadan also offers distorted testimony about his grandfather, Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ramadan reports that al-Banna condemned fascist movements in Italy and Germany. Nevertheless, al-Banna drew inspiration from these movements. In a “Letter to the Young” quoted by Caroline Fourest in her book Brother Tariq: The Doublespeak of Tariq Ramadan (Encounter, 2007), Al-Banna holds up the Third Reich as a model for an Islamic movement charged with the creation of a worldwide Muslim government based on Islamic foundations.

This government, al-Banna envisioned would free Muslims from tyranny and “bring them together as one whole.” Al-Banna writes: “If the German Reich makes it a principle to protect all those with German blood in their veins, well then Muslim faith makes it a principle for every Muslim to act as the protector of all those who have taken to heart the teachings of the Koran.”

Ramadan's assertion that his grandfather opposed colonialism is tenable if one is speaking solely about Western colonialism, for in fact, al-Banna explicitly called for the restoration of a previously existing “Islamic Empire.” This empire would include territory that previously “had the good fortune to harbor Islam for a certain period of time” before “fate decreed that the light of Islam be extinguished in these lands that returned to unbelief.” Al-Banna continues:

Thus Andalusia [Spain], Sicily, the Balkans, the Italian coast, as well as the islands of the Mediterranean, are all of them Muslim Mediterranean colonies and they must return to the Islamic fold. The Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea must once again become Muslim seas, as they once were, even if Mussolini has usurped the right to rebuild the Roman Empire. This so-called empire of ancient times was founded on cupidity and lust. It is thus our duty to rebuild the Islamic Empire, that was founded on justice and equality and that spread the light of the true way among the people.

The historical record contradicts Ramadan's assertion that his grandfather was an anti-fascist. In his text Terror and Liberalism (2004, W.W. Norton), Paul Berman reports:

The Muslim Brotherhood's founder, Hassan al-Banna, expressed—I am quoting now from Melise Ruthven, from his A Fury for God—“considerable admiration for the Nazi Brownshirts.” His organization did choose to designate its organizational units as kata'ib, or phalanges, in the Franco style. (Berman, page 59)

Jessica Stern, author of Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill (2003, HarperCollins Publishers) offers testimony that further undermines al-Banna's allegedly anti-fascist credentials as offered by Ramadan. She writes “Hassan al-Banna was strongly influenced by revolutionary totalitarian movements from the far left as well as the far right, including the glorification of the military and a fascination with violence, a cult of martyrdom, and the Russian revolutionaries' idea of the ‘propaganda of the deed.'” This fascination apparently extended into the membership of the Muslim Brotherhood itself. Stern reports:

By the late 1930s, revolutionary junior officers, including those affiliated with the Brotherhood, had established links with Nazi Germany. Although the Brotherhood had started out as a charitable and cultural organization, it soon had a paramilitary wing, which took on fascist like slogans and practices. From the very beginning, one of its explicit goals was to counter liberal democratic principles. (Stern, page 45)

Clearly, al-Banna was fascinated with fascism and promoted the creation of a Muslim empire and yet Ramadan portrays him as an anti-fascist with strong anti-colonialist beliefs. Ramadan's depiction of his grandfather is untenable.

Where's Sayyid?

To be sure, the Muslim Brotherhood's political thought does not end with al-Banna. The group's intellectual history also includes the writings of Sayyid Qutb, a virulent anti-Semite who depicted the Jews as enemies of humanity, Islam and God. Israel's creation in 1948 was for Qutb, an affront to the Muslim nomos or sense of order that needed to be rectified with its destruction. He offered this message in his text Our Struggle With the Jews written sometime in the 1950s. Interestingly enough, Qutb, whose writings are hugely influential amongst Muslim believers decades after his death, is not even mentioned in Ramadan's vague summary of the organization history after al-Banna's death.

This is a telling omission.

In his summary of the Muslim Brotherhood's post-al Banna history, Ramadan makes two gambits. First, he acknowledges in passing the undeniable bothersome aspects of the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology, which he reduces to a call for the violent overthrow of the state. This inoculates him against charges of ignoring the problem altogether.

Once he weakly acknowledges the Muslim Brotherhood's radicalism, Ramadan then portrays these radical elements in the Muslim Brotherhood as competing for influence with other groups in the organization who see things differently than the extremists in the organization. As Ramadan calls it, some of these groups favor gradual reform and others have come “into direct contact with the European tradition of democratic reform” and have apparently embraced these traditions.

Interestingly enough Ramadan does not openly assert that the members of the Muslim Brotherhood who have been exposed to the European tradition of democratic reform have actually internalized the principles of individual freedom, but instead lets readers draw this hopeful conclusion for themselves.

This is an important issue, because being exposed to the principles of democracy does not dictate that these principles be internalized. For example, Tariq's older brother Hani was also exposed to the influences of Western democracy while growing up on Switzerland, but is clearly and openly committed to the imposition of sharia law and has little use for man-made law. “Muslims are convinced of the necessity to return to the divine law in all places and at all times.” (Fourest, Kindle Location 1068)

Nevertheless, in Ramadan's description, the Muslim Brotherhood is a pluralistic organization in which “contradictory influences are at work. No one can tell which way the movement will go.”

This depiction is undermined by the public statements of Muslim Brotherhood leaders revealing the group as an extremist organization intent on clashing with the West. For example, Mustafa Mashur, who served as the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood from 1996 to 2002 wrote a book titled Jihad is the way. In this text, translated by Palestinian Media Watch, Mashur reiterates the Muslim Brotherhood's goal of establishing an Islamic state – the goal first introduced by Ramadan's grandfather, Hassan al-Bana. Here is one passage:

The Muslim youth on the path of Jihad should know that the sphere of their Jihad for Allah is not limited to the specific region of the Islamic countries, since the Muslim homeland is one and is not divided, and the banner of Jihad has already been raised in some of its parts, and it shall continue to be raised, with the help of Allah, until every inch of the land of Islam will be liberated, the State of Islam will be established, and Allah'sDa'wa (Islamic missionary activity) will reach all mankind.

These are not the thoughts of an organization whose members are struggling to adapt the principles of democracy individual freedom and anti-colonialism. This is an expansionist, theocratic, utopian and triumphalist ideology with little regard for notions of democracy and individual rights.

Then there are the public statements of Yusef Qaradawi, who was twice offered the position of Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood and who is described as the movement's spiritual leader or father figure. In January 2009 stated that Hitler was a “divine tool” sent to punish the Jewish people for their sins. He also called on Allah to “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." (Qaradawi, who is mentioned nowhere in Ramadan's piece, offered a prayer in the 1995 funeral of Tariq's father, Said Ramadan.)

Can anyone truly committed to democracy belong to an organization whose leaders speak and write like this? Does Tariq Ramadan truly expect people to believe what he writes about his grandfather and the organization he founded?

Crisis in Egypt and its Effect on Israel: Watch Rabbi Hier's NBC Interview

PMW: The Muslim Brotherhood - in its own words PMW translation of "Jihad is the way" by Mustafa Mashhur Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, 1996-2002

One of the results of the turmoil in Egypt is the rise in influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. In order to understand the implications, Palestinian Media Watchhas translated the book Jihad is the way by Mustafa Mashhur, who was the official leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt 1996-2002. The book is the fifth volume of his full work called The Laws of Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity).

In his book, Jihad is the way, Mashhur explains the fundamental concepts of the Muslim Brotherhood ideology. Mashhur's teachings encompass subjects such as the Muslim Brotherhood's goal of establishing an Islamic state, world domination under Islam, the public and personal religious duty of military Jihad, and the warning not to rush to Jihad until it is prepared and timed for maximum benefit.Click to view full translation in PDF

PMW has selected the following quotes from Jihad is the way to illustrate central ideas of Muslim Brotherhood ideology. PMW's translation of the book follows below.

National goal: Islamic world domination

- "...the Islamic Ummah [nation]... can regain its power and be liberated and assume its rightful position which was intended by Allah, as the most exalted nation among men , as the leaders of humanity..."
- "...know your status, and believe firmly that you are the masters of the world, even if your enemies desire your degradation..."
- "It should be known that Jihad and preparation towards Jihad are not only for the purpose of fending-off assaults and attacks of Allah's enemies from Muslims, but are also for the purpose of realizing the great task of establishing an Islamic state and  strengthening the religion and spreading it around the world..."
- "...Jihad for Allah is not limited to the specific region of the Islamic countries, since the Muslim homeland is one and is not divided, and the banner of Jihad has already been raised in some of its parts, and it shall continue to be raised, with the help of Allah, until every inch of the land of Islam will be liberated, the State of Islam will be established,..."

Means: Jihad - a mandatory religious duty

-"Then comes the power of arms and weapons,... and this is the role ofJihad."
- "Jihad is a religious public duty... incumbent upon the Islamic nation, and is a personal duty to fend off the infidels' attack on the nation..."
- "And the youth should know that the problems of the Islamic world, such as Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, or the Philippines, are not issues of territories and nations, but of faith and religion. They are problems of Islam and all Muslims, and their resolution cannot be negotiated and bargained by recognizing the enemy's right to the Islamic land he stole, therefore, there is no other option but Jihad for Allah, and this is why Jihad is the way."
- "The symbol of the [Muslim] Brotherhood is the book of Allah [the Quran] between two swords. The swords symbolize Jihad and the force that protects the truth represented in Allah's book."
- "...that is, go out to battle, oh believers, young and old, by foot or with animal, under all circumstances and conditions..."

Timing: Don't rush, prepare carefully for Jihad

- "... despite this, the [Muslim] Brotherhood is not rushed by youth's enthusiasm into immature and unplanned action which will not alter the bad reality and may even harm the Islamic activity, and will benefit the people of falsehood..."
- "... one should know that it is not necessary that the Muslims will repel every attack or damage caused by the enemies of Allah immediately, but [only] when ability and the circumstances are fit to it."
- "Prepare yourself and train in the art of warfare, and embrace the causes of power. You must learn the ways and manners and laws of war. You must learn them and embrace them and adhere to them, so that your Jihad will be the one accepted by Allah."
- "... there exists an unavoidable personal duty for every Muslim to equip himself and prepare and gear-up towards Jihad..."

Personal goal: Aspire to Shahada - Death for Allah 

- "Allah is our goal, the Prophet is our leader, the Quran is our constitution, the Jihad is our way, and the Death for Allah is our most exalted wish."
- "The Jihad is our way and death for Allah is our most lofty wish", this is the call which we have always called,... Many of our beloved ones have already achieved this wish,... We ask Allah to accept all of them,... and may He join us with them, ..."

    Jihad against Israel:

- "Honorable brothers have achieved Shahada (Martyrdom) on the soil of beloved Palestine, during the years 47' and 48', [while] in theirJihad against the criminal, thieving, gangs of Zion. The Imam andShahid (Martyr) Hassan Al-Banna is considered as a Shahid (Martyr) of Palestine, even if he was not killed on its soil."

 

The Laws of Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity) (Part 5)

Jihad is the Way

by

Mustafa Mashhur*

[*Mustafa Mashhur was the fifth General Guide, the official leader,
of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from 1996 until his death in 2002.]

Publishing House: "Dar al-Tawziah wal-Nashr al-Islamia"
[Islamic Publishing and Distribution House], 1995

Publishing House's Address: Zayneed Square 8 [Cairo, Egypt]

Translated by Palestinian Media Watch

pmw@palwatch.org

PMW translation policy:
PMW has included all the main texts, ideologies, policies, views, and explanations expressed in this book, while leaving out numerous repetitions as well as some of the many Quran sources cited to support the ideology. Passages left out are indicated by three dots.

Islamic terms referring to seeking and obtaining Martyrdom death are translated as follows:
Shahada = "Martyrdom for Allah", appears as: Shahada (Martyrdom)
Shahid = "Martyr for Allah", appears as: Shahid (Martyr)
Istish'had = "Seeking Martyrdom for Allah", appears as: Istish'had (Martyrdom-Seeker) 
or alternatively:
Istish'had = "Achieved Martyrdom for Allah", appears as: Istish'had (achieved Martyrdom) 

Quran translations are based on USC-MSA-Compendium of Muslim Textshttp://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/ 

PMW TRANSLATION:

The Laws of Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity) (Part) 5

Jihad is the Way

By

Mustafa Mashhur

Introduction
Jihad is the way. We need to be fully aware of this and to act and follow in its way. The faltering of faith has led the Muslims to their current state: one of laxity, disintegration, the dominion of Allah's enemies over the Muslim's resources, and the succumbing of some of them to abandoning their faith. The revival of the faith is the starting point for the revival and revitalization of the Islamic Ummah [nation], so that it can regain its power and be liberated and assume its rightful position which was intended by Allah, as the most exalted nation among men , as the leaders of humanity, and through this religion of truth they will deliver humanity from darkness unto light. 

Together with the power of faith, there is no escaping from the power of unity among the Muslims to unify efforts. Then comes the power of arms and weapons, when nothing else will suffice, and this is the role of Jihad. The Imam (Muslim religious leader) and Shahid (Martyr), Hassan al-Banna (founder of the Muslim Brotherhood) learned of the need for these three forces, from the biography of the Prophet [Muhammad], may Allah bless him and give him peace...

Many questions arise regarding the Muslim Brotherhood's stance as to Jihad... There is one who asks: Is the meaning of Jihad to force non-Muslims to become Muslim under threat of violence? While another says: Do you want to fight Allah's enemies in the East and West while they are immensely powerful and you are weak...? ... And some say do you want, through the Jihad, to send Muslim youth to their death and to hand them over as easy prey to the enemies of Islam? At the same time we hear those among the enthusiastic youth who say: Has the [Muslim] Brotherhood grown weary after the challenges, thrown down its weapons and abandoned Jihad? Yet another says: Do you wish, with this passivity, to weaken the youth's vigor and kill the spirit of Jihad in them?  

Another asks: How long will you content yourselves with Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity) and education without Jihad, while the enemies of Allah lie in wait and attack you from time to time, and you confront their attacks with submissiveness and without resistance?

These are all questions which are brought up regarding the [Muslim] Brotherhood and their position on Jihad... We feel it necessary to make these matters clear to all of us so that there will be a unified understanding and the efforts shall be unified with Allah's help. 


Mustafa Mashhur
...Our Islamic religion is not a religion of priests and monks, who worship their Lord individually without taking interest in others... but rather it is a complete religion which organizes peoples' lives in this world as well as in the next life: It organizes the economic, social and political matters of Muslims and still - [is] a religion of faith, law and ritual, which addresses every minor and major issue related to man...
It is, additionally, a religion of one nation, one society, one Qibla (prayer direction, i.e., Mecca) and one book. It transforms the Muslims into one body in their mutual relations, if one of its limbs suffers; the whole body comes to its protection...

The religion [of Islam] requires its believers to perform its laws and the rules of the Quran and the prophetic traditions, and to deliver this religion of truth to all of humanity... 
 
Is it possible for such a religion to exist and for its believers to fulfill all of its requirements without the adherents of other beliefs persecuting it with attacks on the religion and its followers, and without their attempting to prevent the believers from performing this religion and establishing it? Should the believers of this religion cease to perform it... simply because the enemies of Allah attack them? And if they [Muslims] endure patiently, does this mean that this patience has no end? Do they not have a right to repel the aggression and to remove the hurdles from their path? 

From this it is evident that Jihad is an inevitable necessity, and that's why it was made a religious duty in Islam, [a duty] which exists till the day of Resurrection. It is also the reason why [Islam] has excited the interest in [Jihad] and hastened towards it, and made it the highest pinnacle of Islam; Without it, the religion has no revival and the people of falsehood take over, and the religion of Allah becomes invalid and life is corrupted and goes astray from the path that Allah wanted. Is this appropriate for the religion of Allah, Exalted and Almighty?

In this book, we will clarify several issues pertaining to [the place of] Jihad in Islam...
Islam has dedicated much attention to the issue of Jihad and militancy and recruiting the nation and gathering it all in one line in order to defend the truth with all its might; it [Islam] has rendered Jihad a religious duty for every Muslim, which no [Muslim] can escape, and has aroused the will towards [performing] Jihad to the greatest degree; It has greatly increased the rewards for the Mujahidun (Jihadwarriors) and the Shahids (Martyrs), and has threatened the procrastinators and those who avoid Jihad with the most terrible punishments...

[Translator's note: What follows are quotes from Hassan al-Banna on Jihad, fighting and Istish'had [Martyrdom-Seeker or achieved Martyrdom] 

... The Imam and Shahid (Martyr) [Hassan al-Banna] writes in his Treatise onJihad: "All of the sages, the earlier and the later ones... agree that Jihad is a religious public duty to spread Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity) incumbent upon the Islamic nation, and is a personal duty to fend off the infidels' attack on the nation... The Muslims today, as you know, are humiliated by others, dominated by infidels, their land is overrun and their holy places are desecrated... Therefore there exists an unavoidable personal duty for every Muslim to equip himself and prepare and gear-up towards Jihad until the opportunity arises and Allah will determine His word."

The Shahid (Martyr) Imam (Hassan al-Banna) said in another place of his JihadTreatise about the tradition [attributed to Muhammad]: "We have returned from the smaller Jihad to the greater Jihad. They said: "And what is the greater Jihad? He said: the Jihad of the heart or the Jihad of the soul." He said: "This tradition is not authentic Hadith (tradition) and some say that it was said by Ibrahim b. 'Abla... 

Allah has imposed the duty of Jihad on the Muslims, not as a tool for aggression or for achieving personal aspirations, but in order to defend the Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity), and to ensure the peace and as fulfillment of the Muslims' greatest mission, to guide people to truth and justice...

On mercifulness during Jihad, according to Hassan al-Banna: Allah has instructed the Muslims to be utmost merciful, when they fight they do not attack, and do not blow up (anything), and do not mutilate (dead) bodies, and do not steal, and do not plunder property, and do not desecrate (sanctity), and do not come to harm, because in their war they are the best warriors, just as they in their peace are the best peace-lovers. In addition to this it is forbidden to kill women, children and elderly, finish off wounded, provoke monks and isolated people and peaceful non-combatants. 
Where is that compassion in the suffocating attacks of the civilized and the horrible atrocities and where does their International law stand in relation to this all-encompassing divine justice? Then he [Hassan al-Banna] turns to Allah and says: Allah, instruct Muslims in their religion, and save this world from this darkness through the lights of Islam.

The Muslim Brotherhood's stance regarding Jihad
Jihad for Allah's sake has been forcing itself upon the Islamic region in recent years, and has become tangibly noticeable in parts of the Islamic world. In other parts of the Islamic world, there is a tide of preparation for Jihad and a sense that it is unavoidable, and is the only way to retaliate against the aggressiveness of Allah's enemies, and to liberate Islamic land from its occupiers and invaders. It has become a widespread and convincing opinion, that the way of negotiation and peace-treaties with Allah's enemies instead of Jihad is surrender in the name of peace. 

Additionally, without Jihad and the preparation towards it, the obligation cast upon every Muslim to establish an Islamic state and the Islamic Caliphate and to consolidate this religion, will not be realized... 

He [Hassan al-Banna] felt the grave danger overshadowing the Muslims and the urgent need and obligation which Islam places on every Muslim, man and woman, to act in order to restore the Islamic Caliphate and to reestablish the Islamic State on strong foundations... and to liberate the Muslims and defend them from any attack, and to spread the Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity) of Islam in the world and to establish this great religion, which Allah wanted for his servants.

This is how the Prophet educated the Muslims through the Quran... and united them like brothers and arranged them and rushed them towards Jihad and [self-] sacrifice, until they were worthy of Allah's victory and support, and this is how the Arabian Peninsula was cleansed of idolatry and idols, and the Persian lands were conquered, and the Greeks [the Byzantines] subdued and the Jews [were] expelled and the shadows were dispersed and the light was spread...   

He (Hassan al-Banna) knew the role of Jihad in leading the Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity) and the importance of preparing for it, because the truth needs a force to protect it. He noticed that the spirit of Jihad was almost absent from the Muslims of that time and the spirit of surrender prevailed.     

The Jihad is Our Way - The Motto of the Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity)
... "Allah is our goal, the Prophet is our leader, the Quran is our constitution, theJihad is our way, and the Death for Allah is our most exalted wish."
The symbol of the [Muslim] Brotherhood is the book of Allah [the Quran] between two swords. The swords symbolize Jihad and the force that protects the truth represented in Allah's book... 

[I]n all his (Hassan al-Banna's) writings and conversations, he always urged towards Jihad and aroused the desire for seeking Shahada (Martyrdom)... he did not content himself only with speech and writing, and when the opportunity arrived for Jihad in Palestine he hurried and seized it. The [Muslim] Brotherhood provided the most magnificent models [for Jihad and courage] and were it not for the [evil] scheming and the treachery on the part of the leaders of the Muslim countries of the time, the situation would have been different. 

After Allah honored him with Shahada (Martyrdom) -and his murder was part of this scheme [of the Muslim leaders] - the [Muslim] Brotherhood continued on the path of Jihad against the British on the banks of the Suez canal in the early 1950's, and also continued their Jihad against the Jews in other Islamic regions outside of Egypt, as Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity) was made to disappear in the prisons during [President] Abdul Nasser's rule. Today we witness the [Muslim] Brotherhood joining their brothers, the Mujahideen (Jihad warriors) in Afghanistan, and fighting against the infidel and repressive regime in Syria.

Has the [Muslim] Brotherhood grown weary of the challenges, thrown down their guns and abandoned Jihad?!! No! ...

[D]espite this, the [Muslim] Brotherhood is not rushed by youth's enthusiasm into immature and unplanned action which will not alter the bad reality and may even harm the Islamic activity, and will benefit the people of falsehood...

The [Muslim] Brotherhood knows that hastiness without proper preparedness may be like an aborted [action]. Likewise, they know that the negligence and hesitation after the right time [for Jihad] has come... might be a spiritual death... 

When the [Muslim] Brotherhood sends their youth to Jihad in the appropriate time they do not thrust them towards destruction, rather the abstention of Jihad in its appropriate time is destruction. As well, one should know that it is not necessary that the Muslims will repel every attack or damage caused by the enemies of Allah immediately, but [only] when ability and the circumstances are fit to it.  

In the early days of Islamic Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity), when the Muslims were a persecuted minority, the Prophet Muhammad did not instruct the Muslims to retaliate but rather instructed them of 'Sabr', patience and steadfastness ... and when the conditions were right, permission to fight was given in the words of Allah: [Quran, sura 22, 39]: 
"Permission [to fight] is given to those upon whom war is made because they are oppressed, and most surely Allah is well able to assist them." 


Jihad is not only for Repelling an Assault but also for the Purpose of Establishing an Islamic State
It should be known that Jihad and preparation towards Jihad are not only for the purpose of fending-off assaults and attacks of Allah's enemies from Muslims, but are also for the purpose of realizing the great task of establishing an Islamic state and  strengthening the religion and spreading it around the world...

As for the incorrect saying that the aim of Jihad in Islam is to coerce the people into the religion under threat of the sword, we do not need to work hard to disprove it. Many have already written on the subject, and it should suffice that it contradicts Allah's saying, Exalted is He: "There is no compulsion in religion; truly the right way has become clearly distinct from error." [Sura 2, 256] Reality and history negate this false claim. 

Following this clarification and answer for the ponderings regarding Jihad in general, and the Muslim Brotherhood specifically, it is only left for us to address our Muslim youth with several basic terms which need to accompany Jihad and the preparation for Jihad so that they will be worthy of this immense honor.     


To the Muslim youth in the way of Jihad
Previously we clarified the nature of our Muslim religion, the status of Jihad and its position in Islam... It may be useful, when we turn to the Muslim youth, that we first introduce a few quotes from the Imam and Shahid (Martyr), Hassan Al-Banna, in his treatise to the youth...

He says: "First, we call upon you to believe in yourselves, so you will know your status, and believe firmly that you are the masters of the world, even if your enemies desire your degradation ..."

After this preface, we turn to the Muslim youth around the world, with advice and focus on the path of Jihad. We say to the youth: Know that Jihad in the way of Allah will be -Allah knows - the most prominent characteristic of Islamic action, during the next phase of the Islamic Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity). ...

The Muslim youth on the path of Jihad should know that the sphere of their Jihadfor Allah is not limited to the specific region of the Islamic countries, since the Muslim homeland is one and is not divided, and the banner of Jihad has already been raised in some of its parts, and it shall continue to be raised, with the help of Allah, until every inch of the land of Islam will be liberated, the State of Islam will be established, and Allah's Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity) will reach all mankind.

And the youth should know that the problems of the Islamic world, such as Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, or the Philippines, are not issues of territories and nations, but of faith and religion. They are problems of Islam and all Muslims, and their resolution can not be negotiated and bargained by recognizing the enemy's right to the Islamic land he stole, therefore, there is no other option but Jihad for Allah, and this is why Jihad is the way... 

Know that the sphere of Jihad is now far-reaching, and that the enemies of Allah are numerous, and that war has many faces [lit. colors]. Therefore the struggle between the truth and the falsehood requires effort and time. So prepare yourself for this, and be of those who are patient...
And fully trust your religion - It is the true religion accepted by Allah. Have trust in your way and in your Society (the Muslim Brotherhood), being on the path of truth. Trust yourself and your brothers, that you can - with Allah's help - confirm the truth and abolish the falsehood even if take time. 

Oh the Muslim Youth,
Feel your responsibility for each Muslim on the face of Allah's earth... who is subject to oppression or control by Allah's enemies. Feel their pain, and may this pain motivate you to action and to Jihad in order to save all of them. Feel also your responsibility to guide Mankind and take it out of the darkness of heresy and error, into the light of Islam. Feel all of this tremendous responsibility, and gather with your brothers under the flag of the serious Islamic activity. And go in the true path of Jihad, in order to support Allah's religion and to strengthen the IslamicUmmah [nation], so that mankind will return to what is good for them. 

My young Muslim Brother,
Hurry into the goodness and make the profitable bargain, so that you gain this commerce with Allah the great achievement, and the clear triumph, and gain the enduring blessing and [you] shall be saved from the grievous punishment, according to Allah's words:

"O ye who believe! Shall I lead you to a bargain that will save you from a grievous Penalty?- That ye believe in Allah and His Messenger, and that ye strive (your utmost) in the Cause of Allah, with your property and your persons that will be best for you, if ye but knew! He will forgive you your sins, and admit you to Gardens beneath which Rivers flow, and to beautiful mansions in Gardens of Eternity: that is indeed the Supreme Achievement." [Sura 61, 10-13]

[Translator's note: Quran verses about the reward for the Muslims in the Afterlife, in order to encourage them to sacrifice their souls for the sake of Allah.]

My young Muslim Brother,
Prepare yourself and your household members to obtain the honor of Jihad for Allah, and equip your soul with everything that shall help it in that path, in order to continue the process until victory or the Shahada (Martyrdom)...
 
My young Islamic Brother, on the path of the Jihad,
Prepare yourself and train in the art of warfare, and embrace the causes of power. You must learn the ways and manners and laws of war. You must learn them and embrace them and adhere to them, so that your Jihad will be the one accepted by Allah. ...

Oh Muslim Youth on the Path of Jihad,    
The first, most important and most powerful weapon you must acquire for theJihad against Allah's enemies, is the weapon of faith. It is the provision that renews itself... and pushes its owner to turn to death without fear... The youngJihad believer scares Allah's enemies more than a nuclear reactor, and in the balance of power is also heavier and stronger than a nuclear reactor. ...

[Translator's note: Quran verses promising the final triumph of the Muslims and threatening of whoever does not participate in Jihad that he will end in Hell.]

Know, my young Islamic Jihad [warrior] brother, Allah does not need us or ourJihad. It is we who need his reward and grace and to achieve this honor.

"And whoever strives hard, he strives only for his own soul; most surely Allah is Self-sufficient, above (needs of) the worlds." [Sura 29, 6]

My young brother in the path of Jihad,
Do not fear the strength of Allah's enemies, even if their numbers and equipment out-number yours. Since Allah is the patron of the believers, and strengthens and supports them with his forces: 
"...for to Allah belong the forces of the heavens and the earth " [Sura 48, 4] 

[Translators' note: Quran verses explaining that the triumph comes only from Allah.]

Put your hand in the hands of your brothers in the lines of the Jihad, and embrace them strongly in the tie of brotherhood for Allah, and you'll be like a solid cemented structure, as in the words of Allah: ... 

[Translators' note: text continues with examples from the Quran and allegories of comradeship and brotherhood between Muslims and Jihad warriors].
 
[Translators' note: Quran verses describing the virtues of the good Muslim.]

My young Islamic Jihad brother,
Beware of the words and positions of the hypocrites in regard of the Jihad, and beware of the ones who refrain and procrastinate [from departing on the Jihad] ... 

Oh the young Jihad warrior 
... We do not attack and do not wish to encounter the enemy but we will repel the aggression, asking the help of Allah...

[Translator's note: The text continues with Quran verses exemplifying the above.]

Oh, the young Islamic Mujahidun [Jihad warriors], go forward in the lines of the fighters for Allah, filled with trust that you are about to meet one of the two great destinies: Victory or Shahada [Martyrdom]; Victory that believers around the world will rejoice in, or Shahada [Martyrdom] that will grant you the status of the Shuhada [Martyrs in Islam] and their rewards.

"...and whoever fights in the way of Allah, then be he slain or be he victorious, We shall grant him a mighty reward."  [Sura 4, 74]

Keep aware of the grave consequences for the Muslim and the grave threat of Allah to whoever turns away from the [Muslim's] attack...
[Translator's note: Proof text from Quran]

Beware of weakness or acceptance that the believers will be defeated in battle. Know that the defeat is in the heart and not the battlefield. ...  

Therefore we must continue the Jihad without weakness...
 [Translator's note: More proof texts from Quran]

[Translator's note: More proof texts from Quran and repeated Jihad promotion and warning not to sin.]

Know, my young Islamic Jihad [warrior], that we are called to action, but we are not responsible for the results. Allah commanded us to fight Allah's enemies and repel their hostility, and did not require us to achieve victory, since victory is from Him. Therefore Allah will not prevent us from the award of the Mujahidun [Jihadwarriors], even when the outcome is not in favor of the believers. 
Know, my Islamic brother on the ranks of the Mujahidun [Jihad warriors], that you are an important target and valuable prey for Allah's enemies...  

[Translator's note: Instructions to be disciplined and precise, study the Quran and the sections regarding Jihad and even learn them by heart.]

My Islamic sister,
And you, the Islamic sister on the path of the Jihad, you have an important role inJihad, which starts at home educating the [young] generations, and preparing them for the Jihad. The woman is the producer of the men, and Muslim women used to teach their sons by heart the stories of the military expeditions, as they would teach them the Quran... In addition, the Islamic sister who lives by the spirit of the Jihad, is a help to her husband and encourages him in the path of theJihad, and she doesn't turn him away or weaken him... Likewise, she properly manages his possessions and children, and takes care of them while he is away on the Jihad.
                    
In the past the Muslim women had a role in battle: she would give water to the soldiers and bandage the wounded, and sometimes she would even participate with weapons, like Nasiba the daughter of Ka'ab, protecting Allah's Messenger [Muhammad] in the battle of Uhud.

The Istish'had (seeking or achieving Shahada (Martyrdom) in the way of theDa'wa  (Islamic missionary activity)
"The Jihad is our way and death for Allah is our most lofty wish", this is the call which we have always called, and our people have called it by the way of theDa'wa (Islamic missionary activity), people of the Da'wa... Many of our beloved ones have already achieved this wish, and among them the founder of the Society [of Muslim Brotherhood], the Imam and Shahid (Martyr) Hassan Al-Banna. We ask Allah to accept all of them, and that He may widen His gardens [of Eden] for them, and may He join us with them, and that we won't change [our determination] and won't fall into trial, and may He provide us with the Shahada(Martyrdom) like them, Amen.

The procession of Shahids (Martyrs) in the way of Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity) has been continuing for a long time. Honorable brothers have achievedShahada (Martyrdom) on the soil of beloved Palestine, during the years 47' and 48', [while] in their Jihad against the criminal, thieving, gangs of Zion. They [these Martyrs] the men of Da'wa gave outstanding examples of Jihad and Istish'had(Martyrdom-seeking) in the way of Allah. Still today memory of them horrifies the Jews and the name of the Muslim Brotherhood terrifies them...

Later was the plot which was planned by the enemies of Allah and carried out by their agents among the Arab leaders of that time, and in December 1948 the decision was announced in Egypt to dismantle the [Muslim] Brotherhood, and to arrest them [members], except the Imam [Hassan] Al-Banna, whose murder was planned... They sent Arab armies or their symbols into Palestine, in the name of saving it from the Jews, but actually [the goal was] to hand it over to the Jews...
The Imam and Shahid (Martyr) Hassan Al-Banna is considered as a Shahid(Martyr) of Palestine, even if he was not killed on its soil. ...

Later the enemies of Allah [among the Arabs] forced on us another front ofShahada (Martyrdom), the one of tyranny ... In the prisons of [Egyptian President] Abd al-Nasser and in the gallows. They [Muslim Brotherhood members] calmly accepted the Shahada, among them ...  Khaled Islambouli  [assassinated the Egyptian president, Anwar al-Sadat, in Oct. 6, 1981] and his brothers. Allah's mercy upon them all. 
...Many of the Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity) men in occupied Palestine and in Lebanon also achieved Shahada, and they are facing it, in their Jihad against the Jews...

Some think that Shahada (Martyrdom) causes loss and damages the [Muslim Brotherhood] Society, since it has lost influential people in action and Jihad. This is wrong, since the fall of the Shahid (Martyr) for the sake of Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity) is [seen as] provisions and fuel for the [next] generations, and as a symbol of self sacrifice in the way of the Da'wa... 
...until realization of the goals which the [Muslim Brotherhood] Society was established for, that is, establishing the State of Islam, headed by the Islamic Caliphate, in order to establish Allah religion on Allah's land...

Muslim youth should know that the battle between truth and falsehood is hard, long, and broad, and it reaches the entire Islamic Sphere. [They must] know thatJihad is the way, and sacrifice of lives and property is inevitable, the opportunity to achieve Jihad and Istish'had [achieved Martyrdom] - will grow during the coming decades... 

Our youth should not give up hope of our [eventual] victory and establishing [Islam], due to the large number of enemies and the small number of believers. In the past, the believers with the Messenger of Allah were a minority... But Allah supported his Prophet and the believers, with His battalions... 
[Translators' note: the book now quotes two Quranic verses concerning the "Battalions of Allah"] 

Indeed, oh youth, Death for Allah is our loftiest wish. And how not, here are the verses of the precious Quran, and the sayings of the honorable Messenger they make us love and encourage us towards Istish'had (seeking Martyrdom for Allah) the way of Allah, by what they mention regarding the status of the Martyrs, and the honor that Allah grants them.

The foremost among the status of the Shuhada' [Martyrs] is that they become alive with their Lord, they are provided sustenance from their Lord, and they rejoice the kindness which Allah gives them. 

Allah says [In the Quran] ...

"Think not of those who are slain in Allah's way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord." [Sura 3, 169]

[Translator's note: Additional Quran verses are quoted.]
[Translator's note: Hadiths (traditions) are quoted in regard to Jihad and Martyrdom]

We shall move to [discuss] some of the sayings of Allah's Prophet, may Allah's blessing be upon him, regarding Jihad and Istish'had [Seeking Martyrdom for Allah]:

[Translator's note: Some of the Prophet's sayings regarding the issue are quoted, for example:]

"Abu Hurayra said: ...the Messenger of Allah was asked: What is the value of Jihad for Allah? He said: You can not imagine it. He was asked again and again... then he said: the Jihad Fighter in the way of Allah is like one who's fasting and standing up to pray at night] ..."

[Also] It was told that the Prophet said: "Not one of those who enter paradise want to return to this world... but the Shahid (Martyr), who wishes to return to this world and be killed ten times, due to the honor which he sees"...

Oh my Brother to the path of Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity), oh you who chose the path of the honest believers who committed before Allah service andJihad... and you called from the depths of your heart: [bold in original]: "The Jihadis our way and death for Allah is our most lofty wish". Oh Brother, this is indeed a lofty wish ... 

There are matters which need to be taken into account, and to adhere to, among them:

First of all: That you make a profitable deal with Allah: "Surely Allah has bought of the believers their persons and their property for this, that they shall have the garden; they fight in Allah's way, so they slay and are slain; a promise which is binding on Him in the Torah [Bible] and the Injeel [Gospels] and the Quran; and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? Rejoice therefore in the pledge which you have made; and that is the mighty achievement." [Sura 9, 111] ... 
  
Second: In order for the deal to be carried out and for the sale to be accepted, you must impose on yourself the attributes of the believers...

Third: ...Your intention in Jihad and in seeking Istish'had (seeking Martyrdom for Allah) Your intention shall be raising the word of Allah on Allah's land...

Fourth: You will ask Shahada (Martyrdom) from Allah truthfully, not only in talk but also in your heart, and with honest decisiveness, and by waiting for opportunities. This way you will reach the status of Shahids (Martyrs) and their reward, with Allah's will, even if you die in your bed, as said in the Hadith of the Prophet  ..." He who sincerely asks for the Shahada (Martyrdom) from Allah, Allah brings him to the status of the Shahids (Martyrs), even if he died in his bed"...

At the same time, there is a warning to those who do not go on a raid or do not hope for it... The Messenger of Allah said: "He who died without leaving on a raid, and without making up his mind to leave on a raid, died as a hypocrite." 

Sixth: You should be prepared to answer the call of Jihad whenever you are called, in any region of the Islamic world. Our Islam is universal not regional, and all Islamic countries are one homeland. You must overcome the earth's attractions ... which makes man vulnerable to the danger of Allah's punishment, as in the verse: 

"O you who believe! What (excuse) have you that when it is said to you: Go forth in Allah's way, you should incline heavily to earth; are you contented with this world's life instead of the hereafter? But the provision of this world's life compared with the hereafter is but little. If you don't go [out to war], he will punish you ruthlessly, and will switch you with other people..." [Sura 9, 38]

   
...that is, go out to battle, oh believers, young and old, by foot or with animal, under all circumstances and conditions...

Seventh: As long as you are a soldier in the ranks [of the warriors], you must respect every request regarding the Jihad, and what was determined for you, both in time and place. Do not carry out personal actions... since there are negative consequences to personal disobedient actions. Many times, the enthusiasm pushes some of the young [soldiers] to personal hasty actions, which harm the overall [Jihad] process...

The reason for this narrow and limited perspective is that some of the young [fighters] think that this bitter struggle between truth and falsehood, can come to an end by killing a couple of people and blowing up bombs and actions of that sort, without grasping the [long term] results...
It was not hard for one of the Muslims, during the period of Mecca, to kill Abu Jahal or Abu Lahab [Muhammad's enemies], or to shatter the idols around the Ka'ba, when they were being worshiped instead of Allah, in order to remove the evil. None of Muslims actually did any of this, due to the great harm that would befall the Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity), and would expose it to the danger of destruction, while it was still like a young plant...

Eighth: My Brother, study Islam's laws of combat so that you will become bound by them, so that your Jihad will be sound, healthy, and flawless, because when the Muslims fight they do not attack, and do not blow up [anything], and do not mutilate [dead] bodies, and do not steal, and do not plunder property, and do not desecrate [sanctity], and do not come to harm, because in their war they are the best warriors, just as they in their peace are the best peace-lovers. 
By Barida, may God be pleased with him: "Messenger of Allah, God bless him and grant him salvation, who used to say when he was commanding an army commander ... 'Raid but don't exaggerate and do not act with treacherousness, and do not molest (dead) bodies, and do not kill newborns.' reported Muslim [Hadith]...
Therefore, it is forbidden to kill women and elderly, finish off wounded, provoke monks and isolated people, and peaceful non-combatants... From the JihadTreatise by the Imam al-Banna.

Ninth: [One must learn and perfect the skills of fighting...] However, achieving victory should not be attributed to preparation and skills but to the help of Allah and to the support he gives to his servants, the believers.

Tenth: My Brother, nurture your home and your family with an Islamic consciousness, and prepare them for the atmosphere of Jihad and Shahada(Martyrdom) - Seeking, then they will not weaken you, but will support and encourage [you] to Jihad, and they will receive the news that you have fallen as aShahid (Martyr) - Allah willing - with joy... 

Eleventh: The Imam the Shahid (Martyr), [Hassan al-Banna] ... said:
"Oh [Muslim] brothers, the nation that excels in the death industry, and knows how to die a noble [death], Allah grants it a precious life in this world and eternal bliss in the Afterlife. The only weakness that shall humiliate us is the love of this world and hating death. Therefore we have prepared your souls for great action, strive for death - and life will be given to you. Know that there is no escaping death, and it will happen only once, and if you carry it out (death) for the sake of Allah, there will be profit in this world and reward in the Afterlife, and nothing will harm you except what Allah has decreed [for] you...  Work for an honorable death, you will be thus granted full happiness. May Allah provide us and you, the honor of achieving the Shahada (Martyrdom) for Him."

Indeed, Allah has already answered his [Hassan al-Banna's] prayer and provided him with the Shahada (Martyrdom). We ask Allah to also provide us with it, for He is near and answers [prayers].