Who Are The Muslim Brotherhood?

What is the Muslim Brotherhood that we’re hearing so much about these days? Back in 1928, Egypt was under British rule. They had an Egyptian parliament and cabinet, but the British controlled three key cabinet positions: the army, the police and the finances.

At that time, a young school teacher by the name of Hassan al-Banna, under the influence of the Wahabi movement in Saudi Arabia, declared that a war of independence from British rule must be fought. He believed that this war must not be waged on a secular “classic liberal” basis but, instead, through Islamic ideology. But that meant Egypt returning from modernity to “Stone Age” 700 A.D. Arabian rule, under which the founder of Islam and his successors, the Caliphates, claim to be inspired by Allah and his Shariah law.

Shortly after the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood, they developed a “secret apparatus” which became involved in assassinations and terrorism. This group was responsible for the assassinations of prominent politicians and Coptic Christians whom they saw as hindrances to achieving their Islamic state.

For example, in December of 1948, the Muslim Brotherhood’s secret apparatus assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister, Mahmud Al Noqrashi Pasha, whom they saw as a British puppet. In October 1954, their attempt to assassinate President Nasser proved to be their undoing. He rounded them up, put some to death and others were sent to hard-labor prisons. The imprisoned Brotherhood members remained there until Nasser died in 1971 and his successor, President Anwar Sadat released them.

Since 1971, Brotherhood members have been reorganizing themselves in a variety of ways (even under the guise of doing charitable work) with the goal of becoming a formidable force to take control of Egypt and eventually the world. Many of those who were released from prison in the early 70’s left Egypt and settled in other Arab countries, namely Qatar. In fact, most Al Jazeera operatives are former members of the Muslim Brotherhood; hence their agitation and expulsion from Egypt a couple of weeks ago.

Read the rest of this story on Michael Youseff’s blog.