| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Jihad Watch | Robert Spencer | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog |  |
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
The Brotherhood "works to dissuade the Muslims from violence, instead channeling them into politics and charitable activities," said Robert S. Leiken, director of the Immigration and National Security Program at The Nixon Center in a recent article in Foreign Affairs, a publication of the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations. --from this Dallas Morning News article
That sudden scholar of Islam, Robert Leiken, could cheerfully explain his new "expertise" about the Ikhwan and everything to do with Islam the way that candid crook did in the late nineteenth century, Jay Gould or someone of that railroad-magnate or Tammany ilk: "I seen my opportunities, and I took 'em."
That's Leiken. A presto-chango artist, he went from being an "expert" on Latin America to becoming a great "expert" on How To Deal With Islam. Nothing he has written so far shows a deep familiarity, or any familiarity at all, with the texts or tenets of Islam. Nothing he has written so far shows any deep familiarity, or any familiarity at all, with the 1350-year history of Jihad-conquest and of the subsequent subjugation of non-Muslims (Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, and many smaller groups), a conquest and subjugation which faithfully put into practice the doctrines of Islam, derived from Qur'an, Hadith, and sira, as further discussed by Qur'anic commentators and jurisconsults, resulting in a system of codification, or Holy Law of Islam (i.e., the Shari'a).
Here's something from the New York Sun, June 20, 2007. Read it and weep:
Today the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research will host a meeting with other representatives of the intelligence community to discuss opening more formal channels to the brothers. Earlier this year, the National Intelligence Council received a paper it had commissioned on the history of the Muslim Brotherhood by a scholar at the Nixon Center, Robert Leiken, who is invited to the State Department meeting today to present the case for engagement. On April 7, congressional leaders such as Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip, attended a reception where some representatives of the brothers were present. The reception was hosted at the residence in Cairo of the American ambassador to Egypt, Francis Ricciardone, a decision that indicates a change in policy...A State Department spokesman for the Bureau of Near East Affairs, David Foley, confirmed the meeting Wednesday to discuss a new approach to the Muslim Brotherhood. "We do these seminars, they help inform the policy making process. I am not suggesting someone would decide on a new policy on the Muslim Brotherhood as a result of this," he said. "This is the kind of consultations we often do. When there are alternative views, let's hear both sides. We are certainly willing to listen to voices from the outside."
Making the case today for outreach is Mr. Leiken, who co-authored with Steve Brooke a paper for the March-April issue of Foreign Affairs titled, "The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood." That paper argues that Ikhwan has drawn contempt from violent Islamists such as Al Qaeda for its general disavowal of armed struggle. Tracing its history to its founding, the paper says the group today, particularly in Egypt, is genuine in its desire to participate in democratic politics.
Mr. Leiken said yesterday that there are two reasons why America should begin to rethink its prohibition of meeting with the brothers. "A new policy begins to combat some of our isolation in the Muslim world. I see the Muslim brotherhood, particularly in Egypt, as having what the communists used to call a two-line struggle, between moderate and dogmatic factions. Our outreach would help the moderates. That would strengthen those forces who are most willing to recognize the fact of Israel's existence and more democratic.”
Mr. Leiken is a Harvard graduate and longtime expert on Latin America who broke with the hard left in the 1980s to oppose the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and who became associated with Social Democrats such as Penn Kemble and Joshua Muravchick. He said he thinks diplomacy with Ikhwan could help us help them to moderate Hamas. "It is conceivable that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, aware Gaza could serve as an index, will try use its influence to get Hamas to be constructive," he said. The Egyptian government has used the Muslim Brothers for at least 10 years as a back channel to Hamas.
Mr. Leiken's Foreign Affairs paper and classified study for the National Intelligence Council has gotten the attention of senior National Security Council officials and Secretary of State Rice, according to two administration officials...
Did you read it? And did you weep? If you didn't, never mind. I wept tears of fury and laughter at the sheer farce of it all, enough tears -- a "portable and compendious ocean" of them -- enough for me, for you, for everyone who read the damn thing.
Robert Leiken. The "expert." The Ikhwan. State Department officials said to be Greatly Impressed. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice....
Say -- do I wake, or sleep?
Posted by Hugh at September 23, 2007 8:16 AM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
I only have mirthless sarcasm. I hope that'll do.
Posted by: Jauhara Al-Kafirah![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 23, 2007 9:03 AM
I think a more fitting tribute, Huge, is to name an award after him...you know, like the dhimmi, or the Fiskie....Here. I just KNEW I'd heard his name before!
NOUN:
1. A fungus, usually of the class Ascomycetes, that grows symbiotically with algae, resulting in a composite organism that characteristically forms a crustlike or branching growth on rocks or tree trunks.
2. Pathology Any of various skin diseases characterized by patchy eruptions of small, firm papules
leiken: a crust that forms over the brain, causing the characteristically unfounded belief in one's own superior intellect in matters one knows nothing about.
Posted by: Jauhara Al-Kafirah at September 23, 2007 9:10 AM
Another liberal speaks..
Posted by: lonewolf at September 23, 2007 10:34 AM
It gets even more ridiculous:
Canadian jail has to pay $2000 fine for missing bacon.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Canada/2007/09/21/4514133-sun.html
Fri, September 21, 2007
Prison fries for serving bacon
By TOM GODFREY, SUN MEDIA
A Muslim inmate has won $2,000 and a partial human rights victory over a Correctional Service of Canada policy not to replace bacon with a halal diet for Islam-worshipping cons.
Duane David, who is serving time in Kingston's Joyceville Institution for an unknown crime, had complained to the Canadian Human Rights Commission that his rights were being violated as the prison failed to offer a halal replacement for bacon served to inmates with breakfast every Wednesday.
The court heard Muslims are forbidden from eating pork for religious reasons.
A Federal Court of Canada hearing was told the breakfast included three pieces of bacon, two eggs, three slices of toast, jam, ketchup, milk, coffee, juice and cereal.
'REQUEST WAS REFUSED'
"Muslim inmates who follow a halal diet (usually) receive all of these items, except the bacon," Madame Justice Eleanor Dawson was told. "Mr. David had requested a substitute for the three pieces of bacon, but the request was refused by the institution."
Court heard that an internal grievance filed by David for a bacon replacement was denied at all levels and then a complaint was filed to the commission, whose investigator ruled the matter had been properly dealt with.
David appealed the investigator's decision to the federal court, who this month ordered the attorney general to pay David $2,000 for damages and that the commissions' decision be set aside as a new hearing is launched into the matter.
During the grievance hearing, Joyceville's chief of food services said his department didn't have the budget to offer a bacon replacement and another official called for the banning of the food from all Ontario jails.
No date has been set for a new hearing.
Posted by: Allahfanculo at September 23, 2007 1:51 PM
I know nothing about many things, if it wasn't for that required lobotomy thing, I would be such an expert.... (/sarcasm)
Posted by: ooddballz at September 23, 2007 8:03 PM
"A new policy begins to combat some of our isolation in the Muslim world. I see the Muslim brotherhood, particularly in Egypt, as having what the communists used to call a two-line struggle, between moderate and dogmatic factions. Our outreach would help the moderates. That would strengthen those forces who are most willing to recognize the fact of Israel's existence and more democratic.”
I'm sorry, Hugh, I couldn't read any more of Leiken's drivel. A little truth smooths the way for the big lie. Does Leiken realise that the choice to disavow overt violence is a tactic deliberately chosen by the Ikhwan for the purpose of winning over "inside" support in a region of the world where they have no hope of winning an armed struggle? Does he realise that he, and commentators like him, are the target of that tactic? Does he realise that he has swallowed the bait, hook, line, sinker and most of the rod?
God save us from this kind of fuzzy thinking.
As for "strenghening those forces [within the Ikhwan?] ...most willing to recognize...Israel's existence..." -- I wonder if Leiken can produce any genuine faction of the Ikhwan that is willing to recognize Israel's existence in the sense that I believe Lieken THINKS he means: that is, be willing to live at peace with a permanent nation of Israel.
Forget about the faction. Let's hear a single name of a representative of the Ikhwan who is willing to call for peaceful coexistence with Israel. The silence is deafening.
Oh yes, there was Sadat, a confederate of the Ikhwan who tried to recognize Israel. Too bad he was assassinated...by the Muslim Brotherhood! How about a representative who espoused peace with Israel and lived to tell the tale?
Mr. Leiken, if you're listening, I might be willing to give you a longer hearing if you could present some credible evidence for the existence of such factions.
But while you're at it could you explain what part of the motto of the Ikhwan,
Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope
Also, there's this little fact that Egypt, which is still considered an ally in the Middle East, which is also the birthplace of the Ikhwan and surely knows this organization better than anyone in the State Department or even the illustrious Nixon Center, has long since outlawed the "peaceful, moderate" Muslim Brotherhood? Could it have something to do with the fact that they have the same agenda over there that they espouse here, they are willing to kill presidents and prime ministers when they find this expedient, or to lay dormant and play at peace when it furthers their agenda by bringing onside uwitting dhimmis and fools?
Posted by: Archimedes2 at September 23, 2007 8:17 PM
From a document produced at the trial of the Holy Land Foundation:
"The Ikhwan must understand that all their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' their miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all religions."
What the Muslim Brotherhood means for the U.S. Memo lays bare group's plans to destroy U.S. from within." By Rod Dreher, Dallas Morning News, 9/9/07.
What kind of dialogue are we supposed to initiate with these jokers?
Posted by: Richard at September 24, 2007 12:57 AM
Hugh:
Leiken isn't so sudden. See this 150-page monograph from 2004:
http://www.nixoncenter.org/publications/monographs/Leiken_Bearers_of_Global_Jihad.pdf
Even here, in an extensively footnoted paper on Islamic terrorism, Leiken seems positively inclined toward engaging with the Ikhwan (pp. 34-35).
Posted by: materialguy at September 24, 2007 9:49 PM
"I seen my opportunities, and I took 'em" is from George Washington Plunkitt, not Jay Gould.
See my old post (I'll have to clean it up to make it more readable):
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/i_seen_my_opportunities_and_i_took_em_honest_graft_george_washington_plunki/
at September 29, 2007 1:55 PM
Comments are turned off and archived for this entry.
(Note: Comments on articles are unmoderated, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dhimmi Watch or Robert Spencer. Comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Robert Spencer of the views expressed therein.)