(Weekly Standard) Reuel Marc Gerecht - Jeffrey Herf's Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World and Ian Johnson's A Mosque in Munich are two indispensable books for understanding how we got to a world where Islamic fundamentalism, a wickedly anti-Semitic movement, is the dominant intellectual force in the Middle East and among devout Muslim elites in the West. As Johnson points out, the major Muslim organizations within Europe are all much more militant than ordinary Muslim denizens. Most of them were born through the missionary activity of the Muslim Brotherhood, combined with cash coming from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Johnson understands that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt could be viewed as a reform movement at home, given the despotism of President Mubarak. But "what seems moderate in Egypt can be radical in Paris or Munich." "Although the Brotherhood says it supports terrorism only in certain cases - usually against Israel - it does more than target Jews. It creates a mental preconditioning for terrorism." The writer is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
2011-01-12 09:44:18Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive