The Muslim Brotherhood has long been a major political force in the Muslim world. Its power comes from a deep conviction among Muslims in general that its ideology represents True Islam and that it is the front line of defense of Islam and its protection from any novelty or change. As a matter of fact there is a law in Sharia that entrusts the Muslim head of state with just that; protecting Islam from any ‘bidaa’ meaning novelty. Many Muslims in the West defend not only the Brotherhood but also many of its affiliates such as Hamas, and place them in high regard. To many Muslims, criticizing the Brotherhood is equivalent to attacking Islam itself. Thus the Brotherhood has been a major force in bringing down regimes and installing new governments, and whether we like it or not they will play a significant role in any administration, whether it is openly Islamic or nominally secular.
Wherever Muslims go the Brotherhood will follow; and it has now infiltrated many non-Muslim countries including the US, even our government. As a fellow Egyptian, I have no doubt that the head-covered, Egyptian-born White House advisor Dalia Mogahed, is herself a Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas sympathizer and Sharia defender. She helped write president Obama’s Cairo speech, which was geared to appease and legitimize the Brotherhood, the very organization that inspired Al-Qaeda that attacked America on 9/11/01. Obama believed that he would be the hero who will make the Muslim world love us, but he ended up only empowering the Brotherhood against both Arab reformists and Western interests.
Wherever the Sharia-enforcer Muslim Brotherhood goes, turmoil and lawlessness, including vigilante street justice, follows. No government can rule independently of religion (Islam) if the Brotherhood, or any of its affiliates, is present. And now the Brotherhood is operating in the US under pretty names, and influencing our politicians from the lowest to the highest levels. While the US media is petrified of the Brotherhood taking hold of the Egyptian government, they are closing their eyes to many of its covert operatives and their influence in the US. While our media is terrified that Egypt will be a sharia ruled State, it is attacking Americans who want to make Sharia illegal in America.
Westerners should not have any illusions about secular government in Egypt or any other Muslim nation. There are two kinds of governments in the Muslim world: those who pretend to be secular when they are not; and openly proclaimed theocracies. The Brotherhood has learned lessons from Iran and is not likely to choose the latter form. They will probably not take power openly, at least not right away; we will not see a bearded Sheikh installed as the Egyptian ayatollah. What is more likely to happen is they will back a sympathizer like Al Baradei to be the front man posing as a democracy-loving moderate while his actually policy and rule must conform to the Islamists – or he won’t survive. They will hold his feet to the fire to abide by Sharia and the Jihad doctrine against the West and Israel. If he does not they will turn against him. The Brotherhood has done this to every leader in Egypt and will never stop. Muslim culture is masterful at camouflage, and if they have to pretend they are a secular government they will do so until the day comes when they don’t have to pretend any more. The Brotherhood’s basic ideology is equal to basic Muslim ideology, where Jihad is a centerpiece duty of the Muslim head of state.
I foresaw that there could be an uprising in Egypt that would empower the Brotherhood right after I heard Obama’s Cairo speech. Losing Egypt and perhaps more other countries may be Obama’s legacy. Obama has empowered the Islamists not only in the Muslim world, but also inside the US. Could anyone have imagined the US president support the building of a mosque on Ground Zero against the wishes of his own people and families of the victims? Could anyone have imagined that Islamists are being hired in our homeland security and the White House? An American president bowing before the Arabian despot King whose countrymen were behind 9/11? A king whose only contribution to the world culture is sitting on the cash register of Western Oil companies. Who could have imagined that the first US president elected after 9/11 would declare on foreign land that America is not a Christian nation but a Muslim nation? We have two more years of empowering of the Islamists and only God knows what the situation will be when Obama leaves office. The Brotherhood has said more than once that they will put the peace treaty with Israel to a referendum to nullify it. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, headquartered in Yemen is waiting for an opportunity to set the Arabian Peninsula on fire. The US better be ready for oil shipment troubles and perhaps embargoes to say the least. A responsible administration must immediately ‘drill baby drill’.
Who ever takes office after Obama will have to weed out from our government the Sharia lovers bearded Islamists who refuse to call Hamas a terrorist organization and who sympathize with the Brotherhood. This must be done if we are to protect ourselves from getting sucked into Islam’s orbit of no return.
Nonie Darwish is the author “Cruel and usual Punishment” and the President of FormerMuslimsUnited.org.