30th January 2011
Believe it or not I have five posts in draft here. I’m just about to publish one and then something else comes along. Something of more pressing priority.
Like this interesting item at Just Journalism – originally posted Fri. 28 Jan. 2011 @ 16:30 - UPDATED: Sat. 29 Jan. 2011 @ 13.45 - BBC removes flattering profile of Muslim Brotherhood
(The reference links to the urls in parentheses and in grey below are mine)
The top story on the BBC News website’s Middle East section this morning, ‘Egypt protests escalate in Cairo, Suez and other cities’ contained numerous references to the Muslim Brotherhood (url – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12303564 )
Just Journalism’s update gives a direct link to a different BBC where the info box is still viewable. I’ve saved it in case they remove it or move it again:
“The BBC has re-instated the info box as part of new article, ‘Profile: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood’, (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12313405) which gives an historical overview of the group. The article includes information on the two most famous members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, as well describing how ‘[d]uring the 1980s the Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] attempted to rejoin the political mainstream.’
The info box is unaltered except for the amendment of one line, with ‘[w]ants to see the country governed according to Islamic law’ replaced with ‘[w]ants to create a state governed by Islamic law’. There is no mention in the new article of the fears that the Muslim Brotherhood still subscribes to an intolerant, fundamentalist ideology, as suggested by the sources above.”
This is significant. Not just for the last sentence in red, which is TMI right now for the pc BBC to face. Their amendment is actually far more significant.
THE BBC’S AMENDMENT
‘[w]ants to see the country governed according to Islamic law’ replaced with ‘[w]ants to create a state governed by Islamic law’
The Muslim Brotherhood certainly does want to see a state governed by Islamic law.
It’s called THE CALIPHATE. A worldwide state. The same state as Iran wants. Ambitious lot, aren’t they just?
Is the BBC in any danger of starting to tell us the truth concerning such matters?
For comparison, below is the text in the info box as originally used by the BBC, before it thought better. Not well enough, but still better:
____________________
Just Journalism article:
The top story on the BBC News website’s Middle East section this morning, ‘Egypt protests escalate in Cairo, Suez and other cities’ contained numerous references to the Muslim Brotherhood, widely regarded as the largest single opposition group in Egypt. Aside from describing them as a ‘banned, Islamist’ organisation, there is no further information on the group in the main text. However, the following info-box appeared alongside the article, titled, ‘Muslim Brotherhood’, listing key facts:
- Egypt’s oldest and largest Islamist organisation
- Founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928
- Has influenced Islamist movements worldwide
- Mixes political activism with charity work
- Banned from open political activity
- Rejects use of violence and supports democratic principles
- Wants to see the country governed according to Islamic law
- Slogan: “Islam is the Solution”
The info box, which has now been removed, offered a very sanitised profile of the group, in particular ignoring fears that despite public pronouncements to the contrary, it still harbours the desire to implement a totalitarian Islamist society, in line with its local offshoot, Hamas.
While the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has in recent years disavowed the use of force for political ends, there is still considerable evidence that it has a violent, intolerant ideology. For example, following a 2006 court ruling that Baha’i citizens of Egypt could have Baha’i printed on their[sic] identity cards, the Brotherhood called for the minority to be killed. An article published in ‘Current Trends in Islamist Ideology vol. 4’ noted:
‘the Brotherhood reacted with outrage. In the May 3, 2006 parliamentary debate on the ruling, MB deputies said that the Baha’is were apostates who should be killed. Quoting a hadith attributed to the Prophet Mohammed to support their position, they declared that they would draft a law making Baha’ism a crime and branding the Baha’is apostates.’
The Muslim Brotherhood’s website reveals that it also shares the rejectionist line of Hamas, which believes that Israel should be destroyed. Indeed, Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine, as acknowledged in Article Two of their Charter:
‘The Islamic Resistance Movement [Hamas] is one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times. It is characterised by its deep understanding, accurate comprehension and its complete embrace of all Islamic concepts of all aspects of life, culture, creed, politics, economics, education, society, justice and judgement, the spreading of Islam, education, art, information, science of the occult and conversion to Islam.’
An article on the official Muslim Brotherhood English website from 2007 confirms the organisation’s commitment to jihad in Palestine:
‘Al Banna’s [Muslim Brotherhood founder] thought expressed an early and advanced state of maturity in the dialectics of the relation between the project of the Islamic revival and the liberation of Palestine, as he saw that solving the Palestinian cause will be with [sic] through the paralleled lines of unity and jihad.’
Similarly, the website features an editorial from 2006 praising spiritual founder of Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as an ‘exceptional human being and charismatic leader’ as well as justifying suicide bombings against civilians:
‘Ahmed Yassin was not a terrorist. The only people he terrorized were the enemies of his stolen land, the killers who slaughtered women and children, the perpetrators of Deer Yassin and the Sabra & Shatilla massacres…Opponents of Ahmed Yassin accuse him of being the mastermind of Palestinian terror, promising “suicide bombers” the achievement of martyrdom if they were willing to die for the sake of the dignity of Palestinians and in view of a longer-term victory against [sic] their occupiers. They consider blowing up an enemy with an explosive belt strapped to the body terrorism because it is the only weapon available.’
UPDATED:
The BBC has re-instated the info box as part of new article, ‘Profile: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood’, which gives an historical overview of the group. The article includes information on the two most famous members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb, as well describing how ‘[d]uring the 1980s the Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] attempted to rejoin the political mainstream.’
The info box is unaltered except for the amendment of one line, with ‘[w]ants to see the country governed according to Islamic law’ replaced with ‘[w]ants to create a state governed by Islamic law’. There is no mention in the new article of the fears that the Muslim Brotherhood still subscribes to an intolerant, fundamentalist ideology, as suggested by the sources above.
__________
RELATED
The Muslim Brotherhood, Wikipedia – not that hard even for the BBC to google. Excerpt:
The Society of the Muslim Brothers (often simply الإخوان Al-Ikhwān, The Brotherhood or MB) is an Islamist transnational movement and the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states.[1] The group is the world’s oldest and largest Islamic political group,[1] and the “world’s most influential Islamist movement.”[2] It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna.
The Brotherhood’s stated goal is to instill the Qur’an and Sunnah as the “sole reference point for … ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community … and state”.[3] Since its inception in 1928 the movement has officially opposed violent means to achieve its goals,[4][5] with some exceptions such as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or to overthrow secular Ba’athist rule in Syria (see Hama massacre). This position has been questioned, particularly by the Egyptian government, which accused the group of a campaign of killings in Egypt after World War II.[6]
The Muslim Brotherhood is banned in Egypt, and members have been arrested for their participation in it.[7] As a means of circumventing the ban, supporters run for office as independents.[8]
Filed under: BBC, British Broadcasters, TV & Radio, Egypt, The "We ALL Know, Don't We" gang, The Power of the all-pervasive Media Tagged: | BBC, Egypt, Hassan al-Banna, Islam, Islamism, Just Journalism, Middle East, Muslim Brotherhood, Sayyid Qutb
Lots of research into a group no-one wants to run Egypt.
IF there are free elections will they get 10%? Nope.
The Egyptians I’ve known are the kind who drink a bit and I gather they are not alone. Islam is not a monolith.
They look to the Koran in a similar way to to the way most notionally Christians look to the Bible.
I agree about much of what you say here, QZ. Except that it hardly matters if RIGHT NOW no-one – (and this is also where I disagree with you. I read someehere that the MB got 20% of the vote the last time.Must check when. ) – what matters is how the MB USE the opportunity in “free and fair” elections. There are a lot of poor people in Egypt, and some of these Islamist groups are very good at bribing people, through funding from Iran. Viz Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Muslim Brotherhood is banned in Egypt, and members have been arrested for their participation in it. As a means of circumventing the ban, supporters run for office as independents.
Hard to clamp down on “independents”, isn’t it?
30% estimate pulling power. MB –
Found this, but not the 20% yet.
Some elements of the Brotherhood, though perhaps against orders, did engage in violence against the government, and its founder Al-Banna was assassinated in 1949 in retaliation for the assassination of Egypt’s premier Mahmud Fami Naqrashi three months earlier.[99] The Brotherhood has suffered periodic repression in Egypt and has been banned several times, in 1948 and several years later following confrontations with Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser, who jailed thousands of members for several years.
In recent years its status has usually been described as “semi-legal.”[100] Despite periodic repression, the Brotherhood has become one of the most influential movements in the Islamic world,[101] particularly in the Arab world. Along with being the only opposition group in Egypt able to field candidates during elections, (which pundits estimate would receive at least 30% of the vote in free elections),[31] it has fostered several offshoot organizations in many other countries.[102]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conservative#Muslim_Brotherhood
Now remind me, what %age did the Lib Dems get here in May?
Just asking.
And this – didn’t hear it on OUR news though – Muslim Brothers back El Baradei.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=205919
They’re not daft, you know.
And here’s something about what I was looking for. This is the “banned group” Muslim Brotherhood!
It was in 2005.
http://www.albionmonitor.com/0602a/egyptislamistcharity.html
“The brotherhood was extremely popular here, even before the election, because it stands against corruption and its people are honest and respectable,” said Tamer Saeed, a resident of the teeming, low-income Imbaba district of the capital, where two brotherhood candidates savaged their respective opponents from the NDP and independent secular parties. ”
According to many political observers, the brotherhood’s devotion to social work was the prime driver behind its astounding results in parliamentary elections, held in late 2005. The group managed to capture 88 seats in the People’s Assembly, up from only 15 in the outgoing assembly.
“The brotherhood was more public than ever with its social work and political campaigning, and took full advantage of unprecedented discontent with the NDP,” said Amin Mohamed Amin, an analyst at the government-run Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
Saeed noted from Imbaba: “After 24 years of waiting for changes, like clean streets and workable sewage systems, people lost faith in the ruling party. The brotherhood will deal with all these pressing issues, which are high on its agenda.”
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