Don’t Take Our Word For It

Three interesting stories on a related theme. The first, from Al Arabiya TV and translated by MEMRI: “Former Egyptian MB Member Tharwat Al-Kharbawi: The MB Is a Fascist Group that Wants to Take Over Egypt,”:

Tharwat Al-Kharbawi: They strive for the victory of their people and their ideas, and to achieve total control of Egypt’s affairs. They wish to place Egypt under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. They want to run the country according to their ideology and their path, in order to achieve what they want…

I was not at all surprised when people like President Mohamed Morsi, for example, talked, during the presidential elections, about the need to conquer Egypt. Egypt was conquered in the days of Amr Ibn Al-Aas. Several months ago, President Morsi stood in El Mahalla Stadium, and spoke about what he hoped to achieve for Egypt. He said that we are now on the verge of conquering Egypt. The conquest of Egypt?! That means introducing Islam into the country…

It is as if Islam were just being introduced into Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood. It is as if up till now, we were circling the pyramids and worshipping the Sphinx.

Of course there should be nothing surprising about this at all. What Kharbawi says about the MB regarding Egypt as in a state of pagan ignorance is straight from the pages of Sayyid Qutb’s Milestones. Nor should the MB’s insistence at being the only group which can lead Egypt out of this state be surprising either. As Qutb writes (From Qutb’s Preface to Milestones Special Edition 2006):

It is necessary that there should be a vanguard which sets out with this determination and then keeps walking on the path, marching through the vast ocean of Jahiliyyahh which has encompassed the entire world. During its course, it should keep itself somewhat aloof from this all-encompassing Jahiliyyahh and should also keep some ties with it.

But such forthright language about the Muslim Brotherhood and their stated goals and objectives is rarely found in the Western press, where you’ll still find those who insist that the Muslim Brotherhood has some how disavowed Qutb. That must come as surprising news to al-Kharbawi.

Exactly this kind of willful ignorance was on display in the second piece,  a Wired.com article by Spencer Ackerman (h/t Jihad Watch), in which he interviewed American Jihadi Omar Hammami, currently in Somalia. Ackerman, found himself apparently dumbfounded by Hammami’s assertion that “Fighting is part of the religion.”

“Part of *your* religion, you mean, or the US “religion” lurking behind policy?” Ackerman tweets in follow up to Hammami’s statement. It’s a tortured attempt to insist on viewing Islamist intentions through American eyes, but all too common, thanks in part to Ackerman’s role in targeting U.S. thinkers who try to explain this very point.

Which leads us to the third piece, from Reuters, ” Muslim Brotherhood sows subversion in Gulf: Dubai police chief” where Dubai Chief of Police Dhahi Khalfan attacks Muslim Brotherhood subversion in the Gulf Emirates.

While he says his tweets are personal views, diplomats say they reflect concerns among the UAE ruling elite about the regional popularity of Islamists and the possibility that the West will engage with them. Khalfan complained that the West “sympathizes, adopts and supports” the Brotherhood, saying he did not understand why.

And that is where we stand today. You don’t have to take my word for it. Folks like Al-Kharbawi, Omar Hammami and Dhahi Khalfan are more than willing to speak openly about the intentions of Islamists. Yet too many in the West find themselves unequipped to comprehend such statements, even when openly and honestly presented. And that willful ignorance enables us to “sympathize, adopt and support” the Islamists who ultimately seek our demise.