Democracy Arsenal

« The Pentagon Always Wins | Main | Iran is not the AFC Championship »

January 27, 2010

Nuggets from New Muslim Brotherhood Leader's Al-Jazeera Interview
Posted by Shadi Hamid

As some of you know, the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest and most influential Islamist group in the Middle East, recently elected a new leader. His name is Mohammed Badie and he's perceived to be staunch conservative. He is regarded by some as a "Qutbist," in part because he was an associate of Sayyid Qutb's in the 1960s (yes, Arab leaders are almost universally very, very old). In between my blogging on this, you can continue to follow my coverage of the Brotherhood and the post-election fallout here on twitter.

So, anyway, as you might expect, a lot of people are getting worried and talking about the Muslim Brotherhood's conservative turn or impending "radicalization." Before getting ahead of ourselves though, it may be worthwhile to look at what Badie has actually said, since ascending to his new post. There was one particularly interesting, long, wide-ranging interview with al-Jazeera last week. The transcript, courtesy of Abdel Monem Mahmoud, is here, but it's in Arabic. So I've gone ahead and translated some of the more relevant/ intriguing portions:

Badie on the nature of the Brotherhood: "We are not a political association as some think; we are a group that carries Islam in its totality.”

Badie on allegations that Brotherhood internal elections were not free and fair: "Yes, there were concerns. Yes, we need to review some of these issues."

Badie on charges that he and other conservatives effectively ousted two of the Brotherhood's more prominent "moderates" - Mohammed Habib and Abdel Monem abul Futouh - from the organization's leadership: "I want to say that my third grandson’s name is Habib because I love Dr. Habib and I very much love my brother Abdel Monem and what is between me and them and between the Brotherhood and them is love and respect."

Badie on regime repression: "We in this past phase were under enormous pressure... and it prevented us from being able to present what we have to offer to the Egyptian people."

Badie on all the negative press the Brotherhood's been getting: "Why do people focus on the negative and not the positive, such as the fact that we had a leader, in good health, who left his leadership post out of his own volition?” (referring to the fact that the previous General Guide voluntarily resigned from office and called for elections to select his successor, something which almost never happens in the Arab world).

Badie on whether he hates President Mubarak: "Who says such things!? This shouldn’t even be presented as a question in the first place!”

Badie on members of the Muslim Brotherhood's involvement in violence in the late 1940s, in particular the assassination of Prime Minister Nuqrashi: "Yes, this happened and it was a mistake on the part of an individual and these individual actions were rejected by the leadership of the Brotherhood.”

Badie on takfir (the practice of declaring a Muslim to be non-Muslim and therefore making his blood licit): "When some of the shabab (young activists) fell under dire repression in prison, they felt that these repressive actions (e.g. torture) could not been done by real Muslims.This led to a violent reaction on their part, and led them to promoting ideas and rulings which were in contradiction with the law of God."

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451c04d69e20128771a442d970c

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Nuggets from New Muslim Brotherhood Leader's Al-Jazeera Interview:

Comments

Yes, that's cool. The device is amazing! Waiting for your next one!

Hi,
Thank you very much for very interesting and informative text.It helped me in getting right things.Before your post I was somehow aware but this text is giving very clear idea.

Muslims.This led to a violent reaction on their part, and led them to promoting ideas and rulings which were in contradiction with the law of God

Thank You Editors..sesli sohbet sesli chat

Never frown ,when you are sad ,because you never know who is falling in love with your smile

We all know these years china pallet racking in china develop very fast, now the design capacity of racking is very strong in china.
You can see every kind of china racking in china, includingDrive in racking,
cantilever racking, shelving,Longspan shelving, dexion racking,. We also have very experienced engineer to do the design and instlaation job.

as a whole contractor for refrigeration equipment, design, manufacturing, installation of cold store.

Yellow lens of Ray ban wayfarer can 100% filter UV, allowing infrared and 83% visible light through the lens.

Its greatest feature is that you can filter the sun's most dazzling blue.

Sunlight through the atmosphere, the most performance is the blue light, which is why you see the sky is blue. Yellow lens filters blue light, the natural scenery can be seen more clearly. So driving with a yellow lens Ray ban 2010 sunglasses, you can more clearly see from the vehicle.

Ray ban sunglasses sale


ray ban 2010 sunglasses sale


ray ban sunglasses sale


ray ban wayfarer message from http://www.eyewear-rayban.com

Doctor told me the foot cramps and frequent colds are due to chemo. Still hurts where I sit.

Normal activities are not enough. I can run 1/2 of a short block, slowly. I am 55 now and bike everywhere.

Simdi şarkı sözleri sitesinde ozgun icerigimizle tek geceriz. ek olarak menüde şebnem ferah şarkı sözleri - emre aydın şarkı sözleri - hande yener şarkı sözleri ceza şarkı sözleri - konserler - sagopa kajmer şarkı sözleri gibi cesitlerde bulabilirsiniz

The comments to this entry are closed.

Subscribe
Sign-up to receive a weekly digest of the latest posts from Democracy Arsenal.
Email: 
Powered by TypePad

Disclaimer

The opinions voiced on Democracy Arsenal are those of the individual authors and do not represent the views of any other organization or institution with which any author may be affiliated.
Read Terms of Use