July 25, 2006

From the RIGHT side

MIKE GREEN

Israel’s battle against the Muslim Brotherhood

We’ve heard about Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood by many names: Hamas, Hezbollah, PLO, Islamic Jihad, etc.

But until we come to know the Muslim Brotherhood, we cannot know the rationale behind why Hezbollah was formed in 1982, why Hamas was created, and why Osama bin Laden left a life of luxury to join the Mujahideen in the mountain caves of Afghanistan for a decade of fighting the Soviets.

Without understanding this organization, we fail to recognize the enormous influence it has throughout the Islamic world.

Instead of accepting the simplistic rationale offered by western propagandists seeking to speak on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood, we must also become familiar with the organization’s philosophical ideals if we are to understand its fight against British imperialism in Egypt, its battle against U.S. control of Iran and Iraq, and its defense of Lebanon and the Palestinians against Israel.

Ironically, once we come to know this organization, we find that this so-called enemy is neither religiously crazed nor insanely homicidal, as it has been propagandized to be.

The most famous philosopher in the Muslim Brotherhood is Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian educator who received his masters degree at the University of Northern Colorado in the early 50s and wrote two books after his departure from the U.S. entitled, “The America I Saw” and “Milestones.” Qutb realized over a half-century ago about western society what Christian fundamentalists and evangelists rail about today.

Religion no longer has much influence over society in a secular world; and the U.S. is a shining example of such a notion. Qutb claimed that western societies tended to try and separate religion from the governance of society. But, as he put it, if Athens represents reason and science, and Jerusalem represents God and religion, then the two will always be conflict. They cannot co-exist. One will win out over the other. And in America, Qutb pointed out, religion has been annihilated by reason and science.

This, according to Qutb, is a fundamental risk of allowing western powers to invade Muslim lands.

Adherence to Islamic faith is challenged and diluted by the privileges and allowances of secular societies (the same is true in Christian societies). And from its inception, the Muslim Brotherhood has sought both politically and through militant force to bring about an Islamic state in the Middle East while battling against the encroachment of western cultures and influences of economic enticements. The primary focus of the Muslim Brotherhood over the past 50 years, however, has been its defense of Muslim lands that are continually undermined and invaded by western powers.

Americans have been, for several generations, largely oblivious to the incursions (both covert and overt) of the U.S. government into the Middle East.

The U.S. media has either been unable or unwilling to tell the story of the Muslim Brotherhood in totality.

But before modern-day Israel was established in 1948, the Muslim Brotherhood was battling the invasion of western powers in Middle East nations. When the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was just a teenager, he studied at the feet of one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, which he later joined. This organization has long distrusted Great Britain for its influence in Egyptian national politics, and when the British reneged on promises made to Arab nations in response to pressure from the United States, it further heightened Islamic fears of western interference in Arab sovereignty.

Though the Muslim Brotherhood believes Israel to be mostly a U.S. created state (due to the arm-twisting of president Harry S. Truman to get Great Britain to allow an influx of 100,000 European Jews into Palestine and the subsequent fundraising of more than a half-billion (BILLION) dollars for the new Jewish settlers in 1946 by Truman and his vice president Alben Barkley, according to the January 7, 1952 issue of TIME magazine) the organization today has morphed into a militant arm of Islam that seeks primarily to defend Islamic lands against invasion by the western powers.

In the aftermath of the defeat of the Arab coalition by Israel and subsequent conflicts with Arab nations, it was the Muslim Brotherhood that helped establish some of the groups that formed the Palestinian Liberation Organization. When Afghanistan was attacked, it was the Muslim Brotherhood that issued a call to defend it. When Israel invaded Lebanon from 1975 - 2000, it was the Muslim Brotherhood that helped to establish Hezbollah to defend Lebanon.

The Muslim Brotherhood understands that it cannot raise up an army to stand toe-to-toe with the western powers, including Israel. But, it believes it can defend its lands in the same fashion it defended Afghanistan from a much more powerful foe than the Afghan army could’ve hoped to defeat.

Today, in Iraq, it is the Muslim Brotherhood that fuels the resistance against, and increases its power against, the U.S. forces. The United States government is very familiar with this massive organization that acts as a pan-Arabic force to defend Islam against invaders. At one time the CIA even assisted the Muslim Brotherhood’s defense of Afghanistan from the Communists.

Today, the U.S. has been at war with the Muslim Brotherhood for more than 15 years ... since president George H. Bush’s unilateral decision to invade Iraq was carried out in 1991.

And despite the false notion that the U.S. initially invaded Iraq in 2003, the U.S. military has never left Iraq since is first invasion in 1991. The air campaign and control of Iraqi skies for over a decade merely escalated into a ground invasion in 2003. It wasn’t a different war, but rather a different strategy employed in an ongoing conflict.

Western military involvement in the Middle East isn’t about Israel, as some politicians propagate. U.S. covert and overt incursions into the region began with Iran, and then Iraq. Not to mention the fact that the U.S. has armed Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq ... all purported enemies of Israel. No matter how one looks at the Middle East, it boils down to western governments seeking to control governments, resources and peoples within that region that has caused an existing powderkeg to erupt.

After the British exited the region, the U.S. decided to enter the fray in 1953 with a covert CIA operation known as Project Ajax, in a successful effort to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Iran and secure control of Iranian oil, which was split between the U.S. and Great Britain.

After a successful Iranian revolt in 1979, the U.S. assisted Iraq in an invasion of Iran the following year. But after Saddam Hussein discovered the U.S. was supporting both sides in a war that killed more than a million Muslims, he abandoned his friendship with the U.S. and made peace with Iran in 1988, which opened Iraq up for invasion by the U.S. a mere three years later under the pretext of “liberating Kuwait.” The U.S. has never left Iraq since 1991, nor has it stopped bombing it over the past 15 years (with the possible exception of years ‘94 and ‘95).

Iran and Syria both remain in the crosshairs of the U.S. military scopes and the propaganda against both belies the truth regarding the ongoing war in which the U.S. is engaged with the Muslim Brotherhood — a war I believe it cannot and will not win.

Meanwhile, Israel has racheted up the risks in the region with its heavy-handed approach to Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which responded militarily after the international community ignored Palestinian pleas to discipline Israel for two separate attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip prior to the abductions of Israeli soldiers.

But Israel has been given a pass by the White House. And its initial attacks on civilians during a 16-month cease-fire have faded into obscurity during the escalation of events over the past several weeks.

Subsequent attacks on civilians have been played down by the Bush administration and members of congress with language such as “measured attacks.” Additionally, when Israel unlawfully kidnapped elected Palestinian cabinet officials, it was characterized as a “detainment.” The U.S. is familiar with such “detainments” since it has committed similar acts and imprisoned individuals without charge or legal representation or authority of law for years.

Israel’s battles are for sure not to be construed as U.S. battles. And the motives for our government in the Middle East region have less to do with Israel than advancing the purpose of controlling oil flowing from the Middle East, which is the reason the U.S. has engaged in a policy of aggression there since 1953.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which views any military and political involvement by western powers in the Middle East as a violation of the sovereign rights of Arab states, vows to defend the rights of Arabs to govern as they desire and to resist invasions by foreign entities. Ironically, Americans believe the very same thing about America.

But until Americans become knowledgeable regarding the illicit, illegal, and immoral acts of our government today and in the past in the Middle East region, we will continue to cower in fear each time we hear the term “terrorist,” and support whatever decisions are made by our leaders, whom we unfortunately believe to be rulers of the world.

To respond to this column send email to mgreen@dailytidings.com. Only those responses containing the writer's name, city and phone number (for verification purposes only) will appear on our site. Mike Green is an award-winning columnist and author of, "The WHOLE truth about the U.S. War on Terror: answers to every question you never knew to ask." (www.thetruthaboutterror.com)

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