Watani Sunday Published by Watani Printing and Publishing Corporation 26 April 2015 27, Abdel-Khaleq Tharwat St. 18 Baramouda (Parmoute) 1731 Cairo - Egypt 7 Ragab 1436 202-23936051 Tel Issue 741 Fax 202-23935946 Editor-in-chief Managing Editor Website: www.wataninet.com Year 15 Email: [email protected] Youssef Sidhom Samia Sidhom Editorial Problems on hold Muslim Brothers: the origin of terrorism Youssef Sidhom The London based International Criminal Law Bureau’s 9 Bedford Row (9BR) has recently released a report on the History of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The 150-page report, commissioned by the Sate Litigation Authority of Egypt, provides an overview on the inception of the MB movement, its structure, organisation and activities. Given what the document reveals, it is inevitable to question the sympathy the international superpowers display towards the MB; why they embrace MB leaders, hold dialogue with them, and allow the MB to operate on their lands. These superpowers insist on defining the MB not as a terrorist organisation but as just another faction among the Egyptian political groups. As such, they claim the MB should be included and allowed to operate in Egyptian politics, and that this would achieve political stability and national harmony. As I see it, the 9BR report knocks out any possibility of Egyptian conciliation with the MB, and gives the lie to claims of ‘ideological revision’ by a number of Brotherhood members or leaders who allege they have gone back on MB ideology. The MB rose to power in the post-2011 Arab Spring years and were consequently overthrown by the 33-million strong popular revolution of 30 June 2013. Since then they have inflicted brutal Last Thursday, 23 April 2015, Armenian churches around the world rang their bells 24 April marked the official event in the Armenian capital Yerevan, over which terrorism upon the Egyptian people in revenge. 100 times at 19:15 to honour the centenary of the Armenian genocide at the hands Armenia’s President Serzh Sarkisian presided, and in which world leaders and The bitter experience during these years and till of the Turks in 1915. The 100 rings mark the 100 years that have passed since the Church heads participated. today has turned Egyptian public opinion against genocide, and the time 19:15 was selected to commemorate the year 1915 when Pope Tawadros II took part in the ceremony, upon an official invitation from the MB. Egyptians today disbelieve and reject any the Ottoman government embarked upon the systematic decimation of its civilian Armenia. Accompanying him were the bishops Anba Raphaiel who heads the Holy alleged ‘ideological revision’. The fear, however, Armenian population. The persecutions continued with varying intensity until 1923 Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church and Bishop-General Anba Yu’annis. He also is that as time passes and Egypt has the MB when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced by the Republic of participated in the prayers on 23 April to canonise the genocide victims, and visited crisis behind her back, the national wound would Turkey. By then the entire Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey, estimated at the genocide museum and memorial. The Pope stressed that his visit was one to a heal and calls of conciliation might play on the two million in 1915, had virtually disappeared. Some 1.5 million had perished, and sister Church and carried no political overtones. sentiments of those who were not directly burned hundreds of thousands had become homeless and stateless. by MB evil. Hence the importance of the 9BR The Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate, in the meantime, did not participate in report which proves in no uncertain terms that the Watani goes to press as Armenians the world over commemorate the centenary of commemoration activities nor the bell-ringing, but held Mass on April 24 in memory MB is the origin of Islamist terrorism. Here is a the genocide of their ancestors in 1915 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Friday of ‘those who lost their lives in 1915’. reading of the report. • The history of the MB since its inception in the 1920s has been closely linked to its ‘secret apparatus’, the group’s military arm. This remained the inspiration for all terrorist organisations and groups around the world, from al-Qaeda and IS, to Ansar Beit al-Maqdis in Sinai, The Armenians…who we are Boko Haram in Nigeria, al-Shabaab in Somalia, and others. • The outlook and purpose of the founder Hassan al-Banna has remained firmly in place over more than eight decades. These include, besides an unmistakable endorsement of violence, MB monopoly of Islam and belief in the organisation’s singular capacity for reform through a totalitarian doctrine that renders the MB, as al-Banna himself described it, “a Salafiyya message, a Sunni way, a Sufi truth, a political organisation, an athletic group, a cultural-educational union, an economic company, and a social concept.” The MB thus becomes all that is within a community, not just a faction among others. • The strategy of superiority and MB monopoly over Islam led to the spread of violence and the training of youth on armed violence in organisations and militias that became the inspiring and supportive nuclei of all armed terrorist organisations that later emerged: al- Qaeda, al-Qassam Brigades, Ansar Beit al- Maqdis, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and all through to IS. Early on, in the 1940s Egypt had its fair share Dear reader, Bishop Krikor Augustine Kusa some 1,000 to 1,200m, to the cold type above the 2,200m of MB violence, terrorism and assassinations; al- You may have had the chance to deal with Armenians Bishop of Alexandria for Catholic Armenians in Egypt mark. Banna tried to disclaim the violence by saying the through work, school, university, or maybe as a neighbour On the mountain slopes, yearly rainfall approaches 800 perpetrators were “neither Muslim nor Brothers”. or friend. You may have heard him or her speaking a millimetres, while the sheltered inland hollows and plains Yet he did nothing to control the armed apparatus language unfamiliar to you, and you may have asked River. The northern part lies in Armenia, and the southern receive very little rainfall a year. till he was assassinated in 1949. yourself; “Why? Who is Hagop, Vartan, Sarkis, Nanor,… in Turkey. Tradition has it that the Ararat plain was named Fruit is a very important part of life in Armenia. Any • The extremist, terrorist groups which or others who have equally unfamiliar [Armenian] names after King Ara the Handsome, the great-grandson of halfway decent host will put out a plate of cut fruit for originated from the womb of the MB share the and converse in a little known [Armenian] language?” Amasya. a guest. The pomegranate and apricot are considered MB classification of the world into a ‘community Who are the Armenians? And how did they manage to superior breeds of the fruit worldwide. The first, and most of Jahiliyya (ignorance)’ versus a ‘community retain their culture, customs and traditions? How did they The climate important fruit of Spring is the apricot whose flowering in of Islam’. This classification is based on the come to be living among the Arab people; in fact, among Because of Armenia’s position in the deep interior of the April marks the beginning of warm weather. core thought of prominent MB Sayyid Qutb peoples the world over? northern part of the subtropical zone, enclosed by lofty that “the world had a choice: Islam or Jahiliyya. ranges, its climate is dry and continental. Regional climatic The history An Islamic society follows Islam in faith and The land variation is nevertheless considerable. The climate changes The Iron Age kingdom of Urartu (Assyrian for Ararat) worship, in law and organisation, in morals and The Armenia of today is totally different from one that with elevation, ranging from the dry subtropical and dry was replaced by the Orontid dynasty. Following Persian manners,” whereas a Jahiliyya society does not existed way back in history; many parts of historic Armenia continental in the plain and in foothills up to a height of and Macedonian rule, the Artaxiad dynasty from 190 endorse Islam. have been carved out and incorporated in neighbouring BC gave rise to the Kingdom of Armenia which rose to • When the MB Muhammad Mursi was countries on the west, east and south. Whereas Armenia’s the peak of its influence under Tigranes the Great before president of Egypt in 2012 – 2013, a close relation borders during the height of its glory under the reign of falling under Roman rule. emerged between the authority in Egypt and al- Qaeda. Mursi was in contact with Muhammad Tigranes the Great in 95 – 55BC extended to the Tigris and In 301, Arsacid Armenia was the first sovereign nation al-Zawahiri, brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Euphrates rivers, its area today totals 32,000sq.km. to accept Christianity as a State religion. The Armenians current al-Qaeda leader who was a MB member Armenia is a land of mountains, rivers, and lakes, and later fell under Byzantine, Persian, and Islamic hegemony, in his youth. has been called Nairi by the Assyrians meaning the “Land but reinstated their independence with the Bagratuni • Both Qatar and Turkey support the MB. They of the lakes and rivers”. Most of the rivers and mountains Dynasty kingdom of Armenia. After the fall of the provide shelter to MB leaders and fugitives from have a special rank in the heart of the Armenians, inspiring kingdom in 1045, and the subsequent Seljuk conquest of justice in Egypt.