Since his appointment in mid-January 2010 as the new general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Dr. Muhammad Badi's speeches, sermons, and statements have reflected a pro-jihad stance, which favors resistance as a means to restore the Muslim nation to its former glory and to liberate Arab lands in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and which regards Israel and the Jews as a major enemy.
Following are excerpts from several of Badi's statements:[1]
"Islam … Advocates Jihad as the Only Means for Setting the Ummah's Situation Aright"
In a sermon, Badi' called upon Muslim leaders to pursue the way of jihad: "In Islam, a leader is granted lofty status due to his important position in the service of his nation... but this is on the condition that he act in justice, responsibility, and good faith toward his people... Do the leaders of the Ummah need to be reminded that Islam obligates them to thoroughly prepare the Ummah to respond to the offensives it faces, one after another without abatement? Do the leaders of the Ummah need to be reminded that its nations are prey to occupation and hegemony [and are pawns] in a disgraceful game, which is part of the American-Zionist plan and which degrades us on all fronts? Do the leaders of the Ummah need help comprehending that it is their duty to stand behind the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to defend the Islamic holy places, before it is too late?...
"The leaders of one and a half billion [Muslims] are able to stand against a few million Zionists who abuse our holy places, and to bring about the longed for victory – especially with all our countries' riches at their disposal. It is within the ability of the leaders, armed with their peoples – those proud peoples who have stood and still stand with the truth, and who have risen up against occupation and in resistance of hegemony – to face the Zionists and put them in their place. It is within the ability of the leaders of 'an Ummah designated by Allah for mightiness,' to rescue from the Zionists' jails the female Muslim prisoners who are screaming, crying out for someone to put an end to their humiliation...
"Muslim leaders, Islam, to which you belong, advocates jihad as the only means for setting the Ummah's situation aright, as Allah says: 'O you believers! When you are told to go forth in Allah's way, why should you incline heavily to earth? Are you contented with this world's life instead of the hereafter?' [Koran 9:38] Our revival, majesty, and glory depend on the return to righteousness, which will only be achieved through resistance and the support of [resistance] in every way – with money, arms, information, and self[-sacrifice]..."
Revoke the Camp David Accords
"It is your obligation to stop the absurd negotiations, whether direct or indirect, and to support all forms of resistance for the sake of liberating every occupied piece of land in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and all [other] parts of our Muslim world. The sources of your authority, as all religious scholars have agreed, are the Koran and the Sunna, and not U.N. resolutions or the dictates of the Zionists or Americans. This can be achieved if you declare the Palestine cause and the causes of the [other] occupied Islamic nations your primary concern. You must stand behind your free peoples and their various institutions in their repeated calls for boycotts, an end to normalization, and support for the resistance and its representatives... You must revoke all the agreements of capitulation.... especially the Camp David Accords... which go against the Egyptian constitution and U.N. resolutions, and do not therefore obligate Egyptian senior officials..."[2]
In an interview for the Muslim Brotherhood's official website, Badi' said: "The people must fight the [U.S.-Zionist] agenda by joining the resistance; [they must] reject this agenda through public and popular resistance to all forms of Zionist-American hegemony, for the simple reason that the people are the ones who pay the price [of this hegemony]." He added: "We believe that the way to resolve the Palestinian problem is through resistance, and that there can be no [concessions] regarding the Palestinians' rights vis-à-vis Jerusalem, the borders, and the right of return..."[3] In another sermon, Badi' made clear that armed resistance is legitimate: "There is nothing for the Palestinians, the Arabs, or the Muslim Ummah as a whole but resistance by all legitimate means, and this includes armed resistance. This is the most effective way of dealing with the Zionist tyranny that is supported or silently tolerated by the West and the [rest of] the world."[4]
"The Prophet Muhammad brought us Tidings that a Decisive War would Break Out Between the Jews and the Muslims, and the Muslims and Islam would Emerge Victorious"
In a televised interview,[5] Badi' explained that the Muslim Brotherhood's crest of two swords and a Koran was chosen by the organization's founder, Hassan Al-Bana, as a symbol of jihad against the Zionists in Palestine and the British in Egypt, and that it continued to represent the struggle against anyone who threatened Islam. Badi' stressed that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a violent organization – that its members would not take up arms against other Muslims or against non-combatants, but only against the enemies of Allah, as they did when the movement took part in the defense of Palestine in the 1948 war. He added: "We will continue to raise the banner of jihad – two swords and a Koran – as long as the Zionists raise their flag, with two blue stripes to represent their so-called state [reaching] from the Nile to the Euphrates. And the [Muslim] brotherhood will continue to view the Jews and Zionists as their first and foremost enemies."[6]
In one of his weekly sermons, Badi' even called for the abrogation of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel: "Did the wars with the Zionists end, as Sadat said when he declared in the Zionist Knesset, 'Tell your children that the October War was the last war?' Did the peace agreement realize the hopes of the Ummah or was it a foul and counterfeit peace based on concessions? Would revising or even nullifying the agreement be tantamount to declaring war? After all, the Zionist entity violated all of its commitments and never honored a single agreement, yet [nobody has accused it of] declaring war...
"Therefore, we must first of all free ourselves from this agreement, since the Zionists violated it with their ongoing war, their rapacious aggression against Gaza, and their assassinations of resistance leaders... Secondly, we must prepare ourselves well for confronting open military threats. Why do they cling to [their vision of] Greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates? What is the reason for their annual maneuvers in preparation for the next war? Thirdly, we must be God-fearing and persistent, remain patient and support the resistance... Victory is not impossible so long as the resistance carries on..."[7]
In another sermon, Badi' said: "...Fighting for it and defending it is an obligation, and abandoning it is a sin. Gestures of kindness toward the Zionists and their allies, and maintaining relations with them are [tantamount to] a war against Allah, His religion, and the Muslims... Jihad for the restoration of Palestine and Al-Aqsa is an individual duty incumbent upon every Muslim. Everyone is required to defend the holy places – and especially Jerusalem – and to protect them...."
The sermon continued: "Despite [the fact] that 'Israel' possesses an arsenal of nuclear weapons, despite [the fact] that the U.S. embraces [Israel], and despite the Arab concessions, [Israel] will have no security on our occupied land. It is a transient phenomenon that shall pass. The Prophet Muhammad brought us the tidings that a decisive war would break out between the Jews and the Muslims, and that the Muslims and Islam would emerge victorious. This prophecy is what gives us hope. Thus said the Prophet Muhammad [in a hadith]: 'Before Judgment Day arrives, the Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them, until the Jews hide behind stones and trees. The stones or the trees will say: 'Oh Muslim! Oh servant of Allah! There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him' – except for the Gharqad tree [which will not betray Jews who hide behind it], for it is the tree of the Jews.' Therefore, we say that Israel is bound for perdition, whereas Al-Aqsa will remain as long as the world endures..."[8]
"The Hour is Near when [We will] Rid the Ummah of this Foreign Body [Israel] that has been Malevolently Planted in Its Midst"
Badi' continued in this vein in another Friday sermon: "The truth of the matter is that the Zionists are too wretched and weak to be an invincible power as they, or the defeatist in spirit among us, are trying to claim. For the honorable Koran described these cowards clearly: 'Ignominy shall be their portion wherever they are found, unless [they grasp] a rope from Allah and a rope from men' [Koran 3:112]... The Zionists' [current] superiority is temporary and an anomaly. Left to themselves, without the 'rope from men,' they would return to the baseness and wretchedness that is part of their nature. They have not defeated our Ummah thanks to any inherent strength of their own, and they would not succeed [at all] were it not for our weakness and laxity...
"What has been done, and is still being done to the Zionist enemy by the [spiritual] descendents of [Hassan] Al-Bana [founder of the Muslim Brotherhood] and of [famous Palestinian fighters 'Izz Al-Din] Al-Qassam, [Ahmad] Yassin, and ['Abd Al-'Aziz] Al-Rantisi, and by all the pure and righteous resistance forces, is one of the most important signs that [the Zionists'] superiority is ending, and that the claims about the invincible strength of the Zionist entity are false...
"There is no doubt that the dawn of victory is coming, and that the hour is near when [we will] rid the Ummah of this foreign body that has been malevolently planted in its midst... [especially] since [the events in] South Lebanon and Gaza have revealed the Zionist tiger to be a paper tiger. But we must... support the suicide operations of the young jihadists in Palestine, attacks that have cause the Zionists to quake in fear and lose sleep, until their hearts have melted with fright. Behold, the Zionists are retreating, and the truth is pressing on... It is a holy duty to support the citizens of Jerusalem with money, equipment, and in any [other] way, [but] not through normalization with the Zionist enemy or attempts to grovel to it..."[9]
Endnotes:
[1] It should be noted that Badi's deputy general guide, Dr. Mahmoud 'Izzat, was recently released after having been arrested on suspicion of serving as the Muslim Brotherhood's secret chairman. See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 2869, "In Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood Officials Accused of Setting Up Terror Cells," March 22, 2010, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/4049.htm.
