The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission:

"Obey The Prophet, Even If He Tells You To Kill"

by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
November 26, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3394/qaradawi-murder

Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi—one of the most influential Islamic clerics in the world, author of over 100 books on Muslim doctrine, head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, and spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood—maintains that Muslims must obey the commands of Islam's prophet Muhammad, even unto murder. This would be the same Dr. Qaradawi that American academics like Georgetown professor John Esposito praise for engaging in a "reformist interpretation of Islam and its relationship to democracy, pluralism, and human rights."

Barry Rubin: Getting Priorities Wrong in Egypt and Syria: Three Media Case Studies

The following by Barry Rubin is reposted with permission:

Getting Priorities Wrong in Egypt and Syria:
Three Media Case Studies

As I lay here waiting for the gurney to take me into the operating room and read the hundreds of kind letters from so many of you I hope to fill in your time with one more article.

Focus is everything, knowing what the central problem is and dealing with it. Here I want to discuss three articles that I basically agree with to point out how they miss the key issue and thus are somewhat misleading. I’m glad to see these three articles being published but it’s a case of, to quote Lenin, two steps forward, one step back.

Barry Rubin: What Do Egyptians Want? A Democratically Elected Islamist Dictatorship

What Do Egyptians Want? A Democratically Elected Islamist Dictatorship

by Barry Rubin

Yes, friends, it’s once again time for that exciting game of Spin the Polls by the Pew Foundation. Here are the rules:

• Rule 1: Pew does a good job on the poll itself.
• Rule 2: The Pew analysis ignores or misunderstands the implications of the poll.
• Rule 3: The Western media and government misread the poll, often misinterpreting the results into the exact opposite of what they actually mean. They then adopt the wrong policies.
• Rule 4: If correctly interpreted the polls are a gold mine that can help us comprehend the present and predict the future.

Some years ago, for example, I analyzed a Pew poll. The poll showed that people in Arab countries had a low opinion of al-Qaida. It was then interpreted as meaning that they were moderate. In fact, as I wrote the poll showed a shockingly high level of support for revolutionary Islamism, especially in Egypt and Jordan.

Once again we have the misleading spin beginning with the headline: “Egyptians Remain Optimistic, Embrace Democracy and Religion in Political Life.”

Barry Rubin: Exclusive: An Islamist Nazi Collaborator is Transformed into a Moderate

Exclusive: An Islamist Nazi Collaborator is Transformed into a Moderate

by Barry Rubin

Suppose you read in the Washington Post about a democratic politician who was a refugee from persecution by a dictatorship. Would you be surprised to learn that he was in fact a vicious antisemite, a radical Islamist, and—by the way—a wanted war criminal for his collaboration with the Nazis?

In fact, all of the facts about this politician are easily available in the public record. The man in question is Maarouf al-Dawalibi, whose son, Nofal, has now declared himself leader of a Syrian “government in exile.” I don't want to be unfair to the Washington Post, which in this case merely reports what someone told it and had no reason to research this specific point. Still, this story amply illustrates the daily misrepresentation and apologies for revolutionary Islamism so common in the media, academia, and among Western government officials. It also shows how a naive West is repeatedly duped and how knowledge of Middle East is so shallow among the supposed experts and pundits.

According to the Post:

The Middle East Media Sampler 04/15/2012: Myths Of The New York Times

From DG:

1) The second myth

 In a recent column, The Three Myths that Distort Every Discussion of Israel and the Middle East, Barry Rubin discusses the second myth:

The concerted international campaign by various groups in the West against Israel damages it and helps the Palestinians. Again, this should be obviously true--that the tireless anti-Israel propaganda campaign materially damages Israel--but the truth is quite the opposite. To date, despite all the noise, Israeli interests—including businesses—have suffered little damage. On the contrary, the attacks encourage support, including increased buying of Israeli products and energetic loyalty by Israel's supporters abroad. But all of these endless demonstrations, teach-ins, books, articles, documentaries, boycott, disinvestment, and sanction labors do absolutely zero to help the Palestinians. On one level, they do nothing politically to advance their cause in a real way. On another level, they contribute nothing to their welfare.

The Middle East Media Sampler 2/19/2012: Islamists Labeled By Media As Moderates

From DG:

1) The progressive Islamists

In one of his final dispatches, the late Anthony Shadid profiled a Said Ferjani, a Tunisian Islamist in Islamists’ Ideas on Democracy and Faith Face Test in Tunisia. Most of the article profile Ferjani, but in the middle, Shadid writes about the interactions of exiled Islamists in the 1990's:

But no less dramatic was the shift under way within various currents inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood. Mr. Ghannouchi, his own thoughts evolving in exile, became an early proponent of a more inclusive and tolerant Islamism, arguing a generation ago that notions of elections and majority rule were universal and did not contradict Islam. Early on, he supported affirmative action to increase women’s participation in Parliament, a break with the unrelenting notion of missionary work that so long defined the Brotherhood.