This is a guest post by Andy Lambert
Certain individuals have been working very hard to convince government officials and others that the way to tackle Islamist extremism is to work with ‘non-violent’ Islamist groups such as theIkhwan al Muslimeen (the Muslim Brotherhood), founded by Tariq Ramadan’s grandfather Hassan al-Banna. Such ‘useful idiots’ fail to appreciate the nature of the Islamist movement and the role they are playing in supporting Islamists’ ideals and goals. However, a recent speech by the Brotherhood’s leader, Mohammed Badi, may make some of these ‘useful idiots’ think twice.
In his weekly statement on the group’s website, Badi said: “let it be known oh Muslims that jihad is obligatory upon every Muslim [fard ‘ain], and if rulers were not able to raise the banner of jihad, they should not tie populations down with their chains, and they should open their borders for the mujahideen.” Badi’s statement comes in the wake of the recent Israeli action against the Gaza bound flotilla.
What does this statement mean?
It means that every believing Muslim who is physically able should scramble to this call and fight alongside the Palestinians, or else he will have committed a sin. Statements such as this are designed to present believing Muslims with an ultimatum: either respond to the call of jihad and fulfil your religious obligation or commit the sin of disobedience and face divine punishment in the hereafter. This tactic has been employed by jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda for a very long time, in fact, they were once the only group claiming that jihad is obligatory upon every Muslim.
So what happens if Muslims try to stop these so called mujahideen from carrying out this jihad? Well, it’s simple and has been demonstrated in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Muslims who attempt to stop jihad are declared apostates for ‘siding with the enemies of Islam and Muslims’ and are therefore killed.
Mohammed Badi’s statement indicates that the Muslim Brotherhood are moving ever closer to jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda in their interpretation of jihad; possibly coming full circle. Good luck engaging with these guys to fight extremism.
