Thursday, September 25, 2008

Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 and has since spread around the globe, including the United States and Europe. It is a secret organization, hence details about its current policies can be difficult to ascertain. But there are some clues.

In November 2001, the Swiss seized an anonymous document entitled "The Project" during a raid on the villa of Youssef Nada, a banker proud of his long association with the Muslim Brotherhood. "The Project" lists as goals: to establish an Islamic State; to build social, economic, scientific and health institutions as a means of establishing contact with the people, and to work through parliamentary and other mechanisms but not to participate in decision-making contrary to sharia law; to support jihad movements throughout the world, including in Palestine; to push for the total liberation of Palestine; and "to nourish a sentiment of rancor with respect to the Jews and refuse all coexistence." (For the full text, click at the bottom of the page of the link.)

As for the American organization, the FBI found a memorandum dating from 1991 that they believe describes the goals of the U.S. branch. (The first half is in Arabic, the second in English.) It describes the Brotherhood's work as a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and "'sabotaging' its miserable house."

Needless to say, Muslim Brotherhood representatives either claim that these are outdated documents or otherwise irrelevant.

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