Daniel Pipes: Is CAIR a Terror Group?

The following by Daniel Pipes is reposted here with permission.

Is CAIR a Terror Group?

by Daniel Pipes
National Review Online
November 28, 2014

http://www.danielpipes.org/15220/cair-terror-group

We who follow the Islamist movement fell off our collective chair on Nov. 15 when the news came that the United Arab Emirates' ministerial cabinet had listed the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as one of 83 proscribed terrorist organizations, up there with the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS.

This came as a surprise because the UAE authorities themselves have a record of promoting Islamism; because CAIR has a history of raising funds in the UAE; and because the UAE embassy in Washington had previously praised CAIR.

On reflection, however, the listing makes sense for, in recent years, the Islamist movement has gravely fractured.

Raymond Ibrahim on When Jihad Backfires on the Arab World

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

The Double-Edged Sword of Jihad

by Raymond Ibrahim
Raymondibrahim.com
March 13, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3793/sword-of-jihad

Raymond Ibrahim

Islamic nations are again learning that the jihad is a volatile instrument of war that can easily backfire on those who preach it; that "holy war" is hardly limited to fighting and subjugating "infidels"—whether the West in general, Israel in particular, or the millions of non-Muslim minorities under Islam—but can also be used to fight "apostates," that is, Muslims accused of not being Islamic enough.

In an unprecedented move and following Egypt's lead, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain recently withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar, largely due to its Al Jazeera propaganda network which, since the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been inciting chaos in the region.

According to a March 7 Reuters reports, "Saudi Arabia has formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, in a move that could increase pressure on Qatar whose backing for the group has sparked a row with fellow Gulf monarchies…. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are fuming over Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, and resent the way Doha has sheltered influential cleric Yusuf Qaradawi, a critic of the Saudi authorities, and given him regular airtime on its pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera."

Are Obama's Muslim Brotherhood Buddies Allied With Al Qaeda?

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Exposed: The Muslim Brotherhood/Al-Qaeda Connection

by Raymond Ibrahim
CBN News
February 4, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3739/muslim-brotherhood-al-qaeda-connection

Raymond Ibrahim

As former Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi's trials continue, it's enlightening to consider what is likely to be one of the centerpieces of the trial: longstanding accusations that Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood party worked with foreign terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda, against the national security of Egypt.

Based on these accusations of high treason, Morsi and others could face the death penalty.

Muhammad Morsi and Ayman Zawahiri. Image source: European Union (Morsi) and al-Qaeda video screenshot (Zawahiri)

Concerning some of the more severe allegations, one of Egypt's most widely distributed and read newspapers, Al Watan, recently published what it said were recorded conversations between Morsi and Muhammad Zawahiri, al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri's brother.

In these reports, Watan repeatedly asserts that Egyptian security and intelligence agencies confirmed (or perhaps leaked out) the recordings.

Much of the substance of the alleged conversations is further corroborated by events that occurred during Morsi's one-year-rule, most of which were reported by a variety of Arabic media outlets, though not by Western media.

In what follows, I relay, summarize, and translate some of the more significant portions of the Watan reports (verbatim statements are in quotation marks). In between, I comment on various anecdotes and events—many of which were first broken on my website—that now, in light of these phone conversations, make perfect sense and independently help confirm the authenticity of the recordings.

—–

Raymond Ibrahim: Egypt's Latest Fatwas from Salafis and Brotherhood

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Egypt's Latest Fatwas from Salafis and Brotherhood

by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
November 27, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3684/egypt-salafi-fatwas

Raymond Ibrahim

As the full ramification of the Muslim Brotherhood's year in power continues to be exposed, a new study by Al Azhar's Fatwa Committee dedicated to exploring the fatwas, or Islamic decrees, issued by the Brotherhood and Salafis -- the Islamists -- was recently published.

Al Azhar, in Cairo, is considered by many to be one of the oldest and most prestigious Islamic universities in the world. The study, written by Al Azhar's Dr. Sayed Zayed, and entitled (in translation), "The Misguided Fatwas of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis," reveals a great deal about how Islamists view women.

The Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Youm summarized some of the Al Azhar study's main findings and assertions on November 15 in a article entitled (in translation), "Muslim Brotherhood fatwas: A woman swimming is an 'adulteress' and touching bananas is 'forbidden.'"

Jonathan Spyer: Sisi to Egyptian Islamists: Surrender or Die

The following by Jonathan Spyer is reposted here with permission of the Middle East Forum:

Sisi to Egyptian Islamists: Surrender or Die

by Jonathan Spyer
The Jerusalem Post
October 26, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3655/sisi-egyptian-islamists

A suicide bombing this week at Egyptian Military Intelligence headquarters in the city of Ismailiya has been claimed by Ansar Beit al Maqdis. This organization is a Salafi Jihadi group with links to organizations of a similar kind in the Gaza Strip. Eleven people, including six soldiers were wounded in the bombing.

The Ismailiya attack is the latest episode in a growing Islamist insurgency against the de facto rule of General Abd al Fatah al-Sisi and the military in Egypt. It was of particular significance because the city lies just west of the Suez Canal, outside of the Sinai Peninsula. In the poorly policed area of northern Sinai, jihadi groups have been active since the military coup of July 3, and even before it.

But the Ismailiya bombing represents only the second time that Ansar Beit al Maqdis has managed to strike west of the canal. This attack may well be a sign of things to come.

Still Unanswered: Is Egypt's Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi Just Another Islamist?

The following by Raymond Stock is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Islamist or Nationalist:
Who is Egypt's Mysterious New Pharaoh?

by Raymond Stock
Foreign Policy Research Institute
October 2013

Raymond Stock

Egypt's new de facto pharaoh, General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, is a man of mystery. Is he an Islamist, or a nationalist? Is he a person of high principle, or a lowly opportunist? And in a land which has known five thousand years of mainly centralized, one-man rule, with limited experience of democracy, when have we seen his type before, and where will he lead the troubled, ancient nation now?

These questions are crucial to knowing how the U.S. should react to al-Sisi's removal of Egypt's first "freely elected" president, Mohamed Morsi on July 3 in answer to overwhelmingly massive street protests demanding that he do so, and to the ongoing bloody crackdown on Morsi's group, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), that began on August 14. Citing the ongoing, actually two-way violence in Egypt, President Barack Obama's administration has now suspended much of our annual $1.6 billion aid to the country, save for money needed to maintain security operations along the Israeli border in Sinai and to directly support the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.

If You Want To Safely Support The Muslim Brotherhood, Your Best Bet Is Israel

Today it has become evident that leaders and members of the Islamic Movement in Israel enjoy more freedom and rights than the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Jordan and even -- under the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank -- Hamas.
Khaled Abu Toameh

Khaled Abu Toameh writes that Israel is the only place Where Muslims Can Speak Freely in the Middle East:

Arab journalists and columnists in Israel have been expressing their views about the Egyptian crisis without fear, while their colleagues in Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority are afraid to speak their mind.

Israel, for example, is one of the few countries in the Middle East where Muslims are permitted to demonstrate in favor of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood organization.

Egyptian Head of Muslim Brotherhood is Arrested -- Obedient New York Times Cries Foul

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

A Terror Leader Behind Bars in Egypt

by Raymond Ibrahim
FrontPageMagazine.com
August 20, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3589/muhammad-badie-egypt

Raymond Ibrahim

The supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the head of the Islamist snake, Muhammad Badie—who had slipped security forces by traveling in and out of the Brotherhood torture camps (known as "peaceful sits ins" by the mainstream media")—has finally been arrested in Egypt and is awaiting trial. Not only was he the leader of the Brotherhood, but, according to Brotherhood members themselves, he was giving orders to his underling, Muhammad Morsi, the now ousted Egyptian president.

Among other serious accusations, Badie is being charged with inciting widespread terrorism and murder and playing a key role in the current violence and unrest in Egypt—also known as "the jihad"—which has led to the destruction of some 80 Christian churches and monasteries, the violent slaughters of Egyptian police, and any number of other criminal activities.

If Badie, as a Brotherhood member on live TV slipped into saying, used to order president Morsi around, surely his authority over the average Brotherhood member—the very fellows now burning and slaughtering—was ironclad.

The Bloody "Arab Spring" in Egypt and How Obama Brought Us To This Point

The following by Raymond Stock is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Morsi detained, bloodbath in Egypt
Whatever happened to the Arab Spring?

by Raymond Stock
Fox News
August 15, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3588/morsi-detained-bloodbath-egypt

Raymond Stock

As Egypt explodes in what could be civil war, with a reported death toll of at least 628 dead and rising in clashes between security forces and Islamists that began August 14, many are wondering, whatever happened to the Arab Spring? That is, to the wave of popular uprisings against the long-lasting dictatorships of the Middle East and North Africa that began nearly three years ago in Tunisia, and brought the promise of democracy to the region at last?

And what should the U.S. do now that the Muslim Brotherhood--President Obama's chosen horse in the race for control of the largest Arab state and our most important Arab ally—has apparently lost?

To answer the first question, the Arab Spring never happened as advertised. Rather than a series of straightforward, largely peaceful popular risings led by social-media savvy youth that swept decades-old repressive regimes into the dustbin of history, as first portrayed by the media, something else occurred.

Raymond Ibrahim on Mubarak's Muslim Brotherhood Prophecy

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Mubarak's Muslim Brotherhood Prophecy

by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
August 15, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3586/mubarak-muslim-brotherhood

Raymond Ibrahim

In a video of Hosni Mubarak when he was still Egypt's president, the strategies of which he accuses the Muslim Brotherhood have come to pass. What follows are Mubarak's words from a conference in Egypt (date unknown; author's translation):

So they [Brotherhood and affiliates] took advantage of the economic situation by handing out money, to one man 100 Egyptian pounds, or about $30 dollars, [saying,] "Here take this bag of glycerin and throw it here," or do this or that—to create a state of instability in Egypt. And these groups—don't ever believe that they want democracy or anything like that. They are exploiting democracy in order to eliminate democracy. And if they ever do govern, it will be an ugly dictatorship. ….

Daniel Pipes: Evidence that Morsi Actually Lost the Egyptian Presidency

The following by Daniel Pipes is reposted here with permission:

Evidence that Morsi Actually Lost the Egyptian Presidency

by Daniel Pipes
August 18, 2013
Cross-posted from National Review Online, The Corner

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2013/08/evidence-that-morsi-actually-lost-the-egyptian

Just days after his apparent victory, Cynthia Farahat and I expressed our skepticism about the validity of these election returns:

SCAF exploits the Muslim Brotherhood and other proxies as its civilian fronts, a role they are happy to play, by permitting Islamists to garner an outsized percentage of the parliamentary vote, then to win the presidency. During the suspicious week-long delay before the presidential votes were announced, SCAF met with the Muslim Brotherhood's real leader, Khairat El-Shater, and reached a deal whereby Morsi became president but SCAF still governs.

Earlier, we had doubted two earlier rounds of elections (see "Egypt's Sham Election" and "Don't Ignore Electoral Fraud in Egypt.")

Though few analysts have embraced this version, there have been recent hints of it:

Raymond Ibrahim: Behind Benghazi: Muslim Brotherhood and Obama Administration

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Behind Benghazi: Muslim Brotherhood and Obama Administration

by Raymond Ibrahim
CBN News
August 14, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3585/benghazi-muslim-brotherhood

Raymond Ibrahim

Evidence that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was directly involved in the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where Americans including U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens were killed, continues to mount.

First, on June 26, 2013, I produced and partially translated what purported to be an internal Libyan governmental memo which was leaked and picked up by many Arabic websites. According to this document, the Muslim Brotherhood, including now ousted President Morsi, played a direct role in the Benghazi consulate attack. "Based on confessions derived from some of those arrested at the scene," asserted the report, six people, "all of them Egyptians" from the jihad group Ansar al-Sharia (Supporters of Islamic Law), were arrested. During interrogations, these Egyptian jihadi cell members:

Arlene Kushner on How The West Mistakenly Fuels The Violence In Egypt by Backing Muslim Brotherhood

From Arlene Kushner:
August 15, 2013

Egypt

I tabled discussion about Egypt for some days, as I considered the release of terrorists from Israeli prison and related events here.  And in the course of those days, the situation in Egypt has escalated -- in some ways, inevitably, in some ways not.

The military regime of General al-Sisi had been threatening to take out encampments of Muslim Brotherhood resistance, if the people demonstrating for the return of Morsi did not disband.  Finally, Sisi acted.  As I write, some 500 people have died and the Islamists are not pulling back but rather responding with violence.

~~~~~~~~~~

Mideast Media Sampler – 8/15/13: Media Targets Egypt Military, Ignores Muslim Brotherhood Attempted Power Grab

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection

What should the American response to the latest outbreak of violence in Egypt be?

U.S. Pulls Out of Egypt’s Bright Star War Game “Cairo’s brutality highlights U.S. fecklessness despite billions… http://t.co/COLolJDG5o
— Michael Yon (@Michael_Yon) August 15, 2013

Not entirely surprisingly, the editors in the New York Times call for a complete cutoff of aid in Military Madness in Cairo:

But the major blame rests with General Sisi. He seized power from a democratically elected government. He controls the security forces that have persecuted and brutalized political opponents. And he approved orders for heavily armed forces to use deadly force against peaceful protesters with a very legitimate political grievance — the ouster and secret detention of Egypt’s first democratically elected president.

Cynthia Farahat: Is Muslim Brotherhood Working Together With Ambassador Chris Stevens' Assassin?

The following by Cynthia Farahat is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Is Muslim Brotherhood Working Together With Ambassador Chris Stevens' Assassin?

by Cynthia Farahat
Fox News
August 12, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3580/muslim-brotherhood-chris-stevens

Cynthia Farahat

Ahmed Moussa, a prominent Egyptian television personality on the Tahrir TV channel as well as a former officer in Egyptian State Security Intelligence (SSI), went public on July 30 with a remarkable piece of information.

Moussa said, addressing U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson (in absentia) on his show:

Ambassador Stevens was killed in Benghazi, and you know who killed him, the U.S. administration knows who killed him, and you know how he was killed and it was a major strike against the U.S. administration, and all of you. 

The assassin is now present at Rabia Al-Adawiya [mosque protest] His name is, do you know it or you would like me to inform you? He's affiliated with Al Qaeda in Libya, his name is Mohsen Al-Azazi, his passport was found in the house of Khairat El-Shater. 

That killer is in Rabia Al-Adawiya now, with Safwat Hegazy and Mohammed El-Beltagy, whom you and your administration support and aid. Your administration aids terrorism.

In the course of this statement, Moussa announced three facts:

Raymond Ibrahim: Egyptians Enraged by U.S. Outreach to Muslim Brotherhood

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Egyptians Enraged by U.S. Outreach to Muslim Brotherhood

by Raymond Ibrahim
PJ Media
August 9, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3578/us-outreach-egypt-muslim-brotherhood

Raymond Ibrahim

In the eyes of tens of millions of Egyptians, Senators John McCain's and Lindsey Graham's recent words and deeds in Egypt—which have the "blessing" of President Obama—have unequivocally proven that U.S. leadership is aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian media is awash with stories of the growing anger regarding this policy.

A top advisor to Egypt's Interim President Adly Mansour formally accused McCain of distorting facts to the benefit of the Brotherhood, dismissing the senator's remarks as "irrational"—or, more colloquially, "moronic." Ahmed al-Zind, head of the Egyptian Judge Club, called for the arrest and trial of McCain for "trying to destroy Egypt." The leader of the youth movement, Tamarod (or "Rebellion" against the Brotherhood) which played a major role in mobilizing the June 30 Revolution, said "We reject John McCain and call on the international community to let the [Egyptian] people decide their own fate." Another incensed secular political commentator, Ahmed Musa, asserted that "These two men have made more shameless demands than the Brotherhood themselves would dare," adding:

Raymond Stock: Obama, McCain and Graham Make a 'Huge Mistake' in Egypt

The following by Raymond Stock is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Obama, McCain and Graham
Make a 'Huge Mistake' in Egypt

by Raymond Stock
Fox News
August 8, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3576/egypt-obama-mccain-graham

On their current trip to Cairo, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), two of President Barack Obama's most persistent critics on everything in foreign policy from Syria to Benghazi, have found common cause with him at last.

All three fear that the anti-American (and generally anti-human) Muslim Brotherhood (MB), whom they mistakenly see as "moderate," will disappear from the halls of power in Egypt, our most important Arab ally. They also evidently worry that the MB's leading figures, such as now-deposed (and arrested) President Mohamed Morsi—who had awarded himself powers greater than any previous ruler in Egypt's history—will not be free to plot a return to power in an ancient nation that he had nearly destroyed in only one year.

Raymond Stock: Does Obama want Egypt to choose between aid and freedom?

The following by Raymond Stock is reposted here with permission of Middle East Forum:

Does Obama want Egypt to choose between aid and freedom?

by Raymond Stock
Fox News
July 26, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3573/us-egypt-aid

Raymond Stock

On Friday, the chief of Egypt's military, General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, has urged all Egyptians to come out on the street to give him a "public mandate to face up to terror" in confronting the Muslim Brotherhood and its Salafi allies.

A military source told Cairo's ahramonline that these demonstrations will be "as big almost" as the fifteen-to-thirty million thought to have marched against President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood on June 30.

Those protests, called the largest in human history, prompted al-Sisi to remove the Islamist leader on July 3, just over a year after Morsi was very narrowly elected and sworn into office on June 30, 2012.
At the same time, President Obama, citing a law that automatically cuts off aid to any regime installed by a military coup against an elected government, withheld the scheduled shipment of four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt this week.

Though the Bright Star joint training exercises between our military and theirs will apparently go on as planned, The New York Times said on July 24 that the administration "wanted to send …a signal of American displeasure with the chaotic situation there, which has been marked by continued violence, the detention of Mr. Morsi and other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, and a transition that has not included the Brotherhood."

Thus Obama is not so much following the law as bending it for his own purposes.

Do US Embassy Closings Unwittingly Give Al Qaeda Victory Over The Muslim Brotherhood?

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of MiddleEast Forum

The Return of Al Qaeda and Jihad

by Raymond Ibrahim
FrontPageMagazine.com
August 8, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3575/al-qaeda-return

Raymond Ibrahim

With the ousting of Muhammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, al-Qaeda has been vindicated and the terror-jihad exonerated, in the opinion of many Islamists, that is.

According to the Associated Press, in a new video, al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri "said the military coup that ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi provides proof that Islamic rule cannot be established through democracy and urged the Islamist leader's followers to abandon the ballot box in favor of armed resistance [i.e., jihad]."

In fact, in the Arabic video, Zawahiri gloats over two points that he has championed for decades despite widespread opposition: that the Brotherhood was foolish to engage in democracy and elections in the first place, and that the triumph of Islam can only be achieved through jihad.

Is The Muslim Brotherhood Killing Their Own Just To Demonize The Egyptian Army?

The following by Raymond Ibrahim is reposted here with permission of the Middle East Forum:

Muslim Brotherhood Kills Its Own
to Demonize Egyptian Military

by Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute
July 25, 2013
http://www.meforum.org/3568/egypt-muslim-brotherhood-kills-own

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again:
Exposing Islam's New War on Christians

New evidence indicates that some of the pro-Morsi protesters reportedly killed by the Egyptian military, after the Muslim Brotherhood president's ouster, were actually killed by fellow pro-Morsi protesters. They did this, according to the report, to frame the military, incite more Islamist violence and unrest, and garner sympathy from America, which has been extremely critical of the military, especially in the context of the post-Morsi violence.