American elites are whitewashing the danger posed by the Muslim Brotherhood in nations like Egypt, writes Dr. Qanta Ahmed, a prominent Muslim American physician.
Democracy's arrival "can be dangerous when violently birthed into a vacuum," Ahmed writes in the Huffington Post. "Such 'Just-Add-al-Jazeera' democracies can empower vengeful minorities like the Muslim Brotherhood. Instant democracy contains dangers for both Egyptians and citizens of established democracies such as ours here in the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel."
Today, "elegant appeals for restraint from demonizing the Muslim Brotherhood have already started appearing in the mainstream U.S. press, laying the ground for its palatable rebranding. Gently ushered in within the frightening guise of politically correct and appetizing pluralism - 'we can coexist with secularity' fundamentalist Islam espoused by the Muslim Brotherhood is already welcomed as if it is 'the choice of the people.' Articulate, erudite Egyptians in well-cut suits assure us that…fundamentalist Islam could not happen in their country."
Ahmed, who has firsthand experience living and working in Muslim lands, believes what is occurring in Egypt is "an Islamist movement's a la carte dream come true." But instead of telling the American public what is actually going on, the media is feeding them a steady diet of "well-spoken academics" providing false reassurances that the Brotherhood is not a major threat to liberty.
"Make no mistake," she writes, "the Muslim Brotherhood is a menacingly ambitious group which seeks staggering influence in international and domestic politics and has an unshakable view of installing an ultraorthodox Sharia through the bedrock of constitutions and democracy in a way that will favor repression, social control, and seek to expunge pluralism and secularism."
She calls out the Islamic Society of North America, Council on American-Islamic Relations and Muslim Students Association as "public relations organizations [which] have surreptitiously become part of the establishment of American Islam's mouthpieces." They "now speak for all Muslim Americans, whether we like it or not, whether we want it or not."
The American Muslim community is relatively small, spread out and diverse, Ahmed writes, so no one can claim to speak on its behalf. Yet, Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in the United States "function covertly as components to community advocacy groups who are inexplicably empowered by a naïve or perhaps deliberately wily U.S. administration fulfilling shortsighted politically correct goals while persistently failing to see the risks presented by engaging with such organizations at the exclusion of the influences of smaller and far more moderate groups."
Meanwhile, "peaceful Egyptian relations with Israel, the keystone to a functioning Middle East and the gateway to wider stability, are possibly at an abrupt end. A new era is arriving. Israel must now worry about a Southern front once more. Egyptian cooperation with the U.S. on the War on Terror and their tacit collaboration in 'containing' the Palestinian problem are all on the table now."
Read her full column here.