Global media is reporting on the support expressed by the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood for Sudanese President Omar al- Bashir, accused by the International Criminal Court of genocide in Sudan. According to one report:
Jordan’s Islamic Action Front (IAF) on Thursday emphasized its support for Sudanese President Omar al- Bashir, who was accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) last month of genocide in Darfur. In a letter sent to the Sudanese president, IAF Secretary General Hamzah Mansour stressed on IAF’s support to Bashir in facing the accusations. “We support your steadfastness in facing the aggressive scheme and we stress our rejection to the accusations by the ICC, which is helpless and cannot persecute war criminals in the U.S. and the Zionist entity whose crimes against the Arabs and Muslims are continuous in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan,” IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, said in the letter posted on its website on Thursday. The IAF also stressed its support for the unity of Sudan and preserving its territorial integrity. In July, the ICC accused Bashir of three counts of genocide in Darfur. Last year, the ICC, which is the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal that was set up in 2002, issued an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity against Bashir.
The IAF is the political action arm of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood and earlier posts have reported on what has been described as the crisis within the organization. Generally unreported are the ties between the IAF and the US Muslim Brotherhood. The former IAF caretaker was Ishaq Farhan, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, one of the three founders of the IAF, and a former education minister and senator. Mr. Farhan is also listed as a director of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), founded in the U.S. in 1980 by important members of the Global Muslim Brotherhood who wished to promote the “Islamization of Knowledge.” IIIT was associated with the now defunct SAAR Foundation, a network of Islamic organizations located in Northern Virginia that was raided by the Federal government in March 2002 in connection with the financing of terrorism. In 2000, Mr. Farhan was denied entry to the U.S. after having had his visa revoked in the prior year without informing him. The New York Times reported at that time that unidentified American diplomats called Mr. Farhan a “moderating force” and that he “as kept a distance from the vociferous opposition to peaceful relations with Israel.” However, in 2003 a media report said that the IAF had “declared a jihad in favor of Iraq and Palestine if the US attacks Iraq.” More recently, after congratulating President Obama on his election, the IAF called his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan “a hostile step against the Arab and Islamic worlds. In 2009, the IAF also called Israeli actions in Gaza “the ugliest crime in history.”