'We're Totally Not Terrorists' Muslim Brotherhood Mourns Terror Leader Who OK'd NYC Bombings

Relatives and friends of "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted of plotting terror attacks in New York City in the decade before 9/11, carry his coffin after funeral prayers at the Grand Mosque in the Nile Delta town of Gamalia, Egypt, on Feb. 22, 2017. (AP Photo/Mostafa Albasuni)

This past weekend, Omar Abdel Rahman — the “Blind Sheikh” — died in a U.S. federal prison. He was convicted 20 years ago for his role in authorizing the planned “Day of Terror” terror campaign targeting New York City landmarks following up on the 1993 World Trade Center bombing launched by his followers:

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Our PJ Media colleague, former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy, was the man who put the Blind Sheikh in prison. McCarthy’s memoir of the terror leader’s trial, Willful Blindness, remains one of the must-reads for understanding the nature of the domestic terror threat:

As reported here by Bridget Johnson, al-Qaeda quickly came out and called for attacks on the U.S. in response to the Blind Sheikh’s death:

https://twitter.com/Bridget_PJM/status/834577243343028224

But the tributes to the dead terror leader didn’t only come from al-Qaeda.

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The Muslim Brotherhood — which is currently engaged in a widespread campaign to prevent it from being designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. — marked the occasion, too.

Reuters reports:

Movements across the Islamist spectrum from the Muslim Brotherhood to al-Qaeda issued statements mourning him, and several leaders from Egypt’s Islamic Group, which views the sheikh as a spiritual leader and renounced violence in 1997, attended.

In fact, the official Muslim Brotherhood statement called the Blind Sheikh a “martyr”:

The Blind Sheik was also publicly mourned by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, like Gamal Heshmat. 

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If Heshmat sounds familiar, he was part of the Muslim Brotherhood delegation received by President Obama’s State Department in January 2015:

Media outlets aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood have followed suit, calling for “revenge” against the United States for the Blind Sheikh’s “martyrdom”:

It should be noted that the release of the Blind Sheikh was a priority for al-Qaeda — bin Laden had demanded his release a year prior to the 9/11 attacks.

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In this demand, bin Laden was joined by — you guessed it — the Muslim Brotherhood.

One of the first acts of Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood official who won the June 2012 Egyptian presidential election, was to publicly call for the U.S. to release the Blind Sheikh and vow to work for his release.

What is a group that takes to the pages of the New York Times to announce that they have renounced terrorism doing mourning a chief terrorist leader the same day? A man who, like Osama bin Laden, had authorized terrorist attacks on the U.S. homeland?

That group is assuming Americans still trust the New York Times, that’s what.

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