Muslim Brotherhood Praises Jihad Against U.S., Jews

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has expressed opposition to the Obama Administration’s intention to extend, on top of existing, high levels of U.S. aid for Egypt (more than $1.5 billion annually), additional assistance to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) regime in Cairo totaling $1 billion. Reports indicate that the Obama Administration is nearing agreement with Egypt on a deal to eliminate a significant portion of Egypt’s $3.2 billion debt to the U.S. by giving Cairo that sum. “American officials have been cautious about how to aid Egypt’s volatile political transition, and at times Egypt has been cautious about taking U.S. money” (Michael Birnbaum, ‘Egypt and U.S. near deal on debt relief,’ Washington Post, September 3, 2012).

Egypt has used this aid to build the largest and strongest Arab army in the Middle East. Now that the MB has taken power this army poses a danger to Israel. The plan to bail out the new Egyptian regime was originally announced over a year ago. However, opposition on Capitol Hill and the prosecution of 19 U.S. government-funded NGO personnel early this year operating in Egypt had temporarily soured relations between the two governments. 

Problems posed by Cairo’s Extremist Muslim Brotherhood (MB) regime:

• Last month, MB member Hussein Shehata, a lecturer at Al-Azhar University, praised jihad war against the Jews (“the descendants of apes and pigs”), against the Americans in Iraq, Russians in Chechnya; and against the Muslims’ enemies in Kashmir, Bosnia, Eritrea, and Somalia. He added that the Day of Judgment will arrive when the Muslims defeat the Jews and liberate Jerusalem.

• The MB leader, Muhammad Badi’, has spoken enthusiastically of jihad and called for a state based on Islamic law. He also spoke optimistically about the U.S. heading for a collapse.

• The MB’s second-in-command, Rashad Al-Bayoumi, emphasized last year that abrogating the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty was a prime MB objective. In January, Bayoumi said that, for the MB, the peace treaty “it isn’t binding at all … On no condition will we recognize Israel. It is an enemy entity.”

• In April 2012, Mursi, since elected Egyptian president, said that “Egypt’s next president can’t be like his predecessor, he can’t be a follower who executes policies put to him from outside.”

• Morsi’s aide has said that Morsi, if elected president, would not meet with the Israeli president.

• The MB criticized Egyptian Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa’s visit to Jerusalem as “not acceptable.”

• Earlier this year, the Egyptian legislature’s lower house unanimously endorsed demands calling for the deportation of the Israeli ambassador in Egypt; halting export of natural gas to Israel and “reexamining” the Camp David peace accords with Israel.

• The natural gas pipeline, through which Israel receives energy in accordance with the 1979 Egyptian/Israeli peace treaty, has been blown up or sabotaged innumerable times. Last month, Egypt’s state-owned natural gas company said that it is ending a 2005 deal to export gas to Israel because of a payment dispute.

• Palestinian terrorists have already struck in August 2011 from Egyptian-controlled Sinai, murdering eight Israelis.

• Terrorist infiltration into Sinai has become so dangerous that Israeli officials have warned Israeli tourists to leave immediately on account of a “critical and immediate threat … terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip are continuing to work energetically to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets on Sinai’s beaches in the immediate term.” 

• The Muslim Brotherhood platform, leaked in August 2007, calls for jihad, states that “Islam is the official state religion and Islamic sharia is the main source for legislation.” It also states that the president and legislative branch will be advised by clerics, who must approve decisions and that non-Muslims will be barred from the presidency, which is also held to be unsuitable for women. The Brotherhood’s slogan is ‘Islam Is The Answer.’ Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood both seek a new Caliphate and their disagreement has been over tactics, not goals. Under repression in Egypt, the Brotherhood renounced violence domestically, but not globally and, in particular, not against Israel, against whom it calls for jihad. It has adopted slogans such as “Islam is the solution” and “Jihad is our way.” The Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood, Hamas, is a blood-soaked terrorist organization which calls in its Charter for the destruction of Israel and the worldwide murder of Jews.

• Prior to his obtaining the Egyptian presidency, Mohamed Morsi helped to establish and served Egyptian Resist the Zionist Project Committee and was a member of the Anti-Zionist Committee in Al-Sharqia Governorate.

• Following the killing of 15 Egyptian soldiers in Sinai in August, Morsi brought Egyptian tanks, rockets and helicopters into Sinai, contravening the 1979 Egyptian/Israeli peace treaty which provides for the almost total demilitarization of the peninsula. Israel has protested these worrying developments.

• Since the departure of the Mubarak regime last year, there has been a marked increase in attacks on Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, who have been the victim of repeated murderous attacks, terrorist bombings and other assaults over the years, with scores of Copts killed.

• For the first time in post-war Egypt, the last regularly functioning synagogue in the country, Alexandria’s Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, will not hold Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services this year after its rabbi was informed by Egyptian authorities they could not guarantee the safety and security of those wanting to attend the synagogue.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It is perfectly clear that, in the Mohamed Morsi regime, Israel, the U.S. and the West face a dangerous antagonist. The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi springs, is a jihadist, extremist movement that seeks the demise of the U.S. and Israel.

“Accordingly, when Egypt is in financial straits, when even Morsi is keen for U.S. financial assistance, despite the strong sentiment opposing U.S. aid in Egypt and at a time that a question mark hangs over the question of whether Egypt will remain at peace with Israel and an ally of the U.S., now is precisely the moment for the U.S. to demand as a condition of debt relief that the new government commits both in a public speech and in writing to specifically repudiating those parts of its platform that imperil peace, human rights and the alliance with America. The new government must enable further elections, commit to safeguard the rights of women and non-Muslims and uphold the Israeli/Egyptian peace treaty.

“Instead, the Obama Administration is about to grant the new regime a huge windfall that is unearned. Now is precisely the moment to withhold funds until we can be certain that Egypt will do these things. It will be very much harder to do so at a later date after the U.S taxpayer has parted with a further $1 billion to this hostile regime.

“We call upon the Obama Administration to withhold further aid from Egypt until Egypt meets these conditions.”