Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood in Its Own, Original Words
Even before its candidate, Mohammed Morsi, won Egypt’s first democratic election in the summer of 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood (Al-Ikwan al-Muslimin) had become many Western news media’s primary example of “moderate Islamism.” Relations between the Brotherhood and radical Sunni Muslim offshoots including Hamas (the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement) and al-Qaeda varied from strained to hostile.
The Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 to repel Western influence and restore the transnational Sunni caliphate that ended with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. But both before and after it disavowed violence in response to repression by Egyptian rulers, the credo of the Muslim Brotherhood was “Allah is our objective, The Prophet is our leader. The Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
That makes it important to note a recent restatement of the organization’s anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-modern and anti-secular guiding principle. As reported by The Washington Post in an article about the aftermath of Morsi’s ouster by the Egyptian military, a Brotherhood spokesman found the credo well worth
repeating:
“‘God is our flag, and the prophet is our role model. The Koran is our book, and jihad is our path,’ [Brotherhood spokesman and ousted government official Yehia] Hamed bellowed to the crowd on the night the generals forced Morsi out. ‘To die for the sake of God is our highest wish,’” (“Muslim Brotherhood: At a crossroads, group faces a stark choice,” July 9).
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