RUTHFULLY YOURS

Glenn Beck has hit back effectively against his critics – from the Left as usual, but some also from the Right – who believe that his warnings about the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood are sheer lunacy. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews – who is apparently trying to take Keith Olbermann‘s place as the network’s leading left-wingnut – has compared Beck to the extremist John Birch Society.  On the Right, the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol criticized Beck’s “hysteria” and used the same absurd John Birch Society comparison. But unlike his critics who engage in wishful thinking, Beck has used the words of Muslim Brotherhood leaders themselves, quoted fully in context, to demonstrate their ambitions for a sharia law-based caliphate completely at odds with a truly democratic, pluralistic society. Beck’s linkages of Muslim Brotherhood ideology to communism and socialism have also been mocked as the product of a loony conspiratorial mind. However, once again, Beck has the upper hand with the facts. All of these ideologies share a common hatred of capitalism.

For example, the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has said:

[T]he collapse of the capitalist system, which is based on usury and securities rather than commodities in markets, shows us that it is undergoing a crisis and that our integrated Islamic philosophy – if properly understood and applied – can replace the Western capitalism.

Radical Islamists, socialists and communists are all opposed to the Western way of life, which exalts individual liberties, in favor of a governance structure that compels all to live and believe in a certain way commanded by their particular ideology. As Beck has pointed out on numerous occasions, their vision of the correct end state is very different, but their commonality lies in what they see as the Western democratic capitalist enemy in their way. The enemy of their enemy is their friend. However, one criticism of Beck that does hold some truth is that he is long on pointing out the problems and short on suggesting solutions. Jon Bershad, for example, wrote the following on Mediaite:

So, Glenn, you’ve told us that the Muslim Brotherhood is going to take over if Mubarak steps down. You’ve said that Mubarak is a bad guy and we never should have allied with him. Well . . . we did. That’s done. So what should America do? What should Obama do that would make you happy?

The question is whether that is really Beck’s obligation, when successive U.S. administrations have been unable to figure out how to balance stability in the region with adherence to our democratic values. Beck has made clear his opinion, shared by the Obama administration, that continuing to support the dictator Mubarak’s hold on power would be a mistake. Like the administration, he is sympathetic to reform but cautious.

However, Beck parts company with those in and out of the Obama administration who think that including the Muslim Brotherhood in a new Egyptian government would be a good idea. With the Iranian revolution in mind, he is simply asking us not to make the path towards an Islamic theocratic tyranny easier in Egypt by indulging in unrealistic assumptions about the Muslim Brotherhood’s peaceful intentions. There needs to be a third way between a Mubarak-stype dictatorship and an Islamic theocracy. In the words of a former disaffected Muslim Brotherhood member, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the diverse members of the secular opposition need to coalesce around

a message of opposition that says “yes” to Islam, but “no” to Sharia — in other words, a campaign that emphasizes a separation of religion from politics. For Egypt and other Arab nations to escape the tragedy of either tyranny or Sharia, there has to be a third way that separates religion from politics while establishing a representative government, the rule of law, and conditions friendly to trade, investment and employment.

Just in case anyone might doubt that the Iranian mullahs are keenly interested in what is going on in Egypt today and want to encourage an Iranian style Islamic state, think again. As Iran prepared to mark its Revolution Day on February 11, 2011, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered the February 4th Friday sermon, which was devoted to the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Here is an excerpt, as translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute:

In the Islamic world today, a great and crucial event is developing, an event that could tip the balance of arrogance in this region in the favor of Islam and the peoples. This event can restore honor and glory to the Arab and Islamic peoples, and can wipe from their faces the dust of decades of oppression and humiliation inflicted upon these noble peoples by the West and America. But it would be a mistake to assume that this is the required outcome. A collaborating regime is not toppled when its visible leaders leave the country. If these leaders are replaced by others from behind the scenes, then nothing has changed. This is a trap set for the people.During the great Islamic Revolution in Iran, they tried time and again to make our people fall into such a trap. But the awareness of the people and of its great divine leader allowed them to thwart the enemies’ scheme and to continue along the path to the end. The awakening of the Muslim Egyptian people is an Islamic liberation movement. On behalf of the Iranian people and the revolutionary Iranian government, I salute the Egyptian and Tunisian peoples, asking Allah to grant them a complete victory. Your awakening makes me feel proud.

A senior member of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Kamal al-Halbavi, expressed gratitude to Ayatollah  Ali Khamenei for his support of the Egyptian revolution. Al-Halbavi said that he hoped Egypt would have

a good government, like the Iranian government, and a good president like Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is very brave

I suggest that Chris Matthews, Bill Kristol and all of Beck’s other mindless critics read the words of  the Muslim Brotherhood’s leaders, including  its spiritual leader Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi , its supreme guide Muhammad Badi and its senior members such as Kamal al-Halbavi, before making fools of themselves and trying to kill the messenger.

Joseph Klein is the author of a recent book entitled Lethal Engagement: Barack Hussein Obama, the United Nations and Radical Islam.