The British government has issued a blistering report on the secretive Muslim Brotherhood, with findings that contradict some favorable U.S. views — including the Obama administration’s — of the Islamic fundamentalist fraternity.
The investigative paper says the Brotherhood promotes (and sometimes takes a role in) violence; seeks world domination of Shariah, or Islamic, law; and views other religions as illegitimate. Its senior leaders “routinely use virulent anti-Semitic language” and have justified the killings of American and other coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
To this day, Brotherhood leaders say the U.S. government fabricated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that the war on groups such as al Qaeda “is a pretext to attack Muslims,” the British report says.
The report, simply titled the “Muslim Brotherhood Review,” appears to be unprecedented in these politically correct times in that a Western government is confronting a Muslim group that is an ideological organizing force but not overtly a transnational terrorist organization.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said the investigation was conducted to determine whether the Brotherhood is contributing to violence in his country and elsewhere by creating an environment for extremists to act.
“The movement is deliberately opaque and habitually secretive,” Mr. Cameron said.
He said the Brotherhood “promotes values which appear intolerant of equality and freedom of faith and belief.”
Mr. Cameron said the report’s major findings will help his government set policy, such as whether to ban the group altogether in Britain or greatly reduce visas to members wanting to enter the country.
Like France and Belgium, Britain is home to disruptive groups of Muslims. The government recently adopted a plan to combat extremism, and its options include closing mosques and deporting radical clerics.
“The Muslim Brotherhood’s foundational texts call for the progressive moral purification of individuals and Muslim societies and their eventual political unification in a caliphate under Shariah law,” the prime minister said. “To this day, the Muslim Brotherhood characterizes Western societies and liberal Muslims as decadent and immoral.”
The Brotherhood’s English-language website condemned the report Dec. 17, the day Mr. Cameron delivered the findings to Parliament.
Amr Darrag, a member of the executive board of Egypt’s Brotherhood-created Freedom and Justice Party, stated: “The Prime Minister’s statement that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered a possible indicator of extremism unfairly condemns millions of Muslims and non-Muslims across the world, many of whom are British citizens. This is to fundamentally misinterpret the Middle East’s largest democratic organization and misunderstand what is needed to bring democratic, peaceful and stable governance to the Middle East.”
The White House has defended outreach to Brotherhood-linked leaders as part of a broader effort to stem extremism and bring Muslims into mainstream America.
The White House press office did not respond to a query seeking comment.
Agencies
