UPDATE: The US Muslim Brotherhood has issued a telling statement in support of Turkey on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Turks during World War I. According to the statement from the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO):
Washington, DC, April 20, 2015) — The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO) the largest umbrella group of mainstream Muslim American organizations is aware of the painful history of over 30 nations fighting for over 4 years and the loss of over 37 million lives in World War I, including those of the Armenians.
As April 24 comes near, we share the pain suffered by Armenians during this period. We also believe that any acknowledgment by religious or political leaders of the tragedy that befell Armenians should be balanced, constructive and must also recognize Turkish and Muslim suffering.
In this respect, characterizing the events of 1915 as genocide without proper investigation of these events by independent historians will not only jeopardize the establishment of a just memory pertaining to these events, but will also damage the efforts aimed at achieving reconciliation between Turks and Armenians.
As Americans, we are concerned about alienating a key ally, Turkey, through one-sided declarations that political and religious leaders have made on this subject. The events of 100 years ago should be based on a consensus among historians and academicians with access to archives and documents from that era.
As the only Muslim-majority member of NATO and current President of the G-20 Summit, Turkey has taken on a unique regional and global leadership role in ensuring peace and prosperity for all. Our government has been closely cooperating with the Turkish government on defeating ISIS while also alleviating the suffering of Syrian refugees.
While Muslim Americans sympathize deeply with the loss of Armenian lives in 1915, we also believe that reconciliation must take into honest account the broader human tragedy of World War I. Muslim Americans expect our leaders to act accordingly to ensure that American-Turkish strategic relations are not damaged by a one-sided interpretation of the 1915 events.”
The USCMO statement is being prominently displayed on the website of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A 2011 report report authored by the GMBDW editor concluded that since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood. That report also detailed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ideological ties to the Global Muslim Brotherhood network, ties which date back to Erdogan’s affiliation in the 1970s with the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi charity with known connections to extremist and terrorist groups. In November 2014, the GMBDW reported that Israel had arrested dozens of members of a Hamas terror network said to be funded and directed by Hamas officials in Turkey. The following month, we discussed a report titled “Antisemitism Hits New High In Turkey” that examines the starling rise in antisemitism that has accompanied the government of Turkish President Erdogan.
The USCMO is comprised almost solely of elements of the US Muslim Brotherhood:
- CAIR, ICNA, and the MAS are part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood while the AMP is part of the U.S. Hamas support infrastructure and the MFLA had its origins in the defense of the leaders of the Holy Land Foundation convicted for the financing of Hamas.
- The Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA) is a relatively obscure organization that links on its web page only to CAIR, MAS, ISNA, and ICNA.
- The USCMO Secretary-General Oussama Jammal has long been a leader of the Bridgeview Mosque and its Mosque Foundation, the focus of a 2004 Chicago Tribune investigation which revealed that as much as $1 million a year had been raised from mosque members which was then sent to overseas Muslim charities, principally in support of Hamas. The article also detailed the mosque’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
As noted by our predecessor publication, one of the common tactics of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood is to construct coalitions of its own front organizations as well as inter-related groups and individuals, giving the appearance that the Brotherhood has more broad-based support than it actually enjoys. The new US Council of Muslim Organizations is just the latest in a long series of such “umbrella groups” formed by the US Muslim Brotherhood. We reported last week that the USMCO had held its first National Muslim Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
For a review of the events in Armenia by the New York Times, go here.
(Note: This post is an update and replaces our earlier post on the same subject).