Thursday, August 29, 2013

Muslim Brotherhood Groups and Their Jewish Friends


Muslim Brotherhood Groups and Their Jewish Friends

By Ryan Mauro 
An organizer of a Muslim Brotherhood-linked rally explicitly acknowledged its “friendship” with both the Brotherhood and “the Jewish Voice for Justice and Peace,” apparently referring the Jewish Voice for Peace. The organization is at the forefront of activism against Israel and the “Islamophobes” that stand against American Islamists, earning the affection of the Brotherhood’s allies.

The statement was made at a rally in Washington, D.C. led by Egyptian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights. The event was not only linked to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. It was linked directly to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

One of the speakers was Abdul Mawgoud Dardery, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt. A receptionist at the news conference was evenrecorded by the Investigative Project on Terrorism saying, “This is a Muslim Brotherhood meeting.”

One of the organizers of this “Muslim Brotherhood meeting” was especially fond of its non-Muslim partners, but only one name came to mind: Jewish Voice for Justice and for Peace.
“[W]e are very proud, very proud of our friendship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Christian Brotherhood, and the Jewish Voice for Justice and for Peace. There is nothing wrong to have a relationship, a friendly relationship, with other organizations across the world,” said Oussama Jamal, chairman of the Muslim American Society—Public Affairs and Civic Engagement.

The Muslim American Society that Jamal is a senior official of has well-documented Brotherhood links.
In a 2008 court filing, federal prosecutors said MAS “was founded as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” This was confirmed by Abdurrahman Alamoudi, a convicted terrorist who is now known to have been a secret U.S. Muslim Brotherhood operative. He said just last year, “Everyone knows that MAS is the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The Investigative Project found that the president of Egyptian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights is listed as a high-level member of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood in an internal 1992 document. Another organizer, Shaker Elsayed, is the imam of the radical Dar al-Hijrah Mosque. He and his mosque are linked to the Brotherhood, as well. On January 26, he was videotaped preaching armed jihad at a Virginia high school.

No group named “Jewish Voice for Justice and for Peace” exists, but the closest match is Jewish Voice for Peace and its record of activism is something that can be appreciated by Islamist allies.

The Anti-Defamation League published a list of the Top 10 Anti-Israel Groups in America and the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) made the list, as did the Muslim American Society, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Al-Awda and Students for Justice in Palestine.

Technically, JVP made the list twice. Another ranking member is the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. Four JVP chapters are members of the coalition. Its Interfaith Boycott Coalition has JVP as an official component.

In January, JVP helped organize a “No Blank Check for Israel” rally in Washington, D.C. that compared its activism to the civil rights struggle. The organization wants U.S. aid to Israel severed until there is an “end to the Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.”

One of JVP’s Advisory Board members is Noam Chomsky. This summer, JVP sponsored a “We Divest Campaign Student Leadership Team Summer Training Institute.” It was a five-day training program for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activists that included “non-violent direct action planning” and “anti-oppression analysis workshops.”

“In solidarity with the Palestinian Boycott National Committee and other Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations, JVP has initiated and sustained the largest divestment campaign mounted in the United States for Palestinian human rights,” the JVP website boasts.

JVP most recently joined the Muslim American Society, Council on American-Islamic Relations and other groups in pressuring the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles into cancelinga speaking engagement with Pamela Geller.

“We are witnessing an insidious new wave of demonization of Arabs and Muslims in this country. We are particularly concerned about right-wing Christian and Jewish groups dedicated to denying the fundamental rights of Palestinians, who are deliberately fueling fear of Muslims and Arabs to push their unfair agenda in the Middle East,” the website for JVP’s  Standing Against Islamophobia campaign states.
JVP has allied with Jews Say No! and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice to form the Jews Against Islamophobia Coalition. One of its main objectives is stopping Pamela Geller from speaking for Jewish organizations. It also condemned the NYPD for showing the Clarion Project documentary The Third Jihad to about 1,500 police officers. The film is narrated by anti-Islamist Muslim activist Dr. Zuhdi Jasser and exposes radical Islam around the world, including the Islamist networks in the U.S. that JVP is close to.
Jews Against Islamophobia and American Jews for a Just Peace came together on September 16, 2010 to protest the Simon Wiesenthal Center for its opposition to Park51, more commonly known as the Ground Zero Mosque. The anti-Israel beliefs of the project’s lead imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, made no difference.
Considering this record, it’s not surprising that an Islamist organizer of a Muslim Brotherhood-linked rally would say he is “very proud of our friendship” with JVP. The organization has worked hard to earn that praise.

This article was sponsored by the Institute for Religion and Democracy.

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/ryan-mauro/muslim-brotherhood-groups-and-their-jewish-friends/

No comments:

Post a Comment