Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Egypt’s ‘Muslim Sisterhood’

Posted on April 13, 2011 by rehmat1|

In February 2011 – Egyptian State Prosecution had claimed that it ‘discovered’ a special women’s unit within the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

The women’s unit within Muslim Brotherhood has been an open knowledge since early 1950s when it was headed by a young Egyptian women rights activist Zainab Al-Ghazali (born 1917), who was imprisoned and tortured in jail for several years under Gamal Abdul Al-Nasser regime. When she was finally released on August 10, 1971 – she told the reporters: “The armed Ikhwan organization (Muslim Brotherhood) is a story fabricated by Nasser regime. It’s incumbent on Muslims to establish the Islamic State (when in majority) and make call to it as the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)  and his Companion did. This should be ideal of every Muslim, be he an Ikhwan or a non-Ikhwan.”

In February 2011 – Shadi Hamid, a Fellow at Jewish think tank, Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings Institution – in an interview made similar comments about Muslim Brotherhood. His advice to Washington was to learn to live with political Islam and start engaging with Muslim Brotherhood (for the sake of Israel, of course!).

“Even though the Brotherhood hasn’t won elections, in some ways, it’s already won. If you look at Egypt today, it’s a very Islamized society. Whether it’s women wearing the headscarf or Egyptians being supportive of Islamic law playing a larger role in society, the levels of religious observance, Islamic banks, Islamic businesses, Shariah-compliant investing — throughout every sector of Egyptian society, there is a move in this direction. And that’s always what the Brotherhood wanted in the first place. So in that sense, they feel that history is on their side. And no one’s more patient than the Brotherhood. They never seem to be in a rush. They never seem to have a real sense of urgency, because they think that Egypt is moving in their direction,” said Shadi Hamid.

On April 1, 2011 – The pro-Israel German magazine Spiegel International, published an article by Dialika Krahe, entitle The Muslim Sisterhood, in which she wrote: “The women of the Muslim Brotherhood played a supporting role in Egypt’s revolution, and now they want to have a hand in shaping its democratic future. Although many wear Western clothing under their veils, use Facebook and Twitter, and talk the talk of emancipation, they still seem to be wrestling with what it means to be a modern Muslim woman”.
Unlike Bible, Talmud and Hindu religious Scriptures, Holy Qur’an puts women on same level of human rights, based on their unique physical characteristics. Holy Qur’an doesn’t accepts women being inferior than men. In fact, Holy Qur’an has praised women at 173 places as compared to men being praise at 25 places. Holy Qur’an even has one chapter (Al-Nisa) dedicated to women’s rights. However, Islam doesn’t believe in western feminist doctrine that “woman’s body is her domain and she has the right to exploit it as she wishes”.

Unlike Judeo-Christianity – there is no seperation of religion (Church) from politics (White House) in Islam. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), like the rest of Biblical prophets, was sent to establish “God’s Kingdom” on Earth. Islamic concept of the ‘second-coming’ of Christ is also based on the same divine Commandment. Jesus, in Islam, will be quite different person from the Jesus of Evangelic Christianity, who is expected to convert Jews to Christianity or kill them. In Islam, Jesus’ mission would be to establish a political system under which followers of all different religions can live in peace with equal rights and equal financial opportunites.
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