Inspired by the YMCA when it was founded in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has been under a ban since 1948, and its real size is difficult to gauge. The group was brutally repressed by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, it has at times been propped up as a foil – especially for Western audiences – with periodic crackdowns that have sent many of its members to prison.
In what way was the Muslim Brotherhood “inspired by” the YMCA? By the way the YMCA doesn’t assassinate leaders? Or that it’s comprised of people whose Christian faith would get them killed in many Arab countries? The Brotherhood was aligned with Nazis during the 30s and, after the fall of the Istanbul caliphate, filled the void of Muslim unity. It wasn’t “inspired” by the YMCA; it was “inspired” by the hole left after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
I love the editorial buffing the author of this piece gives the Muslim Brotherhood. Will Englund goes out of his way not to trip up the “peaceful Muslim Brotherhood” narrative with any pesky facts about murder or riots.
But as Egyptian society begins to weave a whole new cloth, the Muslim Brotherhood, alternately used and demonized by Mubarak over the years, has been slow to contribute. An organization dedicated to the creation of a more thoroughly Islamic Egyptian state …
That last sentence is kitten-speak for sharia law. And the reason they opposed Mubarak and that there existed such contention in their relationship? Mubarak stood in their way.
For most of its existence in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has refrained from violence against the state. It is not the organization of radical jihadists that it is sometimes made out to be.
Really? Remember this guy?
Anwar Sadat
He was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Andrew C. McCarthy at National Review Online writes:
the Brotherhood eventually murdered Sadat in a 1981 coup attempt — in accordance with a fatwa issued by Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman (later of World Trade Center-bombing fame) after Sadat made peace with the hated “Zionist entity.”
None of these truths are mentioned as evidence in the WaPo article as to why the Muslim Brotherhood doesn’t have the best reputation.
It also explains why our media doesn’t, either.
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