Dr. Ahmad Al-Rab'i, former Kuwaiti minister of education and columnist for the Arabic London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published an article titled "A Bit of Shame" on July 25, 2005.
The following are excerpts from the article: [1]
"If we were to go according to the logic of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood movement then we shouldn't condemn the Sharm Al-Sheikh crime, nor [should we condemn] other terrorist crimes!
"The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has its own justifications for violence. In a statement by the movement, in which it 'condemned' the Sharm Al-Sheikh crime, it laid out its justification for the crime. The statement said: 'the colonialist policies that the world's strong countries pursue, as well as the aggression against the peoples – they are what engender the culture of violence.'
"The Muslim Brotherhood's problem is that it has no shame. The beginnings of all of the religious terrorism that we are witnessing today were in the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology of takfir [accusing other Muslims of apostasy]. Sayyid Qutb's [2] book Milestones was the inspiration and the guide for all of the takfir movements that came afterwards.
"The founders of the violent groups were raised on the Muslim Brotherhood, and those who worked with Bin Laden and Al-Qa'ida went out under the mantle of the Muslim Brotherhood.
"If the imperialist countries' policy is what engendered violence, as the Brotherhood's statement says, then what is keeping a few citizens in Vietnam – which American planes utterly destroyed with millions of tons of bombs – from blowing up buildings in San Francisco? What is keeping a few citizens in Japan – which America attacked with an atom bomb – from blowing up Boston?
"Also, what do foreign tourists and innocent Egyptian citizens have to do with the policies of 'the imperialist countries'? Should peaceful and defenseless citizens be killed in Sharm Al-Sheikh, Baghdad, Riyadh, and San'a in order to take revenge on imperialist countries?
"In addition, who is it that is starting a dialogue [with America]…if not the Muslim Brotherhood, which is trying to convince the 'imperialist countries', and America first and foremost, that it is the one that represents moderate Islam and that those countries need to conduct a dialogue with it?
"The Muslim Brotherhood's statement is an example of total shamelessness. It is a continuation of the Brotherhood's self-contradictory and deceitful language which it has long been employing in the name of Islam."
Endnotes:
[1] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), July 25, 2005.
[2] Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) was a Muslim Brotherhood ideologue who was executed on charges of conspiracy to assassinate Egyptian President Gamal 'Abd Al-Nasser. He published his book Milestones [ Ma'alim fi Al-Tariq ] in 1964 when he was between prison terms.
