Watchman on the Wall

by Paul Bremer, November 17, 2016:

The Muslim Brotherhood’s days of influencing the United States government may be coming to an end, and those who are expert in the field of Islamist activism and the threat of terror are pleased.

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly preparing to jump start a bill in Congress that would ban the Muslim Brotherhood by declaring it a terrorist organization.

Walid Phares, a foreign policy adviser to Trump, says he believes Trump will support the plan to make the designation.

Philip Haney, a founding member of the Department of Homeland Security and author of “See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad,” greeted the news with hope, saying his former agency is finally returning to its initial mission.

“This is what the Department of Homeland Security was created for in the first place – to protect the American people from the threat of terrorism both foreign and domestic – so all he’s doing is following the policies of the original purpose of DHS,” Haney said. “This is what we were actually supposed to do clear back in 2003 when the agency was formed.”

Pamela Geller, president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative and author of “Stop the Islamization of America,” also celebrated the news.

“It’s long overdue and much needed,” she said. “We can only hope that it will stop Muslim Brotherhood infiltration into the U.S. government.”

Phares made his comments while speaking to the Egyptian news outlet Youm7. He noted there is a bill in Congress designating the Brotherhood a terrorist group, but the Obama administration has been preventing the bill’s passage because Obama supports the Brotherhood and wishes to remain on friendly terms with it.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced the bill in November 2015.

“We have to stop pretending that the Brotherhood are not responsible for the terrorism they advocate and finance,” Cruz said to the Washington Free Beacon at the time. “We have to see it for what it is: a key international organization dedicated to waging violent jihad.”

The bill examines the Muslim Brotherhood’s history of terrorism and shows how it is linked to three prominent American Muslim organizations: the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT).

The legislation was approved by the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year and referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has not taken action on it.

By designating the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, the U.S. would join Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Russia, which have also made that designation.

Haney believes the U.S. would be making a significant move.

“It’ll send a signal to the entire Salafi, pro-Shariah, pro-jihad Islamic world that we’re serious again about protecting our borders, and that we will do it without firing a single shot or dropping a single bomb anywhere,” Haney declared. “And that’s very significant. We talk about peace through strength and walking softly and carrying a big stick – well, this is a good example of it.”

Haney pointed out the Muslim Brotherhood holds strong views at odds with American notions of religious liberty. One of its mottos is “Allah is our objective; the Quran is the Constitution; the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; death for the sake of Allah is our wish.”

Said Haney: “The Muslim Brotherhood has quite plainly stated what their intentions are, so we should simply take them at their word and by designating them as a terrorist organization we’re saying that Shariah law is not compatible with the U.S. Constitution, and that might be the most important part.”

Of course, Trump has proven willing to reverse positions on certain issues in the past. But Geller believes he will hold strong on purging radical Islamic influence from the government.

“So far he has stuck to his guns through a presidential campaign during which he was subjected to vicious and relentless attacks for those positions,” Geller said. “That gives me hope that he will follow through.”

Haney, for his part, remains cautiously optimistic that Trump will follow through on this promise. He thinks a terrorist designation of the Muslim Brotherhood could set the stage for a follow-up to the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial, in which various charities and leaders affiliated with the Brotherhood were found to have been funding Hamas terrorists. But he sees it as even more important than a second trial.

Said Haney: “If you designate the Muslim Brotherhood organization, not only does it provide incentive for the Holy Land trial part two, but it also puts the people that are in the Muslim Brotherhood that are having any kind of influence in the U.S. government on notice that they will no longer be given access to positions of influence and authority within the social arena, political arena and law enforcement arena, which are the three areas they’ve been operating almost unhindered for the last eight years, if not longer.