The Brotherhood: America's Next Great Enemy (35 page)
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Authors: Erick Stakelbeck
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BOOK: The Brotherhood: America's Next Great Enemy
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All of this is happening against the will of native-born British citizens. According to a 2013 report by a London think tank, British Future, one out of three Brits sees the culture clash between immigrants and indigenous Brits as the primary cause of the country’s problems. Seventy-five percent would like to see a reduction in immigration, with 51 percent desiring a large reduction.
45
Granted, Britain gets immigrants from around the world, but it seems likely that Catholic Poles, French job seekers, or other Europeans are less difficult to assimilate than sharia-governed Muslims. Between 2001 and 2011, the Muslim population of the UK doubled—from 1.5 million to 2.7 million (and those numbers don’t include the country’s many undocumented Muslim immigrants). In only ten years, Muslims grew from 3 percent to nearly 5 percent of the British population.
46
And there are no signs that British politicians have the will or desire to turn off the spigot.
45
Granted, Britain gets immigrants from around the world, but it seems likely that Catholic Poles, French job seekers, or other Europeans are less difficult to assimilate than sharia-governed Muslims. Between 2001 and 2011, the Muslim population of the UK doubled—from 1.5 million to 2.7 million (and those numbers don’t include the country’s many undocumented Muslim immigrants). In only ten years, Muslims grew from 3 percent to nearly 5 percent of the British population.
46
And there are no signs that British politicians have the will or desire to turn off the spigot.
No less an authority than the Brotherhood’s global spiritual leader, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi—a leading proponent of the enclave effect—has said “We will conquer
Europe
, we will conquer America, not through the sword but through
dawah [proselytizing]
.”
47
Remember: mosques, enclaves, victory. Spend time in passport control at London’s Heathrow Airport, where it is common to see long lines of Muslim women in niqabs and bearded men in Salafi garb entering the country, and you’ll get a glimpse of Britain’s future.
Europe
, we will conquer America, not through the sword but through
dawah [proselytizing]
.”
47
Remember: mosques, enclaves, victory. Spend time in passport control at London’s Heathrow Airport, where it is common to see long lines of Muslim women in niqabs and bearded men in Salafi garb entering the country, and you’ll get a glimpse of Britain’s future.
Whether the issue is socialism, spiraling debt, or cultural disintegration, it’s useful to look to Europe today for signs of what is coming to the United States tomorrow. The culture clash with Islam is clearly much more advanced on the Old Continent, but the Muslim Brotherhood and its American acolytes are working diligently to change that—and with the active assistance of the Obama administration.
Essam El Erian, a top Brotherhood official from Egypt who is also vice chairman of the country’s ruling Freedom and Justice Party, was able to see the fruits of his organization’s labor up close in late 2012, when he paid a visit to Brooklyn’s MB-linked Al-Noor Islamic School. As Erian was speaking before a standing-room-only crowd, he was interrupted by anti-Brotherhood protestors, who were swiftly ushered out of the building by the NYPD.
48
48
A few miles away from that event, in Sheepshead Bay, residents of Voorhies Avenue can relate to the protestors’ plight.
“Everybody in America needs to stand together in our small communities such as Sheepshead Bay,” one of the Bay People told me as we stood in front of the soon-to-be-opened Muslim American Society mosque. “As Sheepshead Bay goes, so goes America. It’s coming to you. I kid you not, it’s going to be in your neighborhood.”
CHAPTER NINE
OCCUPY SHARIA: WHY THE LEFT HELPS THE BROTHERHOOD
“I
’m particularly enthralled by the Occupy movement.”
’m particularly enthralled by the Occupy movement.”
While it was common to hear liberal Democrats make such statements throughout the fall of 2011 during Occupy Wall Street’s anarchic heyday, Anas Al-Tikriti—the man behind this particular statement—is no garden variety American leftist. For starters, his father is the leader of Iraq’s Muslim Brotherhood. And much like Tariq Ramadan, son of another Brotherhood icon, the younger Al-Tikriti is also well-connected in the global Ikhwan universe yet, of course, denies membership in the organization.
Interestingly enough, when I met with Al-Tikriti in June 2012, he had just returned from a tour of the Middle East and North Africa where he met with MB officials in various countries. But as we sat in his spacious West London office overlooking Wembley Stadium, our conversation about the so-called Arab Spring quickly turned from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park.
“We saw youngsters emerge on the streets of New York, and Philadelphia, and Washington, raising banners saying your dictator and your tyrant was Hosni Mubarak, our tyrant was Goldman Sachs,” Al-Tikriti told me. “It’s a different challenge, but it’s sort of a same approach to how we can create a different reality.”
Al-Tikriti was clearly drawing a parallel between the Arab Spring uprisings and the Occupy Wall Street protests that broke out in major American cities shortly thereafter. Occupy was undoubtedly influenced by the tumult that swept throughout the Muslim world—the OWS website goes so far as to declare that the movement uses “the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic,”
1
and leaders from the demonstrations in Tahrir Square even traveled to New York City to conduct a tactical “teach-in” for Occupiers.
2
But there are glaring differences. While both sides do indeed want “a different reality,” as Al-Tikriti suggested, the Islamists who won out in countries like Egypt and Tunisia desired Islamic states ruled by sharia law. The Occupiers, on the other hand, are a chaotic collection of anarchists, communists, and hardcore leftists who seem to have no coherent message other than “Capitalism, America, Jews: bad.” Several commentators noted the overt anti-Semitism of much of the Occupy crowd.
3
,
4
,
5
God and religion are otherwise nowhere in the equation, although anti-Americanism has certainly become a pseudo-religion for many on the hard Left—a demographic that is, in most cases, militantly atheistic.
1
and leaders from the demonstrations in Tahrir Square even traveled to New York City to conduct a tactical “teach-in” for Occupiers.
2
But there are glaring differences. While both sides do indeed want “a different reality,” as Al-Tikriti suggested, the Islamists who won out in countries like Egypt and Tunisia desired Islamic states ruled by sharia law. The Occupiers, on the other hand, are a chaotic collection of anarchists, communists, and hardcore leftists who seem to have no coherent message other than “Capitalism, America, Jews: bad.” Several commentators noted the overt anti-Semitism of much of the Occupy crowd.
3
,
4
,
5
God and religion are otherwise nowhere in the equation, although anti-Americanism has certainly become a pseudo-religion for many on the hard Left—a demographic that is, in most cases, militantly atheistic.
So how could Anas Al-Tikriti—an Islamist whose organization, the London-based Cordoba Foundation, was described in 2008 by future British Prime Minister David Cameron (then a member of parliament) as a “front for the Muslim Brotherhood”
6
—be so enthusiastic about the godless Occupy movement? And how could he have spent the better part of a decade working closely with leftist factions in Great Britain to oppose, among other things, the Iraq War and Israel’s supposed “occupation” of Palestinian land? As we’ll see in this chapter, the budding Islamo/ leftist alliance exists because the two factions share common enemies—America, Israel, capitalism, and Judeo-Christian, Western civilization—and not because Islamists are eager to ditch the Koran in favor of Marx and Engels. Nevertheless, judging by Al-Tikriti’s ready response, it seemed he had been asked the question before.
6
—be so enthusiastic about the godless Occupy movement? And how could he have spent the better part of a decade working closely with leftist factions in Great Britain to oppose, among other things, the Iraq War and Israel’s supposed “occupation” of Palestinian land? As we’ll see in this chapter, the budding Islamo/ leftist alliance exists because the two factions share common enemies—America, Israel, capitalism, and Judeo-Christian, Western civilization—and not because Islamists are eager to ditch the Koran in favor of Marx and Engels. Nevertheless, judging by Al-Tikriti’s ready response, it seemed he had been asked the question before.
“How could you bring a Muslim or a Jew or a Buddhist or a seeker or a Christian together—I mean, how on earth could you do that?” Al-Tikriti mused in a flawless English accent befitting a man who’s lived in the UK for most of his life. “You do that by saying, ‘Okay, fine what would you want for your children?’ You’d find invariably, they all want the same thing.... And once you do that you sort of transcend beyond the ideology. You transcend to another level whereby you could get people to talk about the mechanics of how they want to achieve their dreams. Once that happens, there’s a level of appreciation and understanding that would blow your mind away. But you have to do it in a safe structure and in a safe area, in a way that isn’t threatening, isn’t condescending, isn’t undermining and with absolute respect and equality.”
Which means that sharia, with its inherent
disrespect
for opposing views, would presumably have to be checked at the door. Or not. During the run-up to the second Iraq War, left-wing activists from the Stop the War Coalition (STWC) reportedly acquiesced to the demands of the Muslim Association of Britain—a Brotherhood-linked organization Al-Tikriti would later lead—to have halal food and segregation by sex during joint meetings and demonstrations .
7
I’m sure the radical feminist element of the STWC was just thrilled with those ground rules. Align yourself with sharia-driven Islamic supremacists and prepare for some serious compromises—on your end, not theirs.
disrespect
for opposing views, would presumably have to be checked at the door. Or not. During the run-up to the second Iraq War, left-wing activists from the Stop the War Coalition (STWC) reportedly acquiesced to the demands of the Muslim Association of Britain—a Brotherhood-linked organization Al-Tikriti would later lead—to have halal food and segregation by sex during joint meetings and demonstrations .
7
I’m sure the radical feminist element of the STWC was just thrilled with those ground rules. Align yourself with sharia-driven Islamic supremacists and prepare for some serious compromises—on your end, not theirs.
After hearing Al-Tikriti’s flowery explanation of his partnership with the Left, with all the talk of transcendence and common dreams, it becomes clear why he’s been dubbed “one of the shrewdest UK-based Brotherhood activists.”
8
Al-Tikriti is nothing like Anjem Choudary, the notoriously in-your-face British Salafi firebrand. In fact, Al-Tikriti even took some swipes at Choudary’s “extremism” during our interview. Rather, Al-Tikriti—again, much like Tariq Ramadan—has spent considerable time and effort painting himself to gullible Western elites as a sort of anti-Choudary, while at the same time selling the Brotherhood as the “moderate” Islamist elixir to the global al-Qaeda virus.
8
Al-Tikriti is nothing like Anjem Choudary, the notoriously in-your-face British Salafi firebrand. In fact, Al-Tikriti even took some swipes at Choudary’s “extremism” during our interview. Rather, Al-Tikriti—again, much like Tariq Ramadan—has spent considerable time and effort painting himself to gullible Western elites as a sort of anti-Choudary, while at the same time selling the Brotherhood as the “moderate” Islamist elixir to the global al-Qaeda virus.
And it works. The local council for Tower Hamlets borough in East London awarded Al-Tikriti’s Cordoba Foundation £34,000 (the equivalent of more than $50,000) in taxpayer money over the course of 2007 and 2008 as part of the British government’s Preventing Violent Extremism program. Ironically enough, Al-Tikriti’s organization promptly used some of the funding to organize a panel featuring a known supporter of said violent extremism named Dr. Abdul Wahid. The not-so-good doctor is a leader of the UK branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a charming Islamist outfit that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair once promised to ban (but never did) due to its very public support for suicide bombings, wiping Israel off the map, and reestablishing the global caliphate. In the wake of the Hizb ut-Tahrir travesty, the Cordoba Foundation was forced to give some of the grant money back, and Tower Hamlets council later reportedly terminated its agreement with Al-Tikriti and company altogether.
9
9
The Cordob-ites, seemingly unfazed, went on to co-sponsor an August 2009 London event where American-born al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was scheduled to deliver a live video address. Al-Awlaki was the chief English-language propagandist for al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch and later had a hand in several terrorist plots against the United States, including the Fort Hood massacre and the failed Underwear Bomber plot on Christmas Day 2009, which helped earn al-Awlaki a spot on the U.S. “kill list” of global terrorists. Al-Awlaki’s appearance was ultimately forbidden by the local council, and the Cordoba Foundation tried to distance itself from him and the event.
10
But Al-Tikriti’s ties to al-Awlaki—who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011—were longstanding, including a 2003 lecture tour of the UK, sponsored by the Muslim Association of Britain, of which Al-Tikriti was already a prominent member if not leader.
11
10
But Al-Tikriti’s ties to al-Awlaki—who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011—were longstanding, including a 2003 lecture tour of the UK, sponsored by the Muslim Association of Britain, of which Al-Tikriti was already a prominent member if not leader.
11
Yet Al-Tikriti continues to have access to power brokers in the international media and world governments. He writes frequently for Britain’s leading leftist newspaper,
The Guardian
, and advises various European leaders on Islamic issues, invariably lobbying them to embrace the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Guardian
, and advises various European leaders on Islamic issues, invariably lobbying them to embrace the Muslim Brotherhood.
During our wide-ranging discussion, Al-Tikriti decried the fact that most Western governments refuse to talk (at least publicly) with the Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch, the terror group Hamas, saying:
The more you isolate [Hamas], the more they’ll be isolated, and the more they’ll think in an isolated fashion. It’s in our favor to actually communicate with these people. In terms of violence, let me tell you this: we had a similar situation in Iraq. We had, still have, a very similar situation in Afghanistan. You occupy any people, it doesn’t matter whether they’re Arabs or non-Arabs, it doesn’t matter whether they’re Muslims or non-Muslims, they will rise against their occupiers. They will resist occupation. The use of violence is just one way of resisting. People are resisting in an array of ways ... this is what I tell the American State Department when I meet with them and when I meet with the Foreign Office here in London and when I speak to Catherine Ashton [the European Union’s top foreign policy representative] in Europe. What do you expect when... you clasp someone’s neck and strangle? They will kick out... and they’ll try to gouge your eyes, try to scratch your neck ... and if they had something in their hands, they would hit you with it. That’s the nature of human beings. I condemn the shedding of blood from anyone, anywhere, on any side of the fence. But when we talk about violence being used by someone who’s being cornered, humiliated, rid of every single shred of life, it would be totally bemusing not to understand why that person ... is responding in the way that they are.
Al-Tikriti’s comments here are useful for a few reasons. 1) He paints a picture of Hamas—and, by extension, jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan who are “resisting” occupying U.S. forces—not as bloodthirsty fanatics and killers but as oppressed, desperate victims. Those Hamas suicide bombers blowing up Israeli women and children—what choice do they have? They were pushed to violence as a very last resort in their struggle to survive under a brutal occupation by foreign invaders! This is the standard Ikhwan “defensive jihad” talking point when it comes to their Hamas brothers, and Al-Tikriti has mastered it. As we’ll see, so has a good chunk of the radical Left. 2) Al-Tikriti delivers his remarks in an impassioned, eloquent style that sounds perfectly legitimate and convincing to the uninformed listener, which, unfortunately, describes most of today’s Western journalists, academics, and lawmakers.
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