Recently in Muslim Brotherhood Category

The message changes with the audience. When the Brotherhood's members are talking among themselves, or to Arab and Muslim audiences, there is a very firm, if not openly antisemitic, line against peace with Israel.

It is plausible, though, as part of the Ikhwan's gradualist approach, that the Camp David Accords will see an incremental erosion, and their contents will be used as leverage in attempts to blackmail Israel into concessions. The accords are, after all, a two-part package, tying conditions for "peace" in the broader Middle East to peace with Egypt.

"German FM: Brotherhood committed to peace with Israel," by Mohamed Abdel Salam for Bikya Masr, February 1:

CAIRO: German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle renewed on Tuesday his support for more openness and respect towards the new democratic Islamic forces in Egypt.

He said in statements during a visit to Cairo, where he met with the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Prime Minister Kamal Ganzoury, Foreign Minister Amr Kamal, and the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Mohamed Morsi.

He described his meeting with Morsi as “encouraging” and said that the latter stated clearly his belief in pluralism, and stressed that the FJP party is committed to maintaining peace with Israel.

Westerwelle met on the second day of his visit to Egypt, with Tantawi, who emphasized his commitment to the roadmap towards democracy.

His visit also came as thousands of anti-military protesters continue to demonstrate in central Cairo, demanding an end to the military junta’s rule over the country.

Westerwelle will next visit Israel as a part of his Middle East tour and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday.

Tensions between Egypt and Israel have been tense in recent months following the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. The natural gas pipeline to Israel has been attacked 10 times since the uprising, and protesters attacked and raided the Israeli Embassy in Egypt in September following a cross-border raid by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed at least four Egyptian soldiers.

Don't you hate it when your tensions are tense?

When the uprising was useful to them, they did not hinder it, and they supported it. Now they've got a good thing going and the usefulness of the revolution and of public dissent as a means to an end has run its course, unless the Ikhwan decides to leverage it against the military in its own power struggle. "Egypt Islamists stop protesters on way to parliament," from Agence France Presse, January 31:

CAIRO — Hundreds of Egyptian protesters demanding the end of military rule were prevented on Tuesday from reaching parliament by backers of the Muslim Brotherhood, which holds the majority in the assembly.

"We are standing here as a human shield, because if the protesters go any further, they will clash with the police. They want to enter parliament, what do you expect me to do?" Muslim Brotherhood member Hamdy Adbdelsamad told AFP.

Behind him, anti-military protesters chanted against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that took power when Hosni Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising last year.

Activists had called for a march from Cairo's Tahrir Square -- the symbolic heart of the Egyptian uprising -- to parliament to press the newly-elected MPs to implement the goals of the revolution.

They want the ouster of the military junta, an end to the military trials of civilians, the restructuring of the interior ministry and a guarantee of freedoms and social justice.
Islamist and secular protesters stood side by side in Tahrir Square during the 18 days of protests that toppled Mubarak in early 2011.

But tensions have risen between them since parliamentary elections propelled the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood to the centre stage of politics, with its Freedom and Justice Party now controling 47 percent of the assembly.

Secular protesters accuse the Islamists colluding with the ruling military to maintain their new-found power.

"Badie, you are selling the revolution!" the anti-military protesters chanted, in reference to Mohammed Badie, the Islamist movement's supreme guide.

"The Muslim Brotherhood youth are blocking all roads to the parliament, preventing the anti-military protesters... There are huge numbers of them standing in rows like militias," one anti military protester told AFP....

Probably. "Brotherhood would cancel Camp David Agreement, says Hezbollah official," by Haitham Dabbour for Al Masri Al Youm, January 30:

Tehran — Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood will eventually cancel the Camp David Agreement, despite the group’s announcement that it respects international agreements Egypt has signed, said Amin al-Sayed Ibrahim, head of Hezbollah’s political council.

Speaking to the “International Conference on Islamic Awakening and the Youths,” Ibrahim said that the Egyptian military, so as not to lose its clout, would never allow the Brotherhood to write the constitution or even form a constituent assembly to write the constitution.

Following their electoral victories in Parliament, Egypt's most organized political group has offered assurances that it would respect the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

When asked early this month whether Washington believed that the Islamist party would uphold the treaty, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the party "has made commitments to us in this regard.”

That and 50 cents will get you... 50 cents. They may have noticed that the Ikhwan's message changes with its audience.

Ibrahim said that the current unrest in Syria is a conspiracy and not a revolution, as western media claims. The Egyptian delegation clashed with him over the remarks.

“The Syrians transfer arms to the Palestinian resistance,” he said.

Over 1,200 young people from Iran as well as 73 other countries are participating in the two-day conference, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Monday.

"Dear Muslim Brotherhood. I think you're swell. I hate infidels. Do you? [ ] Yes [ ] No."

"Tehran in 'constant contact' with Brotherhood, says Iranian FM," by Gomaa Hamdala for Al Masri Al Youm, January 31:

Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood maintain close contact, Iran's foreign minister has said in an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm.

"Tehran is in constant contact with the Muslim Brotherhood," said Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.

He said Iran is ready to promote its diplomatic relations with Egypt to the ambassadorial level, paricularly in light of the Muslim Brotherhood's recent ascendancy to power. The group's party, the Freedom and Justice Party, controls 43 percent of parliamentary seats.

Salehi told the paper that Iran would immediately send an ambassador to Cairo if Egypt agreed.

Some countries "are not happy about improving relations between Egypt and Iran," he said, adding that if Egypt, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia cooperated, all would benefit.

Egypt and Iran severed official ties in 1979, when Iran underwent an Islamic revolution and Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel. However, relations have improved since a popular uprising forced former President Hosni Mubarak from power early last year.

That Muslim Brotherhood? The moderate, "largely secular" one? This is, of course, not so much a departure as moving from one department to another: Hamas' charter describes itself as "one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine," and the leader of the Brotherhood in Egypt, Mohammed Badie, has praised Hamas as a role model.

"Source: Hamas' Meshaal Sets Sights on Brotherhood Post," from the Investigative Project on Terrorism, January 27:

Hamas' out-going politburo chairman is leaving the Palestinian terrorist group to take a "high position in the Muslim Brotherhood movement," a "well-informed source in Hamas" told the Nazareth-based Arabic-language Al-Sinnara last week.

The move would see Khaled Meshaal—the longtime Damascus-based leader of Hamas—transition to a new, more international role, as head of the "Supreme Council of the [Brotherhood] movement." The Council is said to be "responsible for political issues," according to the report. It remains to be seen whether the article is referring to the group's Guidance Bureau, which largely deals with the movement's political affairs, or with another body altogether.

If true, the news would help explain why Meshaal has been so adamant about not seeking re-election. Earlier reports noted that the group made an official plea for Meshaal "to reconsider" his stance.

"This is a public matter that the Hamas institutions should decide, and not an individual person," the group said.

Not a day later, an informed Palestinian source told Ynet that Meshaal's request to withdraw from the one-man race was denied by the group's Shura Council, and that he would indeed continue to serve as the politburo chief.

It has been speculated that if Meshaal exits, the post could go to Hamas' Gaza-based Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, or Hamas' original political bureau chief, Mousa Abu Marzook.

Hamas has been in a state of flux in recent months, and unrest in Syria could force the group to find a new home base for its political leadership.

Meshaal's purported move appears to have the blessing of higher-ups in the Brotherhood. According to the Al-Sinnara source, longtime Brotherhood spiritual advisor, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, is in support of the leadership jump.

The story and the rhetoric change with the audience. Does Mahmoud Ghezlan really suppose the kuffar are too dumb to notice the conflicting messages?

You can't fool all of the infidels all of the time. "Brotherhood vows to shun Israeli officials," from the Egypt Independent, January 25:

The Muslim Brotherhood will not speak or meet with Israeli officials and its stance on Israel is not up for discussion, group spokesperson Mahmoud Ghezlan told London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

“It’s illogical to have dialogue, any dialogue, in light of the Israeli practices against the Arab peoples,” the paper quoted him as saying in an article published Wednesday.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor told Israeli radio that Israel has not ruled out talks.

“We will be happy to hold dialogues with whoever wants to have dialogue with us,” Palmor said.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party controls 47 percent of the seats in the newly formed People’s Assembly, but the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is still running the executive branch of Egypt’s government.

Some fear that Islamists will push for ending the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Western officials met with several Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist leaders after People’s Assembly elections.

Ghezlan said the group had not received a similar invitation from the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, but that any such request would be rejected.

The Brotherhood and the Salafis don't even need to collect the jizya from the Copts, as long as they've got Barack Obama.

"Obama set to speed aid to Egypt: official," by Warren Strobel for Reuters, January 25 (thanks to Wimpy):

(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama plans to accelerate the pace of American aid to Egypt, a top State Department official said on Wednesday, as the most populous Arab nation reaches a critical stage in its uncertain transition away from autocratic rule.

Undersecretary of State Robert Hormats, part of a U.S. delegation that held unprecedented talks last week with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, said Washington wanted to provide "more immediate benefits" to Egyptians, who earlier this month conducted their first democratic elections in decades.

"During this period, we want to be as supportive as we can. This is an historic moment. Egypt's a country of enormous importance," Hormats said.

Under the plan, some non-urgent U.S. aid slated for other countries - he did not name them - would be redirected to Egypt. And funding in the pipeline for long-term programs in Egypt would be shifted to quick-impact projects, he said.

Hormats, speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the annual World Economic Forum, emphasized that the White House had not made any final decisions, and that he was providing Washington's "broad thinking" on the subject.

It was unclear whether the total amount of U.S. aid to Egypt would be increased. "Whether it's an increase or whether it's reprioritizing existing assistance, we're still working this out," Hormats said.

Still, he made clear the United States wants to be seen as doing more to assist a hoped-for democratic evolution in Egypt, where the military still holds ultimate power on the first anniversary of protests that ousted President Hosni Mubarak....

In "New Docs Reveal How DOJ Kowtows to Muslim Brotherhood" at The American Thinker today, Pamela Geller reveals the Justice Department's obsequious dealings with Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups in the U.S.:

In what promises to be an enormous document dump, I have received the first in a series of DOJ bundles in response to my FOIA request filed close to a year ago. Specifically, I asked for "records relating to the meeting of the 'Monthly Outreach Meeting' with Muslim and Arab groups at the Civil Rights Division. Specifically, include lists of attendees at each monthly meeting, the agenda of each meeting and any minutes or summary prepared subsequent to each meeting. Please also specifically note the meetings at which the Attorney General of the United States attended."

The principal impact of reading through the material is the sheer bulk of it. Hundreds and hundreds of pages of emails, documenting nearly daily friendly contact, consultation, cooperation and collaboration between the DOJ and Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood groups. One thing is clear, the Muslim Brotherhood has fully infiltrated command and control at the Department of Justice civil rights division.

 

The total located on a preliminary search totals 14,100 documents. The Civil Rights Division's Nelson Hermilla complained that "it is not clear in what manner the collection of all five-year's records might contribute to the general public understanding." A knowledgeable Justice Department insider told me: "You couldn't generate 14,000 pages of documents if you asked for communications with lenders or apartment or hotels as part of the Housing Section enforcement activities. There are very few things in Civil Rights that would generate 14,000 pages of anything. It has got to be a treasure trove of information."

Indeed. It is also remarkable that the Justice Department would deny that these records would advance "the general public understanding."

Going through the first batch, what struck me almost immediately was the casual familiarity between ISNA, the ADC, and senior officials of the Department of Justice, all the way up to Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez. They discuss lunch, vacations, job changes -- always with the Muslim Brotherhood groups pushing their narrative, even in these casual exchanges.

Even more striking was the servile demeanor of the Civil Rights Division official Eric Treene, Special Counsel for the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, and the demanding condescension of Muslim Brotherhood operatives. Muslim and Arab operatives treat Treene and Co. like an errand boy, asking them for email addresses of other contacts and setting them to perform the most menial gofer duties. The DOJ even takes lunch orders and picks up the tab, and in some cases asks them how much money they need for a little soiree they're holding. It is astonishing.

In a rational society, these Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups would be marginalized. Instead, the DOJ is playing Stepin Fetchit for them. They're using the DOJ as their legal arm.

The depth and the breadth of the penetration is difficult to fathom until you see all of these documents going back and forth, and the players, who include Nihad "I am in support of the Hamas movement" Awad of Hamas-tied CAIR; Suhail Khan, who accepted an award in 2000 from the now-imprisoned al-Qaeda financier Abdurrahman Alamoudi; and James Yee. James Yee a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo who was charged with sedition, aiding the enemy, spying, espionage, and failure to obey a general order. He was charged along with three others. The charges were later dropped, when Major General Geoffrey Miller cited "national security concerns that would arise from the release of the evidence." The notorious Yee gave an interview on Syrian television in Arabic, in which he repeated Gitmo detainees' lies of Quran abuse on the part of the U.S. Military.

Those three and many others received a September 8, 2011 letter from Perez touting all the DOJ's actions on behalf of Muslims, including a suit against the city of Lilburn, Georgia for resisting the expansion of a mosque and amicus participation calling for dismissal of a suit brought by Murfreesboro, Tennessee patriots against an Islamic supremacist mosque there....

Read it all.

These are the people who will be drafting the next constitution. A democracy is only as good as the values that inform its participants. "Islamists secure top spot in new Egypt parliament," by Marwa Awad and Lin Noueihed for Reuters, January 21:

CAIRO (AP) - Final results on Saturday showed that Islamist parties won nearly three-quarters of the seats in parliament in Egypt's first elections since the ouster of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak, according to election officials and political groups.

The Islamist domination of Egypt's parliament has worried liberals and even some conservatives about the religious tone of the new legislature, which will be tasked with forming a committee to write a new constitution. It remains unclear whether the constitution will be written while the generals who took power after Mubarak's fall are still in charge, or rather after presidential elections this summer.

In the vote for the lower house of parliament, a coalition led by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood won 47 percent, or 235 seats in the 498-seat parliament. The ultraconservative Al-Nour Party was second with 25 percent, or 125 seats.

The Salafi Al-Nour, which was initially the biggest surprise of the vote, wants to impose strict Islamic law in Egypt, while the more moderate Brotherhood, the country's best-known and organized party, has said publicly that it does not seek to force its views about an appropriate Islamic lifestyle on Egyptians.

They have voted it in on themselves.

The two parties are unlikely to join forces because of ideological differences, but both have a long history of charity work in Egypt's vast poverty-stricken neighborhoods and villages, giving them a degree of legitimacy and popularity across the country in areas where newer liberal parties have yet to get a foothold.

Muslim Brotherhood lawmaker Mohammed el-Beltagi said the new parliament represents "the wish of the Egyptian people."

Egypt's elections commission acknowledged that there were voting irregularities, but the vote has been hailed as the country's freest and fairest in living memory.

The liberals who spearheaded the revolt that toppled Mubarak struggled to organize and connect with a broader public in the vote, and did not fair as well as the Islamists.

The Egyptian bloc, which is headed by a party founded by Christian telecom tycoon Naguib Sawiris, said it won 9 percent of the seats in parliament. Egypt's oldest secular party, the Wafd, also won around 9 percent.

The results leave the liberal groups with little ability to maneuver in parliament, unless they choose to mobilize the street in protests or work on key issues with the dominant Islamist groups, said Mohamed Abu-Hamed, the deputy leader of the liberal Free Egyptians Party.

The Brotherhood has refused to join recent street protests, saying that elections and the new parliament are the best ways to respond to demands that the military transfer power immediately to a civilian authority....

Translation: Hey, we've got a good thing going here.

Surprise! It's a self-serving, dysfunctional organization. "In memoir, ex-Muslim Sister paints an unflattering picture," by Noha El Hennawy for Al Masry Al Youm, January 16 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

As the Muslim Brotherhood strives to project the image of a moderate and democratic political organization, a book featuring the angry account of a former member has hit the market.

"The Memoirs of a Former Sister: My Story with the Muslim Brotherhood" is the testimony of Intissar Abdel Moneim, an Alexandria-based novelist and author. With a compelling style and sharp language, the book takes the reader on a journey exploring the internal politics of the 83-year-old organization, placing special emphasis on discrimination against female members.

Throughout her work, Abdel Moneim decries the sisters’ internalization of oppression as women are socialized in a way that compels them to accept male dominance within the organization — and the household.

Early in the book, Abdel Moneim condemns what could be interpreted as the Brotherhood’s exploitation of the permissibility of polygamy in Islam.

“One of the areas where the Brothers have exploited the idea of blind obedience and submission is polygamy,” she writes, adding that a brother would take second and third wives for no valid reason. “When the [first] wife complains, a session is held for her where other sisters would remind her of the importance of obedience, patience and submission to God’s will and to [the husband]’s will,” she writes.

To understand the roots of the subjugation of women, Abdel Moneim unpacks the writings of Hassan al-Banna, the group’s late founder. Here, the author summons her courage and puts forth a vehement critique of the group’s canonized leader, who is rarely questioned, even by the most vocal ex-brothers.

Banna's teachings sought to limit women to "catering to their husbands' desires and to reproduction," Abdel Moneim writes.

The book dismisses Banna's dictum that there is no need to invest heavily in girls' education and that women should be trained only to serve as housewives and mothers. Abdel Moneim feels that this sentiment is contradictory to true Islam.

“It is true that Islam says that a woman’s primary role is to raise children, but it does not say that this is her only role and that she should not do anything beyond it. Neither the Koran nor the Sunna [Prophet Mohamed’s sayings and deeds] nor the sayings of the prophet’s companions and successors barred her from learning any sciences. The matter has been left for her to decide, according to her needs and circumstances," writes Abdel Moneim.

Unfortunately, the situation does not need explicit statement in the Qur'an or Sunna for a critical mass of other parameters to make it the logical conclusion of certain attitudes and behaviors. For example, the obsession with control of women (Qur'an 4:34), and the paranoia in Muslim societies about purity and honor work against women's independence.

She goes on to criticize Banna's insistence that men and women should be separated. With a scathingly sarcastic tone, the author argues that Banna’s view portrays humans as if they are mere animals who have little control over their impulses.

“You cannot by any logic perceive all people as mere female and male sex organs that roam the streets looking for the moment of intercourse like cats," the book reads. Abdel Moneim attributes Banna’s rigid outlook to his rural background.

This outlook still shapes the group’s perception of women’s roles within the organization and in the society at large. It justifies why the Muslim Sisters' division cannot operate independently from the Brothers, why no woman is admitted into the group's highest bodies, namely the Shura Council and the Guidance Bureau, and why the group will not acknowledge a woman's right to rule, according to the book. [...]

... the author bashes the Brotherhood’s internal dynamics, arguing that it is based on nepotism rather than merit. To substantiate her claim, she refers to her personal experience recounting that she was not easily admitted into the group because she was not the daughter, the sister or the wife of one of the Muslim Brotherhood's heroic or wealthy figures. For both men and women, such family ties are required to facilitate one’s upward mobility within the organization, according to Abdel Moneim.

Meanwhile, the author coins the phrase “the Muslim Brotherhood’s classism” to describe the full submission of rank-and-file members to their leaders. She borrows the analogy put forward by a former Muslim Brotherhood leader who drew parallels between the organization and an electricity-providing company that needs lots of workers (rank-and-file members) and few engineers.

“It is illogical for a worker to bypass his master or demand that his position be improved even if he proves himself,” Abdel Moneim writes. “Otherwise, he will be violating the group’s charter and instilling divisions. This is probably the Muslim Brotherhood’s interpretation of George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm.’” [...]

Yet the book has not failed to cause a stir. Earlier this month, the Muslim Brotherhood rushed to sue the privately owned Al-Fagr newspaper for running a sensational review of the book that accused the organization of abusing women sexually and politically....

The fig leaf of moderation the Muslim Brotherhood has put on drifts lazily and embarrassingly to the ground. They have tried to put on a friendly face, and many in the West have been taken in by the ruse, but the Ikhwan simply cannot sweep eight decades of supremacist and antisemitic rhetoric under the rug and expect no one will find it. In fact, it doesn't seem like they are trying all that hard to do so. "'Muslim Brotherhood site rife with anti-Semitism'," by Oren Kessler for the Jerusalem Post, January 19:

The Arabic website of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is rife with anti- Semitic and anti-Israel content, according to a recent report by a US-based media monitoring group.

The report found that the Islamist group’s website, Ikhwanonline.com, regularly features articles denying the Holocaust and warning Muslims against the covetous and exploitative nature of the “Jewish character.” Other articles extol jihad and martyrdom, condemn Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel and denounce negotiations as means for regaining lands lost by Islam.

The study was published last week by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a non-profit group that monitors and translates Arabic and Farsi media. Based in Washington, it was founded in 1998 by Yigal Carmon, an Israeli former intelligence official, adviser and diplomat.

The Brotherhood has emerged as the biggest winner from the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak, taking some 45 percent of votes in recent elections for the lower house of parliament. In the 11 months since Mubarak’s ouster, however, the Brotherhood has issued contradictory signals over its willingness to maintain the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

Early this month Dr. Rashad Bayoumi, its deputy leader, told Arabic media the group would never recognize the Jewish state.

“This is not an option, whatever the circumstances, we do not recognize Israel at all. It’s an occupying criminal enemy.”

A week later, Essam Al-Arian, deputy leader of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), assured The New York Times the party would in fact honor the agreement.

MEMRI’s latest report, however, gives no indication the Brotherhood has changed the virulently anti- Semitic, anti-Western rhetoric that has characterized the movement for more than eight decades.

One common motif on the Brotherhood’s site is “Jewish character” and its supposed history of sowing evil in the world.

In May 2010, following Israel’s Gaza flotilla raid, a writer named Mahmoud Abd Al-Rahman wrote on the website, “For ages, human society has faced the problem of the Zionist Jewish character. All nations and cultures are in agreement over the nature of the disease intrinsic in the Zionist character... namely sanctification of money, sex, robbery, interest and treachery.”

“We saw this in pharaonic Egypt, and in the Canaanite, Amalekite, Babylonian, Persian and Roman [eras],” he wrote. “During the pharaonic era, it was written on the tomb of [the pharaoh] Marnephtah, ‘The Egyptians have annihilated the Zionists.’”

Did the Ikhwan's account say "Zionists," or "Jews?"

Since Mubarak’s exit the Brotherhood has sought to to position itself to Western media as a moderate, pragmatic movement dedicated to promoting a prosperous, tolerant Egypt. But the last 11 months have seen no appreciable change in tone when addressing their constituents in their native language.

That is key. Many policymakers can't seem to stomach the possibility that they are being lied to.

There is much, much more. Read it all.

Whatever their disagreements may be about how Sharia should be implemented, if the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis do succeed in imposing Sharia upon Egypt, we will see restrictions on the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the rights of women and non-Muslims. Wherever and whenever Sharia has been implemented, this has been the case. Yet in the U.S., we are forced to believe on pain of "Islamophobia" charges that Sharia is so multiform as to have no particular content and is fully compatible with Constitutionally protected freedoms -- and on the basis of these false claims, anti-Sharia legislation is struck down.

"We won’t be another NDP, say Muslim Brothers," from Almasry Alyoum, January 15 (thanks to Wimpy):

Mohamed Gheith, MP for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, on Sunday said his party would not act like the disbanded National Democratic Party (NDP). “We do not intend to dominate parliament,” he said. “All committees will be headed according to a consensus.”

He added that his party would only form a coalition in parliament that is best for the country. “We know that we are watched by our voters, and we cannot let them down,” he said.

He said his party differs with the Salafi-oriented Nour Party over the way Islamic Sharia should be applied. “But we both agree in principle that it should be applied,” he noted, adding that the Salafis have no political expertise....

One form of bad government helping another, as the Ikhwan's mask slips a little bit more. "Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood wants military immunity for generals, activists cry foul," by Joseph Mayton for Bikya Masr, January 12:

CAIRO: In a move that has left many of the country’s activists angered, Egypt’s top political force the Muslim Brotherhood has said it was looking into a deal that would grant the ruling military junta immunity for alleged crimes committed against protesters since they took charge of the country in February last year.

The move would ensure the military relinquish power and enable the transition to a newly elected legislative body, but activists who have faced the end of the military’s guns, are not convinced and have called it a means for the Brotherhood to assert more power.

“What about the dozens of people who have been murdered by the military and the police under the military’s orders?” asked activist and protester Mahmoud Gama’a, who told Bikyamasr.com that the Brotherhood will face a backlash from protesters if they attempt to go forward with the idea.

“We will not stand by and not have justice for what the military has done to Egyptian people. It is unacceptable that any political force thinks they can let the blood of martyrs not get justice,” he added.

The goal of the Brotherhood is to create compromise within the country as their political arm, The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) leads all voting with nearly 40 percent, ahead of a final vote count for the third and final round of parliamentary elections, which ended on Wednesday.

Despite the idea being floated this week by top Brotherhood officials, activists say it will not stop their campaign to have the top generals tried for what they have regularly dubbed “crimes against humanity.”

First they came for the Christians, and then the military turned on the rest of the country:

The military has been directly responsible for the killing of scores of citizens, attacking a peaceful Coptic Christian march on October 9, which killed at least 27 people.

Then, in November, the military police attacked another peaceful sit-in in Tahrir Square, which led to 6 days of street battles in central Cairo, leaving at least 70 people dead, medical sources told Bikyamasr.com.

And more recently, in mid-December, military police again attacked a peaceful sit-in at the country’s Cabinet building, reportedly torturing and beating a protester and then burning the makeshift tents that had been erected. For three days, the military used live ammunition and rocks against protesters, leaving at least 17 people dead.

“This is not justice if they get immunity. It is a ploy by the Brotherhood to force people to forget what the military has done to us,” said female activist Mona Radwan, who told Bikyamasr.com that she would not rest until the military pays for their actions.

“Women were forced into virginity tests, were stripped in public and beaten and killed, so why is this happening. I feel we have returned to pre-Mubarak times,” she said.

That sense of moving backwards may be around for a while.

But the Brotherhood said it would only move forward on the proposed deal if the families of those killed since February agreed, at least giving those who paid the ultimate sacrifice some semblance of an option.

And why would that be? More on this story. "Egyptians: No pilgrimage to rabbi's tomb," from the Associated Press, January 11:

Egyptian Islamists and other activists say they have vowed to prevent Israelis from making an annual pilgrimage to the tomb of a 19th-century Jewish holy man in the Nile Delta.

Pilgrimage opponents have decided to stage protests on roads leading to the tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira in the village of Daymouta, 180 kilometers (112 miles) north of Cairo, said Gamal Heshmat of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group which is the country's best organized political movement.

He said that the late December and early January pilgrimage would be a "suicide mission" for Israelis, because of popular opposition to their presence in Egypt.

"Normalization (of relations) with Israel is forced on the people, and the visits too come against the will of people and despite popular rejection," said Heshmat, who recently won a seat in parliament in the country's first elections following the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian activists have rallied against the pilgrimage every year for most of the last decade. Egypt's daily Al-Ahram newspaper reported Tuesday that 31 parties and groups had joined this year's campaign.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization based in Los Angeles, denounced the attempts to block the pilgrimage. In a Tuesday statement, the center's Abraham Cooper accused the Brotherhood of trying to "curb religious freedom of Jews."

"In their worldview, there is no respect for the traditions for Jews, dead or alive," he said. [...]

The tomb is a vestige of Egypt's once-prosperous Jewish community, which at the time of the first war with Israel in 1948 numbered about 80,000 people.

But the Arab-Israeli wars, and the resentment and expulsions that they engendered, have reduced the number of Egypt's Jews to about 60 individuals, according to the Israeli embassy.

Although many Muslim leaders openly articulate their efforts as part of a larger picture—one that culminates in the resurrection of a caliphate adversarial by nature to all things non-Muslim—many Western leaders see only the moment, either out of context or, worse, in a false context built atop wishful thinking.

Among other things, this myopia causes virtually all Western politicians to overlook long-term threats and focus exclusively on violence and terror, the tangible and temporal—those things that may coincide with their tenure.

This narrow-sighted approach sometimes leads to absurdities, such as when Homeland Defense’s Paul Stockton, being questioned by Dan Lungren at a recent hearing, refused to agree that al-Qaeda “is acting out violent Islamist extremism,” insisting instead that the group merely consists of “murderers.” In doing so, he divorced reality from any meaningful context, thereby living up to the Obama doctrine of not knowing your enemy.

Of course, all Islamists have the same goal: the establishment of a sharia-enforcing caliphate. The only difference is that most are prudent enough to understand that incremental infiltration and subtle subversion—step by step, phase by phase, decade after decade—are much more effective for securing their goals than outright violence. Then, once in power, “they will become much more savage.”

Accordingly, thanks to the so-called “Arab spring” and its Western supporters, more and more clerics feel they are nearing their ultimate goal of resurrecting the caliphate, the capital of which is to be Jerusalem. This sheikh, for instance, recently boasted that the caliphate will soon be restored and the West will pay jizya—tribute and submission, via Koran 9:29—“or else we will bring the sword to your necks!” So too this sheikh, citing infidel Germany as an example. And of course calls for jizya from Egypt’s Christian Copts are growing by the day.

Now, consider the clear, unequivocal words of Dr. Muhammad Badi, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to Al Masry Al Youm (as translated by Coptic Solidarity):

Dr. Muhammad Badi, supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said: “The Brotherhood is getting closer to achieving its greatest goal as envisioned by its founder, Imam Hassan al-Banna. This will be accomplished by establishing a righteous and fair ruling system [based on Islamic sharia], with all its institutions and associations, including a government evolving into a rightly guided caliphate and mastership of the world.” Badi added in his weekly message yesterday [12/29/11]: “When the Brotherhood started its advocacy [da’wa], it tried to awaken the nation from its slumber and stagnation, to guide it back to its position and vocation. In his message at the sixth caucus, the Imam [Banna] defined two goals for the Brotherhood: a short term goal, the fruits of which are seen as soon as a person becomes a member of the Brotherhood; and a long term goal that requires utilizing events, waiting, making appropriate preparations and prior designs, and a comprehensive and total reform of all aspects of life.” The leader of the Brotherhood continued: “The Imam [Banna] delineated transitional goals and detailed methods to achieve this greatest objective, starting by reforming the individual, followed by building the family, the society, the government, and then a rightly guided caliphate and finally mastership of the world” [emphasis added].

Even so, it matters not how often and openly Islamic leaders like Badi articulate their grand agenda for the world to hear. Western leaders have their intellectual blinders shut so tight, frozen before the word “democracy”—even if "Arab spring" people-power leads to fascism (which, after all, will be someone else’s problem after they leave office).

Thus, here is former U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, who not only is “very pleased” with Egyptian elections—despite widespread allegations of voter-fraud against the Muslim Brotherhood—but, when asked if the U.S. should be concerned about the Islamist victory, said “I don’t have any problem with that, and the U.S. government doesn’t have any problem with that either. We want the will of the Egyptian people to be expressed.”

Accordingly, the Muslim Brotherhood and all its offshoots can rest assured that, so long as they do not engage in direct terrorism, they can continue unfettered on their decades-long march to resurrecting the caliphate, which—if history and doctrine are any indicators—will, in its attempt to claim "mastership of the world," be a global menace.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

War is deceit: the agenda is the same, but the message depends on the audience. More on this story. "Brotherhood: We did not promise to honor Israel peace treaty," by Roi Kais for YNet News, January 7:

The Muslim Brotherhood denied on Saturday that it had assured Washington it would uphold the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters on Thursday that the Islamist movement, the clear victor in the first round of elections for the Egyptian Parliament, pledged to honor the various treaties signed by previous Cairo governments, including the peace deal with Israel.

Nuland insisted that the various political parties in Egypt have offered the US "good guarantees" that the peace treaty will be observed. She stressed that Washington fully expects all of Cairo's political factions to honor the previous regime's international agreements.

Dodging the issue:

According to Essam al-Erian, deputy head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, the accords "are under the responsibility of the people and state institutions, and it would not be right for anyone to speak on behalf of the Egyptian people."

Speaking to the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat, al-Erian said, "We are not in a position to give assurances."

The message depends on the audience:

Rashad al-Bayoumi, the Brotherhood's second in command, told Al-Hayat las [sic] week that "the Muslim Brotherhood will not recognize Israel under any circumstances and might put the peace treaty with the Jewish state up to a referendum."...

The Brotherhood, he added, "did not sign the peace accords… We are allowed to ask the people or the elected parliament to express their opinion on the treaty, and (to find out) whether it compromised the people's freedom and sovereignty. We will take the proper legal steps in dealing with the peace deal. To me, it isn't binding at all. The people will express their opinion on the matter."...

Threatening Shadows Over Egypt
By Robert S. Wistrich

The Muslim Brotherhood did not initiate the current upheavals in the Middle East, but the Islamist parties in Egypt, as in Tunisia and Libya, have been the chief beneficiaries of the collapse of long-standing authoritarian repressive regimes across North Africa. In Egypt itself, the two largest Islamist groups (the Brotherhood and the Salafists) won about three quarters of the ballots in the second round of legislative elections held in December 2011, while the secular and the liberal forces took a battering. The Brotherhood (which garnered over 40% of the votes) is an organization founded by an Egyptian schoolteacher, Hassan el Banna, back in 1928. It has never deviated from its founder’s central axiom:

“Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Koran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”

It is this radical vision which animates all those in the region who seek a fully Islamic society and way of life.

The Muslim Brotherhood has always been deeply anti-Western, viscerally hostile to Israel and openly anti-Semitic – points usually downplayed in Western commentary on the “Arab Spring.” Indeed, the anti-Jewish conspiracy theories promoted by the Brotherhood and its affiliated preachers are in a class of their own. This is especially true of Egyptian-born Yusuf al-Qaradawi, undoubtedly the most celebrated Muslim Brotherhood cleric in the world. The still vigorous 84-year-old, often misleadingly depicted in the West as a “moderate,” flew in from Qatar to Cairo’s Tahrir Square on February 18, 2011 to lead a million-strong crowd in Friday prayers, thereby ending 50 years of exile from his native land. He called for pluralistic democracy in Egypt while at the same time offering the hope “that Almighty Allah will also please me with the conquest of the al-Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem].”

Two years earlier, in a notorious commentary on Al-Jazeera TV (January 28, 2009), the “moderate” Qaradawi had provided religious justification for both past and future Holocausts:

Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the Jews people who would punish them for their corruption…The last punishment was carried out by [Adolf] Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them…Allah willing, the next time will be at the hands of the believers.

In other words, the loathing of Jews, the Holocaust and the destruction of Israel by Muslims were linked by Qaradawi as things mandated by God himself.

Regarding Israel and the Jews, fundamentalist Muslim attitudes have never deviated since the 1940s. Islamist ideologues, despite their virulent anti-Westernism, have had no problem in drawing on Western sources for their radical anti- Semitism – whether these libels come from Protocols of the Elders of Zion forgery, Henry Ford’s The International Jew, Hitler’s Mein Kampf, fantasies about Judeo-Masonic plots, or have their origin in Christian anti-Talmudism, medieval blood-libels and the slanders of contemporary or Holocaust deniers in America and Europe.

The current swelling of Islamist ranks within Egypt and across the Arab world has hardly improved matters. At a vocal Muslim Brotherhood rally in Cairo’s most prominent mosque on November 25, 2011, Islamic activists ominously chanted “Tel Aviv, judgment day has come,” vowing to “one day kill all Jews.” The rally, which sought to promote the “battle against Jerusalem’s judaization,” was peppered with hate-filled speeches about the “treacherous Jews.” There were explicit calls for Jihad and liberating all of Palestine as well as references to a well-known hadith concerning the future Muslim annihilation of the Jews. Dr. Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of Egypt’s Al-Azhar University (the most senior clerical authority in Sunni Islam) even claimed that Jews throughout the world were seeking to prevent Egyptian and Islamic unity, as well as trying to “Judaize al-Quds [Jerusalem].”

This kind of incitement and the pressure from the Egyptian street does not mean that the fragile peace treaty with Israel will be cancelled overnight. But calls for such a step have been repeatedly heard in recent months even from the “liberal” and more “progressive” sectors of the political spectrum as well as from the Islamist parties.

Dr. Rashad Bayoumi, the deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, bluntly told the Arabic daily al-Hayat on the first day of 2012 that his organization will never “recognize Israel at all”, whatever the circumstances. Israel, he emphasized, was a “criminal enemy” with whom Egypt should never have signed a peace treaty in the first place. If this treaty is not to be abrogated, much will depend on the United States making clear to Egypt how dire the economic and political consequences for its well-being would be.

It is particularly chilling to note that the Islamic wave already dominates not only in Iran, which is on the verge of nuclear weapons, but also in Turkey, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, the Gaza strip under Hamas and the Lebanese state, currently in the iron grip of Hezbollah. Apart from seeking to impose Shariah law, and to further downgrade the status of women – while repressing Copts and other non Muslim minorities – the neo-Islamist movements and regimes remain as determined as ever to wipe out Israel and to radically reduce American influence in the region. Needless to say, like the Brotherhood itself, Islamists consider themselves to be the sole authentic interpreters of the Divine will.

In the face of this mounting fundamentalist danger, Israel has no choice but to consolidate its deterrent capacity, close ranks and treat with the upmost skepticism any siren voices calling on it to take unreasonable “risks for peace." At the same time it will have to develop a new regional strategy that takes into account the seismic changes currently shaking the Middle East.

Prof. Robert S. Wistrich is the director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of A Lethal Obsession: Antisemitism from Antiquity to the Global Jihad (Random House, 2010).

Reaching out in friendship to those who have determined in their own words to work toward "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within."

"US official meets with Egypt's Islamists," from the Associated Press, January 12 (thanks to Kenneth):

CAIRO (AP) — U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns has met with leaders of Egypt's largest Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, poised to dominate the country's new parliament.

The meeting marks an effort by the U.S. government to reach out to the Brotherhood after decades of shunning the movement.

The Brotherhood's party has won more than 40 percent of the seats in the incoming parliament, scheduled to convene on Jan. 23. Its main task is to appoint a 100-member panel to write a new constitution.

Mohammed Morsi, head of the Brotherhood's political party, told Burns during the Wednesday meeting that there is a consensus on civic freedoms and rights for the new constitution, according to a statement from Morsi's office....

Pull my other leg, Morsi.

Recently when asked who would emerge on top in Egypt, I said, "The Muslim Brotherhood." Another analyst of political Islam on the contemporary scene said, "The military." The showdown is coming soon. "Egypt’s Islamists could soon challenge generals," by Leila Fadel in the Washington Post, January 4:

CAIRO — The dominant showing by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt’s first post-revolution elections puts the country on a collision course, analysts say, with emboldened Islamists and the entrenched military set to vie for power.

The Brotherhood, which was the leading opposition force under now-deposed leader Hosni Mubarak, has emerged as the country’s most viable political power.

I tried to tell you.

While votes are still being counted in the last of three stages of elections for parliament’s lower house, the Brotherhood expects to take more than 40 percent of seats and could claim an outright majority on Jan. 23, when the new parliament is scheduled to convene.

Until now, the relatively moderate Islamist group had an uneasy alliance with the council of generals who took control of the country after Mubarak’s ouster on Feb. 11. But with the military leaders intent on protecting their political and economic interests as Egypt lurches toward democracy, some analysts say a clash between the two centers of power is inevitable.

They have made it clear that they want Sharia and abrogation of the treaty with Israel. They're "relatively moderate."

Reaching out in friendship to a group dedicated in its own words to "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within." "Overtures to Egypt’s Islamists Reverse Longtime U.S. Policy," by David D. Kirkpatrick and Steven Lee Myers in the New York Times, January 3 (thanks to all who sent this in):

CAIRO — With the Muslim Brotherhood pulling within reach of an outright majority in Egypt’s new Parliament, the Obama administration has begun to reverse decades of mistrust and hostility as it seeks to forge closer ties with an organization once viewed as irreconcilably opposed to United States interests.

The administration’s overtures — including high-level meetings in recent weeks — constitute a historic shift in a foreign policy held by successive American administrations that steadfastly supported the autocratic government of President Hosni Mubarak in part out of concern for the Brotherhood’s Islamist ideology and historic ties to militants.

The shift is, on one level, an acknowledgment of the new political reality here, and indeed around the region, as Islamist groups come to power. Having won nearly half the seats contested in the first two rounds of the country’s legislative elections, the Brotherhood on Tuesday entered the third and final round with a chance to extend its lead to a clear majority as the vote moved into districts long considered strongholds.

The reversal also reflects the administration’s growing acceptance of the Brotherhood’s repeated assurances that its lawmakers want to build a modern democracy that will respect individual freedoms, free markets and international commitments, including Egypt’s treaty with Israel....

Evidence of the Muslim Brotherhood’s illegal activities during Egypt's elections continue to emerge—including tricking voters into not voting for non-MB candidates by pretending they had died. Of course, such trickery will turn into ferocity once winning the people's votes are no longer necessary and the MB assumes power.

"The Muslim Brotherhood Will Become Much More Savage After Elections," from Coptic Solidarity, January 3, 2012:

Dr. Refaat al-Saeed, leader of the Tagama’ Party [the socialist ‘Rally’ party], said that both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis violated the law during elections by using religious slogans, although the Elections Committee did not bother to reprimand or punish any of them. They utilized mosques and used unprecedented, underhanded, and devious propaganda in their elections campaign. They also deceitfully portrayed the [Coptic] Church as backing the Egyptian Bloc to turn people against the Bloc.

He added: “We need to be careful, as the Muslim Brotherhood will be become much more savage after elections.”

During a phone call with Life Today talk show, Dr. Saeed added: “A niqab-wearing woman affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood had fifteen IDs collected from other women in her neighborhood and used them to vote 15 times. The Brotherhood even claimed that a particular candidate had died—and went so far as to pray al-Fatiha for his soul outside the polling station—until this candidate went to the polling stations to prove to his constituents that he is still alive.”

The leader of the Tagama’ Party said that the Muslim Brotherhood played a dirty game in these elections and should be reprimanded, especially for opening the ballot boxes and fiddling with their content yesterday in the De La Salle School—and still the Elections Committee took no action against them.

Naive? Maybe. "Israel Security Council: Obama Naive on Muslim Brotherhood," by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu in Israel National News, January 3 (thanks to Twostellas):

Israel’s National Security Council thinks that President Barack Obama is naïve in his attitude towards the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which stated Sunday it can’t fathom the idea of recognizing Israel.

Dr. Rashad Bayumi, the Brotherhood’s number two leader, said on Sunday, "No Muslim Brotherhood members will engage in any contact or normalization with Israel.”

President Obama has asked the Muslim Brotherhood’s leading jurist, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, to mediate secret talks between the United States and the Taliban, according to The Hindu newspaper. The jurist previously has called for killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq and has vowed that Islam “will conquer Europe [and] will conquer America,” whether by force or by the spread of radical Islam.

In early 2010, when American foreign policy experts could not imagine that the radical Muslim Brotherhood would emerge as the most powerful political force in Egypt, President Obama dismissed the party as a “faction,” adding that “they don’t have majority support in Egypt. But they’re well organized. There are strains of their ideology that are anti-U.S.”...

Strains? They're dedicated in their own words to "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within."

That is, if it can avoid collapsing on itself in corruption, infighting, and economic ruin after more than one generation.

The whole fantasy depends on a philosopher king, a special kind of tyrant with the right combination of an iron fist and personality cult, and that is only for one man's lifetime. The experiment will ultimately fail, as the prior caliphate also came to an end, but the great question is how much damage another one can do in its ascendancy, and then in its collapse.

"Brotherhood close to achieving its ultimate goal, says Badie," by Omar Halawa for Al Masri Al Youm, January 2:

The Muslim Brotherhood is close to achieving the “ultimate goal” set by the group's founder Hassan al-Banna in 1928, which is the establishment of a “just and reasonable regime.”

The project begins with the creation of a sound government and ends with the establishment of a just Islamic caliphate, said Mohamed Badie, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt on Thursday, in his weekly message on the group’s official website.

When the group first began its mission, it aimed at guiding and awakening the nation so that it could regain its position after a long period of delay and recession, said Badie.

He went on to describe the two key aims outlined by Banna at the group's sixth conference. The first objective was to increase group membership numbers. The second was the establishment of a long-term plan for the reform of all aspects of people's lives.

Banna specified stages through which the ultimate purpose could be achieved, said Badie. The first step is the reform of the individual, then building, in order, sound family units, a society, and a governance system, and finally establishing a caliphate system.

In this Thursday message, the supreme guide linked the Arab Spring to the ultimate aims of the Brotherhood, saying that the uprisings were intent on achieving specific targets, on which they refused to compromise.

"In this Arab Spring the revolutionary people's determination to achieve certain targets on which they were agreed, and never to compromise, was a major factor in the toppling of those oppressive regimes and every corrupt organization that oppressed those countries, corrupted them, plundered their resources and curbed their progress. We are now close to achieving the greater good of establishing a just ruling regime, including all its institutions and elements," said Badie.

He accused the opponents of the Brotherhood of attempting to hinder the group by creating unnecessary conflicts, which were in reality just “glamorous pretexts to tear the nation apart” and abort the revolution.

"We, following the light of Shura [counsel], are going forward, and we are committed to achieving the aims of the nation and of the revolution to which we aspire, including the representation of millions of Egyptians in a parliament that represents the nation and begins the establishment of the institutions of a just country and a just rule," said Badie.

The existence of disagreements is well known, but what remains to be seen is how it will affect governance and the crafting of Egypt's next constitution. A Sharia regime carries a perpetual element of instability in that, as even Imam Rauf knows, Sharia is a package deal. There can always be more of it, and the moment a state takes an "Islamic" identity, there is an incentive to enforce more Sharia to shore up its legitimacy. Morality policing is one frequent consequence (Gaza, Iran, Aceh, Saudi Arabia, the Taliban...), affording the government a cheap way of looking busy and reminding people who is boss.

But the aim of jihad in all its forms is the imposition of Islamic law. Someone will always want more, and will be willing to fight, kill, and overthrow governments for it. This inherent instability will also be an Achilles heel in any potential attempt at a caliphate, and is but one of many reasons Sharia is simply bad government.

In stability or instability, of course, the country's non-Muslims will bear the worst of Sharia, and the various side effects of dysfunctional or failed governance. "Divisions emerge between Islamists in Egypt," by Mohannad Sabry for McClatchy Newspapers, January 1:

CAIRO -- Islamist parties are the top two vote-getters after the first two phases of elections for Egypt's new parliament, but despite fears of a hard-line coalition, serious divisions have erupted between the two main Islamist groups before the parliament has even been seated.

The tensions between the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist groups have raised questions about how Egypt's first parliament convened since President Hosni Mubarak's resignation in February will perform amid ongoing instability and protests against the country's interim military rulers.

In the second phase of elections, whose results were announced Dec. 24, the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, maintained its leading position, raking in more than 4 million votes. It was followed by the Al Nour Party of the Salafists, a more hard-line Islamist group, with about 3.2 million votes.

Mohamed Morsi, head of the Freedom and Justice Party, dismissed talk of forming an alliance with the rival Salafists soon after results were announced by the Higher Electoral Committee. Although only partial results are available, both parties together control roughly half the parliamentary seats, with the Brotherhood holding about 30 percent.

"There is no alliance. ... I don't think it will happen any time soon due to conflicting ideologies," Morsi told Al Mehwer, an Egyptian cable channel, on Monday.

The Salafists agreed. "Any coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood is far from possible," said Nader Bakkar, the official spokesman of Al Nour Party. "We have significant differences and we don't think that we will be able to build any form of coalition with them."

The Brotherhood, meanwhile, formed an 11-party election bloc called the Democratic Alliance, which includes the prominent liberal parties Al Ghad ("Tomorrow") and Al Karama ("Dignity"). Asked whether U.S. officials welcomed the Brotherhood's outreach to liberal groups, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said earlier this month that it signaled "a very positive start" for the new parliament, which is expected to be seated on Jan. 23.

"I think we find that encouraging that there's politics going on there, that there's these kinds of discussions ... taking place," Toner said. "Again, it's very, very early. We just have preliminary results. There's a lot of elections that need to still be carried out, but we're off to a very positive start."

Although Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood were both officially outlawed here for decades - members of the groups have shared prison cells - Salafist leaders have made several statements that have alarmed Egyptians and underscored their differences with the more moderate Brotherhood.

Abdel Monem el Shahat, a prominent Salafist cleric and a leading figure in the Al Nour Party, recently described the ancient Egyptian civilization as "rotten" and called for the country's Pharaonic statues to be covered in wax because they resembled those worshipped in pre-Islamic times.

The Egyptian Coalition for Tourism Support filed legal action against el Shahat on behalf of tourism companies, which complained that tourists canceled trips to Egypt after his remarks. El Shahat ran in the first phase of elections and lost his seat to a Muslim Brotherhood candidate.

U.S. officials, aware of the Brotherhood's influence - even when effectively banned, the group's members won around 20 percent of parliamentary seats in 2005 - have appeared to be open to dialogue with the organization's political wing. On Dec. 10, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson made an official visit to Freedom and Justice Party headquarters.

The widening gap between the Salafists and the rest of Egypt's political powers could prove a major hurdle for the parliament, which faces tremendous challenges following the upheaval of the past 11 months.

Salafists hold slightly more than 20 percent of parliamentary seats. Under current rules, a bloc needs 30 percent of votes to exercise a veto. But Hassan Nafaa, a political scientist and a member of the civilian advisory council appointed by Egypt's ruling military, said that Salafists will definitely stir controversy over tourism, arts, Islamic banking and other issues.

"Their hard-line approach and lack of political experience will definitely influence the performance of the coming parliament," Nafaa said.

Soon after the uprising that ousted Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood made moves to show it wasn't a hard-line group. It announced that it had formed the Freedom and Justice Party and replaced its slogan, "Islam is the Solution," with "Delivering Good for Egypt."

Deliberate ambiguity?

Brotherhood officials pledged to "respect civil rights and international treaties that have been signed in the past." They denied reports that the group aimed to re-examine Egypt's peace treaty with Israel, a linchpin of regional stability.....

Remember that the Camp David Accords are not just about the State of Israel and Egypt, but first drag the Palestinian issue into conditions for peace. This is a built-in flaw and a tool of blackmail, and the Brotherhood is ready to exploit it: if they aren't happy with the Palestinian situation, Israel has violated the accords.

The deputy leader sounds prepared to throw the entire thing out the window, but the "pragmatists" of the broader Kiss Freedom and Justice Goodbye Party may work the aforementioned angle as well in order to leverage concessions. The Brotherhood's secretary general has indeed alleged in an earlier call to "review" the treaty that Israel has not "honored" the agreement.

"Muslim Brotherhood vows not to recognize Israel," from the Jerusalem Post, January 1:

When asked whether it is a requirement for the government in Egypt to recognize Israel, Bayoumi responded by saying: "This is not an option, whatever the circumstances, we do not recognize Israel at all. Its [Israel] an occupying criminal enemy."

The deputy leader stressed during the interview that no Muslim Brotherhood members would ever meet with Israelis for negotiations. "I will not allow myself to sit down with criminals."

Bayoumi went on to say that The Muslim Brotherhood would take legal procedures towards cancelling the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel that was signed in 1979. "The Brotherhood respects international conventions, but we will take legal action against the peace treaty with the Zionist entity," he told the paper.

At the beginning of December, Egypt's two leading Islamist parties won about two-thirds of votes for party lists in the second round of polling for a parliament that will help draft a new constitution after decades of autocratic rule. [...]

Parliament's prime job will be appointing a 100-strong assembly to write a new constitution which will define the president's powers and parliament's clout in the new Egypt.

The above caricature, which first appeared on CagleCartoons.com, has been making the rounds on the Arabic blogosphere, and points to how democratic elections are serving to Islamize Egypt: average women enter the ballot box—“overseen” by the Muslim Brotherhood—only to emerge thoroughly veiled, thoroughly Islamized.

Speaking of veils and the Brotherhood, here’s an interesting video of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser (1956-1970), showing just how much times have changed.

Speaking before a large assembly, Nasser told of how back in 1953 he wanted to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood, and met with its leader. (Nasser eventually learned that the only response to the Brotherhood is suppression, not cooperation, a lesson John Kerry and others in the current administration would do well to consider.)

According to Nasser, the very first demand of the Brotherhood leader was for the hijab to return to Egypt, “for every woman walking in the street to wear a headscarf.”

The audience erupted in laughter at this, then, ludicrous demand; one person hollered “Let him wear it!” eliciting more laughter and applause.

Nasser continued by saying he told the Brotherhood leader that if they enforced the hijab, people would say Egypt had returned to the dark ages (to more laughter), adding that Egyptians should uphold such matters in the privacy of their own homes.

But the Muslim Brotherhood leader informed him that, as Egypt’s president, Nasser himself must enforce the hijab, to which Nasser replied:

Sir, I know you have a daughter in college—and she doesn’t wear a headscarf or anything! [laughter] Why don’t you make her wear the headscarf? [laughter] So you can’t make one girl, your own daughter, wear it, and yet you want me to go and make ten million women wear it?!” [burst of laughter and applause]

Gamel Abdel Nasser and wife Tahia, back in an era when the idea of institutionalizing the hijab provoked laughter and ridicule

Half a century later and none of this is a laughing matter: the hijab, if not the full burqa, is commonplace in Egypt, even as the Muslim Brotherhood—who for decades were banned and imprisoned for trying to return Egypt to an Islamic dark age—are now poised to govern the nation, all under U.S. tutelage.

As Sheikh Osama al-Qusi recently said, the great “mistake” of Nasser’s successor, president Anwar Sadat, was

not that he released these groups [Muslim Brotherhood] from the prisons after Gamal Abdel Nasser had incarcerated them; but rather for giving them the green light to work in all fields of Egyptian society, thinking he would use them to get rid of his Socialist and Communist opponents. So he permitted them to work in trade unions, school unions—giving them every opportunity to hold official positions [Emphasis added].

In other words, Sadat’s great mistake—which cost him his life—is that he conferred a degree of legitimacy on the Muslim Brotherhood, thereby allowing them to worm their way into Egyptian society.

Such is the way of time: left unchecked, what was once ludicrous to suggest—for instance, the Brotherhood’s 1953 request “for every woman walking in the street to wear a headscarf”—slowly and gradually becomes part of the culture.

It is for this reason that Sharia poses a threat to the West—not because it will be imposed on Westerners, but rather because, little by little, decade after decade, aspects of it may gradually worm their way in.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Weren't the Salafists and their supporters supposed to be a Tiny Minority of Extremists? "Main Islamist parties take 65% of second-round votes," from Agence France-Presse, December 24:

AFP - Egypt's main Islamist parties won 65 percent of votes for party lists in the second round of a historic election for a new parliament after Hosni Mubarak's ouster, the electoral committee said Saturday.

These are the people who will be writing the country's next constitution. A democracy is only as good as the values that inform its participants.

The [Muslim Brotherhood's] Freedom and Justice Party won 36.5 percent of the vote for party lists, with 4,058,498 out of 11,173,818 votes, according to figures provided by the electoral committee for the second round which was held on December 14.

[The Salafists'] Al-Nur won 28.78 percent, with 3,216,430 votes.

In Egypt's complex electoral system, voters cast ballots for party list candidates who will make up two thirds of parliament, and direct votes for individual candidates for the remaining third.

The elections were scheduled over three rounds, with run-offs for individual candidates after each round.

At a news conference on Saturday, electoral chief Abdel Moez Ibrahim announced the winners for the individual vote, but not their affiliations. The official Al-Ahram newspaper reported that the FJP won 40 seats and Al-Nur 13.

The Islamists' liberal rivals fared badly again in the second round, with Al-Wafd -- the country's oldest party -- winning 9.6 percent of the party list vote and the Egyptian Bloc, the main liberal coalition, just seven percent.

After winning almost 65 percent of seats in the first round of the vote, Islamists are poised to dominate the next lower house which will convene on January 23.

The third round of the election will start on January 3, followed by another three-round poll for the senate.

The FJP has said it would have the right to form the next government, but the ruling military and the prime minister it appointed have said parliament could not appoint ministers.

The military, which has faced down days of deadly protests in November and this month, says it will transfer power to civilians after a presidential election is held by the end of June next year.

UPDATE: The Brotherhood now denies making this claim, and says it was false information planted by the regime.

-----------------------------------------------------

Remember, the Brotherhood is "moderate." "Extremists" would have killed 88.

More on this story. "Syria's Muslim Brotherhood claims responsibilty for deadly blasts," from AFP, December 25 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

SYRIA'S Muslim Brotherhood has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in Damascus that killed 44 people, saying they were the first step in liberating the capital and that more attacks were to come.

The claim on Saturday contradicted assertions by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad that the blasts, which also wounded 166 people, were the work of al-Qa'ida and of the opposition Syrian National Council that the regime carried them out.

''One of our victorious Sunni brigades was able to target the state security building in Kfar Suseh in the heart of the ... capital Damascus in a successful operation carried out by four of our kamikazes drawn from the best of our glorious men, leaving many dead and wounded from the ranks of the Assad gangs,'' it said on its official website.

''We as defenders of the Syrian people and the sanctity of this nation send a message to Assad's gangs: This is the beginning of the liberation of Damascus and the tip of the iceberg,'' the statement added.

''Hence we warn our fellow citizens and advise them not to approach government centres or security branches ... because our martyrdom brigades are in a state of maximum readiness to carry out quality operations in Aleppo, Damascus, and the blessed land of Syria in the next 10 days.''

The statement was signed by the ''Muslim Brotherhood's media committee inside Syria''.

The bombings, the first against the powerful security services in central Damascus since an uprising against Assad began in March, came a day after the arrival of an advance group of Arab League monitors who are to oversee a deal to end the bloodshed.

After the attacks, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Meqdad said ''this is the gift we get from the terrorists and al-Qa'ida, but we are going to do all we can to facilitate the Arab League mission''....

As we tried to tell you. "The terrifying truth behind the so-called Arab Spring," by John R. Bradley for the Daily Mail, December 20 (thanks to Thomas Pellow):

Stripped above the waist — save for her bright blue bra — the protester lies in a street just off Cairo’s Tahrir Square, seconds before a soldier stamps on her naked torso.

She has been dragged around by her arms and beaten by frenzied soldiers wielding metal batons, but still they won’t let her escape to safety.

This brutal scene from Egypt has sent new shockwaves around the West in the past three days, as the military regime has become ever more brutal towards pro-democracy protesters. Ten people have been killed and more than 400 wounded.

For just as much of the uplifting narrative about the Arab Spring was based on wishful thinking in the West, so the protests in Tahrir Square are being hopelessly misinterpreted. [...]

And this process has been helped by the deeply conservative attitudes of most of Egypt’s population. The widespread response to the picture is not anger at the soldiers’ actions, but puzzlement as to why the woman’s family let her join the protest.

There has been little condemnation from the Islamist political parties, led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

That is because the Islamists, no allies of the pro-democracy movement, are playing the long game. Ultimately, what they aim to construct is a Muslim state run according to strict, fundamentalist Sharia law. And they are well on their way to that goal.

In the first round of the recent Parliamentary elections last month, they emerged as the dominant force.

In the second round, currently underway, it looks as though the Muslim Brotherhood, and the even more extreme Salafi Muslim parties, will again win around 70  per cent of the vote — compared with just over 10 per cent for the parties set up by revolutionaries.

As they march along this road towards a Muslim theocracy, the Islamists are happy for the time being to let the military establishment remain in charge.

Imposition

Rule by the generals, which has effectively been the method of governance in Egypt since Gamal Abdel Nasser’s coup in 1952, allows the Islamists to avoid the blame for unresolvable economic and social problems.

More importantly, where the Islamists really want to concentrate their energies is in the imposition of their cultural fascism.

Anyone who wishes to understand where Egypt is heading should take a look at the coastal city of Alexandria. For a century this was an open, thriving cosmopolitan port — almost European in its atmosphere of laid-back tolerance.

But, in the early Eighties, the Islamists made it their base and, ever since, freedom has been in retreat. These days Alexandria resembles nothing so much as totalitarian Saudi Arabia. And be in no doubt, what has happened in Alexandria over the past three decades will be repeated throughout Egypt — only in a much shorter timescale, since the Islamists now have a political mandate.

Last week, they announced they want to ban mixed-bathing, bikinis on the beach, and the consumption of alcohol in popular Red Sea resorts like Sharm El-Sheikh. The same strictures might soon appear across swathes of North Africa.

Already Tunisia and Morocco, both historically renowned for their openness, are becoming dramatically more repressive as the Islamists take control.[...]

Egypt remains in an economic mess, with tax revenues plummeting, debts rising, growth non-existent and crime rates rocketing.

Thanks to the events of the past year, tourism — once the mainstay of the economy — has almost collapsed, with the number of tourists to cities like Luxor and Aswan down by 90 per cent.

Images of semi-stripped women being dragged through the streets by police will hardly help to restore confidence among potential Western holidaymakers.

And although the Egyptian masses crave stability and peace for now, when they can no longer afford basic foodstuffs, when power cuts become a daily occurrence, then they might yet be forced to take to the streets again.

If they do, the military establishment will become the focus of their fury.

And the Islamists, with all their cunning, will exploit the moment to gain supreme power, siding with the people against the army. In the process, the liberals — who helped to spark the January revolution — will truly be crushed into oblivion.

Time and time again, we see how Western concepts, when articulated through an Islamic framework, lead to results antithetical to the West. For instance, “democracy” and “elections”—which in the West suggest “freedom,” “human rights,” “liberty,” etc.—are today being used to bring Sharia law, the antithesis of Western law, to power.

In this recent video, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Dr. Safwat Hegazy, a popular preacher, talks about how he yearns to see Arab nations become “like the United States”—for them to unify into the “United Arab States.” While that may sound like an admirable (or at least neutral) goal, bear in mind what he is alluding to: the resurrection of a caliphate—which by nature exists to expand, including through jihad.

Moreover, Hegazy made clear that his interest in seeing the “United Arab States” has less to do with Arab solidarity (nationalism) and more to do with Islamic allegiance (religion). As he gushed about how wonderful it would be for Arab nations to unite into one bloc, the secular and skeptical host interviewing him reluctantly agreed, “so long as the capital is Cairo,” that is, so long as Egypt’s integrity remains. To this, Hegazy replied: “No, I say the capital is Jerusalem, Allah willing.”

Thus, just as that sacrosanct word “democracy” is being used to establish fascist rule in the Muslim world, so too is the notion of a “United Arab States” fraught with problems—from the elimination of Israel to the establishment of an expansionist caliphate on its remains.

In FrontPage this morning I discuss the astonishing credulity of New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof:

Ace New York Times pundit Nicholas Kristof recently had dinner in the Cairo home of some Muslim Brotherhood members, and he had a wonderful time. And from this experience, there is something he wants you and the world to know: Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt, and the Brotherhood in general, is nothing to be concerned about.

Kristof’s touchingly naïve and ignorant column raises the question once again of how such an uninformed and easily misled analyst could enjoy so much respect among the nation’s intellectual elites – and the answer, as with all such mediocrities, is that they retail politically correct opinions, and so rise to the top regardless of the poor quality of their work. In this case, Kristof is pushing the theme that the Muslim Brotherhood is “moderate” – an idea in fashion today in the mainstream media, however ridiculous it may be.

Kristof marvels that his hostess, a 24-year-old woman named Sondos Asem, “speaks perfect English, is writing a master’s thesis on social media, and helps run the Brotherhood’s English-language Twitter feed, @Ikhwanweb.” Kristof warns that “the Brotherhood is far more complex than the caricature that scares many Americans” – but does he really think that because the Brotherhood employs a young woman who speaks perfect English and works in social media that somehow they don’t intend to impose the oppressive aspects of Sharia upon Egypt?

Sondos Asem specifically denies that the Brotherhood will do so regarding Sharia’s oppression of women: “It’s a big misconception that the Muslim Brotherhood marginalizes women. Fifty percent of the Brotherhood are women.” She dismisses the suggestion that the Brotherhood might bring Sharia laws regarding women to Egypt, making it resemble Saudi Arabia, Iran or Afghanistan. Egypt, she says, is “religiously very moderate,” and hence much more likely to follow Turkey’s model.

Unfortunately for Asem, and Kristof, Turkey is not presently a Sharia state, although Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is doing all he can to change that. Its religious moderation is not the product of a different model of Sharia from that implemented in Saudi Arabia and Iran, but from no Sharia at all. If Egypt adopts Sharia, as the Muslim Brotherhood wishes it to do, the only Sharia model available to it are those of Saudi Arabia and Iran, which implement classic provisions of Islamic law’s treatment of women that have been in place for centuries and are not disputed in any significant way by any sect or school of Islamic law.

Asem also assured Kristof that the Brotherhood would not change the status of the Camp David accords with Israel and maintain friendly relations with the U.S. Here again, Kristof swallowed it all, in defiance of the available evidence. Mahmoud Hussein, the Brotherhood’s secretary-general, recently said that the peace treaty with Israel would have to be reexamined: “A long time has passed since the Camp David accord was signed, and like the other agreements it needs to be reviewed, and this is in the hands of the parliament.” And when Eric Trager of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy visited the headquarters of newly elected Muslim Brotherhood MP Saber Abouel Fotouh, he found on the wall a banner celebrating a protest the Brotherhood had sponsored “outside the local ‘Zionist consulate,’ complete with an image of a burning Israeli flag.

There is more.

An Egyptian Catholic priest and spokesman highlights how freely the Muslim Brotherhood has issued contradictory statements to suit the group's needs at a given moment. The message depends on the audience, but the Ikhwan's agenda remains the same. "The thousand faces of the Muslim Brotherhood," from AsiaNews, December 13:

Cairo (AsiaNews) – “The Muslim Brotherhood is not credible. We want facts, not words,” said Fr Rafik Greiche, spokesman of the Egyptian Catholic Church, as he commented a statement made by Mohammed Badie, head of the Islamist organisation, in the defence of Christians. Despite positive criticism from the Anglican and Orthodox Churches, the statement by the Muslim Brotherhood has been met with doubts among Catholics, who stress that the group has not been sufficiently transparent in recent months.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is always issuing statements. In the beginning, they were very harsh against non-Muslims,” Fr Greiche said. However, “If a pro-democracy or Christian leader protested, they would quickly change their tune to avoid being labelled extremist.”

Time after time, this type of attitude manifested itself during the Jasmine Revolution, which the Brotherhood first resisted but eventually accepted for electoral reasons.

“In the past few days, one of the most important spiritual leaders (Mourshed) of the Muslim Brotherhood said that anyone who is opposed to Sharia should be expelled from the country, a clear reference to Christians. Yesterday, Mohammed Badie said instead that all citizens should be equal.”

On 10 October, the day when Copts were slaughtered in front of the headquarters of state television, the Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement justifying the military’s reaction, on the grounds “that this is not the time for Christians to make demands.” Two days later, Badie retracted what the group’s spokesman had said. Instead, he noted, “the violence in Maspero were provoked by diehard members of Mubarak’s National Democratic Party.”

For Fr Greiche, contradictions also characterise relations with Salafists, the hard face of radical Islam, whom the Brotherhood used in the campaign to scare moderate Muslims and religious minorities. Yet, in some ridings [sic], the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists ran on the same list....

I tried to tell you. Among the many noteworthy aspects of this article is the fact that the Copts know full well that Sharia means denial of rights to women and non-Muslims. Only in the West, where no one knows anything about Sharia, can deceptive Islamic apologists get away with claiming that Sharia is nothing in particular, but rather a sprawling multiplicity that cannot be pinned down to any specifics.

"Islamist parties' electoral success in Egypt has Copts worried," by Jeffrey Fleishman for the Los Angeles Times, December 11:

Reporting from Cairo—Fears and worries murmur like prayers beneath the hammered crosses of the Church of the Virgin Mary.

"The whole country will collapse," says Shenouda Nasri.

"I'm trying to get my family out," says Samir Ramsis.

"This is the Islamists' time," says George Saied.

A caretaker sweeps the stones, a woman slips into a pew. But these days Egypt's minority Coptic Christians are finding little serenity. Islamist political candidates, including puritanical Salafis, are dominating parliamentary elections. Sectarianism is intensifying and the patriotic veneer that unified Egyptians in overthrowing longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak is threatened by ultraconservative Muslim clerics whose divisive voices had been suppressed by the state for decades.

"Our goal is to achieve an Islamic caliphate with Islamic sharia rules," Mohamed Zoghbi, a hard-line Salafi preacher, said this year on TV. "If Egypt becomes a caliphate, then the Middle East and Arab countries will follow our path. All Muslim youth should strive and die to build this caliphate even over their own bodies."...

"The Islamists have been unleashed," says Nasri, a pharmacist hoping to follow the lead of tens of thousands of Copts who have left Egypt this year. "You're talking about no rights for women. No rights for Coptic Christians. They'll make us more of a minority. It'll be like living centuries ago."

Coptic Christians make up 10% of Egypt's population of 82 million. They have coexisted in relative peace with Muslims for centuries, but even before the overthrow of Mubarak, they endured increasing deadly attacks on churches, including a bombing in Alexandria and incidents of arson in Cairo and other cities.

Copts have felt further isolated as radical screeds have echoed from mosques since Mubarak's rule was brought down by a popular rebellion in February that included secularists, Islamists and communists.

Thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members were jailed under the former president. But as the "Arab Spring" burgeoned early this year, the once-outlawed Brotherhood, which for decades built a network of social and religious programs, quickly became the nation's most potent political force. It has attempted to calm secular Egyptians and the West by emphasizing democracy and civil rights as it moves to gradually expand Islam throughout the government while addressing the country's economic turmoil, poverty and neglected institutions.

But the Salafis, who had been apolitical for decades, are demanding an immediate debate on religion and saying the new constitution must be interchangeable with the Koran. Relying on satellite TV and money from the Persian Gulf, the resurgent fundamentalists epitomize Egypt's startling political upheaval. They show little concern for compromise or diplomatic sound bites. One of their groups, Gamaa al Islamiya, renounced violence long ago but its candidates are a link to the coarse sectarian voices that led to the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and terrorist attacks.

Wagdi Ghoneim, a popular ultraconservative Muslim preacher, fled Egypt's police state years ago. He has lived in the United States and the gulf, transmitting audio and televised speeches that resonate in Cairo's slums and outlying villages. He couldn't be more clear on where he stands.

"There's nothing called democracy. Democracy is built on the basis of infidelity," he says. "The Crusader Christians are a minority and we can never equate a minority's rights with the majority's.... How can they ask for the same rights as ours?"...

"I was born in Cairo," he says. "But as a Christian I no longer feel like a whole citizen. I just want to go someplace where I can be respected."

He straightens his blue and yellow tie, brushes the sleeves of his pressed shirt. He fears that Salafis will forbid the building of churches and impose more Islamic education in schools.

"Everyone is afraid, not just Copts," he says. "People working in tourism, banking, antiquities. No one knows what the Islamists will do. The Muslim Brotherhood is trying to calm things. They're talking about tolerance. But we still have to be afraid. They have little political experience."

Some might try to spin this statement as "moderate" and somehow reassuring, but it is exactly why the implementation of any Sharia is alarming and must be resisted: Sharia is a package deal (as even Imam Rauf knows), and any Sharia is a foot in the door with which to leverage more: after all, now that you have allowed this, why not that? Or, oh, wait: we can't fully exercise the power we've been allowed without this or that additional authority.

We are seeing this approach in action in Britain, where Sharia courts have been caught in "jurisdiction creeping." We are also seeing it in Malaysia, where the deputy prime minister said the country is not ready -- yet -- for amputations and stonings under Sharia.

The Muslim Brotherhood leader from 1996 to 2002, Mustafa Mashhur, emphasized the importance of patience and timing. Like Orson Welles promising "no wine before its time," Mashhur realized acting rashly or rushing could jeopardize the whole project. Hence the Brotherhood's cautious, calculating approach to the "Arab Spring" revolutions.

Gradual implementation serves to deceive and slowly wear down resistance. "Muslim Brotherhood Cleric Calls for 'Gradualism' in Applying Shari'ah," from the Investigative Project on Terrorism, December 9:

In the November 2011 fatwa section on OnIslam.net, radical Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi recommends gradualism in the implementation of Shari'ah (Islamic law derived from the Quran or Sunnah).

Responding to a question, "What are the guidelines in an attempt to apply gradualism in Islamic Shari'ah?, " Qaradawi writes:

"Gradualism is one of the laws of nature that Allah Almighty has created. It is also needed in applying the rulings of Shari'ah to make a change in people's life. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stayed in Makkah for thirteen years struggling to shake the false beliefs the Makkan people had adopted. Then, for other ten years, Allah Almighty revealed to him (peace and blessings be upon him) the laws that the Muslim would live by. Gradualism played an effective role in that regard."

He adds:

"Gradualism in applying the Shari'ah is a wise requirement to follow. In doing so, we will be following Allah's Laws with regard to physical nature and teachings of Islam. Gradualism was observed in enjoining the obligations of Islam such as Prayer, fasting, et cetera, and in forbidding the prohibitions as well."

Qaradawi's gradualism in applying Shariah is in conformity with the objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Sunni Islamist movement that seeks the establishment of a worldwide Caliphate or universal Islamic state through gradual and peaceful means.

At a 1995 conference held by the Muslim Arab Youth Association (MAYA) in Toledo, Ohio, Qaradawi called for the conquest of Western regimes through Da'wa (proselytization) and their replacement by a worldwide Islamic Caliphate ruled by Sharia:

"What remains, then, is to conquer Rome. The second part of the omen. "The city of Hiraq [once emperor of Constantinople] will be conquered first", so what remains is to conquer Rome.' This means that Islam will come back to Europe for the third time, after it was expelled from it twice… Conquest through Da'wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da'wa."

In 2004, Qaradawi issued a fatwa deeming it a religious duty for Muslims to fight Americans in Iraq, including U.S. civilians. He also referred to Muslims fighting American forces in Iraq as martyrs. "Those killed fighting the American forces are martyrs given their good intentions since they consider these invading troops an enemy within their territories but without their will." In April 2001, he commented on suicide bombings, saying "They are not suicide operations…These are heroic martyrdom operations."

Often referred to as "moderate" in the mainstream media, Qaradawi is known for his militant religious rulings and statements in support of acts of terrorism. At the 1995 MAYA conference, he said, "Our brothers in Hamas, in Palestine, the Islamic Resistance, the Islamic Jihad, after all the rest have given up and despaired, the movement of the jihad brings us back to our faith."

He has in the past called for the destruction of Israel and condoned the hatred of Jews as sanctioned by Islam:

"But the balance of power will change, and this is what is told in the Hadith of Ibn-Omar and the Hadith of Abu-Hurairah: "You shall continue to fight the Jews and they will fight you, until the Muslims will kill them. And the Jew will hide behind the stone and the tree, and the stone and the tree will say: 'Oh servant of Allah, Oh Muslim, this is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him!' The resurrection will not come before this happens." This is a text from the good omens in which we believe." [See also: Sahih Bukhari 4.52.177]

We tried to tell you. Meanwhile, arms shipments from the U.S. to Egypt are continuing. "Muslim Brotherhood: Egypt-Israel peace treaty needs to be reviewed," from Deutsche Press Agentur, December 9:

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said that the country's peace treaty with Israel needs re-evaluation by the country's new parliament, in press remarks by a senior member of the group published Friday.

"A long time has passed since the Camp David accord was signed, and like the other agreements it needs to be reviewed, and this is in the hands of the parliament," said Mahmoud Hussein, the group's secretary-general.

"The brotherhood believes the treaty is of great importance, but it is not on the top of our list. There are other priorities for the time being," Hussein told the regional Asharq al-Awsat daily.

"Generally, Israel does not honor the agreement," he added.

He denied a report saying that the Muslim Brotherhood had reached an understanding with the United States and Israel on "the importance of safeguarding the peace treaty with Israel."

It is worth noting that while what is purportedly at issue here is the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, the Camp David Accords were divided into two major sections. The first proposed a framework for peace in the Middle East, which discussed the Palestinian issue. The section that followed it was entitled "Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel."

Even if the Ikhwan does not abandon peace in one fell swoop, it is likely to attempt to move the goalposts to extract concessions, including using the latter section as a bargaining chip for demands related to the former one.

Last week, Israel expressed concern at the gains of Islamist parties in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections and urged any future government to uphold the 1979 peace treaty.

Islamists made big gains during the initial round of the first elections since a popular revolt this year forced former president Hosni Mubarak out of power.

The Freedom and Justice Party, the brotherhood's political wing, was in the lead with 36.5 per cent of the vote. It was followed by the hard-line Salafist party, Al-Nour, with 24 per cent.

Over at Hudson NY (via RaymondIbrahim.com), I discuss an ex-member's personal experiences with the Muslim Brotherhood, including how it learned to subvert societies over the decades. Some of his quotes follow:

I was a medical student in the 1970s and the Muslim Brotherhood lured me to them from within the university. Nor did I even realize they were the Brotherhood. Anwar Sadat was president during this time, when he committed his greatest mistake—a mistake he paid for with his life. Not that he released these groups from the prisons after [his predecessor] Abdul Nasser had incarcerated them; but rather for giving them the green light to work in all fields of Egyptian society, thinking he would use them to get rid of his Socialist and Communist opponents. So he permitted them to work in trade unions, school unions—giving them every opportunity to hold official positions [Emphasis added].

As a student I had noticed that some of my fellow classmates were considerably older, eventually realizing they were former prison inmates. They began to distribute hand-written copies of Sayyid Qutb's books, which were banned at the time. And we thought that they were heroes, imprisoned for their commitment and intellectual rigor, persecuted by the regime for their patriotism. Unfortunately, they greatly influenced us, since, at the time, we did not know how to differentiate truth from falsehood in regards to the ideas, principles, and pronouncements they exposed us to—to the point that religion and politics became one and the same for us. This was the beginning of my deviation.

Mustafa Mashhur was in charge only 15 years ago, so this work cannot be written off so easily as an alleged relic of the Ikhwan's "past." Nonetheless, the Brotherhood, which railed against corruption in Mubarak's regime, is already putting its own inclination to lie and defraud on full display. If this work attracts sufficient attention now, will they throw it under the bus?

The title of Mashhur's book, by the way, comes from the Muslim Brotherhood's motto: "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." PMW provides the full translation in .pdf format and at the link immediately below. Their summary and significant quotations are reproduced here.

The translation of this work is a tremendous service by PMW. "Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Ideology: PMW translation of "Jihad Is the Way'," by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik for Palestinian Media Watch, December 4:

Central messages:
1- Muslims are "masters of the world"
2- Islamic nation's "rightful position... the teachers of humanity"
3- "There is no other option but Jihad for Allah
4- Fighting Israel is "Jihad against the criminal, thieving gangs of Zion"
5- Has the [Muslim] Brotherhood grown weary of the challenges, thrown down their guns and abandoned Jihad?!! No!"

The Muslim Brotherhood took first place in Egypt's first round of elections last week with 40% of the vote and the Salafist Islamists received 20%. In order to understand the implications, Palestinian Media Watch is redistributing our translation of the book Jihad Is the Way, written by Mustafa Mashhur, who was the official leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt 1996-2002. The book is the fifth volume of his work called The Laws of Da'wa (Islamic missionary activity).

In the book Jihad Is the Way the fundamental concepts of the Muslim Brotherhood ideology are explained, including, 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 necessity of timing the ultimate Jihad properly. The book warns Muslims not to rush to Jihad until Jihad is prepared and timed fully for maximum benefit. The current period is seen by the Muslim Brotherhood as one of obligatory preparation for that coming Jihad.

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.

Muslim Brotherhood 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 teachers 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 of Jihad."
- "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 the Muslims, and they can be resolved neither by negotiation nor by recognizing the enemy's right to the Islamic land he stole. Rather, the only option is 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 exalted 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 their Jihad against the criminal, thieving, gangs of Zion. 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."...

There is much, much more.

I tried to tell you. "Rich Egyptians weigh emigration as Islamists surge," by Hania El Malawani for AFP, December 3 (thanks to Wimpy):

CAIRO — For decades, Egypt's Westernised elite kept the country's growing religosity at arm's length, but a projected Islamist surge in the first post-revolution polls has driven many to think of moving abroad.

Sporting the latest fashions and mingling in upmarket country clubs, Egypt's rich fear a victory for the Muslim Brotherhood and hardline Salafis in the first phase of parliamentary elections presages change ahead.

"I hope they don't impose the veil and ban women from driving like in Saudi Arabia," said coquettish fifty-something Naglaa Fahmi from her gym in the leafy neighbourhood of Zamalek.

In a nearby luxury hotel, Nardine -- one of Egypt's eight million Coptic Christians who are alarmed by the prospect of a new Islamist-dominated parliament -- is pondering a move aroad.

"My father is seriously thinking about sending me and my brothers elsewhere because he thinks we won't have a future in the country with the Salafis," said the banker in her twenties....

The preliminary results to be published on Friday were expected to show the moderate [sic] Muslim Brotherhood as the dominant force, but with a surprisingly strong showing from the hardline Al-Nur party.

Its leaders advocate the fundamentalist brand of Salafi Islam, rejecting Western culture and favouring strict segregation of the sexes and the veiling of women.

They say they have been the victims of Islamophobia and sustained fear-mongering by liberals in the Egyptian media....

"They don't scare me. We have democracy now which means we'll be able to remove them if they don't suit us," said Manar, a tall blonde in her 40s.

"It's the not the Muslim Brotherhood that worries me because they want to appear in the best light, it's the Salafis that I'm concerned about," she said....

Six of one...

The Muslim Brotherhood's motto is:

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.

And while the Ikhwan railed against corruption in Mubarak's regime, it has not only shown its own propensity for corruption through vote buying and an unwillingness to discuss it, but also in half-truths and outright lies.

Meanwhile, however, in the wake of the Salafists' unexpected romp in the elections, one can say this much: it has made it possible for the Brotherhood to take on the one accurate definition of what are often called "moderates": those who are believed to be somehow, somewhat less hardcore than the next guy, or at least slower moving and friendlier looking.

Of course, power for either group will result in the imposition of Sharia and the curtailment of human rights and civil liberties, no matter what the spokesman says below, because human rights and civil liberties will be defined and limited by Sharia.

In the end, the next legislature will be dominated by a supermajority of Six of One, and Half a Dozen of the Other. "Egypt Brotherhood says won't impose Islamic values," by Aya Batrawy for the Associated Press, December 2:

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, emerging as the biggest winner in the first round of parliamentary elections, sought Saturday to reassure Egyptians that it would not sacrifice personal freedoms in promoting Islamic law.

It wasn't on the calendar, but this has apparently been Hollow Reassurance Week.

The deputy head of the Brotherhood's new political party, Essam el-Erian, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the group is not interested in imposing Islamic values on Egypt, home to a sizable Christian minority and others who object to being subject to strict Islamic codes.

"We represent a moderate and fair party," el-Erian said of his Freedom and Justice Party. "We want to apply the basics of Shariah law in a fair way that respects human rights and personal rights," he said, referring to Islamic law.

Human and personal rights as defined and limited by Sharia. It is a circular statement, because Sharia "respects" its own rulings.

The comments were the clearest indication that the Brotherhood was distancing itself from the ultraconservative Islamist Nour Party, which appears to have won the second-largest share of votes in the election's first phase.

The Nour Party espouses a strict interpretation of Islam similar to that of Saudi Arabia, where the sexes are segregated and women must be veiled and are barred from driving.

Egypt's election commission has released few official results from the voting on Monday and Tuesday. But preliminary counts have been leaked by judges and individual political groups showing both parties could together control a majority of seats in the lower house of parliament if they did form an alliance.

The Brotherhood recently denied in a statement that it seeks to form an alliance with the Nour Party in parliament, calling it "premature and mere media speculation."

On Saturday, el-Erian made it clear that the Brotherhood does not share Nour's more hard-line aspirations to strictly enforce Islamic codes in Egyptians' daily lives.

"We respect all people in their choice of religion and life," he said.

Apostates from Islam?

Another major check on such an agenda is the council of generals who have run the country since President Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February. The military council, accused by Egypt's protest movement of stalling a transition to civilian and democratic rule, is seeking to limit the powers of the next parliament and maintain close oversight over the drafting of a new constitution.

Egypt already uses Shariah law as the basis for legislation, however Egyptian laws remain largely secular as Shariah does not cover all aspects of modern life.

Ask some Copts how that's working out.

On its English-language Twitter account, the Brotherhood said that its priorities were to fix Egypt's economy and improve the lives of ordinary Egyptians, "not to change (the) face of Egypt into (an) Islamic state."

Oh, this bodes well for impartial and transparent governance in the New Egypt. Of course, the Ikhwan has gained popularity by railing against corruption under Mubarak. It is easy to criticize the other guy's corruption and cronyism. But the Brotherhood has already shown its own propensity toward corruption, both in vote buying and other election tampering in two elections (last week's, and the constitutional referendum in March), and now in its refusal to discuss it.

"Egypt Islamists tell rivals to accept vote result," by Tom Pfeiffer and Tamim Elyan for Reuters, December 2:

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood called on its rivals to accept the will of the people on Saturday after a first-round vote set its party on course to take the most seats in the country's first freely elected parliament in six decades.

Preliminary results showed the Brotherhood's liberal rivals could be pushed into third place behind ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists, mirroring the trend in other Arab countries where political systems have opened up after popular uprisings.

The Brotherhood is Egypt's best-organised political group and popular among the poor for its long record of charity work. Banned but semi-tolerated under President Hosni Mubarak, who was toppled on February 11 by a street revolt, the Brotherhood now wants a role in shaping the country's future.

Giving new meaning to "What would you do for a Klondike Bar?":

Rivals accused the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party of using handouts of cheap food and medicine to influence voters and of breaking election rules by lobbying outside voting stations.

Not to mention setting up stations to "show people how to vote."

The Brotherhood told critics to back off and respect the result.

No magnanimity in victory here.

"We call upon everyone, and all those who associate themselves with democracy, to respect the will of the people and accept their choice," it said in a statement after the first-round vote, which drew an official turnout of 62 percent.

"Those who weren't successful ... should work hard to serve people to win their support next time," the Brotherhood added.

That all depends on when the next election is, and what the next constitution allows, among other things.

The world is watching the election for pointers to the future in Egypt, the most populous Arab nation and one hitherto seen as a firm U.S. ally committed to preserving its peace treaty with Israel and fighting Islamist militancy.

The Brotherhood's political opponents say it seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) on a country that also has a large Christian minority.

The movement insists it will pursue a moderate agenda if it wins power and do nothing to damage an economy reliant on millions of Western tourists.

The tourism industry has already tanked.