11/15/14, "UAE lists Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist group," Reuters, Dubai
"The United Arab Emirates has formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood and local affiliates as terrorist groups, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday citing a cabinet decree.
The Gulf Arab state has also designated Nusra Front and the Islamic State, whose fighters are battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as terrorist organizations, along with other Shi'ite militant groups such as the Houthi movement in Yemen.
Saturday's move echoes a similar move by Saudi Arabia in March and could increase pressure on Qatar whose backing for the group has sparked a row with fellow Gulf monarchies.
It also underscores concern in the U.S.-allied oil producer
about political Islam
and the influence of the Brotherhood,
whose Sunni Islamist doctrines
challenge the principle of dynastic rule.
The UAE has designated al-Islah group, which is a local Islamist group banned in the UAE for its alleged link to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, as a terrorist group.
UAE authorities have cracked down on members of al-Islah and jailed scores of Islamists convicted of forming an illegal branch of the Brotherhood. Al-Islah denies any such link, but says it shares some of the Brotherhood's Islamist ideology.
In an unprecedented public move, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates recalled their ambassadors to Qatar in March, accusing Doha of failing to abide by an agreement not to interfere in one another's internal affairs.
So far efforts by members of the GCC, an alliance that also includes Oman and Kuwait, to resolve the dispute have failed.
The three states mainly fell out with Qatar over the role of Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Gulf officials say the three want Qatar to end any support for the Brotherhood.
Qatar says it backs all Arabs, not just Brotherhood members.
Qatar's emir on Tuesday publicly invited fellow Gulf rulers to a Doha summit, apparently seeking to forestall what diplomats say is an attempt by some peers to move it elsewhere in protest at what they see as an Islamist tilt in his foreign policy.".
======================
Two US Muslim groups listed as Terrorist Organizations by UAE:
11/15/14, "UAE Lists American Muslim Groups As Terrorist Organizations," Buzzfeed, Rosie Gray
"The Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim American Society were among those listed as terror groups by the UAE. The Muslim American society said it was “shocked” by the move and would seek U.S. government assistance.
The new American additions to the list are not categorized as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. The Muslim American Society is a non-profit founded in 1993 in Illinois by Muslim Brotherhood members. The UAE also designated other Muslim Brotherhood affiliates as terrorist groups, including some in the Emirates.
The Muslim American Society said it was “shocked” by the announcement. “The Muslim American Society is a religious community service organization that serves people in the United States. We have no dealings with the United Arab Emirates, and hence are perplexed by this news,” it said in a statement.
The society said it would ask the UAE government for clarification on the listing, and “would also like to seek the help of our government to address this issue.”
CAIR is a well-known American Muslim advocacy group, based in Washington. The FBI listed it as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 trial of the Holy Land Foundation, which was later convicted of giving millions of dollars to Hamas. A federal judge later ruled that the government should not have included CAIR, which was never charged with a crime, in the list of unindicted co-conspirators.
Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s communications director, said the designation was “news to me” when asked by BuzzFeed News for comment this morning. “May take a few days to check veracity of this,” he said."
=======================
Written 10 years ago, very informative:
9/19/2004, "A rare look at secretive Brotherhood in America," Chicago Tribune,
small groups of devout Muslim men have gathered in homes in U.S. cities to pray, memorize the Koran and discuss events of the day.
But they also addressed their ultimate goal, one so controversial that it is a key reason they have operated in secrecy: to create Muslim states overseas and, they hope, someday in America as well."...
.
======================
In a NY Times op-ed Dennis Ross said Egypt and UAE should be our partners but unfortunately the US political class doesn't see it that way. "What the Islamists all have in common is that they subordinate national identities to an Islamic identity."...
9/11/14, "Islamists Are Not Our Friends," NY Times Op-Ed, Dennis Ross, 9/12 print ed.
"A new fault line has emerged in Middle Eastern politics, one that will have profound implications for America’s foreign policy in the region. This rift is not defined by those who support or oppose the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or by conflict between Sunnis and Shiites and the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. It is characterized by a fundamental division between Islamists and non-Islamists.
On one side are the Islamists — both Sunni and Shiite. ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood
represent the Sunni end of the spectrum, while the Islamic Republic of
Iran and its militias, including Hezbollah (in Lebanon and Syria) and
Asaib Ahl al-Haq (in Iraq), constitute the other. Many of these
Islamists are at war with one another, but they are also engaged in a
bitter struggle with non-Islamists to define the fundamental identity of
the region and its states.
.
What the Islamists all have in common is that they subordinate national identities to an Islamic identity.
.
.
What the Islamists all have in common is that they subordinate national identities to an Islamic identity.
.
To
be sure, not all are as extreme as ISIS, which seeks to obliterate
sovereign nations under the aegis of a caliphate. But the Muslim
Brotherhood is committed to the Umma, the larger Muslim community. One
reason behind the popular revolt against its rule in Egypt was that the
Brotherhood violated a basic principle of national identity: It was
Islamist before it was Egyptian.
.
.
Now,
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi sees his country engaged in an
existential conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood. He is backed
financially by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. Mr.
Sisi also collaborates closely with Algeria, and has support from
Morocco and Jordan.
During
the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip, there were demonstrations
against Israel in Europe — but not in the Arab states. Unlike Turkey and
Qatar, which support the Muslim Brotherhood, the other Sunni states in
the region wanted to weaken Hamas, the Brotherhood’s Palestinian
wing.
Those states were alienated when Washington turned to Qatar and Turkey as possible mediators of a cease-fire in the recent conflict.
The Arab Awakening of 2011 did not usher in an era of democracy, nor could it. The institutions of civil society were too weak; the political culture of winner-take-all too strong; sectarian differences too powerful; and a belief in pluralism too inchoate. Instead, the awakening produced political vacuums and a struggle over identity.
.
President
Obama is right to note the old order’s disappearance in the region and
the time it’s taking for a new one to emerge. The administration is
struggling to define an effective strategy — but the Islamist vs.
non-Islamist divide creates an opening.
.
.
The
non-Islamists include the traditional monarchies, authoritarian
governments in Egypt and Algeria, and secular reformers who may be small
in number but have not disappeared.
.
.
They do not include Bashar
al-Assad’s regime in Syria; he is completely dependent on Iran and
Hezbollah and cannot make decisions without them.
Today,
the non-Islamists want to know that the United States supports them.
For America, that means not partnering with Iran against ISIS, though
both countries may avoid interfering with each other’s operations
against the insurgents in Iraq.
.
.
It
means actively competing with Iran in the rest of the region,
independently of whether an acceptable nuclear deal can be reached with
Tehran.
.
It means recognizing that Egypt is an essential part of the anti-Islamist coalition, and that American military aid should not be withheld because of differences over Egypt’s domestic behavior.
.
.
It means recognizing that Egypt is an essential part of the anti-Islamist coalition, and that American military aid should not be withheld because of differences over Egypt’s domestic behavior.
.
America
should also coordinate with Egypt and the U.A.E. when they bomb
Islamist targets in Libya, or elsewhere. Coordination will make their
military operations more effective, as well as provide America with
greater ability to influence their actions. (And Washington would want
to be able to head off military acts that it sees as ill-advised.)
The
Obama administration worries about the consequences of excluding all
Islamists. It worries, too, about appearing to give a blank check to
authoritarian regimes, when it believes there need to be limits and that
these regimes are likely to prove unstable over time.
But as Egypt and the U.A.E. showed with the airstrikes on Islamists in Libya, some of America’s traditional partners are ready to act without us, convinced that the administration does not see all Islamists as a threat — and that America sees its interests as different from theirs.
But as Egypt and the U.A.E. showed with the airstrikes on Islamists in Libya, some of America’s traditional partners are ready to act without us, convinced that the administration does not see all Islamists as a threat — and that America sees its interests as different from theirs.
That is a
problem.
.
.
These
non-Islamists are America’s natural partners in the region. They favor
stability, the free flow of oil and gas, and they oppose terrorism. The
forces that threaten us also threaten them.
The Obama administration
needs to follow three principles in these partnerships.
First, focus on security and stability. Nothing, including tolerant, pluralist societies, is possible without it.
.
.
Second,
do not reach out to Islamists; their creed is not compatible with
pluralism or democracy. In Tunisia, the Ennahda party surrendered power
only when it realized its policies had produced such a backlash that the
party’s very survival was threatened. Islamists, even apparent
moderates like those of Ennahda [Tunisia], must be left with no choice but
coexistence.
.
.
Turkey
is a special case because it is a NATO ally. There is much we can do
with Turkey when it comes to fighting ISIS, but the Turkish president,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, should understand that his support for the Muslim
Brotherhood limits what we will do with him and necessarily isolates
Turkey from its neighbors.
.
.
Third,
America’s support for non-Islamist partners does not require
surrendering our voice or supporting every domestic policy. We should
press them on pluralism, minority rights and the rule of law.
.
.
The
new fault line in the Middle East is a real opportunity for America.
Yes, the United States will face challenges and have to manage tensions
between our values and our interests. No strategy is free of risk, but
joining with our natural partners offers the best way forward."
.
.
===================
UAE names 80+ terror groups including two in the US:
11/15/14, "UAE Cabinet approves list of designated terrorist organisations, groups," Emirates News Agency, WAM, Abu Dhabi
============================
Comment: "Progressive transnationals" in both US political parties love radical Islam.
They'll try anything to get us to shut up.
.
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