Yemen’s Nobel Laureate Faces Questions about Muslim Brotherhood
In 2008, Ms. Karman was among the first women elected to Islah’s Consultative Assembly, and promptly angered hardliners by pushing for a minimum marriage age. Many girls are married by 12, and Yemen is ranked lowest globally in gender equality.
When al Zindani’s short lived Virtue and Vice Committee issued a fatwa against women in society, Karman responded, “Women’s political participation is a right we have by the constitution, by law. … A fatwa, any fatwa, cannot affect or change these rights.”
One western scholar wondered how the Nobel winner really feels about al-Qaeda. In 2007, Karman led the first public protest in Yemen against al-Qaeda after a terror attack killed eight tourists. In August, her hometown, Taiz, held another anti al-Qaeda protest and seminar.
In highlighting Karman’s party membership, the Nobel Committee also failed to grasp that Yemeni revolutionaries, with Karman at the helm, consider the opposition political parties as ineffectual, corrupt, and part of the problem. Protesters wholeheartedly reject a proposal endorsed by the U.S. to form a unity government of Islah, the Yemeni Socialist Party, and the ruling General People’s Congress.
Karman’s NGO, Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC), works to “promote development by encouraging independent thought, advocating women and children’s rights, adopting youth activities and working towards a transparent and just rule.” A vocal and unrelenting advocate for imprisoned journalists and banned newspapers, Karman organized weekly protests for two years, setting the stage for the popular uprising.
During the Sa’ada war, WJWC and other civil society organizations protested the arbitrary arrests of Shia, denouncing “incitement against a specific group of people because of their religious beliefs.” Civil society took a similar stand with regard to Yemen’s Jewish citizens. As head of Yemeni Journalists Against Corruption, Karman documented mass embezzlement and government corruption. During the cartoon controversy, she published, “Burning embassies is not the way.”
Because of her work, Ms. Karman was physically attacked, arrested, threatened , smeared in state newspapers, and criticized in Islah’s mosques. Now she is facing questions upon her arrival in the U.S. because of extremists in her political party that she is regularly at odds with.
Those questioning Ms. Karman’s beliefs might do well to consider the positive impact of her work and the courage necessary to stand in Yemen as a woman and proclaim freedom as a birthright. These scholars may do better exploring broader issues like the long standing democratic consensus at the heart of the Yemeni revolution, President Saleh’s payments to al-Qaeda, and the Sana’a regime’s expansive criminal enterprises including gun running, currency forgery, drug smuggling, and, sadly, human trafficking.
While I agree that Ms. Karman’s record shows her commitment to liberty is beyond reproach, I don’t think it’s “unfair” to question her (admittedly tenuous) connections to the MB. It would be unfair to condemn her for the agenda of the MB, true, but is it really such a crime for those unfamiliar with her work to ask about it? Asking just gives her another chance to condemn the extremists.
I’m sorry but I agree with the 1st poster as well. The bottom line is that your ARE in fact tainted by the friends you keep (or, alternately, elevated them). Had she hung out with the Mother Teresa’s, the Gandhi’s, and the Dali Lama’s — WOW, great for her then. But once you TOUCH the radioactive Muslim Brotherhood, your then tainted as well and I’m sorry, please don’t return with the classic argument used for Hezbollah that “well there’s a political arm and a militant arm” — that’s pure fig leaf claptrap nonsense that everyone in Lebanon and the entire Arab world knows all too well (they tolerate it b/c they unite behind their hatred of Israel, period).
If ANYONE mentions, “oh well the MB has a ‘political arm’ and a ‘militant’ arm or ‘wing’ as is so often used, as if it were a beautiful bird flying through the air, with but one wing slightly tainted… OY! Please, the Muslim Brotherhood has been plotting PURE destruction of Jews and Christians and the West since their INCEPTION in the 1920′s. There isn’t a single, not a single good thing one can say about them.
If I were a Yemeni protester (with visions of potentially peacefully leading my country out the abyss), I wouldn’t touch the MB with a 10-foot pole. But she did, and this “reaction” frankly, is a mild one given that sin — and it is an unpardonable sin given what the MB has plotted for 90 years now.
She should not have been granted a Nobel simply for touching that Terrorist — and please, let’s not quibble about who they really are: a terrorist organization.
If you enter politics, (gasp) even in the Arab world and (gasp) even in a tent, you must still have the smarts to stay away from those who kill people in their sleeps, who burn down Christian churches and defectively kidnap and marry Coptic daughters (forcing them to be Muslims for the rest of their lives and denying contact with their families). I’m not Christian, yet what the MB is either doing to the Copts explicitly or turning a blind eye to is frankly sickening (in Egypt).
And that is just the tip of the iceberg of what the MB is doing. HUGE documents were uncovered in Europe which, if you look for them lay out a multi-DECADE plan for taking over Europe. The list just goes on and on.
She is not a ignorant woman. Au Contraire, she knew exactly what she was doing by associating herself with the MB among others, but the others unfortunately for her do not erase the radioactivity, or the Coptic blood that was transferred to her by touching the MB, i.e. it’s irrelevant who else she may have known).
Why can there NOT be an Arab Gandhi? It seems since the rise of Islam, that has been simply impossible. All Arab leaders use heft amounts of violence. And again, even if she never rose her had against a single person, when you walk hand in hand with those who DO raise their hands and stab others, drawing blood, that blood splatters on you as well.
I think I’ve made my point.
The US is reaching, delving into areas where we have no business.
Nation building for our enemies is a lame effort to bring about stability, and is convoluted foreign policy. This long standing policy of our hapless leaders has drained the moral of the American people as well as our finances.
When did it become America’s objective to build and finance the world?
Only a crack-pot could reason building schools and hospitals is what makes people happy. Heck they’ve been shoveling the same crapola at us for my entire life, as they do now shouting from roof tops- Education blah blah blah, Hospitalization blah blah blah, and I’m not happy about it. Why would they?
How do you feed a nation of scholars? Coast to coast scholars with chalk dust on their fingers. Finger licking good…
Have you never heard of working from within? Yes, she belongs to the Islah group but has been doing everything she can to bring about change in the group. Even now the MB is hurting from the youth movements inside it working for moderation and change. Ms. Karman is part of that change. Those outside yelling at them do nothing but strengthen their resolve, those working from inside by way of facts and common sense and education can bring about the downfall of all that is bad in that brotherhood. She and all like her should get our complete support.
I should think she would welcome non-hostile questioning. It would be a perfect way to get her message out. Even if the questioning was hostile it would give her a chance to voice her views.
Can we please dismiss the “Nobel Laureate” bestowal bit, as it is no longer credibile to assign “greatness”? Like MOST good ideas, with good intentions, and of course, other peoples money, the inevitable usurpation and co-option, by less-than-honorable/ self promoting folk, desperately clinging to fleeting glory, or OTHER less-than- altruistic “investment” of SOME sort.
Granted, though “Peace through superior firepower” has it’s merits, I suspect that was NOT the original intent when Mr. Nobel was deciding what to do with the procedes of his “Oh crap, what have I done?” fortune.
Kinda’ like the Oscars on those years when there’s no-one who’s talent actually stands out. “Well, we’ve got to “bestow” the “honor” to SOMEBODY, and have a self-promoting gala doing it, maintaining for the little people how um….important-to-the-universe and worthy-of-entry-at-”54″ we are.
Inevitably, the dogma that gloriously jumps the shark subsequently gets run over by the Karma.
Her main efforts seem decent up front. I suspect her intentions are fairly honest in most regards. What I am wondering is whether these same beliefs, and policies she advocates for are also for Jewish people. It’s the old, “Freedom for us, not them They’re evil.” Also, what’s her stance on conversions from Islam to any other religion, or gays, etc. Her advocacy appears, to me, to be narrow in scope unless I see otherwise.
thank u Jane
we want the world 2 read what u write
u r our ambassador 2 the world