A Muslim Brotherhood mosque suing to have a Wahhabi imam removed is rather like the Tattaglias killing Sonny Corleone: that killing didn’t make the Tattaglias anti-Mafia, and this action doesn’t make the Brotherhood anti-“fundamentalist.” The Brotherhood, after all, is the direct forefather of both Al-Qaeda and Hamas. This 2004 Chicago Tribune expose about the Brotherhood operating in the U.S. paints a very different picture of the Brotherhood from that in the AP story below. From the Trib:
Indeed, because of its hard-line beliefs, the U.S. Brotherhood has been an increasingly divisive force within Islam in America, fueling the often bitter struggle between moderate and conservative Muslims.
Many Muslims believe that the Brotherhood is a noble international movement that supports the true teachings of Islam and unwaveringly defends Muslims who have come under attack around the world, from Chechens to Palestinians to Iraqis. But others view it as an extreme organization that breeds intolerance and militancy.
“They have this idea that Muslims come first, not that humans come first,” says Mustafa Saied, 32, a Floridian who left the U.S. Brotherhood in 1998.
While separation of church and state is a bedrock principle of American democracy, the international Brotherhood preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic. The group also champions martyrdom and jihad, or holy war, as a means of self-defense and has provided the philosophical underpinnings for Muslim militants worldwide.
That’s the group suing to have this imam removed.
And by the way: why does the Brotherhood own a mosque in New Jersey in the first place? Why isn’t the Brotherhood banned from the U.S. altogether?
“Trenton mosque sues to have leader ousted,” from AP, with thanks to Marked Manner:
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) _ The founders of a Trenton mosque have sued in Superior Court in Mercer County to have their religious leader removed, claiming he is trying to make the congregation more fundamentalist.
The suit, filed by the International Muslim Brotherhood Inc., the mosque’s owner, as well as three founding members, claims that Imam Sabur Abdul Hakim has recently adopted stricter views of Islam and is planning to beam in lectures by satellite from a conservative sect in Saudi Arabia.
The suit also alleges that Hakim began changing religious practices at the Masjid As-Saffat mosque three years ago and appointed his son-in-law, Shalby Akbar Shalby, as “ameer” last August without an election by the congregants….