Obama’s Muslim Brotherhood Links Deserve Second Look

“The Speech” delivered by Barack Obama may have been intended to strengthen ties with the Muslim community, but it also served to add another chapter to Obama’s troubling history with the world’s oldest international terrorist organization – the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Islamic revivalist movement Muslim Brotherhood (MB), founded in 1928 by the Egyptian schoolteacher Hassan Al-Banna, seeks to establish a global Islamic Caliphate ruled by Shari’ah law. MB has spawned such terrorist groups as Hamas – which is actually the Palestinian chapter of MB – Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Al Qaeda. Despite being officially outlawed in Egypt, MB politicians – who run as independents – account for 88 seats, or just over 20% of Egypt’s parliament. In addition, MB has either founded or is linked to most major U.S. Muslim organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Students Association (MSA), the Muslim American Society, and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). The MB denounced violence back in the 1970’s and now claim that they stand for democratic reform, but they support suicide bombings and are tied to international terrorist attacks.

At least ten MB members – including Mohammed Saad el-Katatni, the head of MB’s parliamentary bloc – were invited to attend the speech at Cairo University. The Obama administration claims that invitations were sent out exclusively by Egypt’s Cairo and Al-Azhar Universities. However according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, the Egyptian daily Al-Masyroon reported that the invitations were “extended at the request of U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey.”

Reporters questioned Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough whether or not MB members were invited by the administration, but McDonough would not give an answer.

“I can tell you that invitations have gone out to the full range of actors in Egyptian political society,” responded McDonough. Apparently to the Obama administration the “full range of actors” includes those who see suicide bombing as “the greatest of all sorts of Jihad in the Cause of Allah.”

It is disturbing that McDonough would not deny inviting members from the organization whose founder said, “It 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.” One can only imagine that a Christian or Jewish supremacist group set on world domination would not be invited to attend, so why should a Muslim group get a free pass?

McDonough’s reaction is even more disturbing when you consider the 1991 MB memo on organizing members in North America that said all members “must understand their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within, and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

The MB, CAIR, and ISNA all praised Obama’s speech and welcomed the new approach. Part of this “new approach” is Obama’s promise to ease the ability of Muslims to give zakat, or the Islamic duty of charitable donations. The ISNA said in a statement that they “applaud the President’s recognition of the problems Muslim American charities have been having and the hardship that resulted from the ‘rules on charitable giving’ by federal agencies. We welcome his commitment to ensure that Muslim Americans can fulfill their zakat duty, a religious obligation to provide the needy with financial support.”

Contrary to Obama’s (and ISNA’s) claim, however, there are no rules making it “harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation.” What rules are in place are laws prohibiting material support to terrorist groups. As we recently witnessed in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial, zakat is used to finance terrorism. HLF – considered the largest Muslim charity group in the U.S. – sent at least $12.4 million to the MB-linked Hamas. In fact, Shari’ah Law mandates that a portion of zakat goes towards financing jihad.

Yousef al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of MB, wrote in 1999 that “Declaring holy war to save … Muslim lands is an Islamic duty, and fighting for such purposes in those occupied territories is the Way of Allah for which zakat must be spent.” As of this April, 27 Islamic charity groups – including the three largest in the U.S. – had either been indicted or designated as sponsors of terrorism by the Treasury Department. Obama’s promise may have pleased MB, but opening the door for American dollars to finance jihad is abhorrent.

The president even stated that he would be working with the MB-linked Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on fighting polio. While fighting polio is a worthy cause, working alongside an organization that could seek to imprison or execute those who speak against Islam is not. The OIC is is the same organization that has been seeking a United Nations ban on “defamation of religions” which is a treaty that will silence any speech deemed defamatory by Islam – the only religion specifically mentioned in the treaty. For example: if a Christian in Pakistan is asked whether Muhammad is a prophet – and responds “no” – the Christian is guilty of blasphemy. According to Pakistan’s Shari’ah court, the punishment for blasphemy is death. The plan is derived from the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, which states “that all rights are subject to Shari’ah law, and makes Shari’ah law the only source of reference for human rights.” Despite the fact that Obama calls himself a “committed Christian,” it is inconceivable that he would work alongside a 57-nation Christian alliance that silenced free speech and sought the death penalty for members of other religions for denying the divinity of Jesus Christ.

During Obama’s 2008 campaign, his Muslim outreach coordinator had to step down after less than two weeks on the job. Mazen Asbahi previously sat on a board of Allied Assets Advisors Fund (AAAF) along with Jamal Said, the imam of a Chicago mosque that supports Hamas. AAAF is a subsidiary of North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), which was founded by MB. Both Said and NAIT are unindicted co-conspirators in the HLF trial. In addition, Asbahi was formerly a leader in the MSA while attending the University of Michigan, and had joined four other MB-linked organizations. Asbahi stepped down after he was exposed by the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report.

The Obama campaign had to cut ties with Robert Malley, a member of Obama’s Middle East advisory council, when the Times of London disclosed that Malley was in regular contact with members of Hamas. Malley was involved with the terrorist group through his role at the George Soros-funded “conflict resolution think tank,” the International Crisis Group. Malley’s father Simon was a personal friend of the late Yasser Arafat – a MB member – and Robert wrote several op-ed pieces with former Arafat adviser Hussein Agha.

“He has no formal role in the campaign and he will not play any role in the future,” said an Obama spokesman when Malley was cut in May, but Malley was apparently back in Obama’s good graces when he was dispatched by the president-elect to meet with Syrian leaders following the election in November.

In a 2004 fatwa, Qardawi stated that Muslims killed in action against American troops in Iraq are martyrs “given their good intentions since they consider these invading troops an enemy within their territories but without their will.” As Commander-in-Chief of the forces whose death the MB is advocating, it defies reason that this administration should be working alongside them on so many levels.

Scott Wheeler, the Director of the National Republican Trust summed it up: “The American people did not vote for President Barack Hussein Obama to make peace with Muslim terrorists.”