Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Gatestone Update :: Khaled Abu Toameh: Arab Spring: A Blessing for Hamas, and more


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Arab Spring: A Blessing for Hamas

by Khaled Abu Toameh
July 25, 2012 at 5:00 am
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Egypt's Mursi has put Hamas's Mashaal on an equal footing with heads of state, thus granting legitimacy not only to the Hamas leader but to its entire movement. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, has also been officially invited to the Presidential Palace in Cairo.
Hamas has good reason to be extremely happy with the "Arab Spring" that has been sweeping the Arab world for nearly two years: thanks to the "Arab Spring," Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has, for the first time ever, entered the Presidential Palace in Cairo.
Until recently, Mashaal and other Hamas leaders were considered personae non gratae [unwelcome people] in both Jordan and Egypt.
Mashaal was ousted from Syria earlier this year because he refused to support Bashar Assad in his confrontation with the opposition, which is mostly dominated by Islamists. But Mashaal knows that it is only a matter of time before the "Arab Spring" sees Islamists take control over Syria, enabling him to become a welcome guest in the presidential palace in Damascus.
Last week, however, Mashaal was invited to a meeting with newly elected Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi in the Palace of Ittihadiyah in the Egyptian capital.
Mashaal was the first Hamas representative ever to enter the palace. Prior to the downfall of Hosni Mubarak's regime, Mashaal and other Hamas leaders could only dream of the day when they would be received by an Egyptian president in his palace.
But the "Arab Spring," which had been hijacked by Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups in Tunisia and Egypt, has so far proven to be a blessing for Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and now seeking to reap the fruits of the rise of Islamists to power in the Arab world.
Mashaal was invited to the Al-Ittihadiyah Palace one day after his rival, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, met with the new Egyptian president.
By meeting separately with Mashaal and Abbas, Mursi has created the impression that the Palestinians have two legitimate leaders. Even more, Mursi has put Mashaal on an equal footing with heads of state, thus granting legitimacy not only to the Hamas leader, but to his entire movement.
Also last week, the new Egyptian president surprised many Palestinians when he personally phoned a top Hamas official who had just been released from Israeli prison to offer his greetings.
Even the Hamas official, Abdel Aziz Dweik, expressed surprise at the phone call from the president of the largest Arab country.
According to Hamas sources, Mursi is also expected to meet soon with Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, who has also been officially invited to the presidential palace in Cairo.
In a move that is expected to further embolden Hamas and tighten its grip on the Gaza Strip, Mursi is said to have promised the Islamist movement to ease travel restrictions imposed on residents of the Gaza Strip
Another Arab leader who seems to be aware of the growing power of the Islamists in the Arab world is Jordan's King Abdullah.
Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood organization has already created enough trouble for the monarch. Exploiting demands for reform and democracy inspired by the "Arab Spring," some Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members are now working to undermine King Abdullah with the ultimate goal of turning the kingdom into an Islamist emirate.
The king is so worried that he recently invited Khaled Mashaal to his palace in Amman and asked him to use his good offices with Muslim Brotherhood to calm things down. King Abdullah is particularly concerned about calls by Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups to boycott parliamentary elections later this year.
The fact that the Jordanian king has to seek Hamas's help in restraining Muslim Brotherhood is a sign of the Islamist movement's increased influence in wake of the "Arab Spring."
While the "Arab Spring" has strengthened Hamas, it has at the same time dealt a severe blow to less radical Palestinians such as Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad.
Unless Abbas and Fayyad become members of Muslim Brotherhood or Hamas, the heroes of "Arab Spring" will continue to look at them as traitors and puppets in the hands of Israel and the US. The rising power of Hamas makes any talk about a peace process sound like a joke.
Related Topics:  Khaled Abu Toameh

Where is the Evidence?

by Tarek Heggy
July 25, 2012 at 3:30 am
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What proof is there that the accession to power of the peaceful faction of the Muslim Brotherhood will not be followed by a takeover by the by the non-peaceful faction, which will refuse to step down, as Hamas has done in Gaza, on the pretext that only they are qualified to apply God's law?
There are two distinct factions within the Muslim Brotherhood: one which believes that a peaceful accession to state power is possible, and another that power can only be seized by force of arms.
The history of the Muslim Brotherhood is well documented by the eminent Egyptian historian, Abdul Rahman el-Rafi'i, who distinguishes between two factions within its membership structure. One, which included its founder, Hassan el-Banna himself, believed that the Society's ultimate aim of attaining political power could be achieved by peaceful means -- by winning over the majority of the people to its rallying call. This faction can only be regarded as a legitimate component of the mosaic of Egyptian political life. Even those who oppose the vision and ideology of the Muslim Brothers have no right to consider members who aspire to power through persuasion as anything other than legitimate players in the democratic game.
The same does not apply, however, to the other faction within the Muslim Brotherhood, led by Sayed Qutb which, according to el-Rafi'i, considered that working to attain power by mobilizing public opinion through elections would take too long, and that the use of force was the only viable option. The proponents of this school of thought are not politicians but, in the words of el Rafi'i, "terrorists."
As al-Rafi'i wrote in his book, In the Aftermath of the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 , under the heading "A Paroxysm of Bloodshed and Terrorism": "Contributing to the dramatic rise in the murder and crime rate was the adoption by terrorist elements in the society of the Moslem Brothers of militant violent political action as a means of overthrowing the political order. There is no doubt that the aim of these elements was the seizure of power by the Society. It is equally clear from the statements made by Hassan el-Banna, the Supreme Guide of the Society of the Moslem Brothers, that he believed he would one day reach power."
To be fair to el-Banna, however, here are words by the same author: "It appears from the statements he made that he wanted to overthrow the regime … not through bloodshed and terrorism but by winning over the majority of the Egyptian people. But the terrorists among his followers disdained the constitutional route to power, opting for the more direct route of murder and terror. Hence the campaigns launched at one time by some Moslem Brothers against constitutional systems."
Among the Brothers who sought to reach power in Egypt not through elections – as el-Banna advocated – but through the use of force were those who murdered Egyptian prime minister Mahmoud Fahmy el-Noqrashy (1948), judge Ahmed el-Khazindar (1948) and General Selim Zaky (1948); fired shots at Gamal Abdel Nasser in Alexandria's Mansheya Square (1954), killed Minister of Waqf Dr. el-Dahaby (1977), assassinated President Anwar Sadat (1981), killed Egyptian intellectual Farag Foda (1992) and attempted to kill Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz (1993). These murderers belonged, obviously, to the faction within the Society of Muslim Brothers whose members disagreed with el-Banna's preference for a "peaceful" accession to power through winning over the hearts and minds of the Egyptian people; and who believed, rather, that power would only be attained by force of arms.
Since the Brothers' assassination of Prime Minister el-Nuqrashi in 1948 until their failed assassination attempt against Egypt's president in Addis Ababa in 1995, there is no evidence that the first faction which subscribes to el-Banna's doctrine of accession to power by non-violent means has become the only faction within the Society. Some might argue that this view confuses the Muslim Brothers with other movements, such as the Jama'at Islamiya, Jihad or the Jama'at Takfireya. But, as is known to all other students of political Islam in Egypt, the "kitchen" of the Muslim Brothers is the source of all other trends of political Islam.
Their literature (whether peaceful, like the works of el-Banna, or militant like those of Sayed Qutb) are the reference works for all the Egyptian trends of political Islam – indeed, for all trends of political Islam in the world.
Take, for example, the literature of the Wahhabi ideology, which is simplistic and shallow -- its driving force the momentum of petrodollars. It does not rise to the level of the literature of such masters as Hassan el-Banna or Sayed Qutb, a far deeper thinker than the man who inspired him, Abul'Ala el-Mawdoody.
Although all the illegal measures taken by the Egyptian authorities against the Muslim Brothers from 1948 up to the present day are truly deplorable, at the same time, what proof do we have that the faction of Hassan el-Banna, who advocated accession to power by peaceful means, is today the only faction within the Society of the Muslim Brothers?
And what proof is there that the faction which opted for forceful reform, through the use of violence and bloodshed, has disappeared?
Or, for that matter, what proof is there that the accession to power of the peaceful faction of the Muslim Brotherhood will not be followed by a takeover by the non-peaceful faction, which will refuse to step down, as Hamas has done in Gaza, on the pretext that only they are qualified to apply God's law?
Related Topics:  Egypt  |  Tarek Heggy

Mr. Blowback Rising

by Pepe Escobar  •  Jul 24, 2012 at 7:45 am
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Typhoon Vicente struck Hong Kong big time on Monday night. I decided to heed the Bat-signal. When I came out of the multiplex all windy, rainy hell was breaking loose. Deserted streets. No taxis. So I walked back home, soaking wet, musing on The Dark Knight Rises. Fascinating how the plot may be read as a criminalization of Occupy Wall Street – reduced to a bunch of weaponized anarchists. Fascinating how a nuclear bomb explodes outside Manhattan and there's no radiation.
Most of all I was intrigued by Bane – the Hannibal Lecter cum Darth Vader bad guy. He was designed as a cartoonish personification of ultimate evil – complete with unintelligible dialogue delivered under a mask/voice box/painkiller set up. He may have been the only living creature who escaped a pit from hell – like a Poe nightmare set in the desert. Later in life he becomes the ultimate populist terrorist.
And then the typhoon enlightened me. He's not just Bane; he's Blowback. The pit where he escaped from is set in what could be the outskirts of an Iraqi or Syrian village in the hinterland. He runs his own militia. He's in bed with bankers. His allure is so powerful that he attracts PhD copycats such as the Colorado Batman shooter. And he inflicts a terrible ordeal on New York – sorry, Gotham – worse than 9/11.
There is a Bane, or a wealth of Banes, lurking over there, around that line in the sand that divided the Middle East almost a century ago between two colonial powers. Once again, in Syria, "we" are in bed with Salafi-jihadists. Yet in pure Jim Morrison style in L.A.Woman, we should be singing Mr. Blowback riiisin'…
As Hong Kong survived Typhoon Vicente with barely a scratch, I sat down, deep into the night, and wrote this story.
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