Now that Morsi Has Fallen, Obama Should Reject the Brotherhood Narrative

It was just last week the National Security Council justified its White House meeting with Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated cleric Abdullah bin Bayyah. The NSC, they’d said, was keen to learn about the International Union of Muslim Scholars’ so-called “rejection of the al-Qaeda narrative.”

Only with the election of Barack Obama was this Brotherhood narrative embraced as national policy. From the outset, the Obama administration has banked on the civilization-jihadist Muslim Brotherhood as the “moderate” antidote to openly rejectionist al-Qaeda. It was, as the president is fond of saying in far less worthy circumstances, a “false choice.” Brotherhood doctrine only diverged from al-Qaeda on the timeline of implementation of shariah; indeed, both entities are Salafist in outlook and endgame.

At minimum, events in Egypt this past week point to a popular rejection of the Brotherhood by millions of Egyptians who see it as a corrupt, secretive governing organization. Even though there is no evidence Islamism and shariah themselves were rejected, these massive protests– some said the “largest in history”– should be enough to cause the Obama administration to re-evaluate its strategy based, as it has been, on political participation as a force for moderation, with the Muslim Brotherhood as an example. Those in the streets have come to see what a heavily-invested American media stubbornly refuses to: Obama’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood government has been as real as it’s been shameful.

Under this president, the US has encouraged Sunni Islamist parties, either in the mold of the Brotherhood or controlled by it (with the exception of Saudi Arabia). It goes without saying that this tactic has been a massive failure. Here, though, is an honest opportunity for American policymakers to change course.