For several years many in the West debated if the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate or a radical group.
In fact the Muslim Brotherhood managed to convince several decision makers in the U.S. and Europe that they are moderate. This has contributed to accepting such a group by U.S. decision makers despite the fact that the same group is the closest ally and share the same ideology of Hamas, which is correctly classified by the U.S. as a terrorist organization.
Several reasons contributed to the inability of many Westerns to understand the true radical nature of the Muslim Brotherhood.
First, according to the believes of the Muslim Brotherhood, they achieve their ideological goals via the following 4 steps: 1. al-daawa (preaching) 2. al-musharaka (sharing power with others) 3. al-tamkee (consolidating power), 4. al-mughalab (enforcing Shariah upon the others by force).
These sequential steps simply mean that an outside observer will not be able to see the violent nature of the group in the first 3 stages. In fact, the reason why most Egyptians turned against the Muslim Brotherhood they realized that the group is in stage 3 and the next step for them, or stage 4, is to be like Shariah ruled-Taliban.
Had they reached stage 4 in Egypt, it would have been impossible to remove them from power. Many Westerners simply could not see these stages and thus continued to support the Muslim Brotherhood in the first 3 stages thinking that they are not violent.
It worth mentioning that the MB is ready to accept things that contradicts their true ideological believes such as allowing alcohol or freedom of women dress as long as this can help them reach stage 4. Such ideological temporary sacrifice is based on the Sharia principle of Tequia (or deception of others until the person achieves power).
These stages make it more difficult to recognize their reality before they reach their final stage that shows their reality (or stage 4).
Second, the Muslim Brotherhood has a policy of not doing the dirty work. They simply support other radical groups in different ways to do this job on behalf of them. The pro-terrorists agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood can be elucidated in the release of hundreds of terrorists from the prisons in Egypt (while leaving pro-democracy activists in prisons) and also in trying to decrease international pressure on the radicals in Mali when Morsi objected to France interference against them despite their heinous crimes against their population.
Such an approach makes them look live a “moderate” group; however, a deeper analysis of their behaviors shows clearly that they are pro-radical.
Third, unusual tactics made it more difficult for outsiders to detect the real threat of this group. Some of these tactics include “covertly” encouraging a radical group such as Hamas to attack Israel and then presenting itself “overtly” as the peace negotiator to gain trust of Westerners.
Doublespeak is another tactic that allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to deceive many in the West. For example, many Muslim Brotherhood members can insist that it is the right of any individual to choose his religion.
This is likely to be interpreted by many in the west as support for freedom of religion. However, Muslim Brotherhood members will refrain from saying that “it is also the right of any individual to leave his faith” as this will contradict their basic believe in the Redda Law of Shariah, which allows killing those who convert from Islam to another belief system. The use of such a tactic allows the Muslim Brotherhood to portray itself as a moderate group to many in the international community.
In this context it is vital to mention that, Saiid Qutb, who promoted the use of violence to enforce Islam, is still the main spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is hard to believe that the Muslim Brotherhood is truly moderate while their main ideologue is the same person of the spiritual leader of Ayman Al-Zawahiri. This will be like believing that a man is not anti-Semitic while his spiritual leader is Adolf Hitler!
In fact, the similarity between the Ayman Al-Zawherri and other radical Islamic groups was elucidated when former President Naser of Egypt said in one of his speeches that the first thing that the spiritual leader of the Ayman Al-Zawherri asked him to do when he met with him in 1953 was to force women into wearing the Hijab.
The second request was to close all movie theaters and ban movies. These are typically the first two things that Islamic radical groups from Mali to Somalia to Taliban do when they come to power.
Dr. Tawfik Hamid is the author of "Inside Jihad: Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam." Read more reports from Tawfik Hamid — Click Here Now.
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