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Thursday, September 11, 2008

ISM loves the Muslim Brotherhood

As if we needed any more proof, here is yet another tie between the "peace activists" of the International Solidarity Movement (and their affiliates in the Free Gaza movement) and the extremist inspiration for al Qaeda and Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood.

From the ISM site:
Egyptian Committee Against the Gaza Siege: At 8am this morning (10th September), a first group from the Egyptian Committee Against the Gaza Siege, mainly Labor Party’s members, left Cairo in 4 micro-buses with food and medicine to go and try to break the criminal siege of Gaza.

When they arrived at Ismailia, located at 100 km from Cairo and 30 km from the Suez Canal, the Sinai entrance, the Egyptian police stopped the convoy and took away the driving licences of the drivers, preventing them to go forward

More than 150 people got outside the buses with Palestinian and Egyptian flags and chanting slogans in support of the Palestinians.

Several national forces are participating in this action, including the Committee Against the Gaza Siege, Engineers against Detention, al-Karamah party, Labour Party, Nasserist party, Kifâya, independent lawyers, March 9 Movement, April 6 Movement and Muslim Brotherhood’s members.

Notice how the ISM tries to downplay the Muslim Brotherhood's involvement in this protest, which is clearly a Western-style protest architected by ISM members to begin with (the photos on the site show "activists" doing sit-ins and the like.)

But if you look at the wire-service reports of the protest, the Muslim Brotherhood is mentioned a bit more prominently. From AFP:

The group of judges, independent MPs, members of the main opposition Muslim Brotherhood and activists from other parties wants to protest the continued closure of the Rafah crossing by Israel and Egypt.
From Reuters:
Along with many opposition groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition force in the country, favours ending the blockade and opening the border for goods and people.
Not that these other parties are so peaceful either. The Socialist Labor Party is currently illegal in Egypt, and supports the imposition fo Sharia law throughout that nation. In fact, it tried to form a coalition with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1990 elections.

The Al-Karama party praises Maomar Khaddafi, Libya's loopy dictator not known for his human-rights record.

Yet the ISM happily partners with groups that openly advocate and condone violence, all the while maintaining that it is a "peace" group.

Apparently, the only credentials one needs to be considered a "peace activist" is to advocate the destruction of the US and Israel.