While studying Egyptian media for this report on Barack Obama’s half-brother, Malik Obama, a distinct difference between how Egypt’s government is dealing with their Muslim Brotherhood problem and how the U.S. is doing the same, emerged. While U.S. media, politicians, and military generals debate things like whether Al-Qaeda, Ansar Al-Sharia, the Jamal Network, or a combination of them and others were involved in the Benghazi, Egypt’s new government doesn’t play that game – both groups are Muslim Brotherhood.
In Egyptian newspaper reports on Malik Obama’s alleged membership with the Muslim Brotherhood, a similar premise is established. The Islamic Da’wa Organization (IDO) that Malik is known to belong to, is itself an arm of the Brotherhood. Instead of going on the wild goose chase of determining what motivates groups like the IDO, Egypt skips ahead several paces and lumps it in the Muslim Brotherhood pot and… voila! They’re ahead of the game.
Safi and ISNA President Mohamed Magid in white cap (Obama recently praised ISNA and Magid in video)
Obama administration officials and members of Congress who support attacks on the Assad regime in Syria are either hopeless dupes in this regard or they are dupers. During questions at a House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing on Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry said the following, via Reuters:
“I just don’t agree that a majority are al Qaeda and the bad guys. That’s not true. There are about 70,000 to 100,000 oppositionists … Maybe 15 percent to 25 percent might be in one group or another who are what we would deem to be bad guys.
“There is a real moderate opposition that exists. General Idriss is running the military arm of that,” Kerry continued, referring to General Salim Idriss, head of the rebel Free Syrian Army. Kerry continued, referring to General Salim Idriss, head of the rebel Free Syrian Army. Increasingly, he said, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are funneling assistance through Idriss.”
If Kerry were correct, one should be able to assume that spokesmen and other leaders for the rebels would represent a majority of what Kerry would refer to as ‘moderates’ or ‘good guys’. That leads us to a guy named Louay Safi, who has a history with both the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). The common denominator of these two groups is that they are both Muslim Brotherhood. Following Egypt’s example, they are the same and thereby, members of both are easier to… dare we say it… profile.
When the main Syrian opposition group speaks, it is often through a longtime U.S. resident whose ties to Islamist extremists were detailed in a 2010 Dallas Morning News report.
The Syrian-born man, Louay Safi, has made big news twice recently. Last month, at a coalition news conference in Turkey, he accused Syria’s government of using chemical weapons. A few days ago, he called President Barack Obama’s consultation with Congress about attacking Syria a “failure of leadership.”
Safi used to work occasionally on U.S. Army bases, teaching soldiers about his Islamic faith. But as we reported in 2010, he was suspended shortly after the Fort Hood massacre and subjected to a military criminal investigation.
Earlier this week, Barack Obama praised the ISNA and its President Mohamed Magid by name in a video.
So if the vast majority of the rebels are moderates, why do they have a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman with ties to terrorists?
The Morning News introduces another figure into this equation later in the article:
Early this year, Safi successfully endorsed longtime Collin County telecom executive Ghassan Hitto to lead the Syrian National Coalition, the main group of opposition exiles. Hitto quit after a few months – amid complaints, The New York Times reported, “that he was a favorite of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and of its main foreign backer, Qatar.”
As we reported this past March, via GMBDR, Hitto served as a leader with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR):
In 2002, U.S. media identified Mr. Hitto as the Vice-President of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Dallas Fort-Worth Chapter (see Note 1). A Hudson Institute report identifies CAIR as part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas support infrastructure in the U.S.
Check out this video of an exchange between Kerry and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, in which a defensive Kerry refers “our friends in Turkey” while chronicling his rather short list of allies on Syria:
Contrary to what Kerry is peddling, Turkey is not America’s friend. It is ground zero for what Safi’s Muslim Brotherhood wants to resurrect – the Ottoman Empire or Islamic Caliphate. As the Arab Spring was getting underway in early 2011, Walid translated Safi’s writings. Here is an excerpt:
“The model for reform and the alternative to the Shiite Iranian model will rise again from outside the Arab region, namely from Turkey. The Turkish model, represented by the ruling Justice and Development Party has Islamic roots. The AK Party seeks to restore the Republic of Turkey to its cultural context and cultural history, and represents the current phase of the advanced variety of the Islamic movement in Turkey.”
Another part of what Kerry is quoted as saying in the Reuters article above has to do with an admission that Saudi Arabia and “other Gulf States” (which includes Qatar) are funneling assistance through General Salim Idriss, the General of the rebels. Walid closed his 2011 article thusly:
Through “peace” this rising dragon will deceive many by trumpeting non-violence. It is this moderate form of Islam that the West needs to fear. “Political,” not religious management is what the Muslim Brotherhood seeks through the establishment of a “state” in addition to religious worship. While all Islamists bow towards Arabia, the very nation that they hate for wounding the Caliphate in Turkey, the West bows to Arabia’s addictive and intoxicating oil, the wine that causes the West to fornicate with a dragon.
That Egyptian formula that eliminates subgroups and focuses on one group – the Muslim Brotherhood – is looking pretty good right about now, eh?
h/t WZ