Turkey Plays Host to Embattled Muslim Brotherhood Officials

As if further evidence of Turkey’s Islamist agenda is needed, the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch points to a recent article saying Turkey has become the focal point for Brotherhood deliberations and meetings following Egypt’s crackdown on the movement.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stepped up to challenge “the foreign legitimacy” of Egypt’s interim government after the army ousted President Mohamed Morsi in July, writes Mohammad Abdel Kader of the Al Arabiya Institute for Studies. The intervention followed weeks of protests which drew tens of millions of Egyptians angered by Morsi’s emphasis on consolidating Islamist power at the expense of Egypt’s crumbling economy and infrastructure.

There are reports that Turkey supplied the Egyptian Brotherhood with weapons, Abdel Kader writes, and he notes that a Turkish intelligence officer was arrested in Egypt.

Brotherhood officials from throughout the world met in Turkey at least twice since July and discussed strategies for coping with their failures in Egypt. They also discussed the effect the purge in Egypt would have on Brotherhood franchises in Tunisia, Sudan, Jordan and Algeria, Abdel Kader writes.

Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch notes that this is just the latest example of Erdogan’s government’s increasing embrace of the Brotherhood and its terrorist progeny, Hamas.

While the United States reduced its military aid to Egypt because of the transition, it recently agreed to a 10-year, $200 million counter-radicalization program in partnership with Turkey. IT aims to combat jihadist recruitment in hotspots including Yemen and Pakistan through education and vocational programs.

That prompted Daniel Pipes to quip that “American taxpayer dollars will help members of a non-violent extremist ideology to educate youth ‘about the dangers of violent extremist ideologies.'”

Turkey is believed to have tipped off Iran to the identities of 10 Iranians meeting Israeli intelligence officials inside Turkey–meetings that likely involved information on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.