The Muslim Brotherhood: Islam, Antisemitism and Totalitarianism
Part Two of Four
Youssef Nada and the Al-Taqwa Bank
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In Part One, I briefly mentioned veteran Muslim Brotherhood member Youssef Nada and the essay entitled "The Project". The document had been discovered in Nada's villa in Campione d'Italia while it was being searched on 7 November, 2001. On the same day, Nada had been designated as a terrorist under US Executive Order 13224. Nada's home was being searched because the Al-Taqwa bank, which he had co-founded in 1988, was said to have been used to finance terrorism.
While Swiss police were examining the items in Youssef Nada's home, President George W. Bush declared: "Al Taqwa is an association of offshore banks and financial management firms that have helped al-Qaida shift money around the world." Two days later, Youssef Nada would also be designated as a terrorist by the UN.
Subsequently, the Al-Taqwa bank was similarly designated, along with its numerous branches. A constellation of related companies were designated by the US. Treasury Department records (pdf) list these as Al Taqwa Bank (Nassau, Bahamas), Al Taqwa Management Organization (Lugano, Switzerland), Al Taqwa Trade Property and Industry (Lichenstein, Italy), Al Taqwa Trade Property and Industry Company Ltd (Lichenstein, Italy), Al Taqwa Trade Property and Industry (Lichenstein, Italy), Nada International Anstalt (Lichenstein), Youssef M. Nada & Co. Gesellschaft MBH (Vienna, Austria).
On August 29, 2002 (pdf) the Nada Management Organization SA (Switzerland) was added to the list, along with assets connected to another figure within the Al Taqwa Bank, Ahmed Idris Nasreddin, who was designated as a terrorist by the G7 nations on April 17, 2002 and by the United Nations on April 24, 2002. These additional companies included: Akida Bank Private Ltd, Akida Investment Co Ltd, Nasredin Group International Holding Ltd, Nasco Nasreddin Holding AS, Nascotex SA, Nasreddin Foundation, and BA Taqwa for Commerce and Real Estate Company Ltd and others. Three years after being designated, Nasreddin continued to trade in Nigeria.
The Treasury stated: "They (Youssef Nada and Ahmed Nasreddin) have been involved in financing radical groups such as the Palestinian Hamas, Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front and Armed Islamic Group, Tunisia's An-Nahda, and Usama bin Laden and his Al Qaida organization."
Tunisian An-Nahda, also called Hizb al-Nahda, Ennahda, has since renamed itself as the Renaissance Party. Nasreddin was removed from US and UN lists of terror financiers on November 17, 2007.
The Project
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Nada denied knowledge of the fourteen pages that comprised the "Project". Swiss journalist Sylvain Besson, who worked for Le Temp newspaper, wrote of the Project in his book "La Conquete de l'Occident" (The Conquest of the West), published in 2005. Within this book is a translation from the original Arabic into French (pp 192 - 205). Scott Burgess made an English translation from the French, which can be found here. My translation of the first pages of Besson's text, concerning the 12 "points of departure" is below. I will be presenting the rest in a supplemental account later.
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In the name of Allah the forgiving, the merciful
Report S/5/100
1/12/1982
Towards a global strategy for Islamic politicization (Points of departure, elements, methods and missions)
This report presents a global vision of an international strategy for Islamic politicization. On the authority of the guidelines*, and in agreement with them the local Islamist politics are elaborated within different regions. It serves, above all, to define the points of departure of his political ethos, then to posit the component features of each point of departure, by which the most important procedures are bound by each point of departure; finally we suggest certain missions, for example only, may Allah protect us.
Listed below, the chief points of departure of this politics:
Point of departure 1:
To understand the terrain and to adopt a scientific methodology for planning and implementation.
Point of departure 2:
To act seriously in this work
Point of departure 3:
At a local level, to reconcile international engagement with flexibility
Point of departure 4:
To reconcile political engagement with the need to avoid isolation on one hand, permanent education of generations and institutional work on the other.
Point of departure 5:
Working to establish the Islamic state, simultaneously making progressive efforts to take control of local centers of power by the expedient of institutional work.
Point of departure 6:
To work with loyalty on the side of Islamic groups and institutions in diverse fields, agreeing on common ground to "co-operate on points of convergence and to lay aside the points of divergence."
Point of departure 7:
To accept the principle of temporary cooperation between nationalist and Islamic movements in general areas and sure of the points of agreement such as the fight against colonization, preaching and the Jewish State without forming alliances. This requires, on the other hand, limited contacts with certain leaders, case by case, so that these contacts do not contravene the law.* However, one must not swear allegiance with them or take them into one's trust, aware that the Islamic movement must be the origin of initiatives and of directions taken.
Point of departure 8:
To master the art of the possible, in a provisional perspective, without neglecting basic principles, knowing that the rules of Allah are all applicable. One must order that which is suitable and forbid that which is wrong, while providing a documented** opinion. But one must not seek a confrontation with our adversaries, on a local or global scale, which would be disproportionate and could lead to attacks against the dawa (Islamic missionary activity) or its disciples.
Point of departure 9:
To continually build the strength of Islamic dawa and support the movements in the Islamic world who are engaged in jihad, to various degrees and as much as possible
Point of departure 10:
Assist diverse and varied surveillance systems , in several places, to gather information to adopt an informed and effective communication, able to serve the Global Islamic Movement. Indeed, surveillance, policy decisions and effective communications complement each other.
Point of departure 11:
Place the Palestinian cause within a global Islamic map, a map that is political and from the perspective of jihad, because this is the keystone of the renaissance of the Arab world today.
Point of departure 12:
Learn to cover self-criticism and permanent evaluation of global Islamic politics and its objectives, content and development procedures. It is a duty and a necessity according to the precepts of sharia.
** backed up by scripture
* the word "loi" (law) here is ambiguous. Burgess took it to mean sharia
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Each point of departure would be fleshed out with "procedures" and "missions". Two of the six "missions" suggested for Point of Departure 11 are undoubtedly antisemitic.
The first is this: "Fight against the sentiment of capitulation among the Ummah, to refuse defeatist solutions, and show that conciliation with Jews would undermine our movement and its history."
The second has no ambiguity: "To nurture a feeling of rancor in regard to the Jews, and to refuse all coexistence."
This uncompromising approach to Jews is also reflected in the Hamas Charter, written in 1988, six years after the "Project" was typed out. Even though the "Project" was found in his home, its exhortations to exploit antisemitism as a policy do not explain why Nada should be openly connected to Nazis in his business dealings.
The Nazis and the Muslim Brotherhood's Swiss Bank
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When Nada founded the Al-Taqwa bank with the full approval of the Muslim Brotherhood, two Swiss individuals were involved who were more than sympathetic to Nazis. One of these was Francois Genoud (1915 to 1996), a prominent Swiss Nazi who had met Hitler in 1932 and later said of the dictator: "I personally have the highest regard and admiration for Hitler. He was a great man." In 1958 Genoud had set up the Arab Commercial Bank in Geneva, so his experience was useful in establishing the Muslim Brotherhood's bank in 1988. The Al-Taqwa ("piety") bank was originally incorporated in Lugano in Switzerland.
It has even been suggested that Genoud's suicide on May 30, 1996 may have been connected with an inquiry into Swiss wartime involvement with Nazi loot. accumulation of wealth may have been derived from brokering sales of stolen Nazi gold, and his suicide on May 30, 1996 may have been connected with an inquiry into Swiss wartime involvement with Nazi loot. Some of the legendary "Nazi gold" had not come from banks, but had been extracted from the teeth of murdered Jews.
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Genoud remained closely linked with Nazis long after the end of WWII. He would fund the defense case in the trial of Adolph Eichmann in Israel in 1961, as well as paying the legal fees of Gestapo war criminal Klaus Barbie (the "butcher of Lyons), who was found guilty in 1987 of committing crimes against humanity.
Genoud claimed to own the copyright on the diaries of Goebbels, and for a period in the 1980s exchanged friendly correspondence with David Irving, a man famous for minimizing the scale of the Holocaust. Genoud also funded the defense fees of "Carlos the Jackal" in his trial in Paris in 1997. Before being kidnapped to go to trial, the "Jackal" had been sheltering in Sudan, with the official approval of Hassan al-Turabi, who led the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood. The Jackal would become a convert to Islam.
As well as claiming to own copyright on the Goebbels diaries, on behalf of Goebbels family, Genoud also held certain notes that had been penned by Hitler. He had gained these after signing a contract with the dictator's sister Paula in 1952. Genoud additionally claimed to own the rights to autobiographical material by Martin Bormann. Genoud's works that were apparently penned by Hitler were published in 1959, but a row with Irving ensued when the latter discovered that certain passages had been written by Genoud himself.
When he was asked in 1990 by a journalist for the Independent on Sunday newspaper whether he was a Nazi, Genoud had replied: "I was Swiss. I was never a member. But, like millions of people I had sympathies with the ideology." On publishing Hitler's "Last Testament", Genoud said: "I did it for Hitler. I think he's a very great man. All those who say he was not will soon be forgotten. Stalin will be forgotten. Churchill will be forgotten, but Hitler will never be forgotten. I met him once, in 1932, before he came to power. I was very impressed. He spoke a few words to me, telling me my generation would have to construct a new Europe."
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Ahmed Huber (1927 – 2008), another Swiss Nazi sympathizer, also assisted in the setting up and running of the Al-Taqwa bank. Born in the canton of Fribourg in 1927 Huber had worked as a journalist. Until the 1950s, Huber had been a socialist. In an interview given to French newspaper Le Monde ini 2002, Huber described his conversion. He stated that he had given sanctuary to three members of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) in November 1959. These were on the run from police for purchasing weapons. Huber said: "It was an order of the party. These three brilliant men enlightened me. From their mouth, I heard for the first time about the Muslim Brotherhood."
The armed wing of the FLN had been fighting the French since 1954. The Arab Commercial Bank in Geneva had been set up in 1958 by Genoud to channel funds to the Algerian rebels. Ahmed Huber apparently gained most of his wealth from selling weaponry, and it is almost certain that the involvement of Genoud, Huber and Youssef Nada in the formation of a "Muslim Brotherhood bank" was to channel money and weaponry to jihadist factions around the globe - a practical implementation of the Project's "Point of departure 9". US Treasury reports maintain that the Al Taqwa bank was never a bank in a true sense, but only a shell, by which money could be shifted and dispensed under a quasi-legal cover.
In 1962 Huber became a convert to Islam at the Islamic Centre of Geneva, run by Said Ramadan (who is generally assumed to have written the "Project" document). The present mosque had not been built at that time. Huber's to Islam did not stop his Nazi activities. Piotr Smiolar of Le Monde noted that 74-year old Huber had in his car audio tapes of Third Reich chanting amongst lectures of Khomeini and the music of Richard Clayderman. Huber had met Youssef Nada for the first time in 1988 in Iran.
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Ahmed Huber proudly told his interviewer of the time in 1965 when he had met Johannes von Leers in Cairo, Egypt. Leers had been Goebbels' deputy, and he also had been a convert to Islam (renamed Omar Amin von Leers) after fleeing from Germany. Leers' writings against Jews are visceral in their contempt. An essay Leers wrote in 1942 entitled "Judaism and Islam as Opposites" showed his approval of Islam's "eternal service to the world: it prevented the threatened conquest of Arabia by the Jews..."
Though nowadays exponents of Islam appear to have strong alliances with left-wingers, the links with Nazism should never be forgotten. Egypt, the birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood, was a place where such unions would become strong. Even when the Muslim Brotherhood had lost the support of Gamel el-Nasser, many Nazis would still arrive in Egypt and be made welcome. Many, like Leers, would become converts.
Alois Brunner was an assistant to Eichmann. He worked as an arms dealer in the country from 1954, before moving on to Syria. Dr Hans Eisel, an SS doctor, arrived in Egypt in 1958. Joachim Daumling, former Gestapo chief in Dusseldorf, became an adviser to the Egyptian ministry of the interior.
Leopold Gleim had been a leading SS figure in Warsaw who became head of Gestapo in Poland. and fled to Egypt where he served as head of secret police using the name Ali al-Nasher, apparently a convert to Islam. Historian Kurt Tauber claims that the Egyptian ministries of defense and information employed former SA and SS officers, such as Louis Heiden, Walter Bollmann and Wilhelm Bocker.
The most recent revelation involving Nazi refugees to Egypt concerned the fate of Aribert Heim, known as the "Butcher of Mauthausen". A noted by Dr Andrew Bostom, Heim ran the Mauthausen camp in Austria. Josef Kohl, an inmate, reported in 1946 that Heim would examine teeth of new arrivals. If the teeth were perfect, the inmate would be killed, decapitated, the head cooked until the flesh could be removed, and the skull would be made into desk decorations. Heim died in 1992, but his death was only reported in February 2009. In Egypt, Heim was a Muslim who attended the Al-Azhar mosque and was fondly remembered as "Uncle Tarek".
The founder of the Muslim Brotherhood acknowledged that fascism appeared to have "answers" to society's ills. In an essay entitled "The Way of Jihad," Hassan al-Banna wrote that "Nazism came to power in Germany, Fascism in Italy and both Hitler and Mussolini began to force their people to conform to what they thought; unity, order, development and power. Certainly, this system led the two countries to stability and a vital international role. This cultivated much hope, reawakened aspiration and united the whole country under one leader."
Banna subsequently pointed out the failings of these ideologies (they were not based upon sharia), but in order to understand why Pan-Arabists (such as Nasser) and leading figures within the Muslim Brotherhood seemed to embrace Nazism, it is important to examine the terrain from which both movements grew.
Origins
The establishment of the Muslim Brotherhood (Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimeen) happened four years after the secular Turkish government of Kemal Ataturk had caused the Ottoman Caliphate to be officially disbanded. The demise of centuries of Ottoman rule took place on March 3, 1924.
The Caliphate of the Ottomans had become corrupt in its last decades. There were two responses to the fading moral influence of the Caliphate, and both of these were to play an important part in the history of the Middle East through much of the 20th century, particularly in Egypt. Both of these movements would inform the ideological outlook of Hassan al-Banna and his associates. One was Salafism, from which Hassan al-Banna drew his main influences, and the other was pan-Arabism. Sometimes these ideologies would work in harmony, sometimes in conflict.
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In an essay originally written in 1978 called "Pan-Arabism" (published in "From Babel to Dragomans") Bernard Lewis wrote (pp 198 - 201) that Pan-Arabism had been conceived by 'Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (c.1849-1902) who wished for an Arab Caliphate to supercede that of the Turkish Ottomans. Another early ideologue of Pan-Arabism was an anti-Semitic Syrian Christian, Negib Azoury (d. 1916), but Lewis claims that Muhammad Rashid Rida (1865 - 1935) would be less obsessed with Arab resurgence and focused on an Islamic renaissance. All three were Syrian-born, but who lived and wrote in Egypt.
Salafism for its part derived its inspiration from the early years of Islam ("first principles") and the examples of the prophet Mohammed's companions (salaf). The two early ideologues of Salafism rejected Western materialism and colonialism, but did not reject modernity. These were Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (c. 1838 - 1897) and the Egyptian-born Muhammad 'Abduh (1849 - 1905). Abduh objected to the complacent and unquestioning attitudes of many clerics (ulema). The two men met at Al Azhar university in Cairo in 1872, and a few years later in Paris they collaborated on a periodical called The Firmest Bond (al-Urwah al-Wuthqa). This publication was aimed against the British. Their relationship had foundered during the 1880s, but their writings were to prove inspirational to an emerging pan-Islamic movement.
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From 1898 onwards Muhammad 'Abduh worked together with Rashid Rida (pictured) on a periodical called "Al-Manar" (The Beacon). Rida continued to produce this publication until his death in August 1935.
In October 1906, Hassan al-Banna was born into the family of a devoutly religious watch-repairer in al-Mahmudiyya in southern Egypt. Hassan would be the eldest of five sons. In 1923, aged 16, Hassan al-Banna went to the Dar al-Ulum (House of Knowledge) teacher training college in Cairo. This had been set up in 1872 by Ali Pasha Mubarak. At this time, al-Banna would assiduously read copies of Rida's "Al-Manar" journal. Hassan al-Banna graduated, becoming a teacher in 1927, aged 21. The following year, accompanied by six associates, al-Banna declared a lifelong commitment to Islam. This shared vow, which took place in a private house in Ismailiya, would mark the foundation of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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At first the movement existed mainly as a social enterprise, attempting to prevent young Muslims from becoming secularized or falling prey to Western decadence. Soccer activities were balanced by Islamic study. In 1932, Al-Banna was offered a teaching job in Cairo. Relocated in a busy city, the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood spread quickly, and it adopted a more political agenda. The ideologies of fascism, which were challenging the colonial Western states, seemed appealing to many.
In his Encyclopedia of modern worldwide extremists and extremist groups, Stephen E. Atkins wrote: "Al Banna was always vague about his political goals, but he expressed his admiration for Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler and their war against the British."
Hassan al-Banna supported actions against the British. These had occupied Egypt but even after independence in 1926, they retained their troops in the nation. Under the terms of the Palestine Mandate, the British were seen to be "colonizing" the Transjordan/Palestine. The British had also assisted Abdul Aziz ibn Saud to take control of Arabia, and the new "Saudi" monarch and his Wahhabist followers had not ingratiated themselves to Egyptians. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, which promised the restoration of lands to Jewish people, had already been ratified by the League of Nations in 1922.
Within this climate, the forces of nationalism, pan-Arabism and a new Islamism, would flourish. During the 1930s, the Muslim Brotherhood dramatically expanded its numbers and spread its influence.
In Part Three I will describe how these forces would all assist the Muslim Brotherhood to grow as a religious and political entity. Some Muslim Brotherhood members would take the concepts of anti-Zionism that were abounding in the region, and translate them into an ideology of hatred against Jews. This hatred would even lead to alliances with Hitler and the Nazi party.
Thursday 10 December 2009
Tuesday 8 December 2009
The Muslim Brotherhood: Islam, Antisemitism and Totalitarianism
The Muslim Brotherhood: Islam, Antisemitism and Totalitarianism
Part One of Four
Swiss Minarets
On November 29, 2009, news broke that Switzerland's controversial referendum on banning minarets had been passed. Against all the expectations of psephologists, 57% of the vote had gone to changing the Swiss constitution to ban further construction of minarets. Only four minarets exist in the country, which has a population of more than 300,000 Muslims.This news was roundly condemned within Europe and beyond. The charge of racism was brought, and indeed, some of the posters used by the Swiss People's Party (SVP) were decidedly xenophobic. This party had started the campaign against minarets. They had been gathering names to a petition for three years. Under Swiss law, when a petition gains 100,000 names, a national referendum can be called.
The Vatican complained that the vote limited religious freedom. Iran, a country which automatically represses religious freedom, also joined the condemnation. Colonel Gaddafi of Libya also declared that the vote would encourage terrorism. Over the last year Gaddafi himself has used a terrorist tactic, kidnapping two Swiss businessmen and holding them as hostages for more than a year. On September 23 this year, Gaddafi even addressed the United Nations and demanded that Switzerland be abolished.
In Europe, opinions on the validity of the minaret ban appeared split between the left, who condemned the move as an Islamophobic and even racist attack upon Muslims' religious freedom, and the right who approved the ban as many perceive Islam's presence in Europe as a cultural "invasion". Ayaan Hirsi Ali has declared that the referendum was a vote "for inclusion and tolerance".
While taking part in online discussions about the Swiss ban, I wanted to look behind the headlines to see what additional factors may have engendered such resentments against Islamic expression in Switzerland.
The Gaddafi issue may have contributed to a climate of resentment. This involved a year-long vendetta that began on July 15, 2008 when Hannibal Gaddafi, the dictator's son, was arrested in Geneva with his pregnant wife Aline. The pair were charged with abuse of their servants and left the country shortly afterwards.
The Libyan affair involved the humiliating spectacle of the Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz going to Tripoli in August 2009 and apologizing. Even his public abasement did not bring the freedom of the Swiss hostages.
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The oldest mosque in Switzerland is the Geneva Islamic Center in the region of Les Eaux-Vives. This was founded in 1965 by Said Ramadan, a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood. The center houses a mosque, bookshop and school (and minaret), and was built with Saudi money. Annually it receives the staggering figure of $5 million (19 million Saudi Riyals) from the kingdom. In the week leading up to the minaret referendum, the Geneva mosque was twice vandalized with yellow paint.
The minaret vote is important, both for the 350,000 Muslims living in Switzerland, and for those who are concerned by social and political trends. The issue of the referendum can, however, be seen as a distraction from other more important events. Since October, it has been clear that the Islamist movement known as the Muslim Brotherhood has been engaged in a crisis of leadership.
The "Moderate" Muslim Brotherhood
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Currently the Muslim Brotherhood has followers in 70 countries, so any changes in its leadership can have an effect upon the numerous societies and organizations where it has representatives. The current leader, or "Supreme Guide" of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and consequently the global movement, is Muhammad Mahdi Othman Akef. On October 27, 2009, the Egyptian Daily News reported that Mahdi Akef had tried to promote Essam El-Erian to the "Guidance Bureau", the top rung of the group's hierarchy.
56-year old El-Erian is not regarded as particularly contentious as an individual. However, Mahdi Akef's attempt to bypass protocol, coupled with rumors that he did not intend to continue for much longer as the Supreme Guide, led to a crisis, related in part to issues of succession. Akef's deputy, Mohamed Habib, was briefly charged by the Guidance Council to carry out some of the Supreme Guide's powers. After the rancor, Mahdi Akef has announced on the MB's official website that he will continue to be the Supreme Guide for another year. This is a temporary measure. Over the next year there may be great upheavals in the movement.
The Muslim Brotherhood has made considerable inroads into Western societies, attempting to present itself as moderate, even though it has a sinister agenda. For some decades, Switzerland has been the base for the Muslim Brotherhood's European operations. Here too, the Muslim Brotherhood has been involved in Swiss banking operations, which have been declared by the US Treasury to raise funds for terrorism. The Muslim Brotherhood banking operations in Switzerland were closely tied to the activities of former Nazis and Nazi sympathizers.
Even though the Muslim Brotherhood supports terrorism carried out against Israel, senior political figures in the West have tried to make rapprochement with the group. On April 5 2007, Democratic congressman Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader, met with Mohammed Saad el-Katatni in Egypt. Katatni leads the Muslim Brotherhood group in the Egyptian parliament. Though banned from partaking in the 2005 elections, Muslim Brothers posed as "independents" and gained 55 of the 454 seats in the parliament. May 2007, four US congressmen also met with Mohammed Saad el-Katatni in Egypt. The congressmen were headed by David Price, Democrat, from North Carolina.
The Nixon Center published a document (in pdf format here) entitled "The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood". Written by Robert S. Leiken and Steven Brooke, the essay bizarrely used the example of certain events that occurred in Britain to suggest that Brotherhood organizations would become more amenable to government compromise as they grew. The authors appear not to fully understand the dynamics of British Islamism and British politics of appeasement. Hamas only gets mentioned in one paragraph, even though this terror group is directly influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Perhaps the most contentious statement made by the authors is that "policy makers must learn to differentiate the Muslim Brotherhood from radical Islam". The Muslim Brotherhood IS radical Islam, no matter how it presents itself.
The Brotherhood In America
During the Clinton administration one Muslim Brotherhood representative, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was a frequent quest at White House iftar dinners. Alamoudi had founded influential organizations in America such as the American Muslim Council, and he was a president of the American Muslim Foundation. Alamoudi founded the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council. This body evaluated the Muslim chaplains who were to serve in the US military.
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Eritrean-born Alamoudi, who also raised money for Hamas, attended the Dar-al Hijrah Islamic Center mosque in Falls Church, Virginia when its imam was Anwar al-Awlaki. Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Other members of the congregation were Hamas fundraisers. Major Nidal Hasan who would murder 13 people at Fort Hood on November 5 also attended the Dar-al Hijrah mosque. Alamoudi, who once stood in Lafeyette Park outside the White House declaring his support for terror groups Hamas and Hizbollah. In 2004, Alamoudi was jailed for 23 years after admitting illicit financial dealings with Libya and plotting the assassination of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz (now King Abdullah).
Anwar Al-Awlaki himself also has links to the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen, where he now resides. He teaches at the Iman University in Sanaa, Yemen. This college has 5,000 students and is run by Abdul Majeed al-Zindani (Abd-al-Majid Al-Zindani). This fiery cleric, who uses prayer to "heal" AIDS victims, was designated as a terrorist by the US Treasury in February 2004. He worked closely with Osama bin Laden and also the Kurdish terror group Ansar al-Islam, whose spiritual leader is Mullah Krekar (currently residing in Norway). Zindani is also the head of a group called the Yemeni Congregation for Reform (at-tajammu al-yemeni lil-islah). This is the Yemeni wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
In 1997 and 1998 while in San Diego, Al-Awlaki was vice president of the "Charitable Society for Social Welfare" (CSSW), the Yemeni branch of a charity founded by Zindani. The CSSW was described as a front, used to support al-Qaeda.
In 2003, Al-Awlaki was invited to address the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB). This group had been founded in November 1997 by a leading Muslim Brotherhood member, Kemal el-Helbawy. One of the leading figures in the MAB is Mohammed Kassem Sawalha who, according to the BBC used to be a Hamas operative, active on the West Bank under the code-name Abu Abada. Sawalha has been a director of Interpal, a charity that ostensibly raises money for Palestinians, but was designated by the US for giving funds to Hamas.
The Muslim Brotherhood is connected to many organizations that operate in the West. In France, the UOIF (Union des Organisations Islamiques de France) is a political grouping of Muslim clerics that is widely seen as a front organization for the MB. In America, several front organizations for the Muslim Brotherhood have been identified.
Douglas Farah and John Mintz, writing in the Washington Post, declared that MB members were involved in founding the Muslim Students Association (MSA) in 1963, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) a decade later (established as a corporation in Indiana on May 23, 1971), and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in 1981.
NAIT and ISNA were both named as unindicted co-conspirators in the US government's case against the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation (HLF). Federal prosecutors had written that "numerous exhibits were entered into evidence establishing both ISNA's and NAIT's intimate relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestine Committee, and the defendants in this case". On November 24, 2008, HLF and five of its leaders were found guilty of providing material support to Hamas.
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Hamas, a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, supports terrorism. It was founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmad Ismail Yassin and Dr Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi. After carrying out numerous attacks against soldiers and suicide bombings against its civilians, Israel assassinated Yassin on March 22, 2004, following that airstrike with another that killed Rantissi on April 7, 2004. Rantissi had come under the spell of the Muslim Brotherhood while studying to be a doctor in Egypt.
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The original list (pdf document) of unindicted co-conspirators connected with the HLF trial identifies Alamoudi (see above), Gaddor Ibrahim Saidi, Nizar Minshar, Raed Awad, Tareq Suwaidan as current or former Muslim Brotherhood members, along with ISNA, NAIT and also MAYA (the Muslim Arab Youth Association).
Two other organizations that have been influential in the United States have also been described in court documents as having links to the Muslim Brotherhood. In December 2007 (pdf document here) CAIR, the Council of American Islamic Relations, was listed as "having conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists." Additionally, the Muslim American Society (MAS) was described in this document as being "founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States."
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MAS was founded in 1993 in Alexandria in Virginia. Its leaders are Esam S. Omeish (above) and Souheil Ghannouchi. As pointed out by Patrick Poole, Mahdi Bray (who heads the MAS Freedom Foundation) had attended a rally in Egypt in February 2008. This rally was to support Egyptian Muslim Brotherhod members. Among the other Americans attending this MB rally were "peace activist" Cindy Sheehan and her campaign manager Tiffany Burns, and also former congressman Walter E Fauntry.
In September 2007, Esam S. Omeish was forced to resign from a Virginia state commission on immigration. His resignation happened after videos emerged in which he was heard supporting jihad in the Middle East. MAS gained some notoriety in 2007 when it appeared to support Muslim taxi drivers at Minneapolis/St Paul airport, who did not want to take passengers who had alcohol in their baggage. Further information on MAS, compiled by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, can be found in a pdf document here.
The front groups for the Muslim Brotherhood in America do not readily declare their associations with the Ikhwan.
An article from the Chicago Tribune from February 8, 2004 declared that the Indiana-based NAIT (which has Muslim Brotherhood associations) "would eventually hold the deeds to about 300 mosques." This figure would represent one in four of all mosques in America.
At the end of the same article (subscription required), the authors wrote of the Muslim American Society (MAS) as a "group with strong ties to the Brotherhood". The authors stated: "In an interview in Cairo, Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef said he and other Brotherhood members helped create the society and that it follows Brotherhood philosophy. The society said it is independent but influenced by the Brotherhood and other groups."
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The Islamic Society of Boston was founded in 1982. One of its eight founding members was Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was jailed for 23 years in 2004. The Boston Globe reported in October 2004 that the ISB had finally distanced itself from one of its trustees, Dr. Walid Fitaihi. This individual had written in an Arabic-language publication that Jews were "murderers of prophets". Fitaihi had also declared that Jews committed "oppression, murder, and rape of the worshippers of Allah," and for this, they should be punished.
In March 2004, the Boston Herald had requested a response from the group, and on September 10, 2004 a response had been published. This had stopped short of being a full apology. When media bodies and individuals started to discuss the potential extremist links of some of the ISB's senior figures, the group responded with lawsuits. Fox Channel 25, the Boston Herald newspaper and 14 civilians were named in lawsuits filed by ISB. Eventually these were all dropped.
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According to his 1998 to 2000 tax returns, one member of the Islamic Society of Boston's board of directors was Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Qadawi appeared in printed literature and a video, promoting the ISB, in 2002 and 2003.
The ADL, writing in July 2009, state that Qaradawi is also a chairman of the Islamic American University, even though he has been banned from entering the USA since 1999. This university, based in Southfield in Michigan, provides online courses and correspondence courses, as well as match-making facilities. Islamic American University grew from a MAS project.
The founder of the Islamic American University was Dr Salah El-Deen Soltan who also founded the American Center for Islamic Research at Columbus, Ohio.
One of the fruits of Dr Soltan's research was the "discovery" that the 9/11 attacks were planned by Americans, using the movie "The Siege" as inspiration (Memri clip here - registration required). In this video, Soltan claims that Dr Al-Zindani, (the head of the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood) is "known worldwide for his refinement, virtue, and broad horizons."
From 1984 until 1994, an Egyptian-born surgeon called Dr Ahmed Elkadi was the head of America's Muslim Brotherhood. This individual had once been a personal physician to King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. He was also a president of NAIT. A decade after he stopped being a leader of the US Brotherhood, Elkadi gave a candid account of the MB's activities to the Chicago Tribune of September 19, 2004 (subscription/purchase required).
Elkadi's departure from his position was abrupt and beyond his control. The head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Mahdi Othman Akef, said of the activities of Elkadi and his associates: "They have succeeded in saving the younger generations from melting into the American lifestyle without faith." Elkadi died of a massive stroke at Panama City in Florida on April 11, 2009. He was 69. His obituary in Islam Online, a website closely connected to Yusus al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
A recent pdf document from the Hudson Institute, authored by Steven Merley, describes the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. The activities of Elkadi are described in detail up until his being removed from power in 1995. Merley states (p 41) that many of the US Muslim Brotherhood members who were active from 1988 to 1991 are still active in Brotherhood organizations.
Jamal Badawi is on the Executive Council of the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA). This organization, which Merley claims is a MB group, grew originally from the Muslim Students' Association (MSA). In 1980, this organization was called the Fiqh Council of the Islamic Society of North America, and became "The Figh Council of North America" in 1986. Shaikh Muhammad Hanooti is a FCNA council member. Patrick Poole states that Salah Soltan was in the FCNA in 2008.
Youssef Nada and "The Project"
One Egyptian-born Muslim Brotherhood member is mentioned in some detail in the Hudson Institute report by Merley. This man is Youssef Nada. He spent time in America in the 1980s, and fathered some of his children there. In September 2004, Douglas Farah and John Mintz wrote that during the 1980s, the Muslim Students Association "using $21 million raised in part from Qaradawi, banker Nada and the emir of Qatar -opened a headquarters complex built on former farmland in suburban Indianapolis."
http://morganinterviews.zoomshare.com/files/YoussefNada.jpg
Youssef Nada would form important relationships with Muslim Brotherhood members in Switzerland. He also would also work with Nazi sympathizers to create a Muslim Brotherhood Bank. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, his bank would draw the attention of the authorities, as it was believed to have channeled funds to Al Qaeda. Youssef Nada lived in Campione d'Italia near lake Lugano. Campione is entirely surrounded by the Swiss canton of Ticino yet is an Italian territory and tax haven. Though officially part of the Province of Como, Campione is under the jurisdiction of Swiss police.
Youssef Nada's villa was searched, and on November 7, 2001, manuscripts were retrieved. Among these documents, fourteen pages of scattered notes were found. These were typed in Arabic and bore the date December 1, 1982. No signature was given to the notes. Nada claimed not to know anything about them. The pages were placed in an police evidence archive along with other documents connected with Nada's bank dealings.
http://morganinterviews.zoomshare.com/files/SaidRamadan.jpg
When the pages were translated, they revealed a succinct 12-point plan for world domination. The first page bore the heading "Towards a global strategy for Islamic politicization". It is now believed that the document was written by Said Ramadan, founder of the Geneva Islamic Center. Ramadan was a son-in-law of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and had lived in Switzerland from the 1950s until his death in 1995. The 14 sheets of paper are now known as "The Project". The intense activities of the Brotherhood in Europe and America, extending MB influence even into the White House (with Alamoudi) show that the strategies of the Project are being followed assiduously.
In Part Two, I will describe how the Muslim Brotherhood began, and how Switzerland came to be chosen as a base from which to enact the organization's policies of expansionism into the West.
Part One of Four
Swiss Minarets
On November 29, 2009, news broke that Switzerland's controversial referendum on banning minarets had been passed. Against all the expectations of psephologists, 57% of the vote had gone to changing the Swiss constitution to ban further construction of minarets. Only four minarets exist in the country, which has a population of more than 300,000 Muslims.This news was roundly condemned within Europe and beyond. The charge of racism was brought, and indeed, some of the posters used by the Swiss People's Party (SVP) were decidedly xenophobic. This party had started the campaign against minarets. They had been gathering names to a petition for three years. Under Swiss law, when a petition gains 100,000 names, a national referendum can be called.
The Vatican complained that the vote limited religious freedom. Iran, a country which automatically represses religious freedom, also joined the condemnation. Colonel Gaddafi of Libya also declared that the vote would encourage terrorism. Over the last year Gaddafi himself has used a terrorist tactic, kidnapping two Swiss businessmen and holding them as hostages for more than a year. On September 23 this year, Gaddafi even addressed the United Nations and demanded that Switzerland be abolished.
In Europe, opinions on the validity of the minaret ban appeared split between the left, who condemned the move as an Islamophobic and even racist attack upon Muslims' religious freedom, and the right who approved the ban as many perceive Islam's presence in Europe as a cultural "invasion". Ayaan Hirsi Ali has declared that the referendum was a vote "for inclusion and tolerance".
While taking part in online discussions about the Swiss ban, I wanted to look behind the headlines to see what additional factors may have engendered such resentments against Islamic expression in Switzerland.
The Gaddafi issue may have contributed to a climate of resentment. This involved a year-long vendetta that began on July 15, 2008 when Hannibal Gaddafi, the dictator's son, was arrested in Geneva with his pregnant wife Aline. The pair were charged with abuse of their servants and left the country shortly afterwards.
The Libyan affair involved the humiliating spectacle of the Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz going to Tripoli in August 2009 and apologizing. Even his public abasement did not bring the freedom of the Swiss hostages.
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The oldest mosque in Switzerland is the Geneva Islamic Center in the region of Les Eaux-Vives. This was founded in 1965 by Said Ramadan, a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood. The center houses a mosque, bookshop and school (and minaret), and was built with Saudi money. Annually it receives the staggering figure of $5 million (19 million Saudi Riyals) from the kingdom. In the week leading up to the minaret referendum, the Geneva mosque was twice vandalized with yellow paint.
The minaret vote is important, both for the 350,000 Muslims living in Switzerland, and for those who are concerned by social and political trends. The issue of the referendum can, however, be seen as a distraction from other more important events. Since October, it has been clear that the Islamist movement known as the Muslim Brotherhood has been engaged in a crisis of leadership.
The "Moderate" Muslim Brotherhood
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Currently the Muslim Brotherhood has followers in 70 countries, so any changes in its leadership can have an effect upon the numerous societies and organizations where it has representatives. The current leader, or "Supreme Guide" of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and consequently the global movement, is Muhammad Mahdi Othman Akef. On October 27, 2009, the Egyptian Daily News reported that Mahdi Akef had tried to promote Essam El-Erian to the "Guidance Bureau", the top rung of the group's hierarchy.
56-year old El-Erian is not regarded as particularly contentious as an individual. However, Mahdi Akef's attempt to bypass protocol, coupled with rumors that he did not intend to continue for much longer as the Supreme Guide, led to a crisis, related in part to issues of succession. Akef's deputy, Mohamed Habib, was briefly charged by the Guidance Council to carry out some of the Supreme Guide's powers. After the rancor, Mahdi Akef has announced on the MB's official website that he will continue to be the Supreme Guide for another year. This is a temporary measure. Over the next year there may be great upheavals in the movement.
The Muslim Brotherhood has made considerable inroads into Western societies, attempting to present itself as moderate, even though it has a sinister agenda. For some decades, Switzerland has been the base for the Muslim Brotherhood's European operations. Here too, the Muslim Brotherhood has been involved in Swiss banking operations, which have been declared by the US Treasury to raise funds for terrorism. The Muslim Brotherhood banking operations in Switzerland were closely tied to the activities of former Nazis and Nazi sympathizers.
Even though the Muslim Brotherhood supports terrorism carried out against Israel, senior political figures in the West have tried to make rapprochement with the group. On April 5 2007, Democratic congressman Steny Hoyer, the House Majority Leader, met with Mohammed Saad el-Katatni in Egypt. Katatni leads the Muslim Brotherhood group in the Egyptian parliament. Though banned from partaking in the 2005 elections, Muslim Brothers posed as "independents" and gained 55 of the 454 seats in the parliament. May 2007, four US congressmen also met with Mohammed Saad el-Katatni in Egypt. The congressmen were headed by David Price, Democrat, from North Carolina.
The Nixon Center published a document (in pdf format here) entitled "The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood". Written by Robert S. Leiken and Steven Brooke, the essay bizarrely used the example of certain events that occurred in Britain to suggest that Brotherhood organizations would become more amenable to government compromise as they grew. The authors appear not to fully understand the dynamics of British Islamism and British politics of appeasement. Hamas only gets mentioned in one paragraph, even though this terror group is directly influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Perhaps the most contentious statement made by the authors is that "policy makers must learn to differentiate the Muslim Brotherhood from radical Islam". The Muslim Brotherhood IS radical Islam, no matter how it presents itself.
The Brotherhood In America
During the Clinton administration one Muslim Brotherhood representative, Abdurahman Alamoudi, was a frequent quest at White House iftar dinners. Alamoudi had founded influential organizations in America such as the American Muslim Council, and he was a president of the American Muslim Foundation. Alamoudi founded the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council. This body evaluated the Muslim chaplains who were to serve in the US military.
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Eritrean-born Alamoudi, who also raised money for Hamas, attended the Dar-al Hijrah Islamic Center mosque in Falls Church, Virginia when its imam was Anwar al-Awlaki. Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Other members of the congregation were Hamas fundraisers. Major Nidal Hasan who would murder 13 people at Fort Hood on November 5 also attended the Dar-al Hijrah mosque. Alamoudi, who once stood in Lafeyette Park outside the White House declaring his support for terror groups Hamas and Hizbollah. In 2004, Alamoudi was jailed for 23 years after admitting illicit financial dealings with Libya and plotting the assassination of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz (now King Abdullah).
Anwar Al-Awlaki himself also has links to the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen, where he now resides. He teaches at the Iman University in Sanaa, Yemen. This college has 5,000 students and is run by Abdul Majeed al-Zindani (Abd-al-Majid Al-Zindani). This fiery cleric, who uses prayer to "heal" AIDS victims, was designated as a terrorist by the US Treasury in February 2004. He worked closely with Osama bin Laden and also the Kurdish terror group Ansar al-Islam, whose spiritual leader is Mullah Krekar (currently residing in Norway). Zindani is also the head of a group called the Yemeni Congregation for Reform (at-tajammu al-yemeni lil-islah). This is the Yemeni wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
In 1997 and 1998 while in San Diego, Al-Awlaki was vice president of the "Charitable Society for Social Welfare" (CSSW), the Yemeni branch of a charity founded by Zindani. The CSSW was described as a front, used to support al-Qaeda.
In 2003, Al-Awlaki was invited to address the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB). This group had been founded in November 1997 by a leading Muslim Brotherhood member, Kemal el-Helbawy. One of the leading figures in the MAB is Mohammed Kassem Sawalha who, according to the BBC used to be a Hamas operative, active on the West Bank under the code-name Abu Abada. Sawalha has been a director of Interpal, a charity that ostensibly raises money for Palestinians, but was designated by the US for giving funds to Hamas.
The Muslim Brotherhood is connected to many organizations that operate in the West. In France, the UOIF (Union des Organisations Islamiques de France) is a political grouping of Muslim clerics that is widely seen as a front organization for the MB. In America, several front organizations for the Muslim Brotherhood have been identified.
Douglas Farah and John Mintz, writing in the Washington Post, declared that MB members were involved in founding the Muslim Students Association (MSA) in 1963, the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) a decade later (established as a corporation in Indiana on May 23, 1971), and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) in 1981.
NAIT and ISNA were both named as unindicted co-conspirators in the US government's case against the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation (HLF). Federal prosecutors had written that "numerous exhibits were entered into evidence establishing both ISNA's and NAIT's intimate relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestine Committee, and the defendants in this case". On November 24, 2008, HLF and five of its leaders were found guilty of providing material support to Hamas.
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Hamas, a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, supports terrorism. It was founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmad Ismail Yassin and Dr Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi. After carrying out numerous attacks against soldiers and suicide bombings against its civilians, Israel assassinated Yassin on March 22, 2004, following that airstrike with another that killed Rantissi on April 7, 2004. Rantissi had come under the spell of the Muslim Brotherhood while studying to be a doctor in Egypt.
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The original list (pdf document) of unindicted co-conspirators connected with the HLF trial identifies Alamoudi (see above), Gaddor Ibrahim Saidi, Nizar Minshar, Raed Awad, Tareq Suwaidan as current or former Muslim Brotherhood members, along with ISNA, NAIT and also MAYA (the Muslim Arab Youth Association).
Two other organizations that have been influential in the United States have also been described in court documents as having links to the Muslim Brotherhood. In December 2007 (pdf document here) CAIR, the Council of American Islamic Relations, was listed as "having conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists." Additionally, the Muslim American Society (MAS) was described in this document as being "founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States."
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MAS was founded in 1993 in Alexandria in Virginia. Its leaders are Esam S. Omeish (above) and Souheil Ghannouchi. As pointed out by Patrick Poole, Mahdi Bray (who heads the MAS Freedom Foundation) had attended a rally in Egypt in February 2008. This rally was to support Egyptian Muslim Brotherhod members. Among the other Americans attending this MB rally were "peace activist" Cindy Sheehan and her campaign manager Tiffany Burns, and also former congressman Walter E Fauntry.
In September 2007, Esam S. Omeish was forced to resign from a Virginia state commission on immigration. His resignation happened after videos emerged in which he was heard supporting jihad in the Middle East. MAS gained some notoriety in 2007 when it appeared to support Muslim taxi drivers at Minneapolis/St Paul airport, who did not want to take passengers who had alcohol in their baggage. Further information on MAS, compiled by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, can be found in a pdf document here.
The front groups for the Muslim Brotherhood in America do not readily declare their associations with the Ikhwan.
An article from the Chicago Tribune from February 8, 2004 declared that the Indiana-based NAIT (which has Muslim Brotherhood associations) "would eventually hold the deeds to about 300 mosques." This figure would represent one in four of all mosques in America.
At the end of the same article (subscription required), the authors wrote of the Muslim American Society (MAS) as a "group with strong ties to the Brotherhood". The authors stated: "In an interview in Cairo, Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef said he and other Brotherhood members helped create the society and that it follows Brotherhood philosophy. The society said it is independent but influenced by the Brotherhood and other groups."
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The Islamic Society of Boston was founded in 1982. One of its eight founding members was Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was jailed for 23 years in 2004. The Boston Globe reported in October 2004 that the ISB had finally distanced itself from one of its trustees, Dr. Walid Fitaihi. This individual had written in an Arabic-language publication that Jews were "murderers of prophets". Fitaihi had also declared that Jews committed "oppression, murder, and rape of the worshippers of Allah," and for this, they should be punished.
In March 2004, the Boston Herald had requested a response from the group, and on September 10, 2004 a response had been published. This had stopped short of being a full apology. When media bodies and individuals started to discuss the potential extremist links of some of the ISB's senior figures, the group responded with lawsuits. Fox Channel 25, the Boston Herald newspaper and 14 civilians were named in lawsuits filed by ISB. Eventually these were all dropped.
http://morganinterviews.zoomshare.com/files/Qaradawi.jpg
According to his 1998 to 2000 tax returns, one member of the Islamic Society of Boston's board of directors was Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Qadawi appeared in printed literature and a video, promoting the ISB, in 2002 and 2003.
The ADL, writing in July 2009, state that Qaradawi is also a chairman of the Islamic American University, even though he has been banned from entering the USA since 1999. This university, based in Southfield in Michigan, provides online courses and correspondence courses, as well as match-making facilities. Islamic American University grew from a MAS project.
The founder of the Islamic American University was Dr Salah El-Deen Soltan who also founded the American Center for Islamic Research at Columbus, Ohio.
One of the fruits of Dr Soltan's research was the "discovery" that the 9/11 attacks were planned by Americans, using the movie "The Siege" as inspiration (Memri clip here - registration required). In this video, Soltan claims that Dr Al-Zindani, (the head of the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood) is "known worldwide for his refinement, virtue, and broad horizons."
From 1984 until 1994, an Egyptian-born surgeon called Dr Ahmed Elkadi was the head of America's Muslim Brotherhood. This individual had once been a personal physician to King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. He was also a president of NAIT. A decade after he stopped being a leader of the US Brotherhood, Elkadi gave a candid account of the MB's activities to the Chicago Tribune of September 19, 2004 (subscription/purchase required).
Elkadi's departure from his position was abrupt and beyond his control. The head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Mahdi Othman Akef, said of the activities of Elkadi and his associates: "They have succeeded in saving the younger generations from melting into the American lifestyle without faith." Elkadi died of a massive stroke at Panama City in Florida on April 11, 2009. He was 69. His obituary in Islam Online, a website closely connected to Yusus al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
A recent pdf document from the Hudson Institute, authored by Steven Merley, describes the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. The activities of Elkadi are described in detail up until his being removed from power in 1995. Merley states (p 41) that many of the US Muslim Brotherhood members who were active from 1988 to 1991 are still active in Brotherhood organizations.
Jamal Badawi is on the Executive Council of the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA). This organization, which Merley claims is a MB group, grew originally from the Muslim Students' Association (MSA). In 1980, this organization was called the Fiqh Council of the Islamic Society of North America, and became "The Figh Council of North America" in 1986. Shaikh Muhammad Hanooti is a FCNA council member. Patrick Poole states that Salah Soltan was in the FCNA in 2008.
Youssef Nada and "The Project"
One Egyptian-born Muslim Brotherhood member is mentioned in some detail in the Hudson Institute report by Merley. This man is Youssef Nada. He spent time in America in the 1980s, and fathered some of his children there. In September 2004, Douglas Farah and John Mintz wrote that during the 1980s, the Muslim Students Association "using $21 million raised in part from Qaradawi, banker Nada and the emir of Qatar -opened a headquarters complex built on former farmland in suburban Indianapolis."
http://morganinterviews.zoomshare.com/files/YoussefNada.jpg
Youssef Nada would form important relationships with Muslim Brotherhood members in Switzerland. He also would also work with Nazi sympathizers to create a Muslim Brotherhood Bank. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, his bank would draw the attention of the authorities, as it was believed to have channeled funds to Al Qaeda. Youssef Nada lived in Campione d'Italia near lake Lugano. Campione is entirely surrounded by the Swiss canton of Ticino yet is an Italian territory and tax haven. Though officially part of the Province of Como, Campione is under the jurisdiction of Swiss police.
Youssef Nada's villa was searched, and on November 7, 2001, manuscripts were retrieved. Among these documents, fourteen pages of scattered notes were found. These were typed in Arabic and bore the date December 1, 1982. No signature was given to the notes. Nada claimed not to know anything about them. The pages were placed in an police evidence archive along with other documents connected with Nada's bank dealings.
http://morganinterviews.zoomshare.com/files/SaidRamadan.jpg
When the pages were translated, they revealed a succinct 12-point plan for world domination. The first page bore the heading "Towards a global strategy for Islamic politicization". It is now believed that the document was written by Said Ramadan, founder of the Geneva Islamic Center. Ramadan was a son-in-law of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and had lived in Switzerland from the 1950s until his death in 1995. The 14 sheets of paper are now known as "The Project". The intense activities of the Brotherhood in Europe and America, extending MB influence even into the White House (with Alamoudi) show that the strategies of the Project are being followed assiduously.
In Part Two, I will describe how the Muslim Brotherhood began, and how Switzerland came to be chosen as a base from which to enact the organization's policies of expansionism into the West.
Sunday 27 September 2009
John Denham on Faith Issues
On the BBC's "Sunday" show this morning (Radio 4, Sept 27, 2009), Britain's "Communities Secretary", John Denham, spoke to Roger Bolton about the Labour government's approach to issues of faith and social cohesion.
The full show can be listened to here, but this will be removed within a week.
Therefore I am including an MP3 of the relevant segment:
The full show can be listened to here, but this will be removed within a week.
Therefore I am including an MP3 of the relevant segment:
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