This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4702

AP's "Analysis" Of Christian Church Bombing In Egypt, Ridiculous

January 2, 2011

January 2, 2011 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - A piece published by the WashTimes [see, Egypt Church Bombing Probe Focuses On Local Group, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jan/2/egypt-church-bombing-probe-focuses-local-group/] and authored by AP is typically absurd, ignoring the country's largest, most influential Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, as a radicalizing factor.

"Egypt does, however, have a rising movement of Islamic hard-liners who, while they do not advocate violence, adhere to an ideology similar in other ways to al Qaeda. There have been fears they could be further radicalized by sectarian tensions. The hard-liners, known as Salafis, have a large and active presence in Alexandria..."

Salafism is a very old Muslim sect, whose adherents seek to return to the "purity" of early Islam, a sentiment similar [and compatible] with that of the Wahhabists, who dominate Saudi religious orthodoxy.

The resurgence of fundamentalist Islam is not new in Egypt or anywhere in the Muslim world by any means, with scholars tracing the turn towards radicalization to the inception of what has become its chief proponent, the Muslim Brotherhood, created in 1928 by Hassan Al Banna.

It's noteworthy to observe that Salafism is referred to favorably and often on the Brotherhood's English language website.

For example in an article published in Egypt's state newspaper, Al-Ahram [December 25-Jan 1, edition] as well as the MB website Khalil al-Anani discusses the Brotherhood's stance on participation in Egyptian elections, praising its Salafist tone, "...the fatwa is fundamentalist par excellence, not just in its language, which is closer to conventional Salafist rhetoric than it is to the more moderate rhetoric one is accustomed to hearing from the Brotherhood, but also in its unavoidable political and religious ramifications." [source, http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=27381&ref=search.php]

Despite its past history, the author's tone chides the Brotherhood for not being sufficiently fundamentalist.

The role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the rise of Islamic fundamentalism looms large. "Milestones," a book by the MB's chief theoretician, Sayyid Qutb, is often considered central to the modern Islamic fundamentalist movement.

What remains little known in the West, partly through apathy, partly through intentional ignorance is the revolutionary ideology of the Brotherhood. In a 2007 posting on Daniel Pipes' weblog, we find him referring to the MB's efforts to subvert America and the West from the inside, "sabotaging its miserable house."

"Aug. 1, 2007 update: In "Finally, The Smoking Gun," Douglas Farah examines one of the exhibits presented by the prosecution in the Holy Land Foundation case currently taking place in Texas. The document in question is a Muslim Brotherhood memorandum by Mohamed Akram, dated May 22, 1991, titled "Understanding the role of the Muslim Brother in North America." It outlines the Muslim Brotherhood's plan to convert the United States into a Muslim country. Farah considers it "the smoking gun of the Ikhwan's long-standing efforts to destroy the Western world."

Akram writes:

The process of settlement is a 'Civilization-Jihadist Process" with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that 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 the believers so that it is eliminated ad God's religion is made victorious over all other religions. …

Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim's destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny except for those who chose to slack..." [see, http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2005/05/the-muslim-brotherhoods-american-goals]

None of this should be surprising given the Muslim Brotherhood's motto, "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." With this in mind we find the AP's treatment of the Egyptian church bombing typically disingenuous, seemingly pretending that Egyptian radicalism is some new and rising movement. It certainly is rising, as is Islamic fundamentalism all over the world, but it is nothing new. Egypt is not tangential to the spread of the modern violent triumphalist Islamist creed, it is its birthplace.

© 2011 PipeLineNews.org LLC. All rights reserved.

Click on link to view video from Islamtube, a radical Muslim website, touting the importance of Qutb and Milestones

http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=salafi122011101%2Ehtm

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4702