The Muslim Brotherhood “Project” by Patrick Poole

Originally published by FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, May 11, 2006

Part 1

One might be led to think that if international law enforcement authorities and Western intelligence agencies had discovered a twenty-year old document revealing a top-secret plan developed by the oldest Islamist organization with one of the most extensive terror networks in the world to launch a program of “cultural invasion” and eventual conquest of the West that virtually mirrors the tactics used by Islamists for more than two decades, that such news would scream from headlines published on the front pages and above the fold of the New York Times, Washington Post, London Times, Le Monde, Bild, and La Repubblica.
If that’s what you might think, you would be wrong.
In fact, such a document was recovered in a raid by Swiss authorities in November 2001, two months after the horror of 9/11. Since that time information about this document, known in counterterrorism circles as “The Project”, and discussion regarding its content has been limited to the top-secret world of Western intelligence communities. Only through the work of an intrepid Swiss journalist, Sylvain Besson of Le Temps, and his book published in October 2005 in France, La conquête de l’Occident: Le projet secret des Islamistes (The Conquest of the West: The Islamists’ Secret Project), has information regarding The Project finally been made public. One Western official cited by Besson has described The Project as “a totalitarian ideology of infiltration which represents, in the end, the greatest danger for European societies.”
What Western intelligence authorities know about The Project begins with the raid of a luxurious villa in Campione, Switzerland on November 7, 2001. The target of the raid was Youssef Nada, director of the Al-Taqwa Bank of Lugano, who has had active association with the Muslim Brotherhood for more than 50 years and who admitted to being one of the organization’s international leaders. The Muslim Brotherhood, regarded as the oldest and one of the most important Islamist movements in the world, was founded by Hasan al-Banna in 1928 and dedicated to the credo, “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
The raid was conducted by Swiss law enforcement at the request of the White House in the initial crackdown on terrorist finances in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. US and Swiss investigators had been looking at Al-Taqwa’s involvement in money laundering and funding a wide range of Islamic terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, HAMAS (the Palestinian affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood), the Algerian GIA, and the Tunisian Ennahdah.
Included in the documents seized during the raid of Nada’s Swiss villa was a 14-page plan written in Arabic and dated December 1, 1982, which outlines a 12-point strategy to “establish an Islamic government on earth” – identified as The Project. According to testimony given to Swiss authorities by Nada, the unsigned document was prepared by “Islamic researchers” associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
What makes The Project so different from the standard “Death of America! Death to Israel!” and “Establish the global caliphate!” Islamist rhetoric is that it represents a flexible, multi-phased, long-term approach to the “cultural invasion” of the West. Calling for the utilization of various tactics, ranging from immigration, infiltration, surveillance, propaganda, protest, deception, political legitimacy and terrorism, The Project has served for more than two decades as the Muslim Brotherhood “master plan”. As can be seen in a number of examples throughout Europe – including the political recognition of parallel Islamist government organizations in Sweden, the recent “cartoon” jihad in Denmark, the Parisian car-burning intifada last November, and the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London – the plan outlined in The Project has been overwhelmingly successful.
Rather than focusing on terrorism as the sole method of group action, as is the case with Al-Qaeda, in perfect postmodern fashion the use of terror falls into a multiplicity of options available to progressively infiltrate, confront, and eventually establish Islamic domination over the West. The following tactics and techniques are among the many recommendations made in The Project:
Networking and coordinating actions between likeminded Islamist organizations;
Avoiding open alliances with known terrorist organizations and individuals to maintain the appearance of “moderation”;
Infiltrating and taking over existing Muslim organizations to realign them towards the Muslim Brotherhood’s collective goals;
Using deception to mask the intended goals of Islamist actions, as long as it doesn’t conflict with shari’a law;
Avoiding social conflicts with Westerners locally, nationally or globally, that might damage the long-term ability to expand the Islamist powerbase in the West or provoke a lash back against Muslims;
Establishing financial networks to fund the work of conversion of the West, including the support of full-time administrators and workers;
Conducting surveillance, obtaining data, and establishing collection and data storage capabilities;
Putting into place a watchdog system for monitoring Western media to warn Muslims of “international plots fomented against them”;
Cultivating an Islamist intellectual community, including the establishment of think-tanks and advocacy groups, and publishing “academic” studies, to legitimize Islamist positions and to chronicle the history of Islamist movements;
Developing a comprehensive 100-year plan to advance Islamist ideology throughout the world;
Balancing international objectives with local flexibility;
Building extensive social networks of schools, hospitals and charitable organizations dedicated to Islamist ideals so that contact with the movement for Muslims in the West is constant;
Involving ideologically committed Muslims in democratically-elected institutions on all levels in the West, including government, NGOs, private organizations and labor unions;
Instrumentally using existing Western institutions until they can be converted and put into service of Islam;
Drafting Islamic constitutions, laws and policies for eventual implementation;
Avoiding conflict within the Islamist movements on all levels, including the development of processes for conflict resolution;
Instituting alliances with Western “progressive” organizations that share similar goals;
Creating autonomous “security forces” to protect Muslims in the West;
Inflaming violence and keeping Muslims living in the West “in a jihad frame of mind”;
Supporting jihad movements across the Muslim world through preaching, propaganda, personnel, funding, and technical and operational support;
Making the Palestinian cause a global wedge issue for Muslims;
Adopting the total liberation of Palestine from Israel and the creation of an Islamic state as a keystone in the plan for global Islamic domination;
Instigating a constant campaign to incite hatred by Muslims against Jews and rejecting any discussions of conciliation or coexistence with them;
Actively creating jihad terror cells within Palestine;
Linking the terrorist activities in Palestine with the global terror movement;
Collecting sufficient funds to indefinitely perpetuate and support jihad around the world;
In reading The Project, it should be kept in mind that it was drafted in 1982 when current tensions and terrorist activities in the Middle East were still very nascent. In many respects, The Project is extremely prescient for outlining the bulk of Islamist action, whether by “moderate” Islamist organizations or outright terror groups, over the past two decades.
At present, most of what is publicly known about The Project is the result of Sylvain Besson’s investigative work, including his book and a related article published last October in the Swiss daily, Le Temps, L’islamisme à la conquête du monde (Islamism and the Conquest of the World), profiling his book, which is only available in a French-language edition. At least one Egyptian newspaper, Al-Mussawar, published the entire Arabic text of The Project last November.
In the English-language press, the attention paid to Besson’s revelation of The Project has been almost non-existent. The only mention found in a mainstream media publication in the US has been as a secondary item in an article in the Weekly Standard (February 20, 2006) by Olivier Guitta, The Cartoon Jihad. The most extensive commentary on The Project has been by an American researcher and journalist living in London, Scott Burgess, who has posted his analysis of the document on his blog, The Daily Ablution.
The lack of public discussion about The Project notwithstanding, the document and the plan it outlines has been the subject of considerable discussion amongst the Western intelligence agencies. One US counterterrorism official who spoke with Besson about The Project, and who is cited in Guitta’s Weekly Standard article, is current White House terrorism czar, Juan Zarate. Calling The Project a Muslim Brotherhood master plan for “spreading their political ideology,” Zarate expressed concerns to Besson because “the Muslim Brotherhood is a group that worries us not because it deals with philosophical or ideological ideas but because it defends the use of violence against civilians.”
One renowned international scholar of Islamist movements who also spoke with Besson, Reuven Paz, talked about The Project in its historical context:
The Project was part of the charter of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was official established on July 29, 1982. It reflects a vast plan which was revived in the 1960s, with the immigration of Brotherhood intellectuals, principally Syrian and Egyptians, into Europe.
As Paz notes, The Project was drafted by the Muslim Brotherhood as part of its re-chartering process in 1982, a time that marks an upswing in its organizational expansion internationally, as well as a turning point in the alternating periods of repression and toleration by the Egyptian government. In 1952, the organization played a critical support role to the Free Officers Movement led by Gamal Abdul Nasser, which overthrew King Faruq, but quickly fell out of favor with the new revolutionary regime because of Nasser’s refusal to follow the Muslim Brotherhood’s call to institute an ideologically committed Islamic state. At various times since the July Revolution in 1952, the Brotherhood has regularly been banned and its leaders killed and imprisoned by Egyptian authorities.
Since it was rechartered in 1982, the Muslim Brotherhood has spread its network across the Middle East, Europe, and even America. At home in Egypt, parliamentary elections in 2005 saw the Muslim Brotherhood winning 20 percent of the available legislative seats, comprising the largest opposition party block. Its Palestinian affiliate, known to the world as HAMAS, recently gained control of the Palestinian Authority after elections secured for them 74 of 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Its Syrian branch has historically been the largest organized group opposing the Assad regime, and the organization also has affiliates in Jordan, Sudan, and Iraq. In the US, the Muslim Brotherhood is primarily represented by the Muslim American Society (MAS).
Since its formation, the Muslim Brotherhood has advocated the use of terrorism as a means of advancing its agenda of global Islamic domination. But as the largest popular radical movement in the Islamic world, it has attracted many leading Islamist intellectuals. Included among this group of Muslim Brotherhood intellectuals is Youssef Qaradawi, an Egyptian-born, Qatar-based Islamist cleric.
As one of the leading Muslim Brotherhood spiritual figures and radical Islamic preachers (who has his own weekly program on Al-Jazeera), Qaradawi has been one of the leading apologists of suicide bombings in Israel and terrorism against Western interests in the Middle East. Both Sylvain Besson and Scott Burgess provide extensive comparisons between Qaradawi’s publication, Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase, published in 1990, and The Project, which predates Qaradawi’s Priorities by eight years.
They note the striking similarities in the language used and the plans and methods both documents advocate. It is speculated that The Project was either used by Qaradawi as a template for his own work, or that he had a hand in its drafting in 1982. Perhaps coincidentally, Qaradawi was the fourth largest shareholder in the Al-Taqwa Bank of Lugano, the director of which, Youssef Nada, was the individual in whose possession The Project was found. Since 1999, Qaradawi has been banned from entering the US as a result of his connections to terrorist organizations and his outspoken advocacy of terrorism.
For those who have read The Project, what is most troubling is not that Islamists have developed a plan for global dominance; it has been assumed by experts that Islamist organizations and terrorist groups have been operating off an agreed-upon set of general principles, networks and methodology. What is startling is how effectively the Islamist plan for conquest outlined in The Project has been implemented by Muslims in the West for more than two decades.
Equally troubling is the ideology that lies behind the plan: inciting hatred and violence against Jewish populations around the world; the deliberate co-opting and subversion of Western public and private institutions; its recommendation of a policy of deliberate escalating confrontation by Muslims living in the West against their neighbors and fellow-citizens; the acceptance of terrorism as a legitimate option for achieving their ends and the inevitable reality of jihad against non-Muslims; and its ultimate goal of forcibly instituting the Islamic rule of the caliphate by shari’a in the West, and eventually the whole world.
If the experience over the past quarter of a century seen in Europe and the US is any indication, the “Islamic researchers” who drafted The Project more than two decades ago must be pleased to see their long-term plan to conquer the West and to see the Green flag of Islam raised over its citizens realized so rapidly, efficiently and completely. If Islamists are equally successful in the years to come, Westerners ought to enjoy their personal and political freedoms while they last.
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Part 2
Towards a worldwide strategy for Islamic policy
(Points of Departure, Elements, Procedures and Missions)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent and Merciful
S/5/100 report
1/12/1982 [December 1, 1982]
This report presents a global vision of a worldwide strategy for Islamic policy [or "political Islam"]. Local Islamic policies will be drawn up in the different regions in accordance with its guidelines. It acts, first of all, to define the points of departure of that policy, then to set up the components and the most important procedures linked to each point of departure; finally we suggest several missions, by way of example only, may Allah protect us.
The following are the principal points of departure of this policy:
Point of Departure 1: To know the terrain and adopt a scientific methodology for its planning and execution.
Point of Departure 2: To demonstrate proof of the serious nature of the work.
Point of Departure 3: To reconcile international engagement with flexibility at a local level.
Point of Departure 4: To reconcile political engagement and the necessity of avoiding isolation on one hand, with permanent education and institutional action on the other.
Point of Departure 5: To be used to establish an Islamic State; parallel, progressive efforts targeted at controlling the local centers of power through institutional action.
Point of Departure 6: To work with loyalty alongside Islamic groups and institutions in multiple areas to agree on common ground, in order to “cooperate on the points of agreement and set aside the points of disagreement”.
Point of Departure 7: To accept the principle of temporary cooperation between Islamic movements and nationalist movements in the broad sphere and on common ground such as the struggle against colonialism, preaching and the Jewish state, without however having to form alliances. This will require, on the other hand, limited contacts between certain leaders, on a case by case basis, as long as these contacts do not violate the [shari’a] law. Nevertheless, one must not give them allegiance or take them into confidence, bearing in mind that the Islamic movement must be the origin of the initiatives and orientations taken.
Point of Departure 8: To master the art of the possible on a temporary basis without abusing the basic principles, bearing in mind that Allah’s teachings always apply. One must order the suitable and forbid that which is not, always providing a documented opinion. But we should not look for confrontation with our adversaries, at the local or the global scale, which would be disproportionate and could lead to attacks against the dawa or its disciples.
Point of Departure 9: To construct a permanent force of the Islamic dawa and support movements engaged in jihad across the Muslim world, to varying degrees and insofar as possible.
Point of Departure 10: To use diverse and varied surveillance systems, in several places, to gather information and adopt a single effective warning system serving the worldwide Islamic movement. In fact, surveillance, policy decisions and effective communications complement each other.
Point of Departure 11: To adopt the Palestinian cause as part of a worldwide Islamic plan, with the policy plan and by means of jihad, since it acts as the keystone of the renaissance of the Arab world today.
Point of Departure 12: To know how to turn to self-criticism and permanent evaluation of worldwide Islamic policy and its objectives, of its content and its procedures, in order to improve it. This is a duty and a necessity according to the precepts of shari’a.
THE FIRST POINT OF DEPARTURE:
Know the terrain and adopt a scientific methodology for [The Project's] planning and execution.
a- Elements:
Know the influential factors in the world, whether they act as Islamic forces, adverse forces, or neutral forces.
Use the necessary scientific and technical means for planning, organization, execution and follow-up.
b- Procedures:
Create observation centers in order to gather and store information for all useful purposes, if need be relying on modern technological methods.
Create centers of study and research and produce studies on the political dimension of the Islamic movement.
c- Suggested missions:
Draw up a map of [religious and ideological] doctrines in the world to have a global vision from 100 years ago to our era, and analyze the current situation in light of that configuration, taking account of changes both happening and predicted.
Draw up a map of doctrines of the Muslim world.
Draw up a map of Islamic movements in the Muslim world.
Carry out successive political and scientific studies in varying Islamic areas, those which apply more particularly to current events.
Carry out a scientific study which addresses the history of contemporary Islamic movements, and use it.
THE SECOND POINT OF DEPARTURE
To demonstrate proof of the serious nature of the work.
a- Elements:
Clarity of the principal objectives of the dawa in the eyes of all, as well as clarity of the temporary objectives, necessitates exploitation, channeling and orientation of the energies.
Devote sufficient effort to the service of the workers [for Allah] and coordinate their efforts to the sole and same objective.
Devote sufficient time.
Spend money to the extent possible.
b-Procedures:
Exploit all the energies of the workers to the service of the dawa, each at his level (the criterion of efficiency, given that each must be devoted to the task to which he’s assigned).
Mobilize the greatest possible number of supporters and officials.
Collect money efficiently, control expenses and invest in the general interest.
c- Suggested missions:
Carry out a survey of workers (appropriate men and appropriate location)
Establish schedules with the hours of workers and specialists and use their efforts with good judgment and on time (appropriate effort at the right time).
An engagement with economic institutions adequate to support the cause financially.
THE THIRD POINT OF DEPARTURE
Reconcile international engagement with flexibility at the local level.
a- Elements:
To define the guidelines that everyone [worldwide] must follow.
To leave a margin that provides sufficient flexibility at the local level for the issues that do not conflict with the general lines of the global Islamic policy.
b- Procedures:
The Movement, at a global level, will define the Islamic domain and issues in a general way which will require the engagement of all according to previously defined priorities.
The local leadership will define local issues that come within their prerogative, according to the principle of flexibility and according to previously defined priorities.
c- Suggested Missions
Worldwide Islamic engagement for a total liberation of Palestine and the creation of an Islamic state is the mission which falls to the global leadership.
To establish a dialogue at a local level with those who work for the cause according to the global political lines of the Movement. It is up to the local leadership to define the shape of that dialogue.
THE FOURTH POINT OF DEPARTURE
To reconcile political engagement with the necessity of avoiding isolation, on the one hand, with permanent education and institutional work on the other.
a- Elements
Liberty to function politically in each country according to local circumstances, without however participating in a process which makes a decision which would be contrary to the texts of Shari’a.
To invite everyone to take part in parliament, municipal councils, labor unions and other institutions of which the membership is chosen by the people in the interest of Islam and of Muslims.
To continue to educate individuals and generations and to guarantee the training of specialists in various areas according to a previously designed plan.
To construct social, economic, scientific and health institutions and penetrate the domain of the social services, in order to be in contact with the people and to serve them by means of Islamic institutions.
b- Procedures
To study the varied political environments and the probabilities of success in each country.
To plan specialized study missions which will concentrate on useful areas such as communications, the history of Islam, etc.
To conduct feasibility studies concerning various institutions and create them according to priorities established in each country.
c-Suggested Missions
To conduct studies relating to the experiences of political Islam and to draw lessons from them.
To give an Islamic policy perspective on the pressing questions of the day.
To keep questions of local importance such as issues concerning workers, unions, etc. within an Islamic framework.
To create a certain number of economic, social, health care and educational institutions, using available means, to serve the people within an Islamic framework.
THE FIFTH POINT OF DEPARTURE
To dedicate ourselves to the establishment of an Islamic state, in parallel with gradual efforts aimed at gaining control of local power centers through institutional action.
a- Elements
To channel thought, education and action in order to establish an Islamic power [government] on the earth.
To influence centers of power both local and worldwide to the service of Islam.
b- Procedures
To prepare a scientific study on the possibility of establishing the reign of God throughout the world according to established priorities.
To study the centers of power, both local and worldwide, and the possibilities of placing them under influence.
To conduct a modern study on the concept of support for the dawa and Islamic law, and more particularly on the men of influence in the State and the country.
c- Suggested Mission
To draw up an Islamic Constitution in light of efforts deployed up to now.
To draw up Islamic laws, civil laws, etc.
To work within various influential institutions and use them in the service of Islam.
To use the work of economic, social, and other specialized Islamic institutions.
THE SIXTH POINT OF DEPARTURE
To loyally work alongside Islamic groups and institutions in various areas and in agreement on a common ground in order to “cooperate on points of agreement and put aside points of disagreement”.
a- Elements
To coordinate the Islamic work in a single direction as will permit the laying of the foundations of the growth of Muslim society and dedication to the power of God on Earth.
For each to work according to his capacities in his chosen field and to master it, with loyalty and coordination of effort.
b- Procedures
To study the true nature of Islamic movements, to evaluate their experiences and draw up plans to initiate collaboration among them.
To avoid creating new Islamic movements in a country which already has one; there will be but one movement, serious and complete.
c- Suggested missions
To coordinate the efforts of all those working for Islam, in each country, and to establish good contact with them, whether they work in individuals or in groups.
To reduce the differences that exists between workers for Islam and to resolve their conflicts according to shari’a.
THE SEVENTH POINT OF DEPARTURE
To accept the principle of temporary cooperation between Islamic movements and nationalist movements in the broad sphere and on common ground such as the struggle against colonialism, preaching and the Jewish state, without however having to form alliances. This will require, on the other hand, limited contacts between certain leaders, on a case by case basis, as long as these contacts do not violate the [shari’a] law. Nevertheless, one must not give them allegiance or take them into confidence, bearing in mind that the Islamic movement must be the origin of the initiatives and orientations taken.
a-Elements:
To combine all efforts against the supreme forces of evil in accordance with the principle that one must “battle one evil with a lesser evil”.
To limit the collaboration to the leadership or to a limited number of individuals in order to maximize the benefit and minimize the possible drawbacks.
To work from perspective of the objectives previously defined for the dawa.
b-Procedures:
To make a study to evaluate the areas with the object of mutual assistance between Islamic and other movements and draw lessons from it.
To study the areas which allow cooperation, and define the boundaries.
To study the philosophy and plans of other movements.
c- Suggested Missions:
Each country should study the possibility, in the future, of strengthening internal collaboration.
THE EIGHTH POINT OF DEPARTURE
To master the art of the possible on a temporary basis without abusing the basic principles, bearing in mind that Allah’s teachings always apply. One must order the suitable and forbid that which is not, always giving a documented opinion [according to shari’a]. But we should not look for confrontation with our adversaries, at the local or the global scale, which would be disproportionate and could lead to attacks against the dawa or its disciples.
a- Elements:
To evaluate the education of individuals and not to excessively use typical modern education that does not correspond to reality, which is devoid of flexibility and could have grave consequences such as the conflict between individuals for a simple comment or a simple failure.
To give a documented and scientific view, in the form of speeches, communiqués and books, that bears on events important to the Ummah.
To avoid the Movement hurting itself with major confrontations, which could encourage its adversaries to give it a fatal blow.
b-Procedures:
To carry out a study to evaluate the experiences of Islamist movements in order to avoid their fatal errors.
To develop educational methods that are at the same time exemplary, realistic and true to our principles, in order to bestow a flexibility sufficient to permit the facing of reality.
c-Suggested Missions:
To develop initiation programs for the faithful and proceed with sensitivity to the foundation of past experience.
To prepare individuals according to modern educational methods.
THE NINTH POINT OF DEPARTURE
To construct a permanent force of the Islamic dawa and support movements engaged in jihad across the Muslim world, to varying degrees and insofar as possible.
a-Elements:
To protect the dawa with the force necessary to guarantee its security at the local and international levels.
To make contact with all new movements engaged in jihad, everywhere on the planet, and with Muslim minorities, and to create links as needed to establish and support collaboration.
To maintain jihad and awakening throughout the Ummah.
b-Procedures:
To form an autonomous security force to protect the dawa and its disciples locally and worldwide.
To study movements engaged in jihad in the Muslim world, as well as among Muslim minorities, to better understand them.
c-Suggested Missions:
To build bridges between movements engaged in jihad in the Muslim world, and between Muslim minorities, and to support them insofar as possible within a framework of collaboration.
THE TENTH POINT OF DEPARTURE
To use diverse and varied surveillance systems, in several places, to gather information and adopt a single effective warning system serving the worldwide Islamic movement. In fact, surveillance, policy decisions and effective communications complement each other.
a-Elements:
To make the policy decisions to collect important and precise information.
To diffuse Islamic policy so that it is largely and efficiently covered by the media.
b-Procedures:
To create a modern surveillance system by means of advanced technology (possibly created at the research centers mentioned earlier).
To create an effective and serious media centre.
c- Suggested Missions:
To warn Muslims of the dangers that threaten them and the international conspiracies directed at them.
To give our views on current events and future issues.
THE ELEVENTH POINT OF DEPARTURE
To adopt the Palestinian cause as part of a worldwide Islamic plan, with the policy plan and by means of jihad, since it acts as the keystone of the renaissance of the Arab world today.
a-Elements:
To provide an Islamic view on all areas, problems and solutions relative to the Palestinian question, based on the precepts of Islam.
To prepare the community of believers for jihad for the liberation of Palestine. [One can lead the Ummah to realize the plans of the Islamic movement above all if victory is ours], if God wills it.
To create a modest nucleus of jihad in Palestine, and to nourish it in order to maintain the flame that will light the road toward the liberation of Palestine, and in order that the Palestinian cause will endure until the moment of liberation.
b-Procedures:
To collect sufficient funds for the perpetuation of jihad.
To conduct a study of the situation of Muslims and the enemy in occupied Palestine.
c-Suggested Missions:
To conduct studies on the Jews, enemies of Muslims, and on the oppression inflicted by these enemies on our brothers in occupied Palestine, in addition to preaching and publications.
To fight against the sentiment of capitulation among the Ummah, to refuse defeatist solutions, and to show that conciliation with the Jews will undermine our Movement and its history.
To conduct comparative studies on the Crusades and Israel, and [the victory that will be that of Islam].
To create jihadi cells in Palestine, and support them in order that they cover all of occupied Palestine.
To create a link between the moujahadin in Palestine and those throughout the Islamic world.
To nourish a sentiment of rancor with respect to the Jews and refuse all coexistence.
THE TWELFTH  POINT OF DEPARTURE
To know how to turn to self-criticism and permanent evaluation of worldwide Islamic policy and its objectives, of its content and its procedures in order to improve it. This is a duty and a necessity according to the precepts of shari’a.
a-Elements:
To conduct constructive self-criticism, in order to avoid pitfalls.
To proceed with constant evaluation, on a scientific basis, to permit the further construction of policies.
To improve Islamic policies and to take profit from past experiences must be a clear and essential objective.
b-Procedures:
To evaluate current practices and profit from past experience.
To ask officials in the various countries to give their views on direction, methods and results.
c-Suggested Missions:
To produce an official document on global Islamic policy.
To make the countries, the officials and the people aware of that policy.
To begin to apply the policy, to evaluate it annually and to improve it if need be.

Suspect admits killing US airmen at German airport influenced by radical Islamic propaganda online.

Suspect admits killing US airmen at German airport

By DAVID McHUGH, Associated Press – 13 hours ago

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A Kosovo Albanian man confessed Wednesday to killing two U.S. airmen at the Frankfurt airport, saying in emotional testimony at the opening of his trial that he had been influenced by radical Islamic propaganda online.
Arid Uka is charged with two counts of murder for the March 2 slaying of Senior Airman Nicholas J. Alden, 25, from South Carolina, and Airman 1st Class Zachary R. Cuddeback, 21, from Virginia.
The 21-year-old Uka also faces three counts of attempted murder for wounding two more airmen and taking aim at a third before his gun jammed.
Although Germany has experienced scores of terrorist attacks in past decades, largely from leftist groups like the Red Army Faction, the airport attack was the first attributed to an Islamic extremist.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, there have been about a half-dozen other jihadist plots that were either thwarted or failed — including a 2007 plan to kill Americans at the U.S. Air Force's Ramstein Air Base.
Uka went to the airport with the intent "to kill an indeterminate number of American soldiers, but if possible a large number," prosecutor Herbert Diemer told a state court in Frankfurt.
No pleas are entered in the German system, and Uka confessed to the killings after the indictment was read, telling the court "what I did was wrong but I cannot undo what I did." He went on to urge other radical Muslims not to seek inspiration in his attack, urging them not to be taken in by "lying propaganda" on the Internet.
Uka, dressed in jeans, sneakers and a crisp white shirt with rolled-up sleeves, smiled at his attorneys as he was brought in and his handcuffs were removed. But he wept repeatedly as he recounted the attack and watched the jihadist videos he said motivated him.
"To this day I try to understand what happened and why I did it... but I don't understand," he said, at times speaking so softly that court officials had to bring in a microphone and put it directly in front of him.
Cooperating with authorities and confessing can help reduce a defendant's sentence — but Uka refused to tell the court where he obtained the 9mm semi-automatic pistol he used, which Presiding Judge Thomas Sagebiel said meant his confession was incomplete.
Uka described becoming increasingly introverted in the months before the attack, staying at home and playing computer games and watching Islamic extremist propaganda on the Internet.
The night before the crime, Uka said, he followed a link to a video posted on Facebook that purported to show American soldiers raping a teenage Muslim girl. It turned out to be a scene from the 2007 anti-war Brian De Palma film "Redacted," taken out of context.
He said he then decided he should do anything possible to prevent more American soldiers from going to Afghanistan.
"I thought what I saw in that video, these people would do in Afghanistan," he told the court, his voice choking with emotion as he wiped away tears.
Uka conceded when asked by prosecutor Jochen Weingarten that the airman driving the bus had not been going to Afghanistan. On the bus on the way to the airport to look for victims, he said he listened to Islamic music on his iPod while nursing doubts that he'd be able to follow through with his plan.
"On the one hand I wanted to do something to help the women, and on the other hand I hoped I would not see any soldiers," he told the court.
He says he now does not understand why he went through with the killings.
"If you ask me why I did this, I can only say ... I don't understand anymore how I went that far."
Prosecutors introduced evidence from Uka's laptop, cell phone and iPod, which included hundreds of files containing jihadist videos, literature, sermons and songs.
One song went, "Mother be strong, your son is on jihad," and "do not mourn for me." A video showed rifle-toting Islamic fighters in Pakistan, and a bullet-holed target with "Obama" scrawled on it.
The indictment says Uka went to the airport armed with a pistol, extra ammunition and two knives. Inside Terminal 2, he spotted two U.S. servicemen who had just arrived and followed them to their U.S. Air Force bus.
After 16 servicemen, including the driver, were on or near the bus, Uka approached one of the men for a cigarette, prosecutors said. He confirmed they were U.S. Air Force members en route to Afghanistan, then "turned around, put the magazine that had been concealed in his backpack into his pistol, and cocked the weapon," the indictment said.
He first shot unarmed Alden in the back of the head, the indictment alleged. He then boarded the vehicle shouting "Allahu Akbar" — Arabic for "God is great" — and shot and killed Cuddeback, who was the driver, before firing at others.
He seriously wounded two other airmen — Kristoffer Schneider, 26, lost the sight in his right eye, and Edgar Veguilla, 22, was hit in the jaw and elbow.
Then Uka's pistol jammed and he fled into the airport, where he was chased down by police, prosecutors said.
Some of the American airmen are expected to testify. At least one relative of the victims — Cuddeback's mother — has joined the trial as a co-plaintiff, and officials from the State Department and Air Force are observing the trial.

Sweden is going next will be the USA Tolerant Islam want to Kill everyone Jews first!

Sweden Muslims got rid of the Jews now they are going after everyone else. So you tree loving Liberals do you dare venture out in the No Go Zones? The Muslim Zones or are you shaking in your pants wishing you listened to everyone who told you so.

Aug 3, 2009

Don't ask Malmö's Jews to give the city the same glowing assessment. Jews who dare walk the streets wearing their yarmulkes risk being beaten up.

"It's true. Jews cannot walk the streets of Malmö and show that they're Jews," said Lars Hedegaard.

Hedegaard lives across the water from Malmö in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he was a columnist for one of Denmark's largest newspapers. He says pro-Israel demonstrations in Malmö, like the ones during the fighting
in Gaza earlier this year, were met with rocks, bottles and pipe bombs from Arabs and Leftists.

"I was there for demonstration; a pro-Israeli demonstration with about 400 or 500 people," Hedegaard told CBN News. "Jews and non-Jews, and I came over to cover it.

The police allowed, I'd say a hundred Palestinians or Arabs to shout and threaten and throw bombs and rockets at us. A homemade bomb landed about ten yards from me, and went off with a big bang. And now of course, I thought the police were going to jump these guys, get them out of the way. They didn't. They just let them stand there."

Swede Ted Ekeroth helped film the Arab-Left counter-demonstrations. He saw Arabs throwing rocks at a 90-year-old holocaust survivor.

"I filmed the police chief and asked him why are they not reacting to this," Ekeroth said. "Why are they not doing anything? And he simply answered, 'It's their right according to the Swedish constitution.' We apparently did not have the same right, because we were forced out of there. Our manifestation for Israel is always peaceful, and theirs is always the quite opposite -- Death, hate and killing of Jews. They come and they shout different slogans," he continued. "It can be everything from Arabic slogans inciting killing of Jews to in Swedish and Danish, 'Kill the Jews.'

Political Alliance Against Israel

And like all over the Western world, some on the Left, along with Arabs and Muslims and anarchists, have formed a political alliance against Israel and Jews. They demonstrate together, and in Sweden, they vote together. Muslims are a core constituency of the Left.

The immigrant issue a big reason the right-wing Swedish Democrats are the fastest growing political party in the country.

Matthias Karlsson is the Swedish Democrats' Press Secretary

"In many parts of Sweden, people are, as I said, fed up," Karlsson said. "And they're being pushed too far and they want to make a stand."

Fascist and Bigoted?

Swedish Democrats, who stand for traditional Christian values and limits on immigration, have been stigmatized by the Swedish media as fascist and bigoted.

Erik Almqvuist is national youth leader for the Swedish Democrats.

"The media has tried to portray us as extremists, racists," he said. "People think we're almost inhuman"

Almqvuist faces regular death threats, and was almost killed recently in a Left-wing knife attack.

"The multicultural model in Sweden has polarized society," Almqvuist explained. "We have a political polarization. We have also an ethnic polarization. And the extremes are growing and it's harder and harder to get to consensus."
Hedegaard says as Malmö goes, so goes the rest of Sweden.

"I think the best prediction is that Sweden will have a Muslim majority by 2049, so we know where that country's going," he said.

CBN News was unable to get a response from Malmö's mayor, Ilmar Reepalu. But he told a Swedish publication that he does not think anti-Semitism is greater in Malmö than in other Swedish cities, and said that harassment of Jews is "not good."

CBN News also asked a number of Malmö Jewish leaders to appear on camera to discuss the climate of anti-Semitism. They all declined, with one saying it would only make the situation worse.

*Originally aired March 12, 2009.

Feb 13, 2010

Verkliga ansikte islam! From MEMRI: TV Report on Islam in Sweden | Al-Arabiya TV: Swedish Muslim Imam: If Muslims were to line the Jews up in one row and spit on them, they would drown! --- Swedish Translation: Om muslimer skulle linje judarna upp i en rad och spottar på dem, skulle de drunkna!

Feb 14, 2010

Newsreport from TV4 about the jews fleeing from muslim immigrants in Sweden

Jan 19, 2011 - Muslims in Sweden shooting rockets at passing cars like in Israel


Jun 14, 2011

The Islamic Republican Club?

August 17, 2011 | Filed under: Florida Review | Posted by: Javier Manjarres

by Javier Manjarres
Nezar Hamze, the Florida Director of the Center for Islamic American Relations (CAIR), has told the Shark Tank that he intends to join the local Broward Republican Executive Committee (BREC), and ask for a club charter to start the first ‘Islamic-Republican club’ in the county. Hamze said that he spoke to Broward GOP Chairman Richard DeNapoli about his intentions, and said that DeNapoli did not deny him the opportunity to start an Islamic-Republican club, let alone join the committee. Hamze is best known for his confrontation with Congressman Allen West earlier this year, where he attended a townhall meeting with a Koran in hand, to confront West.
Hamze considers himself as being ‘very conservative’, and believes his political views are in-line with the Republican party’s political platform. The local GOP Chairman ran for his current position on a ‘GOP Unity’ platform, and said he would work with ‘all’ Republicans in the county. The ‘big tent’ Broward Republican party already has a religion-based club/coalition, named the Broward Republican Jewish Outreach. So will there be an Broward Republican Islamic Outreach club in the near future?

Allen West Confronted by Koran-Wielding CAIR Executive(VIDEO)

February 21, 2011 | Filed under: Commentary | Posted by: Javier Manjarres

by Javier Manjarres
At a townhall meeting hosted by Congressman Allen West on Monday evening in Pompano Beach, the Q&A segment of the meeting featured a Koran wielding Nezar Hamze, Executive Director of the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR). Hamze confronted Congressman West and asked him to point out where in the Koran does it give marching orders to Muslims “to carry out attacks against Americans and innocent people”. West quickly pointed out that the Koran was written long before America even existed and that it does indeed tell believers to kill infidels, and then proceeded to chronicle a lengthy list of historical Muslim acts of aggression. Congressman West closed his retort by referencing the Fort Hood shootings and 9-11 attacks, saying that his first hand experiences on the battlefield has given him insight into the tactics that Islamists use before telling Hamze not to “try to blow sunshine up my butt” with his criticism of him. West took offense to Hamze’s amateurish criticism of his stance on radical Islam and concluded by telling Mr. Hamze to “put the microphone down and go home.”

here is your answer

CAIR’s South Florida Chapter Executive Director Goes on the Record

February 19, 2011 | Filed under: Florida Review | Posted by: Javier Manjarres

by Javier Manjarres
The Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) recently granted me an interview with Nezar Hamze, the South Florida Chapter’s Executive Director for the purpose of addressing misconceptions and dispelling all of the accusations that have been leveled against the organization. Hamze explained that CAIR has many independently run chapters across the country with its headquarters located in Washington D.C. Hamze also states that CAIR was established to protect the civil rights of Muslims and educate people about Islam.
Mr. Hamze says that both he and his organization repudiates any violence by terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah:.

Any organization, any person who take it upon themselves to take an innocent life, and an innocent life meaning someone standing on the side of the street, not doing anything and they get killed-that person has lost their path, that person has lost the straight way, and it is against Islam to take an innocent life… anybody that takes an innocent life, any organization, any government has lost their path, and we cannot be with them,we are not with them, as far as Islamically standing, we are not with them.”

Hamze insists that CAIR is not tied to the Muslim Brotherhood or any other Terrorist organization like Hamas, and he repudiates Hamas and its terrorist activities.

Hamas has made the decision, now, Hamas has been attacked, obviously, but Hamas has made the decision to take innocent lives and we cannot stand with them. Period, it’s very clear.

Mr. Hamze goes on to state that he supports the Palestinian people, and that Palestine also needs assistance and should become a state just as Israel is. Hamze supports Israel as a state, but believes that Palestine should be afforded the same opportunity for statehood that Israel has enjoyed. Hamze then explains some of the tenants of sharia, and he offered his insight into sharia in an effort to dispel the the growing criticism against sharia that is facing throughout the world.

Muslims wonder why so many muslims are on the NO-FLY list?

Posted: August 15, 2011 | Author: barenakedislam |

The calls have reached a point of repetitive regularity for muslim civil rights lawyer Gadeir Abbas: A young muslim-American, somewhere in the world, is barred from boarding an airplane. (And this is a bad thing, because why?)

The exact reasons are never fully articulated, but the reality is clear. The traveler has been placed on the government’s terror watchlist—or the more serious no-fly list—and clearing one’s name becomes a legal and bureaucratic nightmare.
On Monday Abbas sent letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and FBI Director Robert Mueller requesting assistance for his two most recent clients. One is a resident of Portland, Ore. who is trying to fly to Italy to live with his mother. The other, a teenager and U.S. citizen living in Jordan, has been unable to travel to Connecticut to lead prayers at a mosque.
“All American citizens have the unqualified right to reside in the United States,” Abbas wrote Monday in a letter to secretary of State Hillary Clinton seeking a change in status for the client in Jordan.
Abbas, a lawyer with the Terrorist Front Group CAIR Council on American-Islamic Relations, tries to piece together the reason why a client has been placed on the list. (Gee, let me guess) Perhaps a person has a similar name to a known terrorist. Maybe their travels to Yemen or some other Middle East hot spot have garnered suspicion. Maybe they told the FBI to take a hike when they requested an interview. (All valid reasons to keep muslims off planes)

Ultimately, though, the reasons are almost irrelevant. From Abbas’ perspective, the placement on the no-fly list amounts to a denial of a traveler’s basic rights: U.S. citizens can’t return home from overseas vacations, children are separated from parents, and those under suspicion are denied the basic due process rights that would allow them to clear their name. (Good!)
Abbas describes the security bureaucracy as Kafkaesque, a labyrinthine maze of overlapping agencies, all of which refuse to provide answers unless they are threatened with legal action. One lawsuit is still pending in federal court in Alexandria, Va. That case has followed what has become a familiar pattern: Abbas either files a lawsuit or exposes the case to public scrutiny through the media, and within a few days the individual in question is able to travel. Government officials then ask a judge to dismiss any lawsuits that were filed, saying the cases are now moot.
“The amount of people who experience tragic, life-altering travel delays is significant,” said Abbas, who estimates he gets a call at least once a month from a Muslim American in dire straits because their travel has been restricted. (Life altering? Dire straits? Oh please, so what if they miss their pilgrimage to Mecca?)
Government officials, of course, see it differently. They say they have a Traveler Redress Inquiry Program that lets people wrongly placed on the no-fly list, or the much broader terrorist watchlist, fix their circumstances. More broadly, the government has argued in court that placing somebody on the no-fly list does not deprive them of any constitutional rights. Just because a person can’t fly doesn’t mean they can’t travel, the government lawyers argue. They can always take a boat, for example. (Or a camel)

“Neither Plaintiff nor any other American citizen has either a right to international travel or a right to travel by airplane,” government lawyers wrote in their defense against a lawsuit by another of Abbas’ clients. The teenager from Virginia had found himself stuck in Kuwait after suspicions about has travel to Somalia apparently landed him on the no-fly list.
Exactly how many people are on the government’s lists is unclear. Some of the most recent estimates, from late 2009, state that about 400,000 individuals are on the “watchlist,” which requires a “reasonable suspicion” that the person is known or suspected to be engaged in terrorist activities. A much smaller number—about 14,000—is on the “selectee list,” meaning they will likely have to undergo rigorous screening to travel. And officials estimated that 3,400 individuals, including roughly 170 U.S. residents, are on the no-fly list.
Michael Migliore was told by security officials last month that he is on the no-fly list after he tried to take a flight from Portland, Ore., to Italy following his college graduation. Migliore, 23, a Muslim, suspects he was placed on the no-fly list after he refused to talk to the FBI without a lawyer in November 2010, when the bureau was investigating an acquaintance charged in a plot to detonate bomb at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. (They should let him fly…after they deport him)
In another case, an 18 year-old U.S. citizen living in Jordan with his parents was bounced from an EgyptAir flight to New York. Amr Abulrub had planned to lead

Amr Abualrub, radical muslim "scholar"

Ramadan prayers at a Connecticut mosque. After a few days of confusion, Abulrub learned from airline officials that the U.S. government had instructed EgyptAir to cancel his ticket. U.S. embassy officials in Amman have subsequently told Abulrub he can travel under certain restrictions, including a requirement that his flight to the U.S. be booked on an American airline. But Abulrub is leery of traveling at all for fear that he won’t be allowed to go back to Jordan. (The U.S. is where he shouldn’t be allowed to return)

Abulrub’s father, Jalal Abulrub, suspects his son has come to the attention of U.S. authorities because of his own writings. Jalal is a Salafist scholar who has sometimes written provocative articles and antagonized Christian evangelists he believed were disrespectful to Muslims. While Jalal says his family is Salafist—generally considered a fundamentalist sect of Islam—he is quick to point out that he has a long history of writing in opposition to the ideology espoused by Osama bin laden and al-Qaida. (Yeah, sure he did)
“I am not going to let this go,” Jalal said, referring to his son’s inability to travel. “We don’t allow anyone to oppress us.” (Then get out of this country if you don’t like it)

Muslims convicted after spray painting burkas on sexy ads

Muslims convicted after spray painting burkas on sexy ads

Posted on July 31, 2011 by creeping

Taliban-izing the UK as sharia picks up the pace. How long until Muslims in the UK start going after real women? via Muslim teenagers convicted after spraying burkas onto scantily-clad Lynx models | Mail Online.

Two Muslim teenagers have admitted defacing advertising hoardings featuring scantily-clad models and painting a ‘burka’ over them because they offended their religious views.

Mohammed Hasnath and Muhammed Tahir, both 18, used black paint to cover up the picture of a female model on a hoarding advertising Lynx deodorant.

The duo proceeded to paint over the faces on several other advertisements around London’s East End, claiming it was a ‘sin’ for them to be uncovered.

The youths, who represented themselves, had both denied initial charges of religious aggravated criminal damage.

However, they both pleaded guilty to six counts of criminal damage when they appeared at Thames Magistrates Court in east London.

Taiwo Akinrowo, prosecuting, told the court: ‘On the morning of February 26th this year a member of the public called the police because they had seen three males damaging the bus shelters.

‘One of the males was seen to paint on the female angel in the advert for Lynx. On the other side was an advert for the film ‘Drive Angry’ and this male was seen to paint on the female image next to Nicholas Cage.

‘Police were called and began to monitor the males and they saw them walking along Whitechapel Road towards Osborne Street where they then used the paint on the window of the Money Shop on the faces of the females.

‘They police officers arrived and the defendants ran away. They were then stopped by police, arrested and interviewed and they gave full and frank admissions as to what they had done.

‘They told them that the way the women had been photographed was against their religion and they said it was a sin in Islam for a male to look twice at a woman who is not covered.

‘If a man looks at a woman the first time it could be accidental, but if they look again it is a sin and they did not want children and other people seeing the image of these woman who were not covered.

‘Consequently they began to paint over burkas around the faces of the women. When arrested, Mr Hasnath’s clothes were covered in black paint and they also had the brushes on them.

Where are those tough measures against those advocating sharia law that UK politicians were touting a few weeks ago?

Muslim Republicans’ says “No Middle Eastern country wants religious rule”

Muslim Republicans’ says “No Middle Eastern country wants religious rule”

and the Korans says ......

Verse 2:225
Yusuf Ali:	God will not call you to account for thoughtlessness in your oaths, but for the intention in your hearts; and He is Oft-forgiving, Most Forbearing.
Zohurul Hoque:	Allah does not catch you for what is vain in your oaths; but He catches you for what your hearts have earned, for Allah is most Forgiving, Forbearing.
T. J. Irving:	God does not take you to task for any idle talk in your oaths, but He does take you to task for whatever your hearts have earned. God is Forgiving, Lenient.
T.U. Hilali-M. Khan:	Allâh will not call you to account for that which is unintentional in your oaths, but He will call you to account for that which your hearts have earned. And Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most-Forbearing.
M. Pickthall:	Allah will not take you to task for that which is unintentional in your oaths. But He will take you to task for that which your hearts have garnered. Allah is Forgiving, Clement.
M.H. Shakir:	Allah does not call you to account for what is vain in your oaths, but He will call you to account for what your hearts have earned, and Allah is Forgiving, Forbearing.

Posted on August 1, 2011 by creeping

Really? So why are the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis opposing secularists in Egypt? via Republican Presidential Candidates Egypt Strategy.

The Egypt situation sounds complicated and troubling, but it isn’t. There is no doubt that this will change the Middle East forever. History is unfolding before our very own eyes. We need to realize this and seize the moment and momentum.
The only conservatives making any sense on Egypt are Sarah Palin and Paul Wolfowitz. No one else sounds even remotely credible.
…
What should the republican strategy be?
If we were running for president we would focus on the following issues when asked about Egypt.
…
2. We support democracy. Period. People should determine who rules them, and how. We believe democracy is so precious, that we want it for all people everywhere. Not just Egypt. We would like to see the entire world convert to democracy. That is our creed, and we want it for all.

What if democracy ushers in sharia law? See point 6 below.

4. We support a free and open press. If you have freedom in the press, leaders can’t be corrupt.

False.

6. Stop fearmongering. We need to stop fearing that overly religious people will take over the world. That isn’t going to happen. People aren’t stupid. And it’s not going to happen. No Middle Eastern country wants religious rule. They are intelligent and smart enough to know that extremists are not good at running countries.

Clearly there are many people in the Middle East who want religious rule, Africa too, the U.K. and even in the U.S. That’s why rather than just blindly supporting “democracy” in point 2 above, it would make more sense to support those who won’t use so-called democracy to institute sharia law.

8. We will not criticize Obama and the current administration now. As Americans, the world needs to hear one voice from us. We will let this play out and see what happens. We support what our president is doing. We will offer opinions on tihs later. We know how it will end. Mubarak will be out. We don’t want to be on the losing side.

Point 8 kind of contradicts point 4 and 2.

10. Israel will be fine. Israel has enough nuclear weapons, a massive and well trained army, and the capability to defend itself.

Point 10, suggests cutting off aid to Israel, which if true, aligns the Muslim Republicans with many of their not so peaceful co-religionists.

The Muslim GOP even invokes Jesus.

What would Jesus do? Ask yourself. If Jesus was here today, what would he be saying about Egypt? The answer is very clear.

Why wouldn’t they invoke Mohamed? Isn’t it more clear what he would be saying about Egypt? Read it all if you must

Treatment of Women in Saudi Arabia as 'Slavery' and Says: Nobody Is Immune to the Winds of Change Sweeping the Arab Nation; 'We Must Grant Freedoms Before They Become Challenges'

Saudi Columnist Princess Basma bint Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud Describes the Treatment of Women in Saudi Arabia as 'Slavery' and Says: Nobody Is Immune to the Winds of Change Sweeping the Arab Nation; 'We Must Grant Freedoms Before They Become Challenges'

Following are excerpts from an interview with Saudi columnist Princess Basma bin Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud. The interview aired on BBC Arabic TV on June 28, 2011:

"Punishments Should Be the Same For Men And Women.... [But] the Woman Is Always Punished... Within a System of Laws That Do Not, In Fact, Exist In Our Shari'a"
Interviewer: "Your Royal Highness, you defend women's rights, and in your writings, you courageously cast light on the condition of Saudi women, demanding that they step up to the status they are worthy of. You said that 'slavery' is imposed upon Saudi women. Is this an accurate term?"
Princess Basma bin Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud: "To say the least. Saudi women – and women in general in the Arab world – are subject to pressure that was not exerted upon them in the days of the Jahiliya, and even before."
Interviewer: "Who exerts this pressure?"
Princess Basma bin Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud: "Society, which inherited tribalism rather than Islamic customs. We are familiar with Islamic customs, and we return to the Koran in order to know our rights as Muslims – men and women alike.
"What is being practiced de facto in our Arab societies is a tribal legacy, not an Islamic one. What is permitted is clear, and what is forbidden is clear, and punishments should be the same for men and women.
"What we see today, however, is that the woman is always punished, the woman is treated with violence. Thus, our society becomes a violent society, because the woman who suffers violence is the one who raises the children. She raises men and women. What will become of these future generations, if they are raised by women who suffer violence and subjugation, within a system of laws that do not, in fact, exist in our shari'a?"
Progress In Women's Status Under King Abdallah "Is Restricted To a Certain Group Of Women... The Elite"
Interviewer: "But is this really the case? Didn't the Saudi woman make many achievements under King Abdallah and assume prominent positions? Take for example, Dr. Khawla [Al-Kuraya] and [Minister] Norah Al-Faiz. There are women academics and journalists – yourself included. Sometimes it seems that the condition of the Saudi woman is being exaggerated."
Princess Basma bin Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud: "This is true of 1% of the women in Saudi Arabia. Is it fair and just to focus on 1% of the women, ignoring the other 99%? I have mentioned in several columns that the Saudi woman, under the rule of King Abdallah bin Abd Al-Aziz, whom I love with all my heart, and whom I have called, in several columns, 'the lion of the Arabian Peninsula'… Within five years, he brought about a qualitative leap in the status of women, the likes of which Saudi society had not witnessed for 50 years."
Interviewer: "So there is progress…"
Princess Basma bin Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud: "Yes, but this progress is restricted to a certain group of women, who appear in the media. This is the elite. But the rest of the women in society are subject to the laws that exist in our society as a whole. That is what I am talking about. I am talking about the Saudi woman who is not called Basma bint Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz, or Dr. Khawla, or other names that appear in the media. We live in an elitist society, and we have such opportunities because we were brought up in affluent families. The rest of the women do not enjoy such opportunities.
[…]
"The pioneer in changing these notions should be the Justice Ministry. When the government legislates laws, it means that there are problems addressed by these laws. But these laws reach a dead end at the Justice Ministry, and nothing else is done with them except to give them media exposure."
"We Must Change the Culture of the Arab People"
Interviewer: "What are the reasons for this?"
Princess Basma bin Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud: "I asked them about the reasons, and they said: 'Bureaucracy.' So I asked who was responsible for the bureaucracy, and they said: 'Arab culture.' So I asked who was responsible for Arab culture, and they said: 'the Arab people.' Are we responsible for the state of our culture? And if we are responsible for it, we must step forward and say: 'We must change the culture of the Arab people.'
[…]
"The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice was founded by my late father, King Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz. The reason and purpose of its establishment were the same as those of Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, when he founded the Hesbah Committee, the mission of which was to prevent vice and to promote virtue. The concepts, however, have changed.
"What is prevention of vice, and what is promotion of virtue? In the days of the Caliph, they would go the markets, and would monitor the merchants and the prices, and would keep an eye out for bribery and administrative corruption. That was their mission."
Interviewer: "What does it do today?"
Princess Basma bin Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud: "When it was established by my late father, its goal was to monitor civil society, in order to enable the citizens to live honorably, without corruption or bribery. As fate would have it, this has turned into social pressure, which targets, first and foremost, the Saudi woman. They preoccupy themselves with her face and her gloves, with the mixing of the sexes, and with matters that have led to the terrible consequences that we see today in our society. We have turned into a society that is afraid of…"
Interviewer: "Am I to understand that you support the demand to abolish this committee?"
Princess Basma bin Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud: "I am in favor of reforming the way this committee operates and its goals, and of directing it [to supervise] the ministries of justice and social affairs – all the executives ministries – so that it can carry out the mission for which it was founded."
Interviewer: "But [the public] seems to accept this Committee. It is supported by official bodies, and as you know, there is an historical agreement between the Aal Saud family and the religious establishment."
Princess Basma bin Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud: "Yes, it has been this way since the formation of the union. The goal of that union was to reform society, not to destroy it. What we are seeing today is the destruction of society.
[…]
"Personally, I believe that if the Committee wants to be effective… Reforming this Committee is difficult, because it was established on foundations that are completely wrong…
"As for abolishing the Committee and establishing a new one, with careful planning of its goals, its officials, its authorities… In my column, I advised…"
Interviewer: "You received advice too."
Princess Basma bin Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud: "Yes. The advice I gave in my column was that the Committee should be headed by university graduates – professionals, sociologists, and psychologists, who would also have knowledge of the religious teachings, as sheiks and members of such a committee should be… This way, they could fulfill their mission properly.
"I was advised not to talk about these matters, so as not to get into things with which I am not as familiar as the authorities.
[…]
"These revolutions are the outcome of the pressures exerted on these peoples for something like 200 years, or at least since the beginning of World War I. Now the revolutions have become a force that knows nothing but the word 'freedom.'"[…]
"Nobody Is Immune To the Seasonal Winds That Sweep Our Arab Nation... We Must Grant Freedoms Before They Become Challenges"
Interviewer: "Is Saudi Arabia immune to the winds of change?"
Princess Basma bin Saud bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Saud: "Nobody is immune to the seasonal winds that sweep our Arab nation. Anyone who says we are immune is wrong. Everyone is vulnerable to this, and everyone should pay attention and should know that we must begin national dialogue, and not wait for the challenges to grow. We must grant freedoms before they become challenges." […]