At the annual conference of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) which concluded yesterday, Muslim Brotherhood leader Jamal Badawi repeated the Brotherhood doctrine of “defensive Jihad.” According to a local media report:
Jamal Badawi, a professor and Islamic scholar, said the Quran is clear that Muslims are to observe nonviolence except against people who “fight you because of your religion or who seek to drive you from your homes.” “All religions allow this,” Badawi said. “What is wrong with fighting oppression?”
Dr. Badawi, who is referred to in internal U.S. Muslim Brotherhood documents as a member of it’s Shura (leadership) council, has been one of the U.S. Brotherhood’s foremost propagandists for the notion of Defensive Jihad, one of the Brotherhood’s deception tactics as discussed in a previous post:
2. DECEPTION– In order to defend Islam (Islamism) from charges that it is inherently violent/terroristic, the Brotherhood deceives the public about the nature of Jihad. This is necessary because Jihad plays an important role for Islamism and the Brotherhood and if the connection between Islam and violence is to be denied, Jihad must be explained away. Again, the Brotherhood represents the “Jihadism” of the Islamists as opposed to the “classical Jihad” of Islam but since that distinction is also lost on the public, the Brotherhood defends Jihad. It does so usually in one of two ways, sometimes employing both deceptions. First, the Brotherhood claims that Jihad has little or no connection to violence and warfare (i.e. there is no “Holy War”), and is instead akin to various forms of inner struggle or self-improvement. Second, the Brotherhood suggests that Jihad is a form of “freedom fighting”, even comparing Jihad to the American Revolution. Lately, there has been a suggestion that Jihad should be replaced with the term “Hirabah” which, if successful, would represent a victory for the Brotherhood deception strategy.
An earlier post discussed Dr. Badawi’s remarks on Jihad before the 2007 Annual Islamic Circle of North America/Muslim American Society conference.
In a March 2004 sermon posted on Islam Online about the death of Sheik Ahmed Yassine, the spiritual leader of Hamas, Dr. Badawi made the following remarks appearing to praise those who died in attacks against Israel:
There are those who die in the state of defense, self-defense for themselves defense of their nations their dignity and their freedom but the bottom line and in the final analysis everybody is going to die. The difference here is not the issue of death which is general the issue is what is after death–punishment from Allah that could be eternal for those who committed cruelties and massacres against the innocent and the reward for those who died in the legitimate state of self-defense against oppression….if they don’t succeed and they get killed in the processes it is also good because this life as compared to eternal life is nothing (referring to those fighting against oppression).
Dr. Badawi’s early history before his emigration from Egypt indicates that he was likely a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.