Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, testifying before the House Intelligence Committee today, stated that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is a largely secular, non-violent umbrella group.
I have quickly put together the quotes below from the Brotherhood’s former and current leaders. They clearly show that the Muslim Brotherhood is extremely religious and violent, and that former Supreme Guide Muhammad Mahdi Akef even supports Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
Mr. Clapper’s congressional testimony reveals that he simply doesn’t know what he is talking about regarding one of the most important topics for American policy considerations throughout the Muslim world, and particularly and immediately in Egypt.
The fact that the director of national intelligence is so ignorant of facts that are so easily amassed, and that he could lead U.S. policymakers so far astray from reality at such a crucial time, is inexcusable and grounds for his immediate resignation.
The following public comments were made by Muhammad Mahdi Akef, the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, from 2004-2010. These statements well document Akef’s Salafi-jihadist orientation, anti-Americanism, and support of Osama bin Laden and a-Qaeda. They reveal that he and his Brothers are more than willing to resort to violence, including violence against the United States, to defend their Islamist ideals.
- On January 18, 2004, he stated: “But the bombings in Palestine and Iraq are a religious obligation. This is because these two countries are occupied countries, and the occupier must be expelled in every way possible. Thus, the Muslim Brotherhood movement supports martyrdom operations in Palestine and Iraq in order to expel the Zionists and the Americans.”
- On January 20, 2004, he stated: “In Israel, there should be no differentiation between a civilian and a member of the military. All are enemies of the Arab homeland and of Islam. They are occupiers and have no right to one handbreadth of the land of Palestine.”
- On January 18, 2004, he stated: “We have no relations with the U.S. It is a Satan that abuses the region, lacking all morality and law.”
- On August 17, 2004, he stated: “Islam considers the resistance to be Jihad for the sake of Allah and this is a commandment, a personal obligation [ fardhayn ] incumbent on all of the residents of the occupied countries. This commandment takes precedence over all other religious duties. Even a woman is obligated to go to war, even without her husband’s permission, and youth are permitted to go out and fight.”
- On December, 11, 2005, he stated: “The Muslim Brotherhood is a global movement whose members cooperate with each other throughout the world, based on the same religious worldview — the spread of Islam, until it rules the world. We are in the global arena, and we preach for Allah according to the guidelines of the Muslim Brotherhood. All the members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the international arena operate according to the written charter that states that Jihad is the only way to achieve these goals.”
- During Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon in 2006, Akef stated that, if given permission by the Egyptian government, he was prepared to arm and field 10,000 Muslim Brothers to support Hezbollah. On November 30, 2007, he stated that his offer also applied to the confrontation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. But did not stop there:
“This applies to any country under occupation. One of the principles of the Muslim Brotherhood is to rid the Arab and Islamic nation of any foreign rule. The Muslim Brotherhood must support all the forces of resistance in the Arab and Islamic world.”
- On May 22, 2008 during an interview with a correspondent from www.elaph.com, Akef was asked if he thought Osama bin Laden was a terrorist or a jihad fighter. Akef responded: “Without a shadow of a doubt — a jihad fighter. I do not doubt the fact that he opposes the occupation, nor that he does this to get closer to Allah.” When the interviewer asked if this meant that Akef supported al-Qaeda, Akef responded: “Yes, I support its activities against occupation, but not against civilians.”
- In November 2008, he stated: “Tyranny requires the raising of the young people on the basis of the principles of jihad so as to create mujahidin who love to die as much as others love to live and who can perform their duty towards their God, themselves and homeland.”
Muhammad Badi, the new supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood who took over the organization from Akef in January 2010, has said the following:
- On March 9, 2010, on the Brotherhood’s website IkhwanOnline: “They crucially need to understand that the improvement and change that the [Muslim] nation seeks can only be attained through jihad and sacrifice and by raising a jihadi generation that pursues death just as their enemies pursue life.”
- On March 18, 2010, on the Brotherhood’s website IkhwanOnline: “… Jihad must not be likened to terror. Jihad means making sacrifices in order to restore what has been stolen, defend one’s property, expel the occupier, and make Allah’s word supreme, while terror is occupying someone else’s land….”
- On April 15, 2010, on the Brotherhood’s website IkhwanOnline: “We will continue to raise the banner of jihad — two swords and a Koran — as long as the Zionists raise their flag, with two blue stripes to represent their so-called state [reaching] from the Nile to the Euphrates. And the [Muslim] brotherhood will continue to view the Jews and Zionists as their first and foremost enemies.”