Pakistani media is reporting that the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami has alleged that it is the policy of the US and the West to “crush the Islamic movements.” According to a report in TheNews:
August 26, 2013 Lahore JAMAAT-e-Islami Pakistan Ameer Syed Munawar Hasan has said that the policy of the US and the west to crush the Islamic movements and to keep them from political power was a great threat to the world peace.
Addressing a women rally staged by the JI at Nasser Bagh on Sunday to express solidarity with the Egyptian masses and to condemn the military coup against elected president, Dr Muhammad Mursi, the JI Ameer deplored that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had opted silence on the Egyptian issue after issuing an initial statement under the fear of the colonial powers. He stressed upon the prime minister to demand the restoration of Mursi government and also call for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to stop bloodshed in Egypt.
Syed Munawar Hasan said the Islamic movements were trying to advance their cause with great care and caution through peaceful and democratic ways but the anti-Islam forces were compelling them to go for violence.
He said that the western powers which had framed laws to prevent violence against cats and dogs had ignored these very laws in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now in Egypt and Syria. In Egypt, the Ikhwans were bulldozed and shot dead by firing from helicopters, he said, adding that the brutality of the Egyptian army with the US and Israeli support had introduced new ways of killing human beings. The JI chief also urged the Muslim rulers to adopt a firm stance against the military coup in Egypt if they wanted to prevent military rule in their own states. He was confident that the public movement called Arab Spring would reach its logical end and ultimately succeed, because these were movements for the supremacy of Islam. He asked the Arab rulers to welcome the movement instead of creating hurdles, as their rule would get strength from the Arab Spring.
The JI Ameer said that the west, the so-called champion of justice, human rights and civil liberties had tried to keep the elected people from power in Algeria, Palestine and now in Egypt, which falsified its claims. He said the Egyptian masses had voted for Dr Mursi in five-tiered elections but when the army ousted him, the Egyptian people staged peaceful protests. He said the army had killed more than 5,000 peaceful protesters and injured thousands others, who were in critical condition in hospitals. He said if the world community did not take immediate notice of the state terrorism in Egypt through the UN Security Council, the situation could take a disastrous course.
Acknowledging what has always been a close relationship, Pakistani media reported in June 2011 that the JEI and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood had announced that they would “join hands to solve issues faced by Muslims all over the world and to promote the true image of Islam.”
The Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) was founded in 1941 and is Pakistan’s oldest religious party. The party had its origins in the thought of Maulana Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi (1903-79), the most important Islamist intellectual in the history of Southeast Asia. Maududi was also a major influence on the global Muslim Brotherhood with whom the JEI has long enjoyed close relations. A predecessor publication discussed a 3-day Islamic conference held in late October 2008 in Lahore that brought together leaders of the JEI with leaders in the global Muslim Brotherhood. Our predecessor publication also discussed various anti-American, anti-Indian, anti-Israeli, and anti-Semitic comments made by JEI leaders. In June 2011, JEI leader Syed Hassan called for the end of operations against the Taliban and called Osama Bin Laden “a man of character.”
In the United States, the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) is generally considered to represent the JEI. ICNA has a particularly close relationship with the Muslim American Society (MAS), a part of the U.S. Brotherhood, and the two organizations have been holding joint conferences in recent years. In addition, many past and present leaders of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), also part of the U.S. Brotherhood, have backgrounds that are strongly associated with JEI. One notable example is India-born Muzammil Siddiqi, a past ISNA president and leader of the Fiqh Council of North America. A previous post has discussed a recent speaking invitation by ISNA to another JEI leader.
In the U.K, the umbrella group known as the Muslim Council of Britain has had many leaders and groups close to the JEI.