Friday, May 10, 2019

Is It Islamophobic to Declare the Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Organization?


Is it islamophobic to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization?


A huge debate among Washington think tankers re-emerged, recently, over the cautious steps taken by the Trump Administration to designate the Muslim Brotherhood an international terrorist organization. 

Among those who argue against the designation are American researchers, who claim that designating the Muslim Brotherhood would result in rising “anti-US sentiment among Muslims worldwide” and that “Most Muslims around the world would see the designation as the latest of a series of anti-Muslim steps by the Trump administration" claiming that "the US president already stands accused of stoking Islamophobia internationally.”[1]

Using the “Islamophobia” argument to defend the Muslim Brotherhood against its most deserved designation as an international terrorist organization implies that the Muslim Brotherhood has already succeeded in hacking the finest minds in the United States. The ill argument connotes that the Muslim Brotherhood represents Islam and Muslims worldwide; ignoring the simple fact that most of those who reject the Muslim Brotherhood are moderate Muslim citizens of Muslim-majority countries.

Ironically, the same researchers would get irritated when hearing someone describing the one-thousand years old institution of Al-Azhar as a representative of Muslims worldwide. Yet, they do not mind describing a political Islamist organization like the Muslim Brotherhood as a representative of world Muslims, despite the group’s shameful record of practicing violence. Needless to mention the appalling fact that the Muslim Brotherhood has got three factions of Islamic militia (e.g. Hamas, Hassm, and Liwa Al-Thawra) that have already been designated as terrorist organizations in the US and Europe.

Violent jihad to spread Sharia Law overseas and replace western secular governments with Islamic Caliphate system is a core ideology that the Muslim Brotherhood dearly embraces. “Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope" is the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood. Their logo is a combination of two crossed swords and the word “prepare” which is taken from a Qur’anic verse instructing jihad against disbelievers of Islam.

Political Islamism is a plague that the world needs to remedy, without fretting over the misleading concept of “Islamophobia.” Eliminating political Islamism does not threaten Islam as a religion or the majority moderate Muslims, worldwide, in any way. Political Islamism is a cover to Islamic extremism, which embraces violent jihad against all signs of modern life, including secular systems of governance and national states.

The lenient policy the United States and some European countries is currently adopting towards the Muslim Brotherhood, out of fear of being stigmatized as “Islamophobic,” would eventually backfire in a way that hurts the well-being of states and communities in these countries. When you see a snake in your home, you do not cuddle it, but hit it on the head till it falls dead. If violent extremism is the snake, the Muslim Brotherhood is the head of the snake that the world should target.

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[1] Michele Dunne and Andrew Miller, "Nine Reasons Why Declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Organization Would Be a Mistake" (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, May 3rd, 2019)