Tuesday 1 January 2013
Unmasking the Brotherhood: Syria, Egypt, and Beyond
The complexities of the Arab Spring and the
struggle for political freedom throughout the Arab world should not obscure what
has now become an absolutely essential understanding for all anti-imperialists:
the Muslim Brotherhood is one of the most powerful weapons of the Western ruling
class in the Muslim world. While that may be a difficult pill for some to
swallow for emotional or psychological reasons, one need look no further than
the insidious role the organization is playing in Syria and the abuses of power
and human rights of the government of Egypt. In the US-NATO sponsored war
against the Assad government, the Muslim Brotherhood has emerged as the leading
western-sanctioned force, the avant-garde of the imperialist assault. While, in
Egypt, President Morsi and the Brotherhood government seek to destroy what had
been, little more than a year ago, the promise of the revolution.
Muslim Brotherhood in Syria
This week's establishment of the Supreme
Military Command, in charge of all military aid and coordination to the rebels,
demonstrates unequivocally the leadership role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the
drive for regime change in Syria.
As Reuters reported, "The unified command includes many with ties to the
Muslim Brotherhood and to Salafists...it excludes the most senior officers who
have defected from Assad's military."[1] This command structure, formed at the
behest and under the sponsorship of the US, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and
Turkey among others, does not simply include members of the Muslim Brotherhood,
it is, in fact, dominated by them. Is it possible that the Western imperial
powers simply did not notice that the group they were forming was comprised of
these elements? To suggest so would be to accuse some of the leading
"statesmen" of the world (Hillary Clinton, William Hague, Laurent Fabius, Ahmet
Davutoglu, etc.) of being stupid. Alas, they are not so. Instead, these
individuals have collaborated to create a Muslim Brotherhood proxy force in
Syria, one that can be controlled and depended on to do the bidding of the West.
However, it is not enough to say that the Muslim
Brotherhood is heading this new military structure, for that would be to imply
that they have not been playing a critical role all along. Rather, the
organization has been central to the destabilization of Syria since the
beginning of the armed conflict. The Syrian National Council, originally the
face of the Western-backed "opposition" was itself dominated behind the scenes
by the Muslim Brotherhood.
As former Muslim Brotherhood leader Ali Sadreddine stated regarding the SNC,
"We chose this face, accepted by the West...We nominated [former SNC head Burhan]
Ghalioun as a front for national action. We are not moving now as the
Brotherhood but as part of a front that includes all currents."[2] Essentially
then, we see that the organization has, from the very beginning, maintained a
large degree of control of the foreign-based opposition, as distinctly different
from the indigenous opposition of the National Coordinating Councils and other
groups. The Muslim Brotherhood, an international political and paramilitary
machine, has come to lead the battle against Assad government.
In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood has provided
many forms of leadership and assistance to the foreign-based, foreign-backed
opposition beyond simply direct leadership. From providing diplomatic and
political cover, to on-the-ground tactical support such as weapons smuggling,
fighter recruitment, and other necessary responsibilities, the organization has
come to permeate every aspect of what we in the West conveniently refer to as
the "rebels". Continue Reading
Posted @ 17:23
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