The Muslim Brotherhood: What Do They Really Want To Teach American Muslim Youth?

By Andrew Cochran

Certain journalists from respected media outlets - most recently Mary Beth Sheridan of the Washington Post - continue to display a certain naivet� in reporting stories on extremist organizations who falsely profess to be mainstream moderates. Merely parroting their words without examination creates articles that are void of fact and nuance. Perhaps it is well intentioned, as it is very appealing to take organizations such as the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) and the Muslim American Society (MAS) at their word. We want to believe that there are authoritative organizations out there to deflect and ultimately defeat radicalism. However, in an August 8 article titled �Educating Against Extremism; Muslims Reach Out to Youths Who Could Be Susceptible to Radicalism,� Sheridan neglected to mention that MAS is intimately and publicly connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, a secretive society dedicated to the establishment of Islamic rule, who recently issued a public appeal for support of the forces fighting the coalition in Iraq. Unfortunately, Sheridan�s omissions are part of a larger problem of journalists who have wittingly or unwittingly become defacto public relations representatives for extremist Islamist groups. Taking their press releases at face value, journalists have helped effectively to cover up the larger, serious issue of the growing secret network of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US. Tamar Tesler, Assistant Director for Special Projects at The Investigative Project, has written the following response to the Washington Post article:

In 1928, Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood, a rigidly conservative and highly secretive Egyptian-based organization dedicated to resurrecting a Muslim empire. According to al-Banna, �[i]t is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.� Al-Banna also gave the group the motto it still uses today: �God is our purpose, the Prophet our leader, the Quran our constitution, jihad our way and dying for God our supreme objective.� The 9/11 Commission Report describes the Brotherhood�s influence on Osama bin Laden, stating that �Bin Laden relies heavily on the Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb.� Qutb is one of the most influential, early Brotherhood theoreticians. The 9/11 Commission Report also describes the Muslim Brotherhood�s influence on Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman: �In speeches and writings, the sightless Rahman, often called the �Blind Sheikh,� preached the message of Sayyid Qutb�s Milestones, characterizing the United States as the oppressor of Muslims worldwide and asserting that it was their religious duty to fight against God�s enemies. An FBI informant learned of a plan to bomb major New York landmarks, including the Holland and Lincoln tunnels. Disrupting this �landmarks plot,� the FBI in June 1993 arrested Rahman and various confederates.�

Mixed Messages

The focus of groups like these on the teachings of the Brotherhood, specifically those of Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, are significant and sends a mixed message to the youth with whom they are engaging (see here and here). While Sheridan raises the issue of extremism among American Muslim youth, she never asks more than the first question, and is satisfied with a superficial response, as seen here in this interchange with MAS front man, Mahdi Bray (who, not insignificantly, is a former MPAC leader):

"In the past few years, several local, U.S.-born young men have gotten caught up in Islamic extremism. One group from the Washington suburbs was convicted of attending a training camp run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group that U.S. authorities have placed on the terrorist list. Last week, a 30-year-old D.C. taxi driver living near Baltimore, Mahmud Faruq Brent, was charged in a similar case. In an even more dramatic case, a 24-year-old who grew up in Falls Church, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, has been accused in an al Qaeda plot to assassinate President Bush. He has pleaded not guilty."

But then Sheridan throws this softball to Bray:

�The Muslim American Society has vigorously defended Abu Ali. Asked whether that contradicted his group's new campaign against extremism, Bray said no. His organization, he said, was concerned that Abu Ali's rights had been violated since he had been held in a Saudi prison for more than a year without charges.�

It is obviously understandable to voice concern about a person�s potential treatment in a Saudi prison. However, it is intellectually dishonest of Sheridan to not also point out that the MAS leadership had vehemently and repeatedly defended Ali al-Timimi in the pages of the Washington Post here (Shaker Elsayed is a longtime MAS leader) and here, as well as in other media outlets. Al-Timimi, the spiritual leader of the group of American-based Muslims, who has been (quoting the Sheridan story) �convicted of attending a training camp run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group that U.S. authorities have placed on the terrorist list� was sentenced to life in prison for counseling others to wage war against the U.S. and inducing them to use firearms in violation of federal law. Sheridan also failed to mention that Ismail (Randall) Royer, former MAS Communications Director, was one of the American-born young men from the Washington suburbs who was convicted in that very same Lashkar-e-Taiba training camp case.

In different ways, both MAS and MPAC grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, and their connections to the Brotherhood, both ideologically and practically, remain strong today.

MAS and the Muslim Brotherhood

In an extensive Chicago Tribune story on the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S., we learn that

"the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members. Some wanted the Brotherhood to remain underground, while others thought a more public face would make the group more influential� When the leaders voted, it was decided that Brotherhood members would call themselves the Muslim American Society, or MAS, according to documents and interviews. An undated internal memo instructed MAS leaders on how to deal with inquiries about the new organization. If asked, "Are you the Muslim Brothers?" leaders should respond that they are an independent group called the Muslim American Society. "It is a self-explanatory name that does not need further explanation." And if the topic of terrorism were raised, leaders were told to say that they were against terrorism but that jihad was among a Muslim's "divine legal rights" to be used to defend himself and his people and to spread Islam.'

MPAC and Muslim Brotherhood

Maher Hathout is the Senior Advisor and one of the founders of MPAC. Hassan Hathout served as MPAC�s President and co-founded the Islamic Center of Southern California with his brother, Maher. The Islamic Center of Southern California is MPAC�s sister organization and publishes MPAC�s publication, The Minaret. The �About the Authors� section states that �Hassan Hathout is a close disciple of the late Hassan al-Banna of Egypt.� (Acrobat file.) A March 1998 Minaret article titled, �In Appreciation of Dr. Hassan Hathout,� also details Hassan�s ties to al-Banna:

�My father would tell me that Hassan Hathout was a companion of Hassan al-Banna�Hassan Hathout would speak of al-Banna with such love and adoration; he would speak of a relationship not guided by politics or law but by a basic sense of human decency.�

In 1997, Maher Hathout delivered an address at the State Department on emerging Islamic trends (Acrobat file).

�In his [Hathout�s] view the reformists, represented by leaders like Jamaluddin Afghani, Muhammad Abdu, Mohammad Iqbal, Hassan al-Banna and Maududi, Ghannoushi, Erbakan and Turabi, have advocated a pluralistic society that would work for peace and justice for all. They have, however, according to Dr. Hathout, been ignored, despite the fact that �they represent the masses and speak their language.��

It is ironic Hathout is lauding Hassan Turabi as a reformer. A prominent Muslim Brotherhood member, Hasan al-Turabi was the head of the National Islamic Front, which the U.S. government has condemned for supporting terrorism, launching a genocidal war in southern Sudan, and for continued human rights violations. Turabi also gave Osama bin Laden sanctuary in Sudan. As part of his plan to turn the country into a global militant Islamist base, Hassan Turabi invited Bin Laden to Sudan in 1991. The two, bounded by a personal friendship and shared ideology, began a close financial and military cooperation that lasted until Bin Laden left Sudan in 1996.

Putting the genesis of these groups aside for a moment, it is important to ask how MAS and MPAC define radicalism or extremism Both organizations have publicly criticized nearly every arrest, indictment, prosecution, deportation and guilty verdict involving any Muslim and terrorism since 9-11, rather than endorse these actions as legitimate and necessary to our security, or at the very least urge calm and ask their constituents not to pass judgment until after the judicial process has been completed.

It is difficult, for example, to believe that MPAC truly intends to help eradicate radicalism or extremism when they continually assert that the U.S. government is mounting an aggressive war on Islam. In a recent position paper on U.S. counterterrorism policy, MPAC opposed U.S. government efforts to shut down terrorist financiers by arguing that authorities �have not proven their allegations� against Holy Land Foundation (HLF), Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), and Global Relief Foundation (GRF) and alleging that the seizure of these organizations� assets �bare [sic] strong signs of politicization.� These are, in fact, organizations where the US government has shown clear Al Qaeda and HAMAS ties (only HAMAS ties in the case of HLF) - see U.S Treasury Department sites here and here; the site of the U.S. Embassy in Japan; and the DHS/ICE site. And an article in MPAC�s The Minaret describes North American Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, Sami al-Arian, who is now on trial in Tampa, Florida, as a �role model.�

At the same time that groups such as MPAC and MAS claim that they are taking steps to prevent young American Muslim from being attracted to the Jihadi spirit, these same groups have hosted youth events where they encourage children to engage in just that. In May 2003, the Muslim American Society San Diego chapter held a Youth Conference where one of the speakers was Dr. Rasha al-Disuqi, a former professor from California Polytechnic University. Al-Disuqi gave a lecture on finding a good Muslim wife for the young men at the conference. Using a PowerPoint presentation, she emphasized to her young audience the importance of raising their children to be mujahideen, holy warriors, as well as to marry pious women, who according to her, must adhere to the �fiqh of Jihad in defense of Muslim occupied lands.� Additionally, at a 2000 conference given by the Islamic Association for Palestine, Al-Disuqi called on her audience �to collect as many donations as possible in order to support jihad in Palestine not only the food, not only medications, but also the weapons to kill the Zionists.�

It is clear that honest debates on the definitions of what constitutes �radical� or �extreme� and exactly what role the Muslim Brotherhood is playing in the United States are necessary and the sooner the better.

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