It is surely a lie to say that Huma Abedin, a Muslim who serves as an aide to Hillary Clinton, is working for the Muslim Brotherhood, as rightwing congresswoman Michele Bachmann has done.
But that doesn’t mean you should smear the Muslim Brotherhood. Notice how easily liberal Democrats do just that. Here Chris Matthews says that the Muslim Brotherhood are “the terrorists,” while also on the Matthews show, Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism characterized the Muslim Brotherhood as among “our enemies.” They throw these charges off– Matthews even implying last night that they are against Israel. No one challenges these liberals on these claims. Surprise– there are no Muslims in the conversation.
The Muslim Brotherhood is now the leading political bloc in Egypt. They helped bring about a historic revolution. The president of Egypt is a brother. They are a legitimate political organization whose values are changing before our eyes. Obviously the left should defend Huma Abedin. But doing so doesn’t require throwing the Muslim Brotherhood under the bus. That’s just straight up Islamophobia.
Philip, if your livelihood was not dependent on supporting Palestinians and Muslims ( how much money do you receive from Iran and generous Muslims from friendly countries?), we could then start taking you seriously.
Hear! Hear!
Memo to Islamofascism Central:
My brothers! The Zionists are on to our Manchurian Journalist P Weiss. Somehow, their almost supernaturally powerful intelligence gathering has triumphed again. They have uncovered what had been our ace in the hole, a compliant Jewish writer whose hatred of his own people is matched only by his dewy-eyed adoration of medieval Salafism.
How do they do it? Well, there’s an upside to all this – we now kick Weiss off the payroll and save the…hey, Ahmed, how much does this guy get?…..we save the 2 million he’s been costing us. Maybe we can give Beinart a raise.
Death to the West, etc etc,
Yours,
Bob
Philip,
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Mahatma Ghandhi
Labeling the Muslim Brotherhood as “the enemy” is certainly dubious at this point of time while the wheel is still in spin. Unlike Hamas which is under occupation and therefore proved unworthy of expectations of moderation (to my mind), Egypt is not occupied and we shall now truly see how responsibility changes the Brotherhood. To have low expectations is therefore a form of Islamophobia? Not necessarily. Calling them terrorists might be Islamophobia, but having low expectations might be common sense or not, and only time will tell.