Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood: What is it and should we fear it?
With the unrest in Egypt, pundits, experts and leaders are voicing a variety of perspectives about the Muslim Brotherhood and its influence on the changing tides in North Africa.
CNN explains some of the basics in the article "What is the Muslim Brotherhood?" According to the article, the Muslim Brotherhood, a religious and political group that has been on the scene in Egypt for more than 80 years, "advocates a move away from secularism, and a return to the rules of the Quran as a basis for healthy families, communities and states." Although the group officially rejects the use of violence, "offshoots of the group have been linked to attacks in the past."
Fox News' terrorism analyst Walid Phares believes the group is not moderate. In "Just what is the Muslim Brotherhood?" he says, “The Muslim Brotherhood is the mothership for the jihadi ideologies and thinking. Therefore, one can say today's Al Qaeda, and today many other jihadists, are off-shoots of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
In another CNN article, "Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood: A force to be feared?" different perspectives from Tony Blair, Israeli diplomat Eli Avidar and Egyptian analyst Mustafa Abulhimal, voice either concern or reassurance about the Brotherhood's aims and influences.
In "Egypt's protests have passion, but no clear leadership," the New York Times reports that over the past couple of days, "the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged with a far higher profile in the protests, but its presence is often more contentious than unifying," and that "the mantra of their followers is that they will participate, not lead."
Salon.com interviews Nathan Brown, professor at George Washington University and director of its Institute for Middle East Studies, who has written extensively on the Muslim Brotherhood. In "Why we shouldn't fear the Muslim Brotherhood," Brown states: "We've got a big headache in Egypt. . . the Brotherhood is part of that headache. It's not the biggest part. Is there cause for concern? Yes. Is there cause for fearful reaction? Absolutely not."
Pam Stout covers Faith and Parenting for AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at pamstout@annarbor.com.
Comments
bedrog
Tue, Feb 1, 2011 : 7:40 p.m.
While I'm usually no fan of the FOX network , it's pundit cited in the article is correctly wary of the group, although it's still too early to see how they will figure, if at all, in the post Mubarak regime. Obama is quite right to be sitting a bit on the sidelines, since getting in front of an uncertain populist movement ( or more accurately many ultimately conflicting movements!!) in the region could have him going down as the guy who backed the next ahmadineajad or worse, given the capacity of egypts military and the muslim brotherhoods antipathy to the jewish state ( the military might being mostly on our dime when it seemed a sure thing that egypt and Israel would maintain a peace, however 'cold').