The Cool Blue Blog

The Muslim Brotherhood and Milestone

One of the intellectual giants of radical Ismlamists, Sayyid Qutb, was convinced that America is evil while spending time  Colorado State Teachers College, now the University of Northern Colorado, in 1949. To him, Ameria is "a soulless, materialistic place that no Muslim should aspire to live in"

Qutb pointed out many things Americans take for granted as examples of the nation's culture of greed -- for example, the green lawns in front of homes in Greeley...

"America in 1949 was not a natural fit for Qutb," [NPRs Robert] Siegel says. "He was a man of color, and the United States was still largely segregated. He was an Arab -- American public opinion favored Israel, which had come into existence just a year before."

In the college literary magazine, Qutb wrote of his disappointment:

"When we came here to appeal to England for our rights, the world helped England against the justice (sic). When we came here to appeal against Jews, the world helped the Jews against the justice. During the war between Arab and Jews, the world helped the Jews, too."

In his book, The America I Have Seen, he "informed" his Arab readers that the US was still propagating a war with the American Indians and spoke of the Revolutionary war as "a destructive war led by George Washington."

What's more, he didn't like Jazz, boxing and, of course women

"The American girl is well acquainted with her body's seductive capacity. She knows it lies in the face, and in expressive eyes, and thirsty lips. She knows seductiveness lies in the round breasts, the full buttocks, and in the shapely thighs, sleek legs -- and she shows all this and does not hide it."

While he criticised the racism of the time, he wrote

Jazz is his preferred music, and it is created by Negroes to satisfy their love of noise and to whet their sexual desires ...

When he returned to Egypt, the colonialist, and pro-Western monarch was overthrown by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Qutb had already joined the Muslim Brotherhood by this time and was disappointed when Nasser didn't establish an Islamic State in Egypt. After an assassination attempt on Nasser failed, the Egyptian Government cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood and threw Qutb in jail. It was during this period that he wrote his seminal work Milestones, a book that would inspire modern day Jihadists and be a foundation stone of al Qaeda.

In Milestones, Qutb advanced the ideas that Democracy was anti-Islamic and laid the foundations for Global Jihad.

"Those who say islamic Jihad was merely for the defense of the "home land of Islam" diminish the greatness of the Islamic way of life and consider it less important than their homeland," Qutb wrote. "However, defense (of the Islamic community) is not the ultimate objective of the Islamic movement of jihad but it is a means of establishing the Divine authority within it so that it becomes the headquarters of the movement of Islam, which is then to be carried throughout the earth to the whole of mankind."

Today, there is an idea that there is a "good" branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and a "bad" branch. Many members of Congress appear to be under this impression.

But to my knowledge, no member of the Muslim Brotherhood has ever repudiated the work of Sayyid Qutb.

The Godfather of Jihad

"Jihad and the rifle alone: no negotiations, no conferences and no dialogues."
- Dr. Abdullah Yusuf Azzam

Dr Abdullah Yusuf Azzam is credited with being the Intellectual wellspring from which the modern Jihadist movement drinks. Though he stands on the shoulders of others who came before, it is his ideas that have been the primary influence of some of the most notorious Jihadists today.

Azzam obtained a PhD in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) at al-Azhar University, Egypt, in 1973, where he became friends with the Qutb family, Sheikh 'Umar Abd el-Rahman² and Ayman al-Zawahiri. He became a lecturer at Amman University but was obliged to leave due to his radical views, and resumed his academic career as a lecturer at Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, where he influenced a generation of Saudis, including Usama bin Laden.³

Also known as Shaikh Azzam, he wrote In Defense of Muslim Lands in 1979; at fatwa declaring Jihad in Palestine and Afgahnistan. According to the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point

In his travels throughout the Arab world, he called on Muslims to rally to the defense of their religion and lands. In addition, he wrote a number of books on jihad, including Join the Caravan and Defense of Muslim Lands. `Azzam’s goal was to impel young Muslims all over the world to join the fighting in Afghanistan, which he presented as an Islamic cause, of significance to all Muslims. Due to his efforts, the Afghani jihad became an Islamic symbol, bringing together Muslim volunteers from every part of the globe. `Azzam saw his goal to be the establishment of the Khilafah, or “Allah’s Rule on earth,” which he believed to be the responsibility of each and every Muslim. The jihad, according to his belief, was the vehicle that would establish the Khilafah (Islamic Rule) over the whole world.

People who cited Azzam in their Jihadist writing are Abd al-Salam al-Misri, Abu Jandal al-Azdi, and Osma bin Laden.

Usama b. Ladin graduated from King `Abd al-`Aziz University in Jedda, where he met his first mentor, Dr. Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian of Jordanian origin who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and was to become the leader of Hamas later in life.

According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S)

...bin Laden was influenced by ‘Azzam’s rhetoric and charisma and the two began a partnership in both logistics and actual operations. Their cooperation was manifested in four institutions and mosques , established one after the other which, when some of them united, eventually turned into the support infrastructure of al-Qaeda :

a. “The House of the Supporters” (Bayt al-Ansar): The first institution established to support the infrastructure and to provide logistical support (food, accommodation, shelter, etc.) for the mujahideen who came to Pakistan to fight the Russians.  

b. “The Office of Mujahideen Services” (Maktab Khadamat): The name given to the aforementioned institution after it was expanded to support the large number of incoming mujahideen. It was financed by Saudi intelligence, the Saudi Red Crescent, Saudi princes and King Feisal’s MWL.5

c.  The construction of training camps : During their stay in the training camps, the mujahideen continued to receive their logistical support from the Office of Mujahideen Services. The Pakistani intelligence community provided them with bases and training facilities and the CIA provided a substantial amount of their weapons.  

d. Al-Qaeda ( al-Sulbah ) (“ The (firm) base ”): The original name chosen by ‘Abdallah ‘Azzam for what became, especially after his death, the organization known as Al-Qaeda, with its logistical and terrorist-operational infrastructure.

... ‘Azzam’s doctrines  legitimize the indiscriminate terrorist attacks of al-Qaeda and of the Palestinian terrorist organizations , among which Hamas is most prominent. Quoting a hadith (a saying in the Islamic oral tradition) relating to Muhammad ‘Azzam notes that Muslims do not have a duty to stop an attack on infidels even if they are women and children and not fighters. Thus he authorizes jihad fighters to attack the civilian population, including women and children , and justifies the indiscriminate world terrorism of our times.

He later headed up Hamas

On the poster appear the pictures (clockwise from the upper left) of sheikh Ahmad Yassin, Hassan al-Bana (founder of the Muslim Brotherhood), sheikh Izzedine al-Qassam, Salah Shehade (senior Hamas terrorist from the Gaza Strip, deceased), Yehia Ayash (“the engineer,” senior Hamas terrorist from the Gaza Strip, deceased) and under Ahmad Yassin, ‘Abdallah ‘Azzam; Ahmad Yassin and ‘Abdallah ‘Azzam are the two most prominently featured. In the center is the Muslim Brotherhood insignia above those of Hamas (left) and the Izzedine al-Qassam Battalions (right). Below are pictures of senior Hamas activists, some of them shaheeds, including ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Rantisi, Mahmoud al-Zahar, Khaled Mashaal, Salah Shehade, Yehia Ayash and others.

The poster glorifies and extols the four most adulated figures (in Hamas eyes) of the current ongoing violent Israeli-Palestinian confrontation: Ahmad Yassin, ‘Abdallah ‘Azzam, Hassan al-Bana and Izzedine al-Qassam (all of whose pictures are larger than the others). Including ‘Azzam creates the connection between the Palestinian insurrection and the Islamic global jihad movement.

Azzam is so important to Jihadists that a mosque exists in his honor in Jenin

The imam is Ahmad Suliman Stiti, a  Hamas activist . He was arested by the Palestinian Authority with other Hamas activists in 2000 and imprisoned in the Jenid jail in Nablus. He is employed by the “charitable society” in Jenin identified with Hamas and is part of their civilian infrastructure (da’wah).

His legacy can be summed up here

Jihad is [the purpose of] your lives, jihad is your glory, and the substance of your existence is linked by fate to jihad. [Fellow] preachers, you have no value on this earth beyond that of your destroying the [whole corrupt] population of cruel rulers, infidels and sinners.

Azzam was assassinated in Pakistan

...on November 24, 1989, Shaikh Azzam and his two sons, Ibrahim and Muhammad, among others, were killed outside the mosque, while on their way to Friday prayers in Peshawar, when unknown assassins detonated land mines as Sheik Azzam’s vehicle approached.

He may be dead, but his words live on.

When you hear of the current civil war in Palestine, know that it is a struggle between people who would make peace with Israel, and Hamas, who never ever will.

Thanks to people like Azzam