• Home
• /
• Opinion

Brotherhood is as dangerous as Al Qaeda

The Muslim Brotherhood has rejected secularism, promoted blasphemy laws, and embraced a universal vision of applying Shariah under the government of a supreme caliphate.

History has shown time and again that chaos follows the footsteps of Muslim Brotherhood.
Their hawkish advocacy of political Islam is dangerous, outdated, and has caused severe damages in countries such as Syria, Libya, Egypt, etc.
Just recently, the Hasm group, which is an armed-wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, carried out a terrorist attack not far from Cairo's main cancer hospital.
According to the Ministry of Health, at least 20 people were killed when a car loaded with explosives crashed into three other vehicles near the cancer institute. The Interior Ministry said the Hasm group was "behind the vehicle preparation" causing the explosion.
The choice of the attack near a hospital shows how ruthless, cruel, and brutal this group can be. There's no empathy whatsoever towards the patients and the victims.
Their main objective is to use terror to achieve political agenda.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi slammed this attack and has promised to "defeat brutal terrorism" and uproot it completely.
This is not the first attack by the Hasm movement. In 2016, the group orchestrated attempts to assassinate former Grand Mufti of Egypt, Ali Gomaa, and a senior assistant to Egypt's top prosecutor, Zakaria Abdel Aziz. The group was responsible for the killing of Ahmed Aboul Foutouh, a local judge in Nasr City, on November 4, 2016.
The Egyptian government seems more determined than ever and is leading the fight against terrorism with an iron fist. Just after the attack, the Egyptian security forces said they killed "17 terrorists" in an operation against suspects who were allegedly involved in the attack.
The Muslim Brotherhood aims to destabilise Egypt's economy at a time when the Egyptian government has been working hard to heal the wounds and get the country back on track. Egypt has suffered for years, and it was only during the 2016-17 fiscal year that the economy began to recover and growth forecasts were projected at 5.3 per cent in 2018. The Egyptian government is now aiming for a 5.6 per cent growth.
Economic stability in Egypt or any other country in the Middle East and Africa is counterproductive to the modus operandi of the group. The Brothers thrive on the helplessness of people, and pervasive poverty. They often target the young from poor ghettos, luring them with healthcare and social facilities for their families in return for their loyalty towards the Brotherhood cause. This is how the group has grown and spread its network in the Middle East.
In 1945, Said Ramadan, son-in-law of the Brotherhood founder, spread the group's reach to Palestine. The local cell fed on the Palestinian suffering to promote the group's ideology in the country and the region. The Muslim Brotherhood envisions a world that agrees with its philosophy and adopts its radical ideology - and that is the biggest threat.
Since its creation, the Muslim Brothers, or Muslim Brotherhood, has rejected secularism, promoted blasphemy laws, and embraced a universal vision of applying Shariah under the government of a supreme caliphate.
From the East to the West, the sleeping cells of the Brotherhood are forever ready to execute orders to rock a country's stability and economy. Last July, the Kuwaiti authorities revealed that they had dismantled a terrorist cell formed by Egyptian nationals who belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood is as dangerous as Al Qaeda and Daesh, if not more as they are the masters of taqiyya, the art of deceiving. Through covert financial means, they have been able to spread their propaganda worldwide. Their preachers sometimes use religion to further their agenda.
This dangerous organisation is well entrenched in many countries, particularly in Europe where they are represented in each European country. They take advantage of the freedom of speech to spread their word and flourish their network.
Their radical ideology operates on the borderline of legality and outside the public sphere but truth is they are nothing but terrorists.
Christiane Waked is a political analyst based in Beirut