A senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood has come out strongly in support of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and has praised the Islamic Republic for its efforts to promote “unity and solidarity” in the Muslim world.
The regime’s semi-official FARS propaganda agency reports on the statement of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood senior figure Kamal al-Halbavi at a February 27 conference in Tehran on “Islamic Awakening in Arab World.”
“Given the recent developments in the region, we need unity among the Muslim countries and Iran can play an important role in this regard,” FARS quotes Halbavi as saying.
According to FARS, “He [Halbavi] also called Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad his favorite leaders in the world, and said, ‘He is the bravest man in the Muslim world and we (in Egypt) need innocent, honest and brave leaders like him.‘”
The Muslim Brotherhood is trying to portray itself as a “moderate” alternative to Islamist extremism, and has been working to build support in Western democracies. At the same time Halbavi was in Tehran praising Ahmadinejad, the Muslim Brotherhood has been scrubbing its English-language website of extremist statements, including its own bylaws.
As a recent Team B II report on shariah observes, the Muslim Brotherhood shares the same strategic vision as Al Qaeda, which is to force all of humanity to submit to shariah law. The main difference between the organizations is that the Muslim Brotherhood generally but not always works within established systems to infiltrate their institutions, and Al Qaeda prefers to wage extremely violent terrorist attacks.
