Editor’s note: Hossam Sweilam, an Egyptian strategist, reviews Sheikh Yussif Qaradawi’s writings and explains how they
reveal the Muslim Brotherhood’s master plans, including infiltrating and taking over the military.
The Muslim Brotherhood is not only concerned with dominating the parliament, the Shura Council, the constitution, and the presidency. Rather, they are concerned with dominating the armed forces, the police, and security force.
The Brotherhood seeks to dominate the judiciary system, the media, local municipalities, and all state institutions. However, they know that they can only achieve this through dominating the military forces. Hence, El-Qaradawi, a prominent Brotherhood figure, revealed in his 1993 book entitled The Islamic Solution: A Religious Duty and Necessity the Brotherhood’s plan to dominate the army. El-Qaradawi, in his book, discussed mistakes and blunders that prevented the Brotherhood from achieving their goal over many years.
In his book, El-Qaradawi, under the banner of “Islamic solution,” addresses the idea of military coup d’états with a view to seize power. He does not address this strategy to prove that it contradicts the Prophet’s attitude in calling for Islam, evoking verses indicating that one should call upon people to embrace Islam wisely and through kind sermons. Rather, he addresses the military solution as an alternative, assessing its pros and cons and providing the argument in favor of military coup d’états, such as:
- 1.There is no hope we may reach power through peaceful struggle and democratic means. The only solution now is the military one.
- 2.Islamic movements need the protection of military power in the face of despotic rulers; otherwise, Islamic movements could be dealt deadly blows.
- 3.Military training per se is a requirement for Muslims and particularly members of Islamic movements.
After outlining this approach, he describes the risks resulting from training armed militant civilians. He says that clashing with the authorities may be inevitable and would have unpredictable consequences. He explains that modern technological means would allow intelligence forces and police apparatuses to immediately discover any clandestine organization as soon as they get wind of the tiniest detail, or if they manage to spot even a very few members of such organization.
He explained that the blight of militant groups is that their members can hardly wait, which jeopardizes them. El-Qaradawi stresses the importance of wooing the general public to get their support before turning to militant forces and popular organized power.
In support of his argument, Yussif El-Qaradawi evokes [Muslim Brotherhood founder] Hassan El Banna’s statements in the Brotherhood’s fifth conference, when he said people wonder if the Brotherhood intends to resort to power to achieve its goals through a public uprising against the political and social system in Egypt. El Banna asserted that they should acquire power, yet they should be very cautious as to when they start using it, as neglecting other required preparations could endanger their existence altogether.
El-Qaradawi further suggests that recent experiences have taught the Brotherhood that militant groups can hardly face the military might of the state due to the gap between the two parties’ capacity and power.
To overcome the barriers before the traditional military solution through a military coup d’états, El-Qaradawi proffers alternative means such as:
1- Infiltrating the military through disseminating the Brotherhood’s interpretation of Islamic dogma to recruit soldiers and officers.
2- Adopting the same methods of military training which could be employed by the Brotherhood’s members in the military to train the group’s personnel without attracting attention to avoid clashes with the authorities.
3- He also suggested permeating all public, official, civilian and military sectors of society. He also advised members of the Brotherhood to show sympathy with the people’s troubles and needs in order to win the public’s support for the Islamic movement. It is worth mentioning that the Sheikh’s suggestion is exactly what the Brotherhood did over the past few years as they infiltrated all syndicates , trade unions, university staff and social groups.
4- El-Qaradawi calls upon the organization not to rush to avoid clashing with the authorities. Not to get involved in peripheral battles to save their powers and energy for the main fateful battles.
The fifth edition of the book, published in 1993, addresses terrorists and openly delineates means to infiltrate the military forces, through joining military faculties and police academies, through volunteering to serve in the army in all ranks with a view to get promoted to the highest ranks while always remaining primarily and fundamentally loyal to the Brotherhood and its Supreme Guide.
However, in case and whenever they are required to take to the streets and instigate particular events, they should first and foremost carry out the Supreme Guide’s commands and not their military superiors’ orders. So, if they are instructed to move to protect the national television building, they should instead uncover their true identity and affiliation and –upon receiving the Supreme Guide’s orders – occupy the building and broadcast the 1st statement declaring the fall of the state and the establishment of the Islamic state. Also, if they are ordered to protect the presidential palace, they should, instead, occupy the palace and either kill or apprehend the president.
Infiltrating the army, focusing on militant training, learning to proficiently evade the police and security apparatuses and seeking to dominate people’s assemblies and state institutions, are some of the most dangerous recommendations made by El-Qaradawi in his guidebook for the Brotherhood to seize power.
This explains the former Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide Mahdi Akef’s statements in 2009, during the Israeli attack on Gaza, when he said that he could easily dispatch 10,000 warriors to aid Hamas—thus revealing that Hamas is an offshoot of the Brotherhood’s international organization. The question is “Where, when and how were 10,000 Brotherhood warriors trained and armed? Who actually has all these warriors’ loyalty? Egypt—or the Brotherhood and its Supreme Guide?
In 2005, Khairat El-Shater also suggested that Egyptians are not true believers of Islam, when he wrote a document entitled “Conquering Egypt”—as if Egyptians are Romans [i.e. infidels] or the disbelievers of Quraish [prophet Muhammad’s primary enemies], while Khairat El-Shater is the new Amr Bin Al-As who conquered Egypt over 1400 years ago and is now going to reclaim Egyptians for Islam.
Then there was the Muslim Brotherhood’s first militia exhibition in 2010, in Al-Azhar’s university, where the Brotherhood’s militants paraded in black outfits, barricaded the university’s gates and besieged the dean inside his office.
Countless thousands of editions of these extremist books spewing radical thoughts are being distributed to our youths. Nobody undertakes to discuss or refute outrageous allegations proclaimed in these books which contradict the Quran and the Prophet’s tradition. Nobody dares suggest that these allegations are the same as those made by apostates and rogues who sought—throughout history—to debunk Islam.
The Egyptian army’s success in protecting the country and the people from falling into a state of mayhem, in the absence of security forces on January 28, 2011, was due to the discipline and unity of the army and the Military Council. This was all the fruit of the Intelligence and Security apparatuses’ success in deterring terrorist operatives from infiltrating the army ranks.
This strategy should be enforced and heightened in the future to barricade the paths of the Muslim Brotherhood and similar terrorist movements from infiltrating the army, in order to safeguard this crucial state institution whose loyalty should be solely to Egypt and Egyptians.
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Coptic Solidarity translation from Al Ahram