Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood Urges Terrorism

[ECH1969]

A parliament member belonging to the Moslem Brotherhood, which recently scored significant gains in the Egypt's legislative elections, has told an independent weekly in the country that terrorism to prevent attacks on Moslems is different from regular terrorism.

Legislator Roz al-Yousef, said that the Koran encourages terrorism and that he backs terror attacks. "From my point of view, Bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri and Al-Zarqawi are not terrorists in the sense accepted by some. I support all their activities, since they are a thorn in the side of the Americans and the Zionists... he who kills Muslim citizens is neither a jihad fighter nor a terrorist, but a criminal and a murderer. We must call things by their proper names," according to al-Yousef

http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=99971

[megatherium]

1. Where is Gandhi when we need him? nt

[Boojatta]

2. Legislator Roz al-Yousef is unlikely to answer these questions.

Legislator Roz al-Yousef, said ... "From my point of view, Bin Laden, Al-Zawahiri and Al-Zarqawi are not terrorists in the sense accepted by some. I support all their activities, since they are a thorn in the side of the Americans and the Zionists..."

One of Bin Laden's activities was issuing a statement that he was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks, but that he congratulated those who were responsible. So does Legislator Roz al-Yousef believe that Bin Laden was telling the truth or does Legislator Roz al-Yousef support the telling of lies?

The US government considered Soviet troops in Afghanistan to be a thorn in the side of the US government. So, if Soviet troops in Afghanistan were a thorn in the side of Zionists, then would Legislator Roz al-Yousef have supported all the activities of Soviet troops in Afghanistan?

[Bridget Burke]

5. Because there is no Legislator Roz al-Yousef....

I wonder what else in that snippet was "incorrect"?

[Igel]

3. Longer version of his comments.

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD111006

My favorite bits:
"Bin Laden has nothing to do with what occurs from time to time in Saudi Arabia. They have never killed a single Muslim! Those (operations) were carried out by spies and agents of the America and Israel, who do not wish to see stability in the (Saudi) kingdom, since it has {adopted} a position hostile towards them under the rule of Emir Abdallah, both before and after the death of King Fahd!"

"We must realize that all religions forbid the killing of Muslim citizens."

One wonders what, exactly, that means.

[Bridget Burke]

4. Who or What is Roz al-Yousef?

"Roz al-Yousef" is an Egyptian publication with a somewhat liberal stance.

The Roots of Terror are in Saudi Arabia."
By MEMRI
MEMRI.org | June 20, 2003

Following the bombings in Riyadh on May 12, 2003, the deputy editor of the independent Egyptian weekly Roz Al-Yousef, Wael Al-Abrashi, who is also an expert on Sunni terrorist movements, wrote several articles on Saudi Wahhabism and the development of Islamist terror. The following are excerpts from Al-Abrashi's article:

A Wahhabi World View

In an article published on May 31, 2003 in Roz Al-Yousef, Al-Abrashi wrote: "A Wahhabi Saudi sheikh warned young people not to speak English and not to try to study it. He swallowed his saliva, wet his lips, and screamed: 'This is the language of the infidels, to the point where it has the word 'blease' <'please'>, which is derived from iblis . This is the language of the devil…'"

"Anyone can come and say that this sheikh does not represent all Wahhabis, but I will reply that most of the Wahhabi sheikhs have in the past forbidden the study of geography, English, philosophy, and drawing; besides that, what is the difference between what this Wahhabi sheikh said and the Fatwa of Bin Baz – the leader of Wahhabism – which stated that the planet Earth does not rotate?"

www.frontpagemag.com/articles/Printable.asp?ID=8506

The same journal appears again & again. But the "legislator Roz al-Yousef" appears only once. In the article cited in the OP.

EDITED TO ADD: A post that appeared before mine did (but after I began composing) corrects the mistake in the OP. The interview with Egyptian MP Ragab Hilal Hamida appeared in Roz Al-Yousef. That publication also seems to take exception to his remarks.

But the snippet in the OP--as well as being incorrect--makes the MP's remarks speak for his whole political party.

[bemildred]

6. I'm sort of wondering what an "expert on Sunni terrorist movements" does?

Is that just some sort of spy? Wouldn't the US military be interested in that sort of fellow?

[Bridget Burke]

7. He's a journalist. He even speaks & understands Arabic--how underhanded!

If the military are interested, his works are available. One becomes an expert by gathering information--not all sources are "secret."

If one tries very hard to remain ignorant, it's easier to say "Who could have imagined...?"

[bemildred]

8. But, I wouldn't think the Sunni terrorists would want their movements

studied, let alone written about. I'd think they'd go to a good deal of trouble to keep their movements secret. So it does raise the issue of how this fellow circumvents their efforts and is expert on what they do anyway. I don't suppose they fill out timecards and daily reports on their activities, so where does he get his information?

[Bridget Burke]

9. Wael Al-Abrashi is widely published in English.

Why don't you read some of his stuff?

www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=lang_en%7Clang_fr%7Clang_de%7Clang_it%7Clang_sv&q=%22Wael+Al-Abrashi%22&btnG=Search&lr=

[bemildred]

10. I was talking about "Sunni terrorist movements".

And wondering how one becomes an expert on that? He seems to mainly go on about the Wahhabist types. Is he just an expert on the Wahhabists? I usually think of the Wahhabists as being not really Sunni, somewhat the same category as the Alawites in Syria, which are nominally Shi'ia, but not considered so the the Shi'ia authorities.

So I guess maybe he's an expert on social movements, not what the terrorists are up to.

Frankly, I do visit those sites, but they get very repetitious after a while, obsessive about certain subjects, if you see what I mean.

[onager]

11. Great! I'm headed back to Egypt next week.

I had been there since last October, on a work assignment, then got to spend a couple of weeks back here in the U.S.

One very minor thing leaps out at me in that article: I hear a LOT about the Brotherhood in Egypt, but I have NEVER seen it called the "MOSLEM Brotherhood" before. It's always the Muslim Brotherhood. FYI, some Muslims get pretty picky about the pronunciation and spelling of that word, and they get a bit offended by "Moslem," which they seem to consider a Western bastardization.

Some other things you might not have read about in the Western press, off the top of my alleged head:

--In the last, lengthy, painful Egyptian Parliamentary elections (they went on for THREE MONTHS!), the Muslim Brotherhood went from 15 seats in Parliament to 88 seats. That was extremely frightening to liberal, educated, working Egyptian women, or at least the ones I've talked to and read about in the local press.

--Some Egyptian political observers think Egyptian President Mubarak is sending Bu$h a message with those elections: "Hey cowboy, if you insist on imposing American-style democracy on the Middle East, then you're going to get a lot of very democratically elected Muslim fundamentalists in the government." The same message seems to be coming from the elections in Palestine and of course, the showpiece of democracy, Iraq. (insert sarcasm smiley)

Mubarak does have an ace up his sleeve: he can legally disband the Parliament, though it would bring a firestorm of criticism and probably riots.

In the same vein, Mubarak recently cancelled the scheduled municipal elections. Some observers think he feared more big victories by the Brotherhood.

--I talk to a big cross-section of Egyptians, between my job and my idle wanderings around the Alexandria area: military officers, college students, fellahin (peasant farmers), just average Egyptian folks. It is impossible to overstate their disgust for Bu$h and his gang.

--The more paranoid Egyptians are convinced they are currently Number 3 on the Bush Invasion List, right after Iran and Syria.

--OTOH, they have good reason to be paranoid. Hosni Mubarak is 77 years old, and not long ago he cancelled a diplomatic meeting after a physical collapse. (AFAIK, that wasn't even reported in Egypt. I heard it from A Reliable Intelligence Source. No, not the American media!)

Since he took office after Sadat's assassination in 1981, Mubarak has always refused to name a Vice President. (For the very good reason that he fears a coup.)

His son, Gamal Mubarak, has recently popped up all over the Egyptian press, stoutly denying that he has any interest in being President.

This fools the Egyptians about as much as Jeb Bush denying he wants to be President would fool us. Many Egyptians are convinced Mubarak Junior will try to grab the Presidency, and they are pretty pissed off about it.

One Egyptian military officer told me: "We are not a kingdom, we are supposed to be a republic. And we certainly don't need another dynasty like your Bushes running Egypt."

:rofl:

--Cartoon riots? Pfft! Right after I arrived in Alexandria last October, the Muslims and the Coptic Xians started battling in the streets. This all blew up over a TWO YEAR OLD play allegedly performed in a Xian church. The plot had a young Copt being converted to Islam and turning into a suicide bomber. Radical Muslims duped the play on DVD and passed it around, then preached fiery anti-Xian sermons during Friday services at Alexandria's mosques.

For several weeks, churches, mosques, homes and stores were fire-bombed. The streets were full of tear gas and riot police. From my hotel room on Friday morning, I would watch long rows of paddy wagons and empty city buses heading for trouble spots. (To the credit of the Egyptian govt., they had police guarding Xian churches 24/7 for quite a while. Egypt is about 95% Muslim.)

The big surprise about all this is that it happened in Alexandria, the most liberal, tolerant and outward-looking city in Egypt.

My Egyptian friends are convinced that the trouble was fomented by Outside Agitators, probably well-financed Wahhabi nutcases from Saudi Arabia. From what I know about the Wahhabis it certainly fits their M.O. But Egypt has a lot of homegrown nutcases as well, though the Egyptians don't like to admit it. Probably anymore than we like to admit Fred Phelps and Ann Coulter are Americans...

Overall, I've found the Egyptians to be some of the most tolerant people on Earth, and my job has taken me all over the world. (Including a LONG 2 years in Saudi Arabia.) More than once, Egyptians have told me they don't give a damn whether a person is a Muslim, a Xian or a non-believer, as long as they act decently. Heck, some of them know I'm an atheist and it doesn't bother them.