The US is fighting the self-ascribed Islamic State (IS), and so is Iran. At the same time, Washington is holding nuclear talks with Tehran and imposing sanctions on its government with the aim of reaching an attractive settlement despite strong opposition from the Republicans.
Few people are aware of the fact that the IS leader, unarguably the world’s most evil man, is a disciple of the Muslim Brotherhood. In a recording recently posted to some social media platforms, the Brotherhood’s ideologue and cleric, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, praised Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi for being a well-known member of the group during his youth.
As a matter of fact, Iran’s philosophy of the velayat-e-faqih (the rule of a supreme Islamic jurist) is the Shiite version of the Brotherhood’s concept of governance or rule. The Iranian IRNA news agency recently quoted Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying Tehran refuses to declare the Brotherhood a terrorist group.
When the United Arab Emirates (UAE) banned some Brotherhood members in the United States, the Obama administration responded by reiterating Iran’s own assertions that it would not approve of labeling the Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
Before Baghdadi, Osama Bin Laden was the most evil man in the eyes of the US. Washington took pride in sending in a team of commandos in 2011 to kill him in his residence in Pakistan before dumping his corpse in the Arabian Sea. But Bin Laden was also once an obedient son of the Brotherhood and a faithful adherent of its ideology.
In a recording released by Al-Qaeda’s Al-Sahab Foundation in late January, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri said in the clearest possible terms that Bin Laden was indeed a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Before Zawahiri’s speech there were other signs pointing to Bin Laden’s early involvement with the Brotherhood. Renowned US investigative journalist Lawrence Wright said it took him five years of research and 600 interviews with people close to the Al-Qaeda leaders to compile his famous book The Looming Tower. In that book Wright sheds light on Bin Laden’s early education and the impact left on him by Palestinian Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, the hawkish Brotherhood member.
In a doctorate thesis, Moroccan researcher Mohamed Nabil Malin wrote: “(Al-Qaeda) in politics follows, whether consciously or unconsciously, the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, particularly that adopted by Sayyid Qutub. Osama Bin Laden was reared among the Brotherhood.”
Britain recently took the right step by cracking down on the organization, which has used the country as a launching pad and a haven for its activities. Paris went even further than this when Prime Minister Manuel Valls said it was necessary to fight the Brotherhood head-on in France.
In short, all countries, excluding the US and Iran, each with varying degrees, are beginning to see the true face of the Muslim Brotherhood.
