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Petronas
11-03-2006, 02:35 PM
The Truth About the Muslim Brotherhood
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld & Alyssa A. Lappen
June 17, 2006

On October 28, 2005,[1] President George W. Bush denounced IslamoFascist movements that call for a “violent and political vision: the establishment, by terrorism, subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom.”

The Muslim Brotherhood (Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimun)[2] also known as the Ikhwan is a good example of what the President described and what he must protect us against.
The Muslim Brotherhood (“MB”) organization describes itself as a political and social revolutionary movement; it was founded in March 1928 in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna, who objected to Western influence and called for return to an original Islam.[3]

The Brotherhood is an expansive and secretive society with followers in more than 70 countries, dedicated to creating a global Islamic order that would isolate women and punish nonbelievers. Its members and supporters founded al Qaeda, as well as one “of the largest college student groups in the United States.”[4]

The Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism, Juan Zarate, stated recently, “the Muslim Brotherhood is a group that worries us not because it deals with philosophical or ideological ideas but because it defends the use of violence against civilians.”[5] In fact, The MB 1982 secret plan, (the Project) recently exposed, instructs all members locally and globally “To channel thought, education and action in order to establish an Islamic power [government] on the earth.” [6]

The Muslim Brotherhood has historically and continues to actively pursue the establishment of a Muslim regime that will serve as the basis to re-establish the Caliphate, not only by defending violence against civilians, The current leader of the international Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammad Mahdi Akef,[7] “recently issued a new strategy calling on all its member organizations to serve its global agenda of defeating the West. He called on individual members of the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide to not only join the “resistance” to the US financially, but also through active participation.”[8] In the MB Project (1982), Point of Departure[9] instructs members,” To use diverse and varied surveillance systems, in several places, to gather information and adopt a single effective warning system serving the worldwide Islamic movement. In fact, surveillance, policy decisions and effective communications complement each other.”

In an interview to the London based Asharq Al-Awsat,[10] an international Arab newspaper on December 11, 2005, Akef stated that “the Muslim Brotherhood is a global movement whose members cooperate with each other throughout the world, based on the same religious worldview - the spread of Islam, until it rules the world.”

To that end, Akef said, “the Muslim Brotherhood… are an all-encompassing Islamic organization, calling to the adoption of the great religion that Allah gave in his mercy to humanity.” Meanwhile, according to its leader, the MB is busily cementing its ties: “We are in the global arena, and we preach for Allah according to the guidelines of the Muslim Brotherhood. All the members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the international arena operate according to the written charter that states that Jihad is the only way to achieve these goals[11]. “Ours is the largest organization in the world,” he said.

Akef emphasized, “A Muslim in the international arena, who believes in the charter of the Muslim Brotherhood is considered part of us and we are considered part of him[12].”

In earlier interviews, ‘Akef called the US “a Satan that abuses the religion.” He said: “I expect America to collapse soon,” declaring, “I have complete faith that Islam will invade Europe and America[13].” Although US observers often view the Muslim Brotherhood as well as Hamas as less violent than al-Qaeda, the Brotherhood has long been actively supporting global jihadi efforts. “Prior to the US-led attack on the Taliban regime, the Muslim Brotherhood actually had training camps in Afghanistan where it worked with Kashmiri militants and sought to expand its influence in Central Asian states, especially Tajikistan.”[14]

It is not surprising, therefore, that the Muslim Brotherhood reacted to Hamas’ January 2006 electoral victory as not merely as a local achievement, but “a victory of the Islamic nation in its entirety,[15]” and as an expression of the concept that “the path of Islam is the true solution.”

As the parent of all Sunni and many other Islamist terrorist groups, the MB, to deflect attention, uses its long-term strategy, known as “flexibility”[16] (muruna[17] in Arabic). This chameleon-like adaptation is tactical moderation with the ultimate objective of complete Islamization of society.[18] Indeed, the MB’s 1982 project calls on members “To reconcile international engagement with flexibility at a local level.”[19]

Today, when the West focuses on Islamist terrorism, the MB usually refrains from publicly advocating violence. The MB’s 1982 Project, calls on its members “To master the art of the possible on a temporary basis without abusing the basic principles… we should not look for confrontation with our adversaries, at the local or the global scale, which would be disproportionate and could lead to attacks against the dawa or its disciples.”[20]

As stated on its charter and its website, the MB seeks to install an Islamic totalitarian empire, a worldwide Caliphate, through stages designed to Islamize [21] targeted nations by whatever means available.

A principal danger of MB activities is that they are hidden behind “religious” ideology. Moreover, this ideology dictates concealment (Kitman).[22] In fact saying, “we should keep hush-hush on things that are still in preparation.” This ideology controls every aspect of life and seeks to impose that control on everyone.

In the end, the MB intends to overthrow all secular governments and impose Islamic law (Shari’a) worldwide, and it is diligently pursuing this goal. In July 2005, former Kuwaiti minister of education Dr. Ahmad Al-Rab'i,[23] wrote in the Arabic London daily, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat: "The beginnings of all of the religious terrorism that we are witnessing today were in the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology." Thus, on its website,[24] the MB advocates, “Establishing the Islamic government.”

“Building the Muslim state…Building the Khilafa…Mastering the world with Islam,”[25]; however, would necessarily deprive Americans of their First Amendment, rights.[26] The first clause in the Amendment states there shall be “no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The First Amendment also upholds an individuals’ right to religious freedom. But as determined by its doctrine, the MB would exploit that right—along with First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly—to actively seek the imposition of laws that would deny religious freedom to everyone else.

Moreover, the MB guiding principles celebrate its major [and continuing] role in the struggle to liberate Muslims lands. The ikhwan's bravery in the 1948 Palestine war has been recorded by all sides. The total number of volunteers from the ikhwan in 1948 numbered 10,000 from Egypt, Syria and other countries. In addition to participating in the battle to liberate Palestine, they served to raise the consciousness of Muslims all over the Islamic World and restore to them the spirit of struggle and dignity. The ikhwan have played a role in liberating Muslim lands from colonialist powers in almost every Muslim country. The ikhwan were active amongst Muslims in Central Asian Muslim republics since the '70s, and their involvement can be seen recently in such republics as Tajikistan. More recently they had a major role in the struggle for Afghanistan and Kashmir[27].

Clearly, the MB strives for Muslim supremacy, often violently.

The MB’s readiness to use violence was demonstrated in the US, in 1993 with the bombing the World trade Center in NYC. Exiled MB leader, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, in US prison for plotting this attack, also planned to blow up bridges and tunnels in Manhattan.[28] Since then, the MB affiliated groups in the US, focused their activities and agenda to condition American minds and behavior to create an Islamic foundation from which violence can spring when the time is right.

And future violence is all but guaranteed: In 2004, MB leader Mohammad Mahdi Akef publicly promoted “Palestinian and Iraqi suicide bombers, called for the destruction of Israel and asserted that the United States has no proof that Al Qaeda was to blame for the Sept. 11 attacks.”[29]

Actively promoting its radical religious ideology, the MB may well meet the definition of a “terrorist organization,” under the Patriot Act, even though it has not been so designated by the US government. The law stipulates “terrorist organizations to potentially include terrorist organizations not designated by the Secretary of State …A group that is engaged in terrorist activities might not be designated as a terrorist organization because, inter alia, the group’s activities escape the notice of US officials responsible for designated organizations as terrorist; the group has shifting alliances; or designating the group as a terrorist organization would jeopardize ongoing US criminal or military operations”. [30]

Terrorist organizations are legally defined as groups of two or more individuals that have “committed, incited, planned, prepared, gathered information or provided material support for terrorist activities.” However, terrorist activity can in some instances include even “indirect” actions such as group membership and advocacy. [31]

In addition, the REAL ID Act of 2005 significantly expanded the legal definition “terrorist organization” as it pertains to US immigration law. “Terrorist organizations” now include any group that solicit funds or memberships for either terrorist organizations or activities, or otherwise provide them material support. The definition now covers groups with subgroups engaged in terrorist activities, too. [32]As we discuss below, the MB has many such subgroups and has spawned many offspring— thus the MB and all its offspring now seem to fit these legal criteria.

The definition of “engaged in terrorist activity” was also broadened under the Real ID Act, to include belonging to, associating with, soliciting or recruiting for, or giving material support to a terrorist organization or even a single member, including non-designated terrorist organizations. Furthermore, if they so claim, the burden is now on aliens to prove that they could not reasonably have known that their actions supported a terrorist group. [33]

The Caricatures Riots

The riots following the publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in the then obscure Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten, [34] in September 2005, should have surprised no one. In fact, the seeds of Islamic attacks against Denmark, as a stepping-stone to the Islamist takeover of Europe, in line with the MB agenda, were planted long before the cartoons were published.

In April 15, 2005, five months before the cartoons ran, Palestinian preacher and leader of Hizb ut Tahrir (a radical group that works to establish the Caliphate), Sheikh Issam Amayra, from the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, called upon Muslims in Denmark to begin a holy war, according to his sermon translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Dahoah Halevi, director of Orient research Group in Toronto, Canada.

Amayra’s sermon warned that: “…the three percent of the Muslims in Denmark constitute a threat to the future of the kingdom of Denmark. And that should not be a surprise. After all, the Muslims in Yathrib [the city of Medina, before Mohammed moved there from Mecca] constituted less than three percent of the population there. Yet they managed to change Yathrib into Medina. Thus, it should not be a surprise that our Danish brothers manage to bring Islam to all the homes of the Danes. Allah will grant them the victory in their country in order to raise the Caliphate in Denmark.”

Amayra continued, “Afterwards the citizens of the Caliphate (which will be raised in Denmark) will wage war on Oslo, and after they change that city’s name to Medina [for the Arabian holy city] they will fight their neighboring Scandinavian countries in order to join their lands to the territory of the Caliphate. In the next stage, they will wage a holy war and spread the message of Islam to the rest of Europe, until they reach the original city of Medina. Then they will join both cities under the banner of Islam.”

Clearly, the riots in Denmark and throughout the world were not spontaneous, but planned and organized well in advance[35] by Islamist organizations that support the MB, and with funding mostly from Saudi Arabia.[36]

The MB and its offspring organizations employ the Flexibility strategy in the US and wherever they operate. This strategy calls for a minority group of Muslims to use all “legal” means to infiltrate majority-dominated, non-Muslim secular and religious institutions, starting with its universities. As a result, “Islamized” Muslim and non-Muslim university graduates enter the nation’s workforce, including its government and civil service sectors, where they are poised to subvert US law enforcement agencies, intelligence communities, military branches, foreign services, and financial institutions.

The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States

The MB planted its roots in the United States with its 1963 [37] establishment of the Muslim Student Association (MSA).[38] Since then, it has used political developments, especially in the Middle East, to advance its strategic agenda and recruit more like-minded people to the cause of Islamizing the US, which, being non-Muslim, constitutes a part of the Dar al Harb - the “Land of Warfare.” [39] In other words, it “is a country belonging to infidels which has not been subdued by Islam.”

This dogma, to which Muslims have adhered since at least the 9th Century, is based on the classical Islamic definition of non-Muslim territory. Egyptian MB spiritual leader Sayyed Qutb [40]expounded further on this ideology. Although he studied in the US from 1948 to 1950 on a US-funded scholarship, Qutb hated America and Western values. Upon his return to Egypt, he joined the MB and became its most influential ideologist and writer after MB founder Hassan al Banna. [41] The Egyptian government executed Qutb in 1966.

Following Qutb’s vitriolic criticism of the US, the MB made the US a target for sedition. In the US (as elsewhere), the MB utilizes its “concealment” strategy through “Political Activism”[42] and exploits US “weaknesses” (istid’af)[43] at opportune moments. The organization also helped to establish mosques, Islamic schools, summer youth camps and prominent Muslim organizations, often with Saudi funds. According to a 2004 Chicago Tribune [44] investigative report, the MB has been “a major factor...in why many Muslim institutions in the nation have become more conservative in recent decades.”

Indeed, according to Lebanese-American Sufi leader Hisham Kabbani and Italian Muslim leader Sheik Abdul Hadi Palazzi, chief among the extremists controlling at least 80 percent of the more than 3,000 US mosques is the Muslim Brotherhood, [45]or Ikhwan. According to the Tribune, the group even established a correspondence school called the Islamic American University (IAU), based in suburban Detroit, to train teachers and preachers. The IAU chairman and head of their board of trustees, according to MAS’ press release in May 2005, is well-known Brotherhood leader Yusuf Al Qaradawi an Egyptian graduate of Al-Azhar Theological Seminary [46] and the rumored MB international chief, who resides in Qatar and was banned from the US in 1999. Sheikh Qaradawi proclaimed in 1995, "We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America, not by the sword but by our Dawa [proselytizing]."[47]

MB Network’s “Flexibility” in the US

On its own website, the MB states its goals under the heading “Establishing the Islamic government.” The MB notes that: “Preparing the society is achieved through plans for: spreading the Islamic culture, the possible media means, mosques, and Da’awa [inviting others to Islam, an obligatory duty for Muslims], [48]work in public organizations such as syndicates, parliaments, student unions.” In stands to reason that the Brotherhood secretly cultivates new members at the mosques, madrassas and Islamic “Cultural Centers” it has helped to create, providing these recruits with moral and financial support.

Today, the MSA advocates, in a Young Muslims of North America newsletter,[49] the collective obligations (fard) of all Muslims. “These include the spreading of the message of Islam (Da’awa), the establishment of the Islamic State (khilafah) and the defense of Muslim lands (jihad).” The Young Muslims of North America and the Alexandria, Virginia-based Muslim American Society (MAS) Youth Department note that these are required by the Shari’a and in “some of the Islamic Movement's texts on these subjects,” including “the key books of any of the following: [MB founder] Hasan al-Banna, [Pakistani MB role model] Abul A'la Mawdudi, [50] Ahmad ar-Rashid, Assam al-Bashir and [Al-Qaeda co-founder] Abdullah Azzam).”[51]

Brotherhood members rarely announce their affiliation, since they are sworn to secrecy when they join. But operating under the seemingly benign name of the “Cultural Society” to avoid detection, the American Muslim Brotherhood also created organizations such as the Muslim Youth of North America (MYNA),[52] the North American Islamic Trust [53] (NAIT), the Islamic Medical Association [54] (IMA), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) [55], and The Muslim American Society [56] (MAS) according to the Tribune, the Washington Post, [57] and the MAS website. [58]

With help from the late MB member, Isma`il al-Faruqi, the group also established the International Institute of Islamic Thought [59] (IIIT) based in Herndon, Va., which publishes books and pamphlets resting on MB educational theory. This thesis is actually a plan advocating the Islamization of virtually all fields—from Economics [60] and Science and Technology [61] to The Islamization of Knowledge. [62] In Muslims and Islamization in North America: Problems and Prospects, [63] the group describes the hurdles it faces in its planned takeover of the US and Canada. IIIT even envisions historical revisionism to erase non-Muslim scholarly documentation of the past and replace it with an Islamist perspective. The Treasury Department’s Operation Green Quest [64] investigation also identified methods by which IIIT may have funded suspected terrorists. Furthermore, on the 2004 Form 990 filed with the IRS, the IIIT reported that it sent $17,849 to Rahim Ghouse, an Australian/Malay business associate of Yassin al Qadi, an al-Qaeda financier and a US designated terrorist. The family refused to answer any questions about these and other funds regularly received from the IIIT. Moreover, the IIIT directors plead the Fifth Amendment on page 26 of the Form 990.

Other organizations that openly support the MB dogma include The American Muslim Council (AMC),[65] the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC),[66] the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)[67], Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC),[68] Islamic Society of Orange County, (ISOC) and many others.

Many of these groups deny connections to or influence from the Muslim Brotherhood, but all of them mouth the same ideological goals, most often with the exact same words that appear on the MB’s own websites. The MAS website, for example, describes itself as “a charitable, religious, social, cultural, and educational, not-for-profit organization” that seeks “an Islamic revival and reform movement that uplifts the individual, family, and society.” Moreover, the official MAS publication, the American Muslim, [69] posts on its website the biography and “appreciation” of MB founder Hasan al-Banna. The American Muslim noted in its first issue: “Created in Egypt in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood became the first mass-based, overtly political movement to oppose the ascendancy of secular and Western ideas in the Middle East. The Brotherhood saw in these ideas the root of the decay of Islamic societies in the modern world, and advocated a return to Islam as a solution to the ills that had befallen Muslim societies.”

Furthermore, former MAS Communications Director Ismail (Randall) Royer [70], who also worked for AMC and CAIR[71], pleaded guilty [72] to helping other Muslims reach a Pakistani training camp run by Lashkar-e-Taiba, a designated foreign terrorist organization and a MB offshoot.

The AMC, established in 1990, similarly advertises itself [73] as a “movement for political and civil rights” and “justice for all Americans.” The group also wants to increase “effective participation of American Muslims in the US political and public policy arenas,”—but only to promote the ultimate MB goal of establishing an Islamic state. Former AMC founder and director Abdurrahman Alamoudi, [74] now imprisoned for 23 years [75] for his role in a 2003 Libyan plot to assassinate Saudi (then Crown Prince) King Abdullah, demonstrated in January 2001 [76] just how strongly he and his group felt about US democracy when he served as the AMC delegate to a terrorists' “Jerusalem” Conference in Beirut, where he (and at least four other American Muslims) met with leaders from Al Qaeda, HAMAS, Hizballah and Islamic Jihad [77] as well as such state sponsors of terror as Syria, Sudan and Iran. The conference drew up a statement advocating “Jihad (holy war) in all its forms.” It also stated: “America today is a second Israel." Indeed, these Islamist terrorists have for years advertised that the war against Israel and the war on America are one and the same. In January 2001,[78] when these terrorist chieftains met at the Beirut conference[79], they issued a communiqué saying: "Destroy Israel ... Boycott America." It also called for "Jihad in all its forms and resistance" against Israel and urged a boycott of American goods, since "American products are exactly like the Israeli products." [80]

Despite all this, the AMC has had considerable access to US leadership, thereby lending the group a facade of legitimacy. In 1991 and 1992, respectively, Imam Siraj Wahhaj [81] and Imam Warith D. Mohammed, made the first Islamic invocations at the US House of Representatives and the Senate, according to the AMC website. Alamoudi’s visits to both the Bill Clinton [82] and George W. Bush [83] White House received wide media coverage.

The Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia., is the major MB mosque for the Washington DC area. Its former chief cleric, Anwar Aulaqi, called [84] on the faithful “to become 'shaheeds,'' or martyrs, and ''die in the sake of Allah.” The US-born Aulaqi was educated in Yemen, and according to the 9/11 Commission report [85], he met on several occasions with two of the 9/11 attackers in San Diego.

MPAC openly supports MB progeny in its obituary for HAMAS founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin,[86] whom Israel eliminated in March 2004. The article, still posted on the MPAC website, bemoans the loss of this terrorist leader, who is described as a harmless invalid. Furthermore, as Steven Emerson reported in American Jihad, the MPAC cosponsored an October 28, 2000 rally in Washington DC to support the “Al-Aqsa intifada.” While AMC leader Alamoudi exhorted the crowd to cheer for HAMAS and Hizballah, MPAC political adviser Mahdi Bray “was seen jubilantly exclaiming his support for these two deadly terrorist organizations.” MPAC senior adviser Dr. Maher Hathout, who also participated, later heralded the rally in an American Muslim article “as a marker of a 'new era.” And in a 2003 position paper concerning counter-terrorism, the MPAC questioned [87] whether “alleged terror plots, such as those in Seattle, Buffalo, Portland, and Detroit, actually posed threats as serious as the government initially claimed them to be.” In two of those cases, the suspects had gone to Afghanistan to join the Taliban and train in their terrorist camps.

MB Infiltration into US Academia

Even a random examination of political positions on US university campuses reveals the very same ideology dominated by anti-American attitudes, often directed by MSA chapters or Middle East Centers and departments.

In February 2004, at an MSA West [88] conference at the University of California (Berkeley), Amir Abdel Malik Ali, the Oakland mosque imam, called for the establishment of an Islamic dictatorship [89] in the US, which would eliminate the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence.

On September 7, 2005, Carnegie Endowment [90] for International Peace awarded Mustafa Khalfi a three-month fellowship, as part of his yearlong Fulbright/American Political Science Association Congressional fellowship. He is now in Washington DC, where he is “studying US policy in the Middle East, with a focus on democracy promotion efforts.” Khalfi is the editor-in-chief of the Moroccan Islamist newspaper, at-Tajdid, [91] which in addition to printing pro-Islamist terrorist propaganda and anti-American articles, is raising money for HAMAS, and many other outlawed Islamist organizations, most of which are also offshoots of the MB, and are united under the umbrella organization “The Union of Good,”[92] which is represented by the London based Islamist organization Interpal. At-Tajdid, until February 2006, had a link directing its readers to the donation page of Interpal, which the US Treasury department had identified in 2003 [93] as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist for supporting HAMAS.

Yet Khalfi was not the first Islamist with an avowedly anti-western agenda to study at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Earlier, in March 2005, SAIS appointed Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister, as a visiting scholar at its Foreign Policy Institute. Ibrahim co-founded the Herndon, Virginia-based International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), which according to the Washington Post, “was set up in the 1980s largely by onetime Brotherhood sympathizers with money from wealthy Saudis.” [94]

Ibrahim also strongly supports al-Qaradawi’s pro-Jihad doctrines. SAIS, however, recently lost Ibrahim to the newly renamed Prince Alwaleed bin Talal [95] Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, at Georgetown University, where he lectures “on several topics. [96]“ It is ironic that this trustee of the World Association of Muslim Youth, which supports HAMAS and has been implicated [97] in funding al Qaeda and other Islamist organizations, has been assigned to teach Georgetown students “modernity in Islam, [and] interfaith understanding.” [98]

There are literally hundreds of similar examples of “Islamist thought at work” on US campuses.

MB and Terrorist Groups

Among the many permanent, negative features of Shari’a is a system that subjugates and oppresses non-Muslims. It requires non-Muslims to convert to Islam or pay the jizya [154] tax, a form of extortion, creating a “contract” (dhimma) that “guarantees” the infidels' lives and possessions. In a recent essay [155] Dr. Andrew Bostom quotes the Arabic scholar, E.W. Lane, who bluntly calls the tax on “free non-Muslim subjects …compensation for not being slain.”
The system's “obligations” institutionalize discrimination (dhimmitude) that targets Jews and Christians. Others, like such Hindus, and Buddhists ostensibly have a choice to convert or to be slaughtered, although historically, they were often offered an even more degrading dhimma than the “People of the Book.” [156] These regulations prohibit dhimmis from possessing arms, ringing church bells, testifying in courts, building and restoring houses of worship while restricting many other civil rights as well. Like Nazi regulations, the Islamic rules also require non-Muslims to wear special, identifying clothes. These key features of the Shari’a and Islamic ideology are political, not merely religious.

Given that political subjugation of non-Muslims is built into Islamic law, and that the MB desires to return to “classical Islam,” it is not surprising that the organization was the fountainhead from which all Sunni terrorist organizations have flowed. Its offspring include Al-Qaeda,[157] HAMAS, [158] Palestinian Islamic Jihad, [159] Gamaat Islamiyyah, [160] the Philippine Abu Sayyaf group,[161] and the Algerian Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) [162]and Armed Islamic Group (GIA) [163]. Between 1992-1998, the Algerian terrorists murdered an estimated 200,000 people. [164] Today, according to Italian security agencies, and as reported by Kathryn Haahr-Escolano [165] of the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, GSPC cells in Italy not only target Italy, but “employ a dual-track approach to planning terrorist attacks and provide support infrastructure—safe houses, communications, weapons procurement and documentation—to GSPC networks in other European countries.”

The ties of all these terrorist groups to the MB are evident from their identical strategies and overall Islamist agenda, and they often carry out joint operations. The MB even influenced Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, [166] who developed the Iranian version of their ideology in the 1970s. Indeed, Khomeini adhered to the teaching of Egyptian MB leader Qutb [167]and followed the lead of Muhammad Navab-Safavi, [168] who was a guest of the MB in Egypt in 1953. [169] Navab-Safavi later formed the dreaded Iranian death squad, the Fedaiyon-e-Islam, or the ‘Soldiers of Islam.’

In Egypt, where the group was founded in 1928 and later banned, the Brotherhood worked under the Islamic doctrine of “concealment” (kitman) [170] in order to “Islamize” the country. In the 1930’s and 1940’s, the MB collaborated with the Nazis. Hajj Amin al-Husseini,[171] the MB chief in British Mandate Palestine, strongly supported Arab links with the Nazis, particularly in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, where he backed the short-lived pro-Nazi regime of Rashid Ali al-Gailani [172] in 1941. In Egypt too, the MB orchestrated riots, occupied police stations and attempted coups d’etat. Following their failed 1954 attempt to assassinate Gamal Abdel Nasser, [173] MB loyalists fled Egypt to the universities[174] of Saudi Arabia, where they were granted business monopolies to finance their future reemergence; in 1961 the sympathetic King Sa'ud [175] even funded their establishment of the Islamic University in Medina. In October 1981, an MB offshoot group assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. In the last decade alone, MB offspring including Gama'a al-Islamiya and the Abdullah Azzam Brigades repeatedly attacked Western tourists, killing hundreds and wounding many more.

Since the history of the MB is full of instigating civil wars and committing atrocities in countries such as Egypt, Syria, Sudan and Algeria, their expansion and success elsewhere is destined to wreak more havoc and destabilize every nation in which they are allowed to operate freely.

Conclusion

The MB is a dangerous organization that spreads its tentacles throughout the world. Its goal is the establishment of the Caliphate ruled by Islamic law. Mostly Saudi and Gulf sources fund its activities.

Recommendation

The Muslim Brotherhood spawned and encouraged many Islamist proxies dedicated to the spread of Shari’a law around the world and the establishment of the Caliphate. In many countries it has also been linked to terrorist groups and activities. In others, its members support terrorist organizations verbally and financially. Moreover, in the US as elsewhere it calls on its supporters to "To channel thought, education and action in order to establish an Islamic power [government] on the earth.” Such form of government would deprive Americans of their rights as granted by the Constitution.

In the interest of preserving freedom in the US while advancing it globally, it is time for our government to thoroughly investigate the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots and consider designating it as a terrorist organization.

In the same vein, the US should not allow foreign donations to US organizations and institutions from Islamic countries that prohibit religious freedom.


Endnotes:

[1]http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051028-1.html
[2] http://www.thewahhabimyth.com/ikhwan.htm. The MB is often referred to by its Arabic name - “Ikhwan.”
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood
[4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12823-2004Sep10.html
[5] http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/704xewyj.asp
[6] http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/readarticle.asp?ID=22416&p=1
[7] http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-01/14/article04.shtml - 50k
[8] http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief005-22.htm
[9] http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/readarticle.asp?ID=22416&p=1
[10] http://www.aawsat.com/english/
[11] http://www.ikhwanonline.com/Procedure.asp
[12] http://www.ikhwanonline.com/Article.asp?ID=17600&SectionID=104
[13] “New Muslim Brotherhood Leaders: Resistance in Iraq and Palestine is Legitimate; America is Satan; Islam Will Invade America and Europe,” MEMRI Special Dispatch Series, No. 655, February 4, 2004,
[14] See British Intelligence document in Roland Jacquard, In the Name of Osama Bin Laden (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002), pp. 263-267. http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief005-22.htm
[15] http://www.ikhwanonline.com/Article.asp?ID=17600&SectionID=104
[16] http://www.ummah.net/ikhwan/
[17] http://www.qatar.cmu.edu/~breilly2/US-Arab/
[18] http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC04.php?CID=43
[19] http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/readarticle.asp?ID=22416&p=1
[20] http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/readarticle.asp?ID=22416&p=1
[21]http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:fYJQKYYuukkJ:ummah.org.uk/ikhwan/+http://www.ummah.org .
[22] http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1123996016204&pagename=IslamOnline-English-AAbout_Islam/AskAboutIslamE/AskAboutIslamE
[23]http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1138622536080&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
[24] http://www.ummah.net/ikhwan/
[25] http://www.ummah.net/ikhwan/
[26] http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/
[27] http://www.ummah.net/ikhwan/
[28] http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/algamaa.cfm
[29] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0409190261sep19,1,3910166.story?page=1&coll=chi-newsspecials-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
[30] Michael John Garcia, Margaret Mikyung Lee and Todd Tatelman, “Immigration: Analysis of the Major Provisions of the REAL ID Act of 2005,” Congressional Research Service Report for Congress , Updated May 25, 2005, n. 86, pp. 21-22,
[31] Ibid, p. 22.
[32] Ibid. pp. 19-29.
[33] Ibid. pp. 19-29
[34] http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/008829.php
[35] http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21082
[36]http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.p?ref=/symposium/symposium200602070754.asp
[37] http://www.cpt-mi.org/WahabbiOragnziationsNorthAmerica.pdf
[38] http://www.msa-natl.org/
[39] http://www.secularislam.org/articles/wtc.htm
[40] http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/thesis/loboda/home.html
[41] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_al_Banna
[42] http://www.ummah.net/ikhwan/
[43] http://www.dawoodi-bohras.com/perspective/quran_ethics.htm
[44] http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0409190261sep19,1,3910166.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cse
[45] http://www.amislam.com/bush.htm
[46] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Azhar_Theological_Seminary
[47]http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/704xewyj.asp?pg=2
[48] http://www.dawanet.com/concepts/dawaduty.asp
[49]http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:Z8v1JKfiwR8J:forum.ymsite.com/article.php?a=3+%22Living+
[50] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maududi
[51] http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=388
[52] http://www.myna.i-p.com/
[53] http://www.learningtogive.org/religiousinstructors/phil_in_america/islam_na.asp
[54] http://www.aldaawah.com/1885/indexe-astudy.htm
[55] http://www.isna.net/
[56] http://www.masnet.org/aboutmas.asp
[57] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12823-2004Sep10_4.h
[58] http://www.masnet.org/aboutmas.asp
[59] http://middleeastinfo.org/article4735.html
[60] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156564218X/qid=1137553455/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-2317333-5985448?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
[61] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0912463422/qid=1137553455/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/103-2317333-5985448?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
[62] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0912463759/qid=1137551920/sr=8-9/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i9_xgl14/103-2317333-5985448?n=507846&s=books&v=glance
[63] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0915957914/103-2317333-5985448?v=glance&n=283155
[64] http://www.treas.gov/rewards/pdfs/Green_Quest_Brochure.pdf
[65] http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6146
[66] http://www.mpac.org/home_article_display.aspx?ITEM=332
[67] http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=31956&theType=NB
[68] http://www.islamctr.org/
[69] http://www.americanmuslim.org/1biography1.html
[70] http://www.masnet.org/articlesandpapers.asp?id=33
[71] http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=9706
[72] http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/January/04_crm_030.htm
[73] http://www.amcnational.org/
[74] http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16606
[75] http://www.ice.gov/graphics/news/insideice/articles/insideice_102504_Web4.htm
[76] http://www.minaret.org/beirutconference.htm
[77] http://www.acpr.org.il/cloakrm/clk109.html
[78] http://www.zoa.org/pressrel2001/20010621a.htm
[79] http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/6/23/164940.shtml
[80] The other American Muslims who attended were United Association for Studies and Research director Ahmed Yusef, former Islamic Association for Palestine president Yasser Bushnaq, Minaret of Freedom President Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad and American Muslims for Jerusalem chief Khalid Turani, reportedly to represent a coalition of American Muslim groups including CAIR, MSA, MPAC, AMC, ISNA, the American Muslim Alliance (AMA) and Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).
[81] http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=716
[82] http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/527616/posts
[83] http://lawnorder.blogspot.com/2005/08/terrorist-who-came-to-white-house.html
[84] http://ads.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34540
[85] http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch7.htm
[86] http://www.mpac.org/home_article_display.aspx?ITEM=664
[87] http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16606
[88] http://msa-west.net/archiveofevents.php
[89] http://www.standwithus.com/news_post.asp?NPI=324
[90] http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=17424
[91] http://www.attajdid.ma/def.asp?codelangue=6&po=2
[92] http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/sib/2_05/funds.htm
[93] http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/js672.htm
[94] http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12823-2004Sep10?language=printer
[95] http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/ai55/?PageTemplateID=75
[96] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/01/AR2005090102308.html
[97] http://www.ciaonet.org/pbei/winep/policy_2002/2002_673.html
[98] http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20755
[99] http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12470
[100] http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=910&wit_id=2574
[101] http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=Board&person=Omar
[102] http://www.pluralism.org/events/interfaculty2003/guest_bios/awad.php
[103] http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43805
[104] http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-12-09-slaying-suit_x.htm
[105] http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13175
[106] http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/po3340.htm
[107] http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/key-issues/protecting/charities_execorder_13224-e.shtml
[108] http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2811
[109] http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040723-082950-9083r.htm
[110] http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/000124.php
[111]http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:w2z1ug5xtysJ:kyl.senate.gov/legis_center/subdocs/091003_epstein.pdf+Abdelrahman+Al-Dosari+,+IANA’s+1993&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=safaru
[112] http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txn/PressRel05/elashi_conv_part2.pdf .
[113] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C153402%2C00.html
[114] http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=Board&person=Ihsan
[115] http://www.meforum.org/article/388
[116] http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26545
[117] San Ramon Valley Herald, July 4,1998.
[118] http://www.meforum.org/article/687/
[119] http://www.meforum.org/article/687/#_ftn2
[120] http://www.meforum.org/article/687/#_ftn26
[121] http://www.meforum.org/article/687/#_ftn27
[122] http://www.meforum.org/article/687/#_ftn28
[123] http://www.meforum.org/article/687/#_ftn71
[124] http://www.meforum.org/article/687/#_ftn72
[125] http://www.meforum.org/article/687/#_ftn73
[126] ibid.
[127] http://www.ummah.net/worldaffairs/viewcafeature1.php?cafid=58&caTopicID=6
[128] http://www.enoor.com/
[129] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_al-Qaradawi#Biography
[130] http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2006-01/21/article06.shtml
[131] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Council_for_Fatwa_and_Research
[132] al-Quds al-Arabi, August, 23, 2004, page 4. Translation from Arabic .
[133] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood
[134] http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/13750339.htm
[135] In Arabic: Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya http://www.ict.org.il/inter_ter/orgdet.cfm?orgid=13
[136] http://cfrterrorism.org/groups/hamas.html
[137] http://www.ummah.net/ikhwan/
[138] http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD109206
[139] http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=15237
[140] http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=15237
[141] http://www.middle-east-online.com/English/?id=15307
[142]http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1138622536080&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
[143] http://www.palestine-info.com/
[144] http://www.spainherald.com/2414.html
[145] http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21082
[146] http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD109206
[147] http://www.arabdecision.org/list_cvs_3_12_8_1_3_4825.htm
[148] http://www.al-ayyam.com/znews/site/default.aspx
[149] http://www.palestine-info.info/arabic/palestoday/dailynews/2005/feb05/12_2/details6.htm
[150] http://washtimes.com/upi/20050906-092131-7470r.htm
[151] http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/000478.html
[152] http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/zayed_center.asp
[153] http://www.freeman.org/MOL/pages/january-2006.php
[154] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jizya
[155] http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5116
[156]Andrew G. Bostom, Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of non-Muslims, Pp 81, 174-176, 448, 457. Prometheus Books, 2005, Amherst, New York.
[157] http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/misc/janes010928_1_n.shtml
[158] http://www.ict.org.il/spotlight/det.cfm?id=167
[159] http://www.cfr.org/publication/8968/hamas_palestinian_islamic_jihad.html
[160] http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/misc/janes010928_1_n.shtml [161] http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/misc/janes010928_1_n.shtml
[162] http://www.osac.gov/Groups/group.cfm?contentID=1297
[163] http://www.osac.gov/Groups/group.cfm?contentID=1274
[164] http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050303-092139-4026r.htm ; http://www.robert-fisk.com/articles32.htm
[165] http://www.saag.org/bb/view.asp?msgID=24931
[166] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1603178.stm
[167] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayyed_Qutb
[168] http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=279302
[169]http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:OEcEY4_CRL8J:www.journalofdemocracy .org/articles/Boroumand.pdf+Navab-Safavi,+Muslim+Brotherhood
[170] http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1123996016204&pagename=IslamOnline-English-AAbout_Islam/AskAboutIslamE/AskAboutIslamE
[171] http://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htm
[172] http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9389174
[173] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamal_Abdel_Nasser
[174] http://i-cias.com/e.o/mus_br_saudi.htm
[175] http://i-cias.com/e.o/saud.htm

[I]Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is author of Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed—and How to Stop It, Director of American Center for Democracy and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger. Alyssa A. Lappen is a Senior Fellow at the American Center for Democracy.

http://www.newmediajournal.us/guest/ehrenfeld/06172006.htm

Petronas
12-14-2006, 04:42 PM
Egypt cracks down on Brotherhood
Thursday, 14 December 2006, 11:51 GMT

One of the top leaders of Egypt's opposition Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, has been detained. Police also rounded up about 10 other prominent members and dozens of students in dawn raids. Khairat al-Shatir is one of two deputies to Brotherhood leader Muhammad Akef, and was taken from his home in north-eastern Cairo, the capital.

The group is officially banned, but its supporters make up parliament's largest opposition group and it is tolerated. Mr Shatir is the most senior member of the group detained by the authorities since Secretary-General Mahmoud Ezzat was released last year after three months in jail without trial. Officials have not said why the latest arrests were carried out, but correspondents said it might be related to recent newspaper reports suggesting the movement was setting up a military wing.

"The number of students arrested was not specified, but it could be as high as 180," a security official told the AFP news agency. "At least three professors and several student leaders were taken during this sweep," a Muslim Brotherhood official said. "The 180 students were detained before dawn during a sweep at the al-Safa campus, an annex of al-Azhar [Islamic university]." Islamist students at the university organised a military-style march there on Sunday, dressed in black uniforms.

The Muslim Brotherhood ran in the legislative elections in November and December 2005, with candidates standing as independents, and won 88 of the 454 seats in parliament.

Essam al-Aryan and Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood's political bureau were released earlier this week, having been arrested six months ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6178841.stm

Petronas
02-15-2007, 01:14 AM
This article is 10 months old but, I believe, still interesting.

The Little Explored Offshore Empire of the International Muslim Brotherhood
Published on April 18th, 2006

Almost from the inception of the modern Islamic banking structure (early 1980s), the international Muslim Brotherhood set up a parallel and far-flung offshore structure that has become an integral part of its ability to hide and move money around the world. This network is little understood and has, so far, garnered little attention from the intelligence and law enforcement communities tracking terrorist financial structures.

The fundamental premise of the Brotherhood in setting up this structure was that it is necessary to build a clandestine structure that was hidden from non-Muslims and even Muslims who do not share the Brotherhood’s fundamental objective of recreating the Islamic caliphate and spreading Islam, by force and persuasion, across the globe.

To this end, the Brotherhood’s strategy, including the construction of its financial network, is built on the pillars of “clandestinity, duplicity, exclusion, violence, pragmatism and opportunism.”[1]

Among the leaders of the Brotherhood’s financial efforts, based on early Brotherhood documents and public records, are Ibrahim Kamel a founder of Dar al Maal al Islami Bank (DMI ) and its offshore structure in Nassau, Bahamas; Yousef Nada, Ghalib Himmat and Yusuf al-Qaradawi and the Bank al Taqwa structure, in Nassau; and Idriss Nasreddin, with Akida Bank International in Nassau.[2]

Mapping the network of bank, insurance (takofol) companies and offshore corporations -- which are often used as covers to open bank accounts and move money in difficult-to-trace paths protected by bank secrecy laws -- should be the focus of far more attention because the network provides a mechanism for funding the Brotherhood’s licit and illicit activities around the globe.

This is of fundamental importance because the Brotherhood has played a central role in “providing both the ideological and technical capacities for supporting terrorist finance on a global basis… the Brotherhood has spread both the ideology of militant pan-Islamicism and became the spine upon which the funding operations for militant pan-Islamicism was built, taking funds largely generated from wealthy Gulf state elites and distributing them for terrorist education, recruitment and operations widely dispersed throughout the world, especially in areas where Muslims hoped to displace non-Muslim or secular governments.”[3]

Almost every major Islamist group can trace its roots to the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928 by the Hassan al-Banna, a pan-Islamicist who opposed the secular tendencies in Islamic nations. Hamas is a direct offshoot of the Brotherhood. Hassan al-Turabi, who offered sanctuary in Sudan to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda allies, is a leader of the Brotherhood. He also sat on the boards of several of the most important Islamic financial institutions, such as DMI.[4]

Bin Laden’s mentor Abdullah Azzam was a stalwart of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood. Ayman Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s chief strategist, was arrested at age 15 in Egypt for belonging to the Brotherhood. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Ayman al-Zawahiri, “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdul-Rahman, and chief 9-11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, were members of the Brotherhood.

There has been some understanding of the Brotherhood’s relationship to Islamist groups, and of those ties even in the United States. In 2003 Richard Clarke said “the issue of terrorist financing in the United States is a fundamental example of the shared infrastructure levered by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda, all of which enjoy a significant degree of cooperation and coordination within our borders. The common link here is the extremist Muslim Brotherhood—all these organizations are descendants of the membership and ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood.”[5] However, this understanding has not taken root in the intelligence, law enforcement and policy communities, nor has the financial network of the Brotherhood come under intense scrutiny.

Public records show the Brotherhood’s financial network of holding companies, subsidiaries, shell banks and real financial institutions stretches to Panama, Liberia, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Cyprus, Nigeria, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and beyond. Many of the entities are in the names of individuals who, like Nada, Nasreddin, al-Qaradawi and Himmat, have publicly identified themselves as Brotherhood leaders.

A senior U.S. government official estimates the total assets of the international Brotherhood to be between $5 billion and $10 billion.[6] It is a difficult thing to assess because some individual members, such as Nada and Nasreddin, have great individual wealth. They also jointly own dozens of enterprises, both real and offshore, with Ghalib Himmat and other Brotherhood leaders. Discerning what is personal wealth, legitimate business operations, and Brotherhood wealth is difficult if not impossible. It is clear not all the money is intended to finance terror or even radical Islam. But it is equally clear that this network provides the ways and means to move significant sums of cash for those operations.

One indication of a company or corporation being a Brotherhood activity, rather than part of individual assets and wealth, is the overlap of the same people on the directorships of the financial institutions and companies. For example, the Brotherhood network entities established in Nassau, Bahamas, all registered their address as that of the law firm --Arthur Hanna and Sons -- which incorporated their businesses and banking institutions.[7] Members of the Hanna family served on the boards of the banks and companies, handled legal correspondence and represented the companies in legal cases. Many of the directors of the myriad companies served as directors of several companies simultaneously. In turn, many of those same people served simultaneously on the governing boards or sharia boards of DMI and other important Brotherhood-dominated financial institutions. The overlap of directorships and shareholders strongly indicates the tight-knit nature of the organization and the inter-connectedness of the financial network.

The most visible part of the network, offshore shell banks in the Bahamas, did merit some investigation immediately after 9-11. The Treasury Department publicly stated that Bank al Taqwa and Akida Bank International were “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.”[8]

The primary shareholders in al Taqwa Bank were Nada, Nasreddin, members of the Binladen family and dozens of other Brotherhood leaders, including Yousef al-Qaradawi, the grand mufti of the United Arab Emirates.[9]

A cluster of charities based in Herndon, Va., where many leaders had ties to Nada and his banking activities, is under active investigation by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Two of the leaders of the cluster, called the “Safa Group,” incorporated the al Taqwa Bank in Nassau, and other leaders worked for Nada’s banks and had extensive financial dealing with him. Many of the Safa Group’s leaders are also members of the Brotherhood.[10]

Unfortunately, while the Treasury Department designated Bank al Taqwa and Akida Bank with great fanfare in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, it was largely theater. The government of the Bahamas had already shut both banks down in April 2001.[11] The investigations subsequent to 9-11 revealed the terrorist ties that had been suspected, but never acted on. Earlier intelligence operations by the CIA found Bank al-Taqwa and other structures of the business empire were used not only to funnel money to al Qaeda, but also provided the terrorist organization with access to Internet services and encrypted telephones, and helped arrange arms shipments.[12] The Treasury Department, citing intelligence sources, said that “As of October 2000, Bank Al Taqwa appeared to be providing a clandestine line of credit to a close associate of Usama bin Laden and as of late September 2001, Usama bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization received financial assistance from Youssef M. Nada.”[13]

The structure of Bank al Taqwa and Akida Bank in Nassau follow the pattern of other offshore endeavors. The bank was a virtual bank, with only a handful of employees in Nassau manning computers and telephones. The bank was affiliated with the al Taqwa Management Organization, owned by another Nada entity in Switzerland. Nada owned a controlling interest in the bank, and Nasreddin was a director. At the same address, Nasreddin’s Akida Bank Private Ltd, operated as a subsidiary of the Nasreddin Foundation. Nasreddin was the president, and Nada served on the board. The real banking activity, however, was carried out through correspondent relationships with European banks.[14]

Nada and Nasreddin, along with their banks, were designated by the U.S. and the U.N. as terrorist financiers in November 2001. In August 2002, the United States and Italy jointly designated 14 more joint Nada/Nasreddin entities for supporting terrorism.[15] But that was not the end of the use of shell companies and off-shore havens by the Nada/Nasreddin group. An examination of these activities point to serious shortfalls in the efforts to combat terrorist financing.

Despite the clear and compelling evidence that the offshore network of the Brotherhood provided vital financial and logistical support to a variety of Islamic terrorist operations, the only action taken so far has been to freeze a few more of the companies owned by Nada and Nasreddin. There has been little or no coordinated, concerted effort to map out, identify and understand the rest of the Brotherhood structure. One possible exception is the NATO project on the Muslim Brotherhood, which focused on the Brotherhood’s activities in Europe and has sought to identify the different Brotherhood entities.

Many Brotherhood businesses were registered as offshore companies through local trusts in Liechtenstein, where there is no requirement to identify companies’ owners, and no record is kept regarding activities or transactions. On Jan. 28, 2002, Nada, in violation of the U.N. travel ban he is subject to, traveled from his home in Campione d’Italia, Switzerland, to Vaduz, Liechtenstein. While in Vaduz, he sought to change the names of several of the designated companies. At the same time, he applied to put the new companies in liquidation, and had himself appointed as liquidator. As offshore entities, the newly-named companies maintained no records in Liechtenstein.[16]

Attempts by designated terrorist financiers to switch company registrations, or establish new companies without their visible participation, is a pattern discovered by U.N. and European investigators. While some entities have been detected, many others are believed to have transpired without being detected or blocked. The United Nations Monitoring Group, which wrote a series of well-documented reports based on months of investigations around the world by a team of financial experts, uncovered the Nada movements in Liechtenstein. The group concluded that “The Nada and Nasreddin examples reflect continued serious weaknesses regarding the control of business activities and assets other than bank accounts.” The group cited the difficulties in identifying beneficial ownerships and shared assets, and the weakness of the travel ban.[17] In fact, the panel found the whereabouts of the vast majority of the 272 individuals named as terrorist financiers by the United Nations, remained unknown.[18]

The modus operandi of Nada and Nasreddin is visible elsewhere. Dozens of companies of designated individuals remain active despite the ostensible international commitment to shutting them down. In some cases, such as Panama, companies under the names of designated individuals remain untouched.[19] This does not include the many dozens of companies and other corporate entities belonging to designated individuals, either outright or through nominee shareholders, registered in the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and elsewhere in the Caribbean. While the Brotherhood registered dozens of companies in the 1980’s and 1990’s using Brotherhood leaders as identified directors, this changed over time, making it more difficult to trace the ownership of the entities. Beginning in the late 1990’s, perhaps in response to the few intelligence probes that were carried out, many offshore companies have been shut down. Many appear to be re-opened under the direction of nominee shareholders, making the direct tie to the Brotherhood more difficult to detect.

However, it is often not necessary to take any precautions at all because the international sanctions regime aimed at designated terrorist financiers is so weak. For example, Nigeria is in flagrant violation of the UN sanctions regime by refusing to freeze the functioning businesses of Nasreddin. Nasreddin has done nothing to hide his ownership of the enterprises. The primary company is Nasco Investment & Property Ltd., owned by Amana Holdings and Management Inc., a still-functioning offshore company registered in Panama.[20] The company lists Nasreddin as its president.[21]

These issues -- offshore and shell companies, front companies and the inability to account for the vast majority of the designated al Qaeda financiers or their billions -- make it difficult to ascertain how much of al Qaeda’s financial flow has been impaired in the 4 1/2 years since 9-11. While the 9-11 Commission’s Monograph on Terrorist Financing states that al Qaeda’s operating budget is now reduced to a few million dollars a year and its financial needs are minimal[22], this assessment is not universally shared. The U.N. Monitoring Group estimated the value of al Qaeda’s financial portfolio “at around $30 million,” including its “large portfolio of ostensibly legitimate businesses.”[23] Whatever the amount in the direct portfolio of al Qaeda may be, it is only a small fraction of the portfolio of the Muslim Brotherhood. If al Qaeda were to run into serious financial difficulty, its coffers could easily be quietly replenished through the Brotherhood’s offshore structure with very little danger of being interdicted.

If the flow of money to Islamist terrorist groups is to be cut off, and the funding for the Muslim Brotherhood’s announced intention of recreating the Islamic caliphate and the eventual domination of the world by a radical Islam is to be slowed, then the offshore structure must be understood and steps must be taken to shut it down. It will be necessary to undertake the tedious task of digging up corporate and financial records and mapping the complex and secretive relationships among individuals, corporations and financial institutions. A first, and relatively easy step, would be to reinvigorate the U.N. sanctions regime by putting pressure on the most flagrant violators. A second would be to dedicate more US government resources to the mission of identifying and tracking Brotherhood financiers and assets. This would raise the Brotherhood’s cost of doing business and force the members to move away from the easiest, most profitable ways of doing business, while also affording democratic governments a clearer picture of their enemies’ capabilities.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Alain Chouet, “The Association of Muslim Brothers: Chronicle of a Barbarism Foretold,” European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, April 6, 2006.

[2] Corporate records and Muslim Brotherhood writings in possession of the author.

[3] Testimony of Jonathan Winer, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement, before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, July 31, 2003.

[4] Documents on al Turabi’s leadership of DMI in possession of the author.

[5] Testimony of Richard A. Clarke before the Senate Banking Committee, Oct. 22, 2003.

[6] Confidential author interview.

[7] Documents in possession of the author.

[8] The United States and Italy Designate Twenty-Five New Financiers of Terror,” U.S. Treasury Department, Aug. 29, 2002.

[9] 1999 List of Bank al Taqwa shareholders, obtained by author.

[10] Douglas Farah, Blood From Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror, Broadway Book, New York, 2004, pp. 155, 209.

[11] Notice of closures in possession of the author.

[12] Hosenball, Perain and Skipp, op cit.

[13] The United States and Italy Designate Twenty-Five New Financiers of Terror,” U.S. Treasury Department, Aug. 29, 2002.

[14] Corporate records obtained by author and “The United States and Italy Designate Twenty-Five New Financiers of Terror,” U.S. Treasury Department, Aug. 29, 2002.

[15] “The United States and Italy Designate Twenty-Five New Financiers of Terror,” U.S. Treasury Department, Aug. 29, 2002.

[16] Second report of the Monitoring Group Established Pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1363 (2001) and to Resolution 1455 (2003) on Sanctions Against al Qaeda, Dec. 3, 2003, paragraphs 77-80.

[17] Ibid, paragraphs 81-82.

[18] Ibid, executive summary, pg. 3.

[19] Documentation of currently registered companies by SDIs in possession of the author.

[20] Lisa Myers, “Alleged Terrorist Financier Operates in Plain Sight,” NBC, June 30, 2005.

[21] Registro Publico de Panama, ficha 271559, rollo 38428.

[22] National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Monograph on Terrorist Financing, p. 28.

[23] Second report of the Monitoring Group Established Pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1390 (2002) on Sanctions Against al Qaeda, December 2002, paragraph 48.

http://www.strategycenter.net/research/pubID.102/pub_detail.asp

The 801
02-15-2007, 09:32 AM
Great Stuff, Important Tread.

Thanks for posting this material. I know I harp about Mugniyha, as the nexus, but these guys are the root of all evil, as far as I can see. The MB has been around for a long time, and need more visiblilty. Thanks for posting.

rectar
02-15-2007, 12:09 PM
Hassan al-Turabi, ally of Saddam Hussein and bin Laden's long-time friend and benefactor, is freed from jail.
by Thomas Joscelyn
07/25/2005 12:00:00 AM

"America incarnates the devil for Muslims. When I say Muslims, I mean all the Muslims in the world."
--Hassan al-Turabi, Saddam Hussein's close ally, Osama bin Laden's friend and one-time benefactor, as quoted in an interview with the Associated Press (1997)WHEN SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE visited Sudan last week, much of the press's coverage focused on the rough treatment her senior advisors and NBC's Andrea Mitchell, who was among the reporters traveling with the Secretary, received. Mitchell had questioned the Sudanese president, Omar el-Bashir, about his government's role in the current battle raging in Darfur, where an ongoing humanitarian crisis has drawn considerable attention. For this, she received Khartoum's version of hospitality: She was roughed up by Bashir's henchmen.
Absent from much of the discussion in the press, however, is any mention of Hassan al-Turabi. This is curious since late last month the arch-terrorist was freed from his prison home by Bashir's government. His supporters have been accused of being directly involved in the Darfur crisis, which raises important questions about Bashir's willingness to end the carnage.
But Turabi's freedom is disturbing for a variety of other reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that he is, in many ways, a founding father of the Islamist terrorist network we currently face. It was Turabi's apocalyptic vision for confronting the West, after all, which brought together Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden against their common enemy: the United States.
At first blush, Turabi's role as an international terrorist leader would appear to be an unlikely outcome of his educational background.

Born in 1932, Turabi studied law at the University of Khartoum, then at the University of London and, finally, at the Sorbonne in Paris. Multilingual, charismatic, and western-educated, Turabi at first espoused a much more lenient version of Islam. According to Turabi, women deserved a greater degree of equality throughout the Muslim world and democracy was not inconsistent with the fundamental teachings of the Koran.
But such comparatively moderate views were part of a superficial veil covering Turabi's deeper, more radical beliefs. After leaving Paris and returning to Sudan in the mid-1960s, Turabi joined a subsidiary organization of the Muslim Brotherhood and quickly became one of its most prominent leaders. Formed in 1928 in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood spread not only to Sudan, but also across the globe. The organization's vast international footprint laid the groundwork for countless terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda.
Turabi then survived two decades of turbulence. After tensions arose between the Sudanese government and the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1960s, Turabi was arrested and spent much of the next decade in prison, and then exile. He reconciled with the Sudanese government in 1979 and returned to become the country's attorney general. In the early 1980s he was instrumental in establishing a strict version of sharia, with its exceedingly harsh punishments for even menial crimes, in parts of the country.
Civil war plagued the nation throughout the 1980s with power shifting hands several times. Finally, in 1989, along with the current Sudanese president, Omar el-Bashir, Turabi was one of the principle architects behind the National Islamic Front's coup. With his successful acquisition of power, Turabi was free to create the type of radical Islamist state he had always envisioned.

The world was about to face a terrorist threat like no other.

Within a year of taking power, Turabi intervened in a crisis that shook the Muslim world to its core. When Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait in August 1990, the Islamic community ferociously debated the appropriate course of action. Should the Saudis allow foreigners onto their soil to protect the kingdom and extricate the tiny Muslim nation from Saddam's grip? Or, should Saddam be repelled by a Muslim-only force?

BIN LADEN HIMSELF, having just recently returned from Afghanistan as a Muslim hero, approached the Saudi royal family with an offer to amass thousands of his Arab Afghans on the Saudi border. Many point to this offer as demonstrating the open hostility between Saddam and bin Laden. But while bin Laden's first instinct may have been to oppose the secular tyrant, his soon-to-be host in Sudan did not share these sentiments. According to an interview at the time with Turabi's cousin, Mudawi Turabi, the Sudanese leader met twice with Saddam Hussein before the Gulf War and "had appeared to be designing his own Islamic empire even then."
Indeed, as the Gulf War approached Turabi positioned himself as a mediator between Saddam's government and the Saudis. In October 1990 he led a delegation of Islamists to Jordan to meet with Iraqi government officials. Bin Laden sent emissaries to this meeting as well. While it is not clear what bin Laden's emissaries or bin Laden himself thought of the meeting, it is clear
that Turabi threw his full support behind Saddam.
An account of this meeting in the New York Times offers a unique window into Turabi's mindset as Saddam's showdown with the West approached. "In every place, it is division and the absence of an Islamic order which is leading to these conflicts," he said. In Saudi Arabia, Turabi said he found "an aversion to a war scenario, keenness towards a settlement, and very cordial sentiments towards Saddam Hussein" should he pull back in a "complete withdrawal from Kuwait and the reinstatement of the Royal Family."
Saddam promised Turabi that he would release Islamic militants who Iraq had detained for opposing Saddam's regime. Turabi added that he and his Islamist cohorts had "found an element of flexibility in the Iraqi position, but a determination not to countenance any unilateral withdrawal and a very cold and calculating determination to accept the consequences of their decision and to go to war if necessary." Saddam's flexibility, according to Turabi, meant that there needed to be "a proper linkage between the Gulf crisis and the Palestinian problem, if the context was exclusively Arab, if there was a reasonable offer that was that was made that would satisfy them, they would be prepared to consider discussions, maybe even a degree of withdrawal." Turabi was certainly not the only one to notice that Saddam had linked the Gulf crisis to the "Palestinian problem." When Saddam attacked Israel during the Gulf War he managed to successfully link his holy war against the West to the fate of the Palestinians, thereby giving him instant credibility among many Islamists.
Another account of a post-meeting press conference in Jordan says that Turabi warned, "there is going to be all forms of jihad all over the world because it is an issue of foreign troops on sacred soil." Similar calls for jihad were heard coming out of Baghdad from the reportedly more than 1,400 terrorists who had amassed there.
When it became clear that all efforts to avoid war failed, Turabi did not fault Iraq. Instead, Turabi--as well influential Islamist leaders from Algeria and Tunisia--traveled to Baghdad and expressed their support for Saddam.
The terrorist counter-offensive failed to materialize for a variety of reasons. But, Turabi's jihad was just beginning.

EVEN AFTER THE SWIFT DEFEAT of Saddam's forces Turabi would continue to object to the presence of U.S. forces in the region. Starting in April 1991, only weeks after the conclusion of the Gulf War, Turabi began hosting the Islamic Arab Popular Conference, which was held regularly until the late 1990s. (Saddam began hosting a similar conference in Baghdad.) The purpose of the conference was to unite all Muslims--Shiite and Sunni, "secular" and Islamist--under a single anti-Western banner. Only in this manner could the Islamic community force the foreign "crusaders" off of Muslim soil.
Writing about the first such conference in Foreign Affairs a few years later, Judith Miller explained its purpose was to aid Turabi's "long-standing goal of overcoming the historic rift between Sunni Muslim states, like Sudan, and a Shiite state, like Iran." The conference was also part of Turabi's attempt to "fuse formerly secular Arab nationalist movements, which have dominated Arab politics . . . with the increasingly more seductive and influential groups espousing the new Islamic rhetoric."
Ideological boxes, a common fixation within the U.S. intelligence community, were of no concern to Turabi when it came to confronting the West.
The conference ushered in Turabi's open door policy for all Arabs and Muslims and his Sudan quickly became a terrorist incubator. Representatives from almost every Middle Eastern-based terrorist group took root: Palestinian terrorist groups, Hezbollah, the Abu Nidal Organization, and various Egyptian terrorist groups included. Several of the various constituencies which would become part of what we now know as "al Qaeda," including bin Laden himself, also set up shop. Importantly, so did Iraqi (as well as Iranian) intelligence operatives.
Turabi's hospitality to all of these parties earned him the title "The Pope of Terrorism" in the European press and, in short order, his terrorist coalition began to wreak havoc. Governments all over the African continent were invaded. Egypt, Uganda, Eritrea, and Ethiopia as well as several other African nations would routinely complain of Turabi's influence over Islamist radicals within their borders. Countless bombings and assassination attempts all led back to Khartoum's conspicuous guests.
Under Turabi's watchful eye, al Qaeda began to grow and acquire allies. In 1993, at his urging, bin Laden came to an "understanding" with Saddam Hussein that the al Qaeda leader and his followers would not engage in any anti-Hussein activities. The Clinton administration later included this development in its sealed indictment of bin Laden in 1998. According to the indictment: "Al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq."
THE POPE OF TERRORISM'S ROLE in forming such alliances drew the Clinton administration's attention when, in August of 1993, Sudan was placed on the U.S.'s list of "state sponsors of terrorism." The State Department's Global Patterns of Terrorism for that year recognized the Sudanese regime's active role in exporting terrorism throughout Africa and the Middle East and even raised the specter of Sudanese involvement in terrorism on American soil. The State Department's report noted that while "there is no conclusive evidence linking the Government of Sudan to any specific terrorist incident during the year, five of 15 suspects arrested this summer following the New York City bomb plot are Sudanese citizens."
The New York City bomb plot mentioned by the State Department was, of course, the first attack on the World Trade Center in February 1993. That plot nearly destroyed one of the World Trade Center's towers. One of the non-Sudanese suspects was an Iraqi-national named Abdul Rahman Yasin. He quickly fled to Iraq with the help of Saddam's regime after being, inexplicably, released by the FBI. Iraqi intelligence documents discovered since the start of the Iraq war have revealed that, upon his return to Iraq, Yasin received a monthly stipend and housing from the Iraqi government.
Turabi's relationship with Saddam would continue to blossom throughout the mid-1990s. In an account in the New York Times on December 6, 1994, Turabi described his relationship with the Iraqi dictator as "very close." He even defended the Iraqi regime's Islamic credentials. Turabi explained, "Saddam is gradually reintroducing Islam. He has restricted liquor. Koranic studies are mandatory for all students, all teachers and all Baathist party members. He knows the society is returning to Islam." He explained, "Arab governments are collapsing. They know it. . . . The Arabs are changing from below. Arab nationalism is finished and the Islamic spirit is rising in places like Saudi Arabia. This is one of the consequences of the gulf war."
Meanwhile, by 1994 bin Laden's al Qaeda had become firmly rooted in Sudan. Bin Laden's investments and Sudanese government facilities had become inextricably intertwined. Bin Laden's al Qaeda operatives worked closely with Sudanese officials and intelligence. His companies continued to improve the nation's infrastructure by building roads and a variety of business facilities. Clinton administration officials would later explain that his investments were a vital part of the Sudanese "military industrial complex."
Turabi's vision for his native country was coming to fruition.
But, what came of Turabi's "close" relationship with Saddam? Did it mean anything more by way of a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda?
As it turns out, the Clinton administration was about to confront the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda in Turabi's Sudan head on . . .

Read The Pope of Terrorism, Part II (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/884ygeya.asp)
Thomas Joscelyn is an economist and writer living in New York.

rectar
02-15-2007, 12:40 PM
[Editor's note: Muslims actually believe that the Koran is not the sayings of Mohammed (pbuh) but the direct Word of God Himself revealed via the Angel Gabriel to Mohammed. The Hadith are the sayings of Mohammed, his deeds are known as the Sunnah.]
This makes it very hard for non-Muslims to determine whether Dr Turabi is right. The style of reasoning is similar in many repects to that used in the English Common Law. To know whether St Anselm or Algazali succeeded in demonstrating the existence of God, it is unnecessary to know anything about Christianity or Islam - or even to be religious. The conclusions either follow from the premises or they do not; and the test of whether they follow is absolutely independent of faith. The arguments of Dr Turabi, on the other hand, can only be evaluated by those who are already expert in the Islamic
Scriptures.

Petronas
03-10-2007, 07:33 PM
The Muslim Brotherhood "Project"
By Patrick Poole
FrontPageMagazine.com | May 11, 2006

One might be led to think that if international law enforcement authorities and Western intelligence agencies had discovered a twenty-year old document revealing a top-secret plan developed by the oldest Islamist organization with one of the most extensive terror networks in the world to launch a program of “cultural invasion” and eventual conquest of the West that virtually mirrors the tactics used by Islamists for more than two decades, that such news would scream from headlines published on the front pages and above the fold of the New York Times, Washington Post, London Times, Le Monde, Bild, and La Repubblica.

If that’s what you might think, you would be wrong. In fact, such a document was recovered in a raid by Swiss authorities in November 2001, two months after the horror of 9/11. Since that time information about this document, known in counterterrorism circles as “The Project”, and discussion regarding its content has been limited to the top-secret world of Western intelligence communities. Only through the work of an intrepid Swiss journalist, Sylvain Besson of Le Temps, and his book published in October 2005 in France, La conquête de l'Occident: Le projet secret des Islamistes (The Conquest of the West: The Islamists' Secret Project), has information regarding The Project finally been made public. One Western official cited by Besson has described The Project as “a totalitarian ideology of infiltration which represents, in the end, the greatest danger for European societies.”

Now FrontPage readers will be the first to be able to read the complete English translation of The Project. What Western intelligence authorities know about The Project begins with the raid of a luxurious villa in Campione, Switzerland on November 7, 2001. The target of the raid was Youssef Nada, director of the Al-Taqwa Bank of Lugano, who has had active association with the Muslim Brotherhood for more than 50 years and who admitted to being one of the organization’s international leaders. The Muslim Brotherhood, regarded as the oldest and one of the most important Islamist movements in the world, was founded by Hasan al-Banna in 1928 and dedicated to the credo, “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”

The raid was conducted by Swiss law enforcement at the request of the White House in the initial crackdown on terrorist finances in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. US and Swiss investigators had been looking at Al-Taqwa’s involvement in money laundering and funding a wide range of Islamic terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, HAMAS (the Palestinian affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood), the Algerian GIA, and the Tunisian Ennahdah.

Included in the documents seized during the raid of Nada’s Swiss villa was a 14-page plan written in Arabic and dated December 1, 1982, which outlines a 12-point strategy to “establish an Islamic government on earth” – identified as The Project. According to testimony given to Swiss authorities by Nada, the unsigned document was prepared by “Islamic researchers” associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

What makes The Project so different from the standard “Death of America! Death to Israel!” and “Establish the global caliphate!” Islamist rhetoric is that it represents a flexible, multi-phased, long-term approach to the “cultural invasion” of the West. Calling for the utilization of various tactics, ranging from immigration, infiltration, surveillance, propaganda, protest, deception, political legitimacy and terrorism, The Project has served for more than two decades as the Muslim Brotherhood “master plan”. As can be seen in a number of examples throughout Europe – including the political recognition of parallel Islamist government organizations in Sweden, the recent “cartoon” jihad in Denmark, the Parisian car-burning intifada last November, and the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London – the plan outlined in The Project has been overwhelmingly successful.

Rather than focusing on terrorism as the sole method of group action, as is the case with Al-Qaeda, in perfect postmodern fashion the use of terror falls into a multiplicity of options available to progressively infiltrate, confront, and eventually establish Islamic domination over the West. The following tactics and techniques are among the many recommendations made in The Project:


Networking and coordinating actions between likeminded Islamist organizations;
Avoiding open alliances with known terrorist organizations and individuals to maintain the appearance of “moderation”;
Infiltrating and taking over existing Muslim organizations to realign them towards the Muslim Brotherhood’s collective goals;
Using deception to mask the intended goals of Islamist actions, as long as it doesn’t conflict with shari’a law;
Avoiding social conflicts with Westerners locally, nationally or globally, that might damage the long-term ability to expand the Islamist powerbase in the West or provoke a lash back against Muslims;
Establishing financial networks to fund the work of conversion of the West, including the support of full-time administrators and workers;
Conducting surveillance, obtaining data, and establishing collection and data storage capabilities;
Putting into place a watchdog system for monitoring Western media to warn Muslims of “international plots fomented against them”;
Cultivating an Islamist intellectual community, including the establishment of think-tanks and advocacy groups, and publishing “academic” studies, to legitimize Islamist positions and to chronicle the history of Islamist movements;
Developing a comprehensive 100-year plan to advance Islamist ideology throughout the world;
Balancing international objectives with local flexibility;
Building extensive social networks of schools, hospitals and charitable organizations dedicated to Islamist ideals so that contact with the movement for Muslims in the West is constant;
Involving ideologically committed Muslims in democratically-elected institutions on all levels in the West, including government, NGOs, private organizations and labor unions;
Instrumentally using existing Western institutions until they can be converted and put into service of Islam;
Drafting Islamic constitutions, laws and policies for eventual implementation;
Avoiding conflict within the Islamist movements on all levels, including the development of processes for conflict resolution;
Instituting alliances with Western “progressive” organizations that share similar goals;
Creating autonomous “security forces” to protect Muslims in the West;
Inflaming violence and keeping Muslims living in the West “in a jihad frame of mind”;
Supporting jihad movements across the Muslim world through preaching, propaganda, personnel, funding, and technical and operational support;
Making the Palestinian cause a global wedge issue for Muslims;
Adopting the total liberation of Palestine from Israel and the creation of an Islamic state as a keystone in the plan for global Islamic domination;
Instigating a constant campaign to incite hatred by Muslims against Jews and rejecting any discussions of conciliation or coexistence with them;
Actively creating jihad terror cells within Palestine;
Linking the terrorist activities in Palestine with the global terror movement;
Collecting sufficient funds to indefinitely perpetuate and support jihad around the world;


In reading The Project, it should be kept in mind that it was drafted in 1982 when current tensions and terrorist activities in the Middle East were still very nascent. In many respects, The Project is extremely prescient for outlining the bulk of Islamist action, whether by “moderate” Islamist organizations or outright terror groups, over the past two decades.

At present, most of what is publicly known about The Project is the result of Sylvain Besson’s investigative work, including his book and a related article published last October in the Swiss daily, Le Temps, L'islamisme à la conquête du monde (Islamism and the Conquest of the World), profiling his book, which is only available in a French-language edition. At least one Egyptian newspaper, Al-Mussawar, published the entire Arabic text of The Project last November.

In the English-language press, the attention paid to Besson’s revelation of The Project has been almost non-existent. The only mention found in a mainstream media publication in the US has been as a secondary item in an article in the Weekly Standard (February 20, 2006) by Olivier Guitta, The Cartoon Jihad. The most extensive commentary on The Project has been by an American researcher and journalist living in London, Scott Burgess, who has posted his analysis of the document on his blog, The Daily Ablution. Along with his commentary, an English translation of the French text of The Project was serialized in December (Parts I, II, III, IV, V, Conclusion). The complete English translation prepared by Mr. Burgess is presented in its entirety here with his permission. ...

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=22415

And here is the link to the translation of the text of "Project" itself (I am not posting it in its entirety because it is 11 pages long).

http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/readarticle.asp?ID=22416&p=1