The bomb attack of December 24 2013, which targeted a police station in the Egyptian city of Mansoura, leaving 14 people dead and 200 more injured. Egypt’s Prime Minister Hazem Al Beblawi has not simply attributed the attack to the Muslim Brotherhood group, he has also declared it a terrorist organization.
This step was immediately was succeeded by a phone conversation between the U.S. Secretary of State and the Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, initiated by the former. John Kerry told his counterpart Nabil Fahmy that Washington is “exteremely concerned” with the placing of the Muslim Brotherhood organization in the terrorist ranks.
But who were the “Muslim Brotherhood” activists in the first place?
As of today, the Muslim Brotherhood group operates in the vast majority of Muslim countries among which one can name Saudi Arabia, Kuwait , Sudan , Syria, Tunisia , Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain , UAE (the “offices” in the last four countries named are the most radical ones) along with a number of “representation offices” in the Western world: Germany , the UK , Switzerland, France and the U.S. The “Muslim Brotherhood” (Jamaat al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin) – is an international religious and political association, founded in Egypt in the late 1920s. (see ” Muslim Brotherhood ” , the CIA and international support for the Islamists ) . The association has set its goal at the Islamization of society and the creation of an Islamic state. This organization combines the traits of Sufi orders, modern political parties and organized armed groups.
As the structure of this association it started penetrating political processes that were taking place in the Arab world and beyond. At a certain stage of its development a radical headed by Sayyid Qutb emerged from its core. Then in the second half of the 1940s the brotherhood transformed in an extremist organization which resorted to terrorist means in their struggle for influence. All through the 1950s the group was assassinating politics and in 1954 — made three attempts to kill Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Gradually a number of “secret groups” that started to form within the national associations of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Syria , etc.
The use of extreme measures that seemed to be a method of choice of the Muslim Brotherhood has led to the persecution of this organization in a number of countries. This led to the introduction of “secret society” elements to the Muslim Brotherhood and a harsh linear subordination system. A basic unit of the Muslim Brotherhood is a “family” that consists of 5-10 member that are called “brothers” that are governed by a leader – a “big brother “. A number of units form a “big family”, which is headed by a “father”. “The big council” of “fathers elect” a “sheik”
In September 1981, the former members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood killed Anwar El Sadat. In the same period the “Muslim Brotherhood” actively supported Islamic extremist groups, sending its recruiters to find all the fresh blood they could send to Afghanistan and other countries. Since the mid-90s , the “Muslim Brotherhood ” has made a number of attempts to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak , it’s also responsible for a number of terrorist attacks on the tourist routes , they also were fighting on the rebel side in Chechnya and Dagestan.
In 2003, the “Muslim Brotherhood ” has played a major part in the destabilization of the situation in the Caucasus. In September of this year they have “funded” different groups of rebels with 3 million dollars to disrupt the presidential elections in Chechnya and sabotage the stability.
June 28, 2005 the leader of the “Muslim Brotherhood” has called the Iraqi population along with Palestinians and the entire Muslim world to wage war on the U.S. and Israel.
In 2011 the “Muslim Brotherhood” has claimed responsibility for a double terrorist attack in Damascus on December 23.
In early December 2012 , as reported by the Arabic TV channel Al Jazeera, the leaders of Al-Qaeda held a secret meeting with the representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood. The meeting took place in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, where the residence of Al-Qaeda is. At this meeting the Supreme Guide of the “Muslim Brotherhood” Mohammad Badie and the head of Al Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri have signed a historic pact that obides the two organization to merge together. One must note that this was not the first meeting between Badie and al-Zawahiri, they had been meeting pretty extensively in Cairo after the elections of Mohamed Morsi.
Apparently, even these crumbs of information, show that for the better part of its history the “Muslim Brotherhood” was in opposition to the ruling regimes, even if it meant the use of violence and terrorism. It’s no wonder that the “Muslim Brotherhood” has been acknowledged as a terrorist group in the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan .
At the same time , the United States and some of the European countries (say the UK), believe that the “Muslim Brotherhood” hasn’t been involved in any terrorist activities, and therefore the group is absolutely legal. Moreover , the “Muslim Brotherhood” has been extensively used by the secret services of a number of the Western countries. For instance, the British intelligence shown interest in this organization the day it the “Muslim Brotherhood” was created, since it allowed the UK to keep an eye on its colonies and to contest the growing German influence in Egypt.
As for the U.S. , it is curious to note that after 9-11 the “MuslimBrothers” was accused of aiding terrorists. This however, didn’t prevent the U.S. intelligence agencies to use the capabilities of the ” Muslim Brotherhood ” to bring its own project in the Middle East and North Africa to life, one can simply remember the revolutionary events of the “Arab Spring .” This facts were brought to light by a number of investigations, carried out by the media. In particular, in 2012 the Lebanese newspaper Al-Diyar clearly pointed that, according to a plan that was drafted in November 2011, the “Muslim Brotherhood” signed a deal with CIA. According to this pace the ” Muslim Brotherhood, ” pledged to take an active part in the destruction of “Al- Qaeda ” in exchange for joint control of the whole Middle East. This “deal” or let’s call it “pragmatic cooperation” between the “Muslim Brotherhood” and the White House administration has been confirmed by numerous diplomatic cables and Wikileaks publications.
Should one be amazed by the critical reaction of the Washington , that was expressed December 26, 2013 words. The US pretends to be fighting terrorist groups around the globe when, in fact, it’s been working with them for years.
Vladimir Odintsov, political commentator and special contributor to the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
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