Barry Rubin Egypt Muslim Brotherhood

BARRY RUBIN: THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ARE NOT MODERATE…….

The Tundra Tabloids has said for years the exact same thing about the Hamas, the ‘Palestinian’ branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. These are not people with whom you can expect any kind of moderation, they’re fanatics, Islamic fanatics, who really do believe every word written in the Koran and in the Hadiths.

Some years ago, the TT had a number of written exchanges with Finland’s Heidi Huuhtanen, who, at the time, was a researcher at the UPI, and now head of Martti Ahtisaari’s CMI ME program,  concerning the victory of Hamas in the ‘Palestinian’ election in 2006.

My point then, was that since Hamas exists solely for the destruction of Israel, Hamas isn’t, and can never be, a true moderate force without it first leading to the dissolving of itself. That is something that will never happen, willingly.

Huuhtanen could never properly respond to my point, nor could she give any concrete example of a same-like force doing exactly what she believes the Hamas could be brought to doing, simply by engaging them into the political process. The Muslim Brotherhood are as fanatical as their co-ideologues in Gaza, and Barry Rubin offers many good examples as to why the parent organization cannot be trusted as well. KGS

Rubin: Nobody knows. Now, it’s very doubtful. The question is, will some kind of regime party survive and get a significant amount of votes? No one knows the answer. Mubarak has a base of support. The Communist parties in Europe survived even after falling from power. A regime party wouldn’t win but might get 20 or 25 percent of the vote and form the main opposition. Or they might get zero. We are not trying to give the answers but identify the questions.

For me, there are two big questions.

Number one: Will there be a party of the regime which will be a significant factor?

Number two: Will there be an Arab-nationalist ticket, an important opposition party that will also compete with ElBaradei, especially because he is so highly dependent on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Q: So Egypt may end up with a government that is formally led by ElBaradei but actually is a puppet government of the Muslim Brotherhood?

Rubin: The word “puppet” may be a little strong. It would be one in which they have great power. If people in Egypt say: “We don’t want the Muslim Brotherhood in power, so we need to have an alternative party” – will there be such an alternative? There are two ways this party could be organized. One is through the grass-roots reform movement. But the truth is that these kinds of people have historically not performed well in elections. They are idealistic but not very organized and their message is not necessarily the one people want to receive.

The other basis for a party is a traditional Arab-nationalist one. And while I may have gone too far in identifying Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League and former foreign minister, as leader of such a party, he’s a good example of the kind of person with a national reputation who could lead such a party. I don’t know what is worse. The irony is that the United States might support the Islamist side against the more secular coalition – although Amr Moussa is also bad news.

Q: How radical is the Muslim Brotherhood? Some people claim it isn’t.

Rubin: It’s absolute nonsense that the Muslim Brotherhood is moderate. It’s very simple to explain: The regime suppressed the Brotherhood very seriously. These people were in concentration camps and were tortured under Nasser. They didn’t want to go back, so they began to be more cautious. Yet they are still extreme.

All you have to do is to read any speech by a Brotherhood leader or any of their publications. They have an English-language website that is very moderate – for the suckers. Just read the speech that the head of the Muslim Brotherhood gave last October. He declared Jihad against the United States.

The West is too dumb to survive if it buys this ridiculous lie. What we have to do is to look at the evidence. There is an article in MERIA (“Middle East Review of International Affairs) on what the members of the Muslim Brotherhood have done in parliament; there is another one on the Islamization of Egyptian education.

There is nothing moderate about the Muslim Brotherhood. There was a small moderate faction which was basically told to shut up. This is a hoax. It’s just like “Hamas is moderate” or “Hezbollah is moderate”. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is as radical as Hamas and Hezbollah. They don’t use violence, so people say: “They’re moderate”. They don’t use violence because if they did in the past, the regime would smash them. That’s why, not because they’re moderate.

More here.

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