[MEMRI] – In an article posted November 24, 2014 on the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) website, columnist Hilmi Al-Qa’oud, who is a lecturer at Egypt’s Tanta University, praised the notion of the Islamic caliphate, and criticized the Arab regimes, especially the Egyptian regime, for “demonizing” this notion since the Islamic State’s (ISIS’s) declaration of a caliphate in June 2014. He accused the regimes of waging a campaign, by means of their clerics and educators, to present the caliphate as a sin and as the embodiment of murderousness, tyranny and backwardness, and said that the goal of this campaign is to serve the West and the Jews by keeping the Muslims weak and divided.

Al-Qa’oud argued that the West has a kind of caliphate – the “imperialist Crusader” European Union – but nobody condemns or disparages it, and added that most Muslims yearn for the establishment of a large-scale caliphate of their own that would defend them against the “Crusader-Jewish conspiracy.” He mourned the fact that it is currently impossible to establish such a caliphate, due to the opposition of the regimes. He refrained from condemning ISIS itself, saying that, according to some reports, it promotes social justice and people welcome it.

It should be noted that the MB has so far refrained from taking an official position on ISIS, but has come out firmly against the international coalition that has been formed to fight this organization. In a statement it issued, the MB said that the term “war on terror” is a cover for a war against Islam and the Muslims, and that the only terror that needs fighting in Egypt is the terror of the Al-Sisi regime against the MB. [1] An article on the MB website stated that the real goal of the international coalition is a new imperialistic takeover and the division of the entire region, so that no country in it would retain its territorial integrity, except the “Zionist entity.” [2]

It should be noted further that some reports in the Egyptian media spoke of an affiliation between the MB and ISIS, including a report that MB supporters waved ISIS flags at a November 21, 2014 MB demonstration against the regime.[3] Furthermore, the Egyptian regime associates the MB with the Sinai-based terrorist organization Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis, which recently joined ISIS.[4]

The following are excerpts from Al-Qa’oud’s article.[5]

The Caliphate Is Not A Sinful Notion

“The term ‘Islamic caliphate’ is anathema to the elite loyal to tyrannical rulers and oppressive governments throughout the Islamic world. These governments sternly demand that their media, education, and cultural apparatuses… demonize the Islamic caliphate, discredit it, slander it, and publicize fatwas by the ‘shoes of tyranny’ [i.e., the regime clerics] banning [the establishment of a caliphate] and claiming that the caliphate is a grave sin and a synonym for murder, tyranny, and backwardness

“In the past few months alone, the culture facilities of the coup [The Al-Sisi regime in Egypt] published two books maligning the caliphate, based on left wing and liberal demagoguery…

The enemies of Islam from among the communists, liberals, and the servants of the West and the Jews rely on deception, forgery, and misdirection to undermine the Islamic perceptions that the [Islamic] ummah agrees upon unanimously. They often rely on a book attributed to [the late Al-Azhar scholar and jurist] ‘Ali ‘Abd Al-Raziq, [titled] Islam and the Foundations of Governance– whose author has renounced it and has refused to issue new editions of it – in order to demonstrate that an Al-Azhar cleric opposes the existence of a caliphate in Islam and that the caliphate is not one of the percepts of Islam.”

“In the media arena, [these enemies of Islam] do not stop hollering that the caliphate is a myth and an emblem of tyranny, oppression and backwardness, confusing the [behavior of individual] caliphs with [the values of] Islam, and repeating claims made by orientalists steeped with hatred for Islam.

“[Egypt’s] murderous fascist coup [regime], in its war against Islam, is bent on severing Muslims from what anchors them to their past and consolidates their future, their unity and their power. This, because the larger concern [of this regime] is to satisfy the desires of the imperialist West and of the invading Jews, which support it and stand beside it.

Most Muslims Yearn For Unity; The Arab Regimes, Who Sever The Crusaders And Jews, Oppose This

“According to historical reasoning and contemporary reasoning [as well], the caliphate means gathering under a single flag [in order to] achieve economic, political and military integration. The Crusader West, after it discarded the barbaric [hostility] among its nations, managed to formulate mechanisms for achieving understanding and peace among them, [and to achieve] scientific, social and industrial progress, and vibrant activity among the seaports, airports and borders [of the various states]. The imperialist Crusader West began working towards the establishment of a European caliphate about ten years after the establishment of the Arab League. It achieved economic unity by means of the common market, and established the so-called European Union towards the end of the 20^th [century]. This union includes almost all the countries of Europe, with the exception of Turkey, Kosovo and a few others. It has a joint parliament and a joint commission, or government, headed by Catherine Ashton, who supported the murderous fascist military coup in Egypt and tried to convince the legitimate president, Muhammad Morsi, to sign away his legitimate [right to] rule.

“The European caliphate is now a fact, and nobody condemns it, disparages it or spreads lies about it, as the servant of the West and the Jews in our country is doing [against the Islamic caliphate]. I believe that most Muslims and Egyptians yearn for the formation of a large Islamic caliphate modeled on the current European one, in order to achieve integration and to protect them against the unending Crusader-Jewish conspiracy, which is waging deadly and destructive wars on them that crush millions of Muslims and leave millions of others wounded, widowed or orphaned, not to mention the financial and moral damage [they cause].

“Obviously, the present circumstances do not allow the [re]establishment of the Islamic caliphate, which was toppled by the Crusaders and Jews in 1924, causing its countries to divide, disintegrate and crumble, to the extent that the Muslim [world] became a [playing] field for [other] nations, and most of its countries were headed by ruthless tyrants… who received endless support from the Crusaders and Jews. In fact, [the Crusaders and Jews] encourage them to continue their barbarity and tyranny until they fragment their countries into tiny cantons that fight and despise one another. Most Muslims, from the Philippines to Tangier [in Morocco], believe in Islamic unity, and their souls unite [in times of] pain or hope. But most of their leaders are not interested in this unity, out of obedience to their Crusader and Jewish masters who control their abilities and lead them down a regrettable path, far from Islam and its morals, values and perceptions.

“The Islamic caliphate became a topic of heated debate recently, after the Islamic State organization, ISIS, managed to take over large areas in Syria and Iraq, declared the establishment of a caliphate, and confronted attacks by the Crusader coalition and its Arab supporters. The world knows little about this organization, its character and its essence, [for] it relies only on what is published by the Crusaders and Jews and their Arab supporters, which is obviously a bad thing. What is published by some news websites indicates that this organization strives to foster social justice among its subjects, that people are pleased with it, because it has defended them against the murderous Shi’ite and Iraqi militias and against the thugs of the murderous tyrant Bashar Al-Assad, and that [the people] support it and assist it in its war against the Crusaders and the local tyrants.

“The caliphate is a beautiful notion that for 14 centuries protected the Muslims against the cruelty of Crusader barbarism. Would that this notion rematerialize [in the form of] a cleverly-[administered] caliphate.”

http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8317.htm

Endnotes:

[1] Ikhwanonline.com, September 16, 2014.

[2] Ikhwanonline.com, September 15, 2014.

[3] These protests were held ahead of larger demonstrations planned by the Salafi Front for November 28, under the title “Islamic Revolution” or ” The Muslim Youth Revolution”,  in which the Front intends to call for toppling  the regime. Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), November 22, 2014.

[4] See MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1128: “Changing Dynamics In The Global Jihad Movement: Egyptian Group Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis Leaves Al-Qaeda, Joins Islamic State,”  November 3, 2014.

[5] Ikhwanonline.com, November 24, 2014.