After Calls for Israel’s Destruction
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called upon President Barack Obama to cut ties to the Islamist, jihadist Muslim Brotherhood, following the latest statements by the Muslim Brotherhood leadership calling for a jihad to destroy Israel and “liberate” Jerusalem.
In a public message published last week in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Badi’, said that, “Zionists only understand the language of force and will not relent without duress … This will only happen through holy Jihad, high sacrifices and all forms of resistance. The day they realize we will march this path and raise the banner of Jihad for the sake of God, is the day they will relent and stop their tyranny … The time has come for the Islamic nation to unite around one man for the sake of Jerusalem and Palestine … The Jews have dominated the land, spread corruption on earth, spilled the blood of believers and in their actions profaned holy places, including their own” (Elhanan Miller, ‘‘‘Holy Jihad’ is the only way to deal with Israel, says Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood chief,’ Times of Israel, October 11, 2012)
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hassan Al-Banna. Before and during World War II, it collaborated with Nazi Germany. Its leading intellectual figure, Sayyid Qutb, is the inspiration for Al- Qaida and other Islamist terrorist movements. 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.
The Muslim Brotherhood platform, leaked in August 2007, calls for jihad, states that “Islam is the official state religion and Islamic Shariah is the main source for legislation.” It stipulates 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. As Jayshree Bajoria of the Council on Foreign Relations has written, “Establishing an Islamic state based on Shariah is at the center of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology, both in Egypt and among the group’s many offshoots abroad.” Shadi Hamid, a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center, has described it as “the mother of all Islamist movements.”
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “Despite a detailed history of jihadist extremism and abundant evidence of its ongoing orientation, the Muslim Brotherhood has been whitewashed in Washington as a moderate group and the Obama Administration chose to promote it as a peaceful, democratic alternative. There is overwhelming evidence to the contrary, reinforced by Muhammad Badi’s latest jihadist statement of last week and the President should immediately cut all ties to the Muslim Brotherhood forthwith.
“Till now, the Obama Administration has done the opposite, promoting and legitimizing the Brotherhood as a responsible, moderate party with whom the U.S. can do business. President Obama’s National Intelligence director, James Clapper said that the group is “largely secular” and not particularly extreme while another Obama adviser, Bruce Riedel, argued that America “should not be afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
“In January last year, when the upheavals started in Cairo, President Obama declared that Egyptian political “transition” should come “now,” with as many elements involved as possible, including what White House press secretary Robert Gibbs obliquely called “non-secular actors” – a clear allusion to the Brotherhood.
“We know that President was in receipt of advice at the highest levels of his government not to embrace and legitimize the Brotherhood. As veteran Middle East scholar Professor Barry Rubin has written today, ‘After the demonstrations in Egypt began in January 2011 the U.S. State Department, with the approval of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, advocated a policy in line with traditional U.S. strategy. They would work with the military to institute reforms and more freedom while jettisoning the aged, ineffective President Husni Mubarak. But they opposed the dismantling of the regime. The White House rejected that approach and publicly declared its desire for Egypt’s fundamental transformation. Anyone who knew Egypt should have and could have predicted this meant Islamist dominance. Yet the administration rejected the idea that this might happen. Indeed, without being asked, Obama publicly stated that he had no problem with a Muslim Brotherhood government taking power. Obama deliberately didn’t consult with the leaders of Israel, Jordan, or Saudi Arabia because he didn’t want to hear their warnings about the risks he was taking and their opposition to what he was doing. He had already decided that a Brotherhood regime would be his preferred outcome.’
“In light of all that has happened since, including Muslim Brotherhood statements reiterating its commitment to eliminating Israel, jihad and the downfall of America, President Obama should cease all ties and negotiations with the Brotherhood with immediate effect.”