MEMRI, an organization which monitors Arab-language media, has published a lecture delivered by the MEMRI Chairman at the opening of the annual international conference of the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism held in Jerusalem in February of tHis year. The article should be a useful guide to understanding the antisemitism that is pervasive within the global Muslim Brotherhood. The lecture identified three components of Arab anti-Jewish propaganda:
- Anti-Jewish views derived from traditional Islamic sources.
- Antisemitic stereotypes, images and accusations of European and Christian origin.
- Holocaust Denial and equating Zionism with Nazism.
Previous posts have provided examples of each of these antisemitic components found within the global Muslim Brotherhood. For example, traditional Islamic antisemitism in the form of characterizing Jews as descendants of apes was a theme expressed by an Egyptian cleric who had been a featured speaker at U.S. Muslim Brotherhood events. Classical European antisemitism such as blaming Jews for the death of Jesus was a theme echoed by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi. Also the European Council for Fatwa and Research, chaired by Qaradawi, has used the notorious antisemitic forgery the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in its theological deliberations. Comparing Israeli actions to the Nazis is a theme of many Brotherhood organizations including the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood who posted an article which stated:
What is happening in Gaza is actually a merciless and brutal rampage of murder and terror waged by a Wehrmacht-like army against a blockaded, beleaguered and starved people who want to survive and be free, very much like Jews did under the Nazi occupation of Europe.
Finally, in February 2006, Qaradawi made statements that appear to question the Holocaust.
U.S. Brotherhood organizations have also frequently asserted that Muslims are deliberately being excluded from the U.S. political system though the efforts of American Jews who are said to control the media, the Congress, and other levers of American influence. Additionally Dr. Muzzamil Siddiqi, a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood leader, has written a publicity letter for a book authored by an William Baker, an individual with a right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic background, written a letter of recommendation praising a book by Harun Yaya, the well-known author of several anti-Semitic and Holocaust denial books, and was a member of the board of the Institute of Islamic Information & Education in Chicago (IIIE) whose late director was the author of numerous virulently anti-Semitic articles. Jamal Badawi, another important U.S. Brotherhood leader, was also a member of the IEEE board.