The Muslim Brotherhood didn’t lose hope after decades of failed attempts to seize power and it has worked silently in expanding its influence through Mosques, social services to the poorest classes and ideological indoctrination, until the Arab Spring erupted in 2010, when the MB took the opportunity to present itself as a real alternative for the corrupt regimes.
Therefore, the Arab Spring brought the MB legalization and substantial political power and paved the way for the legalization of both the Tunisian Islamic party Ennahda and the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt in 2011.
In October 2011, Ennahda Party won 37 % of the vote making it the strongest party in the Tunisian legislature and hence formed a government till 2014, which preceded by an uproar in the traditionally secular country over Islamization and assassinations of two secular politicians.
In Egypt, the 2012 presidential election brought candidate Mohamed Morsi as Egypt’s first MB president until 2013, when he was ousted by a military coup led by Saudi-backed Marshal Abdul Fatah Sisi.
Similarly, in Syria, the MB with the help of Qatar and Turkey managed to trigger a rebellion against Bashar al-Assad in 2011 which is lived till today.
The first call for protests against Assad was in February 2011, the MB chose the month of February because it symbolizes the month which they were defeated in Hama in 1982.
The MB backed by Turkey, Qatar and the US launched a propaganda campaign against Assad, in order to demonize him. TV channels such as Al-Jazeera worked day and night to mobilize the people through Islamic slogans against the government and the Doha based channel has spread fake news such as vast dissertations among the Syrian Army or the close circle of Bashar al-Assad.
It is true that a few hundreds of soldiers and officers and officials deserted from the ruling regime, but most of them were either MB sympathizers or paid but Qatar.
It is also worth to mention that Al-Jazeera regularly hosts one of the senior MB radical scholar, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who issued fatwas of killing civilians working in the government sector and mercilessly killing the SAA soldiers. Qaradawi also issued a fatwa saying it is okay to kill hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria if it is going to remove Bashar al-Assad from power.
These details are very important to understand because no mainstream media or so-called expert on Syria will tell you how effective these MB techniques were in the ongoing war against Syria’s Assad.
Additionally, one of the most effective tools for anti-government mobilization during the Arab Spring was the social media platforms. In the Syrian case, the man who was behind the Facebook page of the Syrian revolution in 2011 was Fidaa’ al-Sayed, who is a Swedish citizen from a radical MB background, and he lives near Stockholm.
In this video, I’m not going to address in details what happened during the first days of the rebellion against Assad but I will mention two major incidents which reveal the major role of the MB in igniting the revolt in 2011 and the role of regional players.
The first incident is the first anti-government protest in the city of Banyas on the 18th of March 2011, which was led by the Islamist Cleric Anas Ayrout from al-Rahman mosque whose demands were:
one, to shut down gender-mixed schools and separate men from women
and two, to re-allow women wearing Burqa to return to teaching, knowing that the Syrian government banned women covering their entire face to teach in schools.
The second incident was in October 2017, when the former foreign minister of Qatar said on the Qatari national TV that Qatari, Turkish, Saudi and American military officers were used to meet regularly on the borders between Syria and Turkey since the first days of the MB rebellion in Syria in 2011.
The purpose of the meetings was to coordinate the military efforts against the government forces since the beginning. If you want to watch investigative videos which reveal the propaganda of the mainstream media against Syria in 2011, please check the links in the description.
Long story short, the MB’s attempt to seize power in Syria through armed rebellion has failed for the second time after the first attempt in 1982.
But the question remains: why a regressive and radical group like the Muslim brotherhood is sponsored, protected and supported by several Western countries?
When Trump came to office, he wanted to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
But officials in the Pentagon, the CIA and State Department have raised objections to the plan, saying that the MB does not meet the legal definition of a terrorist group and that its designation could have unintended consequences in allied countries where the Brotherhood fields prominent political parties.
In short, of course, there’s a difference of approach between Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, but they both share the same goal, which is to create an Islamic state. while Al-Qaeda resorts solely on armed violence, the MB resorts to violence and political activism at the same time. however, the MB perceives democratic elections as a train to reach its destination, which is power. and when they seize power, the MB tries to Islamize the society and state institutions, similar to what Morsi tried to do in Egypt before he was ousted by Sisi.
Arabic subtitles: Yassar Suleiman
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Sources:
American Defence Intelligence Agency Document in 1982
Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
Is the Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group?
What is the Muslim Brotherhood?
Unmasking the Muslim Brotherhood: Syria, Egypt, and Beyond
Today’s ‘Islamic Fascists’ Were Yesterday’s Friends
What Is the Muslim Brotherhood, and Will It Take Over Egypt?
Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page Administrator
Hamad Bin Jassim: We Supported Al-Qaeda in Syria
Syria: NOT A Revolution! (+18)
The “Revolution” that destroyed Syria (+18)
«الإخوان المسلمون».. منبع الفكر المتطرف وأصل الجماعات الإرهابية
الإخوان.. تاريخ أسود من الخيانة بدأه حسن البنا
الدور الخفى للمخابرات البريطانية فى تأسيس جماعة الإخوان المسلمين
بريطانيا ومتلازمة {الإخوان}
Kevork Almassian is an award-winning political commentator from Syria. He is the founder of Syriana Analysis and is known for his contribution to the literature on the Syrian war.