Islamist media has reported that Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi has made comments in which he has said that the “Islamic Nation” will not be free until Palestine is “liberated.” According to a Middle East Monitor report:
February 27, 2015 Tunisia’s Islamic scholar and head of the Ennahda movement Rashid Al-Ghannouchi applauded the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking at the First International Scientific Conference of the Faculty of Rabat University in Gaza yesterday, Al-Ghannouchi said the Islamic nation will not be well unless Palestine is liberated.
‘Only when Palestine is liberated, the nation will be okay. Despite all the pain, we must adhere to our strong beliefs,’ he said.
‘We must liberate our nation from the causes of vulnerability and adhere to our faith and be united, only then we can be free.'”
The GMBDW reported in October 2014 that Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of the Tunisian Ennahda Party and a close associate of Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, had visited the US where he was invited to speak at Yale and Columbia Universities as well as at the US Institute of Peace (USIP).
Mr. Ghannouchi has a long history of ties to Palestinian extremism and calls for terrorism and which recently have included:
- In May 2013, the GMBDW reported that Mr. Ghannouchi had called for young people to realize that “Jihad belongs in Palestine.”
- In 2011, Mr. Ghannouchi gave an Arabic-language interview in which he predicted the end of Israel,
- In February 2009, Mr. Ghannouchi was a signatory to the so-called Istanbul declaration that called for the opening of a “third jihadist front” against Israel. The statement was the result of a conference held under the auspices of the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign (GAAC), an international Islamist umbrella group comprised of Islamist scholars tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood as well as Salafi-Jihadi scholars including individuals designated as terrorists by the US government.
For a profile on Rachid Ghannouchi, go here.
For a profile on the Ennahda Party and its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, go here.
