"Jihad means the fighting of the unbelievers and involves all possible efforts that are necessary to dismantle the power of the enemies of Islam, including beating them, plundering their wealth, destroying their places of worship, and smashing their idols,''
This is still true despite what the mainstream media has to say. Pope Francis was more a friend of Islam than a shepherd of his own flock.
He emphasized human fraternity and the need for unity in addressing global challenges like climate change and religious extremism. His meetings often resulted in joint declarations and shared statements calling for cooperation and understanding.
Examples of Pope Francis' meetings with Muslim leaders:
Indonesia:
Met with Nasaruddin Umar, the grand imam of Southeast Asia's largest mosque, signing a joint declaration on religious harmony and climate action.
Iraq:
Met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a senior Shiite leader, in a historic meeting that marked the first time a pope had met such a leader.
UAE:
Met with Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand mufti of al-Azhar University in Egypt, to co-sign the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Common Coexistence.
Bahrain:
Met with Muslim leaders, including the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, during a visit focused on interreligious dialogue and understanding.
Paris:
Met with the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, who proposed a future interreligious meeting to promote fraternity between Christians and Muslims in Europe.
What Quran says about Muslim Brotherhood?
" … tradition: "Muslims are brethren, they never do wrong to each other, they never forgo supporting each other, they never abandon their brethren in hardships …"
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
House of Representatives, Subcommittee
on National Security, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:06 a.m., in Room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ron DeSantis [chairman of the subcommittee] presiding. Present: Representatives DeSantis, Duncan, Gosar, Hice, Comer, Lynch, and DeSaulnier. Also Present: Representative Grothman. Mr. DeSantis.
The Subcommittee on National Security will come to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a militant Islamist organization with affiliates in over 70 countries, including groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S.
Whether the Muslim Brotherhood writ large should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization has been the topic of debate here in Congress in recent years and has been under consideration by the Trump administration. Thankfully, the Trump administration has discarded the Obama era policy of treating the Brotherhood as a potential ally. Now the questions are focused on how expansive to make the terror designation and whether it should be done through the State Department or Treasury Department. The Muslim Brotherhood has been militant from its very beginning. Its founder, Hassan al-Banna, who started the group in 1928, said that, quote: ``Jihad is an obligation from Allah and every Muslim and cannot be ignored nor evaded.'' And in a book titled ``The Way of Jihad'' he wrote: ``Jihad means the fighting of the unbelievers and involves all possible efforts that are necessary to dismantle the power of the enemies of Islam, including beating them, plundering their wealth, destroying their places of worship, and smashing their idols,'' end quote. This belief was put into action in the decades that followed as the Muslim Brotherhood's members committed numerous acts of terrorism, including the assassination of Egypt's Prime Minister in 1948. This jihadist ideology continues to fuel the Muslim Brotherhood today. The Brotherhood mourned the death of Osama bin Laden and its leaders developed teachings justifying revolutionary violence under sharia law. The Brotherhood has preached hatred towards Jews, denied the Holocaust, and called for Israel's destruction. The Brotherhood has incited violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt amidst a wave of church bombings and other attacks by terrorist groups, including ISIS. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, perhaps the Brotherhood's preeminent cleric, issued a fatwa legitimizing terrorist attacks against American troops in Iraq. And he's also deemed the Holocaust to be a, quote, ``punishment for Jews,'' and expressed hope that another Holocaust would someday be carried out by his fellow Islamists. The Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, Mohammed Badie, has said that the organization's goal is to establish a new Islamist caliphate, including the imposition of sharia law, which is the totalitarian Islamic legal code. We saw what happens when the Brotherhood takes control of a country in Egypt from 2012 to 2013, and the results were chilling, that then-President Mohamed Morsi defied the rule of law and granted himself near absolute power. As Egyptian leader Mohamed El Baradi put it, Morsi usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh. The Brotherhood's legislators enshrined the principles of sharia as the main source of law in Egypt's Constitution, while the Morsi government used state institutions to promote Islamic radicalism, roll back freedom of the press, and launched a wave of blasphemy prosecutions. The Morsi Muslim Brotherhood government is no more, but the Brotherhood and its affiliates continue to advance their agenda across the Middle East and throughout the world. There's no question that the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates are involved in terrorism. Former FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed as much in testimony before Congress when he said that elements of the Brotherhood, both here and overseas, have supported terrorism. A number of these Brotherhood affiliates have been designated as terrorist organizations by the United States Government. The Muslim Brotherhood's Palestinian branch Hamas has been a designated foreign terrorist organization since 1997. Hamas has taken control of the Gaza Strip, launched thousands of rockets against Israeli civilians, and committed suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks that have murdered numerous Israeli and American civilians. Muslim Brotherhood networks raise money here in the U.S. to support Hamas' terrorist activities in the Middle East. According to the Department of Justice, in the early 1990s, Hamas' parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, planned to establish a network of organizations in the U.S. to spread a militant Islamist message and raise money for Hamas. And the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation became the chief fundraising arm for the Palestine Committee in the U.S., created by the Brotherhood to support Hamas. In 2008, the Holy Land Foundation leaders were convicted of crimes, including providing material support for Hamas. Most recently the State Department designated two offshoots of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, HASM and Liwa al-Thawra, as terrorist organizations under Executive Order 13224. The State Department noted that these groups are responsible for bombings and assassinations of senior Egyptian officials. This hearing is an opportunity to discuss what the United States' next step should be in combating the Muslim Brotherhood's threat. Countries including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have all designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. I know there's disagreement among experts on how best to use terrorist designations to address the threat posed by the Brotherhood and its affiliates, and we have different perspectives on this issue represented within our panel today, and I look forward to hearing the witnesses' recommendations. Between the radicalism of it hateful ideology, the danger of its theocratic rule, as seen in Egypt, its networks, including Hamas and HASM, and its powerful state sponsors, it is clear that the Brotherhood constitutes a real threat for the national security interests of the United States. We can debate the best way to counter this threat, but simply ignoring the threat is not an acceptable answer. We do have a distinguished panel of witnesses here to discuss these issues. I want to thank all of them for taking their time to come and provide testimony. And it is my pleasure to now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Lynch, for 5 minutes. Mr. Lynch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd also like to thank you for holding this hearing to examine the multinational, religious, political, and social movement known as the Muslim Brotherhood. I'd also like to thank our witnesses for their willingness to help this subcommittee with its work. The Independent Program on Extremism at George Washington University describes the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928 in Egypt, as, quote, ``the world's oldest and arguably most influential contemporary Islamist movement,'' close quote.
Continued here.
