The Muslim Brotherhood: Poorly Understood by U.S. Counter Terrorism Officials

SOURCE: HUB PAGES

By Brian Fairchild

The Muslim Brotherhood is poorly understood by US officials, many of whom believe it is a moderate, peaceful organization that could actually help the West against alQaeda. These views are primarily based on historical news reports from the 1970s, and recent pronunciations of peace from Brotherhood leaders in Cairo, Egypt, such as General Guidance Council member Dr. Abd al Muni’m Abu al-Fotuh, or the Cairo chapter’s Deputy Leader, Mahmoud al Sayyid Ahmad al Habib. These views are also reinforced by the fact that there has been considerable open feuding between the Brotherhood and al Qaeda over the past several years.


FACTIONS WITHIN THE BROTHERHOOD:

What most officials do not understand, however, is that the Brotherhood has been factionalized since shortly after it was established by Hassan al Banna in 1928, and that public pronouncements of peaceful intentions do not necessarily reveal the Brotherhood’s true character.

Within the Brotherhood, there is a reform faction that espouses peaceful participation in the democratic process, and there is a revolutionary salafi faction which, in the 1940s, created the Brotherhood’s terrorist wing called the Special Section, and which now champions the radical Salafi-Jihadi ideology of Brotherhood ideologue Sayyid Qutb, which is practiced by al Qaeda and all other Sunni Islamist terrorist organizations.

SALAFISM:

The reader might wonder why he or she might even be slightly interested in the term “Salafi”. The reason is because an understanding of Salafism is central to understanding Islamist radicalization and the international jihad. For example, al Qaeda refers to itself as a Salafi-Jihadi organization, and the Muslim Brotherhood states that the first responsibility of all Muslim Brotherhood chapters is to “follow the Salaf”. 

Moreover, the late Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who was commander of the al Qaeda-founded Islamic State of Iraq until he was killed by US forces in May 2010, stated that Salafism is the key component of Islamist radicalization. On February 14, 2008, referring to the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, he stated on the al-Hesbah website that:

o “What would help our brothers in their jihad against the Jewish attack…is the establishment of a Salafi organization, which would embrace the Salafi ideology, …would maintain active ties with the religious scholars, the sheikhs, the mosques, and the leaders of Palestinian society, and would train Palestinian youth to wage noble jihad…”

A Salafi religious orientation, mixed with the Islamist political dogma of Sayyid Qutb, forms the ideology of Islamism which is the doctrinal foundation of all Sunni Islamist terrorist organizations, from Bosnia to the Philippines, and encompasses al Qaeda, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, al Shabaab al Mujahedeen, Abu Sayaf, jamaa Islamiyya, Hamas, and most others. 

Simply stated, in order to understand the international Islamist movement, and especially to understand how Muslims are radicalized, counterterrorism officials must understand Salafism and the Islamist ideology of Sayyid Qutb.

In brief, Qutb’s Salafi doctrine emphasized the sovereignty of Allah in all aspects of life, but especially in politics, law, and warfare. He condemned all man-made political systems as an affront to God and emphasized that offensive jihad against the West and all Muslim apostate regimes is required for Islam’s survival. To bring this about, he stated that an organized movement led by a disciplined and dedicated vanguard must be created that will bring the world’s Muslims back to what he defined as true Islam and lead them against Islam’s enemies.

THE REFORMERS VS THE SALAFIS – 2004-2010:

Beginning in 2004, reformers in the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, Egypt began making a push for the Brotherhood to become more of a political party than a Salafi religious movement, and they engineered the Brotherhood’s entry into electoral politics in Egypt, which took the Egyptian government by surprise and resulted in the Brotherhood winning approximately 20 percent of the seats in parliament, making it the largest opposition bloc in the country.

Buoyed by this success, the reformers tried to wrest control of the organization from the Qutbist hardliners, which included the Supreme Guide, Mohammad Mahdi Akef.

This factional infighting came to a head during the Brotherhood’s elections in January 2010, when the reform faction was roundly defeated and completely routed from the Brotherhood’s policy positions. Embarrassed and out-maneuvered by the Qutbists, reformer and Deputy Supreme Guide Mahmoud al Sayyid Ahmad al Habib was forced to resign all of his official positions in disgrace. 

As a result of the elections, the Qutbists now control all the power positions in the Brotherhood, including the position of Supreme Guide and the entire membership of the Guidance Council. Analysts expect these hard-line Qutbists to focus once again on its Salafi Islamist creed, which can only bode ill for the world. 

As one might imagine, reformers in the Brotherhood are unhappy with their defeat. An example of one reformer’s anger is found on his the web site. On his site, Abdelraham Ayash, a member of the Brotherhood’s reform faction, documented his dissatisfaction over the results of the January 2010 Muslim Brotherhood elections. In an entry on his blog site entitled The Timeline of Qutbism Era Starting, he stated:

• “I just want to write down my testimony that I –as a Muslim Brotherhood Member- am refusing the elections, I’m refusing the way of holding the elections, the results of the elections and the new executive office members! I’m refusing all these points because I want to be honest on Hassan Albanna’s heritage, I can’t accept Sayed Qutb’s ideology in Muslim Brotherhood, and it’s clear that the new office will adopt the Qutbic Ideology, most of the office members were arrested with Sayyed Qutb in 1965”.

THE FEUD BETWEEN THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD REFORMERS AND AL QAEDA:

During the six year competition between the Qutbists and the reformers, al Qaeda became increasingly critical of the reform faction’s flirtation with democracy. 

Al Qaeda believes that, as a Salafi organization, the Brotherhood must act on the principle that Allah is sovereign over man in all arenas, especially politics and law, and as such, it must reject all man-made laws and systems and certainly not participate in the man-made democratic process. Al Qaeda believes the reform faction’s participation in US-backed democratic elections is a dilution of Islam and a victory for what they consider to be the apostate Egyptian government and the infidel West.

Many counterterrorism analysts unfamiliar with the Brotherhood and its history viewed the democratic electoral path of the reform faction in tandem with the vehement criticism of this path by al Qaeda as an indication that the Muslim Brotherhood is a peaceful organization that could be a possible ally of the West against al Qaeda. 

This view was fundamentally flawed, however, by the fact that even at the height of al Qaeda criticism, the fight was not a fight about goals, but of tactics. Both the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda identify themselves as Salafi organizations, both are Islamic supremacist organizations and both share the ultimate mission of establishing Islamic governance worldwide under Sharia law.

AL QAEDA COOPERATES WITH THE BROTHERHOOD’S QUTBIST ORGANIZATIONS:

Despite their criticism of the Brotherhood in Egypt, al Qaeda has no problem dealing with Brotherhood individuals and organizations around the world as long as they honor their Salafi roots and follow the teachings and dogma of Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna and Brotherhood ideologue Sayyid Qutb. 

Al Qaeda’s cooperation with two high-profile Muslim Brothers comes immediately to mind, Hasan al Turabi, the former head of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Sudan who hosted Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda in the Sudan from 1991-1996, and Abdulmajeed Zindani, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen in 1970.

• Turabi was dubbed the “Pope of Terrorism” by the European press for his sponsorship and support for virtually every Arab and Muslim terrorist organization. Because of this activity, the Clinton administration designated Sudan as a State Sponsor of Terror.

• On February 24, 2004, the U.S. Treasury Department named Zindani to be a Specially Designated Global Terrorist because of his close association with Osama bin Laden, and his long association with al Qaeda. Besides his relationship with bin Laden, other indicators of Zindani’s al Qaeda connections are his long association with al Qaeda commander Anwar al Awlaki who helped Zindani run a al Qaeda funding mechanism in 1998. Awlaki also taught at Imam University, a Salafi breeding ground, which Zindani created in 1995. This is the same university in which American Taliban, John Walker Lindh was radicalized. Students from Zindani’s university are suspected to have killed three American missionaries and the number two man in the Yemeni Socialist Party. Moreover, in early 2010, Zindani stated that he would call for a jihad if U.S. troops should enter Yemen to fight against al Qaeda.

Given this understanding, in their attempts to understand radicalization and the threat of homegrown terrorists, US counter terrorism officials must seek out and neutralize any American Muslim organizations that teach Salafi Jihadi ideology to their members, especially Qutbist ideology, which forms the doctrinal core of all Sunni terrorist organizations.

Mr. Fairchild is the Director of Intelligence for the Intrepid Group, LLC. The intrepid Group's website, www.intrepidgrouptutorials.com, offers a subscription service that provides video tutorials on the global Jihad movement, as well as a lot of great free videos and information on its blog.

Source: Brian Fairchild