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The German Press Agency has reported on comments by the Muslim Brotherhoods lawyer reflecting his belief that the Muslim Brotherhood is not ready to rule Egypt. According to the report
Cairo – Egypt’s largest opposition group is not yet ready to take power in the country, a prominent supporter of the banned Muslim Brotherhood said in a newspaper interview Saturday ahead of parliamentary elections in October. “I think it’s not time yet for Islamists to be in power,” Muntasser al-Zayat, a Muslim Brotherhood activist and lawyer, told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. “Of course, the Brotherhood is the most experienced Islamist group to play a role in Egypt’s political life … but I think it is a blessing from God that no Islamist faction reached power in Egypt,” he added, referring to previous election efforts by the group. He told the paper that opponents of the Brotherhood were seeking to watch it fail and the Islamists needed to be in a better position before seeking power. The Brotherhood is technically banned in the country, but has members in parliament who ran as independents. These undeclared legislators in 2005 captured 88 seats in the People’s Assembly, or the lower house, but they failed to win any seats in the June’s elections of the Shura council, or higher house of parliament. Some members have called for a boycott of the October elections, saying the odds were stacked against them by the government, and in doing so would deprive President Hosny Mubarak and his National Democratic Party (NDP) of legitimacy. Earlier this week, speaker of the Shura Council Safwat El-Sherif said the ruling NDP decided to nominate Mubarak, aged 82, for a sixth term in office. The president is the longest ruler of Egypt since Mohammed Ali, the founder of the country’s last monarchical dynasty, who died in 1849. Egypt’s next presidential election is scheduled for 2011. Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt for nearly 30 years and has vowed to continue serving until his “last breath,” has not yet accepted the nomination. He has also named no successor and has no vice president, making the question of who will rule Egypt next a common topic in the media and among citizens. Rumours persist that he is grooming the head of the NDP, his son Gamal Mubarak, aged 47, to take over, though the party denies the reports.
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood can be considered to be the “mother” organization of what is referred to in these pages as the Global Muslim Brotherhood which developed as Muslim Brothers fleeing Egypt settled in Europe and the United States, as well as other places, throughout the years. The global network has since eclipsed the Egyptian organization as evidenced by global Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi’s decision to turn down the leadership of the Egyptian organization when it was offered to him in 2004.
GlobalMB @ September 2, 2010
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US media is reporting extensively on reactions by the US Muslim Brotherhood to the national controversy ignited by the “Ground Zero Mosque.” A CNS news report cites comments by Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) officials blaming the Tea Party and the Republican party:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is putting some of the blame on both the Tea Party and the Republican Party for what it sees as a growing tide of anti-Muslim anger. CAIR officials said the rise in “Islamophobia” stems from the controversy surrounding the Islamic center and mosque that Muslims plan to build a few blocks from Ground Zero. “We’ve seen a really strong uptick in Islamophobia recently – primarily sparked by the controversy over the Manhattan Islamic center,” Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s chief spokesman, told reporters at a press conference Wednesday. “We’ve seen hate vandalism at mosques in California; in Tennessee, we had an arson attack; at a mosque in Arlington, Texas, we had an arson attack; and something that wasn’t even reported nationwide, in May we had a bomb attack at a mosque in Jacksonville, Florida,” he said. Hooper said the attacks could be driven by many factors: “The question is, why? Is it tied to the November elections? Is it tied to the rise of the Tea Party movement? Is it tied to the economy?” he asked. “I think it’s pretty clear that it’s been sparked…by these hate groups and their opposition to the Islamic community center in Manhattan.” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad was even more direct, saying that the Tea Party and the GOP have given the “green light” to a nationwide campaign to deny Muslims their civil rights and ultimately expel them from the United States. “[W]e used to deal with individual cases of Islamophobia, harassments, and discrimination against Muslims,” Awad said. “Today, and in the past few months – almost maybe one year, we can say one year — we have seen an organized effort, we have seen organizations built to fight the presence of Muslims in the United States and to deny Muslims’ right to freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and even to be an elected official. “Unfortunately, this is done, we believe, for political convenience and reasons. The Pamela Gellers and Robert Spencers, they’re trying to spool religious hatred against Muslims for obvious reasons – because they do not want Muslims to be in the United States,” Awad said. (Geller, a blogger, is executive director of Stop Islamization of America; Spencer, a columnist, is director of Jihad Watch and has written a number of books critical of Islam.) Awad named the GOP and the Tea Party movement as the groups responsible for the anti-Muslim campaign. “Secondly, yes it is a mid-term election year, and unfortunately the Tea Party and the Republican Party have given the green light for these people to defame and stereotype Muslims, and unfortunately as we’ve said, these have led to violence against Muslims.”
Another US media report discusses PR initiatives undertaken by CAIR and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC):
In an effort to push back against negative views of Islam and Muslims, grassroots Muslim groups are launching a series of initiatives to convey to non-Muslim-Americans that they are also Americans. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a series of advertisements today that will run on national television, clearly intended to counter some of the furor over the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. In one spot, a New York firefighter who was a first responder after the Sept. 11 attacks talks about losing a loved one before announcing that he is a Muslim. CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the point of the ad is to “challenge the notion that Muslims were not also targeted on 9/11.”…Meanwhile, Edina Lekovic, director of policy at the Muslim Public Affairs Council, is helping to organize a grassroots Muslim Day of Service planned for Sept. 11. The group coordinated more than 3,500 service projects in the past year as part of President Obama’s National Day of Service initiative, but Lekovic says the push is especially important now. “Given the climate in the country right now and the … intense levels of attacks that many Muslims are feeling, this effort is meant to channel those emotions toward something that is good both for our faith and our country,” Lekovic said. Rather than just be “outraged” over incidents like the group planning to burn Korans in Gainesville, Florida on Sept. 11, Lekovic told The Upshot the day of service is an opportunity to “show who we are rather than just talk about who we are.” A separate grassroots initiative called “My Faith My Voice” also launched an advertisment this week featuring Muslim-Americans saying they renounce terrorism and do not want to take over the country or impose their faith on anyone. “These are sincere efforts by everyday American Muslims to demonstrate who we are and that we are in every possible way just like every other American, and the kinds of awful and dangerous attacks that are happening now are fundamentally un-American,” Lekovic said. “We’re actually quite boring!”
A third report cites calls by CAIR and Muslim American Society (MAS) officials for more protection from law enforcement:
US Muslim leaders called Wednesday for more protection from law enforcement amid what they described as a wave of “Islamophobia” over plans to build an Islamic centre and mosque near the site of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. “We ask for extra protection of the Muslim community,” Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said at a press conference. “We call on local state and federal authorities to provide extra protection for the Muslim community in the next days and weeks based on the kind of hysteria that was seen.” Several US Muslim groups pointed to protests over the proposed mosque as well as plans to burn copies of the Koran at a Florida church on September 11. They said organized efforts against Muslims seemed to be escalating. Imam Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society, praised former president George W Bush for standing up to those who would conflate Islam with terrorism. “We do not see this type of courage happening now,” he said, accusing both political parties as being more concerned about losing votes than standing up for them. The FBI should protect houses of worship and find those who commit acts of violence against them, said CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper, pointing to recent acts of vandalism at a mosque construction site in Tennessee. But he said it would not be appropriate for officers to attend prayer services, rather local police should step up patrols near mosques in order to protect worshippers.
A Hudson Institute report identifies CAIR, MPAC, and the MAS as part of the US Muslim Brotherhood.
GlobalMB @ September 2, 2010
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Due to the addition of a large amount of new material, our post on the opening of the first Muslim College in the US has been re-posted and the older post deleted. The new post can be found here:
http://globalmbreport.org/?p=3429
GlobalMB @ September 2, 2010
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US media is reporting on the opening of what is described as the first Muslim College in America. According to a report in the LA Times:
“Why a Muslim College in America?” the Anaheim event was headlined, as if anticipating the query from audience members. And throughout the four-hour gathering, the speakers repeatedly stated why they believed such an institution was needed, calling it an idea whose time has come. Hatem Bazian, a UC Berkeley lecturer in Near East studies and a co-founder of Zaytuna, said that touch of defensiveness came after more than a year of crisscrossing the country and gauging sentiment from the American Muslim community. “There’s still some lack of clarity from the members of the community whether this is something that is needed at this point or not,” Bazian said after the fundraiser. “People need to feel this is something that is needed for them to invest in it.” Zaytuna, which hopes to become the first accredited, four-year Muslim liberal arts college in the United States, this week welcomed its first students to its rented space in a Baptist seminary in Berkeley. The college, which has about a dozen faculty members, will offer two majors at first, in Arabic language and Islamic law and theology. Muslims in the U.S. have founded schools, mosques and religious organizations. An accredited college is the next step, Zaytuna’s founders say. They cite a long tradition of other faiths founding their own educational institutions and seminaries. “If you have distinctive views of the world, it’s important to have institutions to pass on that view,” Zaytuna founder Sheikh Hamza Yusuf said. A convert to Islam and Northern California native, Yusuf is considered one of the leading Islamic scholars in the U.S. But the college, which has been in the works for several years, is more than just an item on a religious community’s to-do list. Zaytuna (which means “olive” in Arabic) stems from a growing desire in much of the U.S. Muslim community for leaders and imams who understand Islam within a Western context. “In order to have an American Muslim identity, we needed leaders who were raised in institutions here to lead those communities,” said Imam Zaid Shakir, another of the founders. Shakir, who converted to Islam while serving in the Air Force, is an Islamic scholar who has studied in Egypt, Syria and Morocco.
An online biography provides the following details about Dr. Bazian:
Hatem Bazian is the current president of the American Muslims for Palestine. Dr. Bazian received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in near eastern studies and ethnic studies and a master’s degree in international relations from San Francisco State University. Currently, Dr. Bazian is a senior lecturer in the Near Eastern Studies and Ethnic Studies Departments at UC-Berkeley. In addition, Dr. Bazian is an adjunct professor at: UC-Berkeley Law School at Boalt Hall, religious studies at Saint Mary’s College of California and UC-Davis. Dr. Bazian co-hosted “Islam Today”, a weekly radio magazine show covering Islam and its diverse people around the world. Since 9/11, he has appeared on many TV and radio interviews and was also a translation consultant for the San Francisco Chronicle on a number of stories relating to Islam, Muslims and global politics.
One of the other officers of the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) is Salah Sarsour, a board member of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee as well as the registered agent for the Wisconsin chapter of the Muslim American Society (MAS), a part of the US Muslim Brotherhood closely tied to the Egyptian organization. The Sarsour family in Milwaukee is known to have many ties to the Hamas infrastructure in the US. A previous post discussed a a “Gaza Solidarity Day” jointly organized by the MAS, the far-left A.N.S.W.E.R coalition, and the AMP.
Video from an April 2004 antiwar-rally shows Hatem Bazian calling for an “Intifada” in the US:
“Are you angry? [Yeah!] Are you angry? [Yeah!] Are you angry? [Yeah!] Well, we’ve been watching intifada in Palestine, we’ve been watching an uprising in Iraq, and the question is that what are we doing? How come we don’t have an intifada in this country? Because it seem[s] to me, that we are comfortable in where we are, watching CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox, and all these mainstream… giving us a window to the world while the world is being managed from Washington, from New York, from every other place in here in San Francisco: Chevron, Bechtel, [Carlyle?] Group, Halliburton; every one of those lying, cheating, stealing, deceiving individuals are in our country and we’re sitting here and watching the world pass by, people being bombed, and it’s about time that we have an intifada in this country that change[s] fundamentally the political dynamics in here. And we know every— They’re gonna say some Palestinian being too radical — well, you haven’t seen radicalism yet!”
More video from the same conference show Bazian talking about the “Arabs who are coming to help” in Iraq. Dr. Bazian later claimed that his remarks on a US Intifada were misunderstood.
Hamza Yusuf first came to public in connection in connections with provocative statements he made shortly before the 911 attacks. According to a Washington Post report (see Note 1):
On Sept. 20, FBI agents showed up at the house of Hamza Yusuf, a Muslim teacher and speaker in Northern California. They wanted to question him about a speech he had given two days before the Sept. 11 attacks, in which he said that the U.S. “stands condemned” and that “this country has a great, great tribulation coming to it.” “He’s not home,” his wife said. “He’s with the president.” The agents thought she was joking, Yusuf said. But she wasn’t. That day Yusuf was at the White House, the only Muslim in a group of religious leaders invited to pray with President Bush, sing “God Bless America,” and endorse the president’s plans for military action. “Hate knows no religion. Hate knows no country,” Yusuf said that day outside the White House. “Islam was hijacked on that September 11, 2001, on that plane as an innocent victim.” Yusuf’s mixed message created awkwardness for the White House — and revealed a dilemma for the suddenly very visible Muslim leadership in America.
The Post report goes on to detail Yusuf’s history of anti-American and anti-Semitic statements:
Before the Sept. 11 attacks, Yusuf’s speeches would occasionally stray into anti-American rhetoric, hitting apocalyptic themes. At least one other Muslim leader invited to the White House since the attacks also has made provocative remarks about America. But now Yusuf has joined other American Muslim leaders as they have closed ranks behind the message that Islam is a peaceful religion and that extremists are outside its fold. No one suggests that Yusuf had anything directly to do with the attacks, and he has not endorsed violence against American targets. But some Islamic experts said Yusuf is one example of a Muslim leader who speaks of peace to the American public though he has used incendiary language in private. The contradictory idioms are, in part, an outgrowth of the American Muslim community’s reluctance to air its disagreements in public, said Ali Asani, an Islamic studies professor at Harvard University. Muslims “are so sensitive about the perception of Islam,” Asani said. “Even when there are disagreements within the Muslim community about extremism, they will project to the outside that we are all monolithic and peaceful.” Asani, who has watched the spread of rhetoric such as Yusuf’s with dismay, added that it was time for a reckoning. After Sept. 11, the more extreme leaders went “on alert,” said Asani. “They realize that they are part of the problem, that the Sept. 11 incident can be the result of this kind of thinking they have been propagating for so many years.” Yusuf said he partly regrets the speech, adding that it was “tragic timing” and that he would never give it now, after the attacks. “I don’t want this country to be destroyed,” he said. “I don’t want to have punishment come to this country. I’m not a wrathful person.” Yusuf was born in California to an American Catholic father and a Greek Orthodox mother. He converted to Islam at age 17, and studied with Muslim scholars in the Middle East. Then he returned to college in this country and began teaching Arabic and Islamic affairs at a center in California. He is known among his students as a charismatic teacher who can speak to the experiences of young second-generation Muslims. His Sept. 9 speech was not the first time Yusuf drew criticism. In 1995 he said, “the Jews would have us believe that God had this bias to this little small tribe in the middle of the Sinai desert, and all the rest of humanity is just rubbish. I mean, that is the basic doctrine of the Jewish religion and that’s why it is a most racist religion.” “Those are old speeches,” Yusuf said yesterday about those remarks. “I’ve spent 10 years in the Arab world and I’ve learned their language. . . . Anti-semitism, anti-anything does not reflect my core values. If people were fair, they would see my spiritual growth, as a person, as a religious scholar.” He gave his Sept. 9 speech in Irvine, Calif., to a gathering to support Jamil Al-Amin, a Muslim cleric facing charges in the slaying of a sheriff’s deputy during an Atlanta shootout and the wounding of a second deputy. The case of Al-Amin, known previously as the 1960s black radical leader H. Rap Brown, has rallied Muslim activists around the country who say he is being railroaded. “He’s a man who by necessity must speak the truth,” Yusuf said of Al-Amin in the speech. “That is a dangerous man. . . . Within this government are elements who will do anything to silence the truth. They’ll assassinate either the person or the character.” He told his audience that that was merely one example of the injustice and immorality rampant in America. “This country is facing a very terrible fate,” he said. “The reason for that is that this country stands condemned. It stands condemned like Europe stood condemned because of what it did. And lest people forget that Europe suffered two world wars after conquering the Muslim lands. . . . [Europe's] countries were devastated, they were completely destroyed. Their young people were killed.” Yusuf also mentioned the conviction of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric convicted of sedition and sentenced to life in a U.S. prison in connection with a plot to bomb Manhattan’s Lincoln and Holland tunnels and other New York landmarks. “That sheikh was unjustly tried, was condemned against any standards of justice in any legal system,” Yusuf said, citing Rahman’s lawyer, former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark. “Now [he] sits in jail because it was a foregone conclusion.” Yusuf said yesterday that the attacks had taught him a lesson. “One of the things I have learned is that we in the Muslim community have allowed a discourse of rage,” he said. “This has been a wake-up call for me as well, in that I feel in some ways there is a complicity, that we have allowed a discourse centered in anger.”
A previous post discussed Hamza Yusuf’s more recent statements in which while codeming the Holocaust denial movement, he appears to compare the Holocaust to Palestine and Iraq. Other posts and reports have discussed his relationships with the Global Muslim Brotherhood which include:
- The UK-based Radical Middle Way which features Yusuf as a speaker as well as Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders such as Tariq Ramadan and Jamal Badawi
- An appearance at a Toronto convention whoch also featured Ramadan and Badawi as well as other Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders.
- A YouTube video made by the US Muslim Brotherhood
(Note 1 “Muslim Leaders Struggle With Mixed Messages” Hanna Rosin and John Mintz Washington Post Tuesday, October 2, 2001; Page A16 )
GlobalMB @ September 2, 2010
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Arab media has reported further on the financial difficulties reported by leaders of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) who said that the organization had downsized its operations in Western countries. According to a report in the Arab news:
RIYADH: The World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a major Islamic charity of Saudi Arabia, has downsized its operation in the US, Canada and in many other Western countries because of the stringent restrictions imposed by the respective governments on the fundings of Islamic aid organizations. The WAMY, an UN-recognized NGO, had a “symbolic presence in the US, while it has closed its offices in Canada,” according to Saleh Al-Wohaibi, WAMY’s secretary-general. Al-Wohaibi, however, said that the WAMY values its partnership with the US and will continue to work with the community stakeholders in that country. The WAMY chief was speaking during the charity’s annual dialogue and iftar party, attended by about 500 guests including 51 ambassadors and diplomats as well as businessmen and donors. Johannes Wimmer, Austrian ambassador, and Syed Omar Al-Saggaf, Malaysian ambassador, were keynote speakers. On behalf of the businessmen, Yousef Al-Yousef, a leading Saudi businessman, addressed the audience. Referring to the problems faced by WAMY, especially the financial constraints, he said that it was becoming increasingly difficult to meet the operational costs of 26 offices in Saudi Arabia and 38 WAMY chapters across the globe. “Our office in Washington is currently manned by only three aid workers,” said Al-Wohaibi, adding that the Islamic workers associated with WAMY’s Washington chapter were laid off in a staggered schedule after the 9/11. “The workers there in the US,” he said “seems to be terrified even today.” Asked about the absence of US diplomats from the WAMY’s function, he said, “WAMY invited the US embassy officials, but there was no response … maybe because of security reasons.” “I am planning to visit the US embassy after Eid Al-Fitr holidays to renew my contacts with them and to discuss if there is any misunderstanding,” said the WAMY chief. Al-Wohaibi pointed out that WAMY had 39,000 orphans under its sponsorship program across the world. This is in addition to 2,800 scholarships granted by WAMY for poor meritorious students in several countries. He said that the charities today needed more international support. “We, the humanitarian organizations, are mainly concerned with human suffering resulting from poverty and disasters,” said the WAMY chief. In cases of displacement of millions of people as in the case of Pakistan now, the need for relief work becomes more pressing, he added.
A previous post reported on concerns expressed by the WAMY leader over what was described as a “steep shortfall” in the organization’s budget.
Muslim Brothers were instrumental in the founding of WAMY and the organization continues to enjoy close relations with the global Muslim Brotherhood. U.S. government agencies and officials have argued that WAMY has helped spread Islamic extremism around the world as well as sponsoring terrorism in places such as Bosnia, Israel, and India. Numerous previous posts have discussed WAMY’s activities throughout the world.
GlobalMB @ September 1, 2010
