Egypt

What the Muslim Brotherhood Stands For

By Jeffrey Goldberg

A number of Goldblog readers believe I've gone soft on the Muslim Brotherhood. This is not true. I know what the Muslims Brothers believe. And it's not Unitarianism. I'm just unsure whether the Brotherhood will find its way to power in Egypt in the current situation. But as a public service, here are several statements of the new Supreme Guide of the Brotherhood, Mohammad Badi, courtesy of MEMRI. Reading this will help you understand why a Brotherhood-led Egypt is not an optimal outcome for the West. Here he is on the need for jihad against the perfidious Zionists:

"Today the Muslims desperately need a mentality of honor and means of power [that will enable them] to confront global Zionism. [This movement] knows nothing but the language of force, so [the Muslims] must meet iron with iron, and winds with [even more powerful] storms. They crucially need to understand that the improvement and change that the [Muslim] nation seeks can only be attained through jihad and sacrifice and by raising a jihadi generation that pursues death just as the enemies pursue life."

And here he is, sounding suspiciously like a Qaeda theorist on the subject of America's imminent demise:

"The Soviet Union fell dramatically, but the factors that will lead to the collapse of the U.S. are much more powerful than those that led to the collapse of the Soviet empire - for a nation that does not champion moral and human values cannot lead humanity, and its wealth will not avail it once Allah has had His say, as happened with [powerful] nations in the past. The U.S. is now experiencing the beginning of its end, and is heading towards its demise...

And here, between the lines, is a profound challenge to the moderate Palestinian Authority, presently locked in a death-struggle with Hamas, which is the Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood:

"Resistance is the only solution against the Zio-American arrogance and tyranny, and all we need is for the Arab and Muslim peoples to stand behind it and support it. The peoples know well who is [carrying out] resistance and who has sold out the [Palestinian] cause and bargained over it. We say to our brothers the mujahideen in Gaza: be patient, persist in [your jihad], and know that Allah is with you..."