They're Ba-ack! The Muslim Brotherhood Is Here

 

• lecture by Prof 
• restructuring Islamic scholarship around complex network of higher objectives 
• prof is president of M... Institute Global
• shared his insights on M...  methodology

OSTB : Huh? complex network of higher objectives? What the hell is that?  
Does this mean they themselves dont understand what they are talking about?

The prof has been to Malaysia so many times that they should just have a revolving door for him at the KLIA. I believe he is a sort of "country manager" or "point man" for the Muslim Brotherhood in Malaysia. When he is in Kuala Lumpur he frequently gives lectures which I have attended many times.  I have also asked him many questions - more of that later. (Lately they do not invite me to their seminars anymore. Oh boo hoo!)

Here is some background on the prof taken from here https://www.globalmbwatch 

• he is a Qatari professor  
• key advisor to build Islamic center two blocks from 911 site in New York

According to his bio, he has strong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood :

1. founding member of International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), headed (at that time) by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi and whose board of directors is comprised of many leaders of the Global Brotherhood.

2. member of Academic Council of International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a part of the US Muslim Brotherhood and  with close ties to the early leaders of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

3. member of the Executive Board of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), founded by important members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. AMSS has close relations with IIIT.

4. was / is Deputy Director of Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics, headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader T...q R....an. 

 

My Comments :

Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood is an Egyptian organisation founded in 1928 by the children of poor Egyptian fellahin or peasants. They were fed up of being poor. Unfortunately after 100 years they are still dirt poor in Egypt. 

 

You can read a fascinating snippet of Cynthia Farahat's book about the Muslim Brotherhood here. Cynthia Farahat talks about the Muslim Brotherhood's 100 year plan.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned in Egypt since 1948. So they went into exile. Today the Muslim Brotherhood is an octopus with its tentacles reaching out into so many Muslim countries and Muslim societies in the West (and east Asia). And of course they collect donations and money contributions from all these places.

Today the leading figures of the Muslim Brotherhood often have PhDs from top western universities. However the top leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood is exclusively Arab and especially Egyptian. And all of them (who are Egyptians) live in exile outside Egypt.  The prof was born in Egypt. I dont think he is welcome in Egypt either so he lives elsewhere. 

As I said I have attended the prof speaking on many occasions here and have asked him questions. 

Here are two questions that he could not answer.

1. In an Islamic financing system how does the Islamic bank determine an "islamic" cost of funds that is different from a conventional bank? The bank's cost of funds is a percentage which represents the bank's cost of raising capital / money to carry on its banking activity.

Lets say you walk into a conventional bank today and ask for a loan the conventional bank will say 'Ok the interest rate for your loan is 8%. It is our Base Lending Rate of 6% plus a margin of 2% = 8%'. The Base Lending Rate of 6% is the bank's own cost of funds. (Yes I know there is also some profit there).

The Islamic bank will say 'Ok the profit rate for your murabahah financing is 8%. It is our Base Profit Rate of 6% plus another profit margin of 2% = 8%'  They can call it by whatever name they want but the Islamic bank's own cost of funds is also 6%.

My question to the prof was based on how does the Islamic bank determine its cost of funds of 6% independently and differently from the conventional bank's cost of funds  of 6%? (In the present system the Islamic banks just copy the conventional bank's cost of funds, which is hypocritical).

He not only could not answer the question (no Islamic banker can answer the question) but I think this point never crossed his mind at all before.  (So exactly what Islamic economic system are they talking about?)

2. Quite a few years ago I asked prof another question which he could not answer either. This was from the Quran. In the conversation between Allah and the malaikah about the  creation of humankind (al Baqarah verse 30 etc) the malaikah say that they have no knowledge of anything except whatever Allah teaches them. Having said that, the malaikah go ahead and challenge Allah's decision to place mankind on earth. "Why place a creature who will shed blood and create mischief on earth?" said the malaikah. 

My question was 'How did the malaikah know mankind would shed blood and create mischief, especially since they could not have known about mankind before? Prof replied that the scholars could not answer the question. The scholars and himself just did not know. That was being honest. 

(I believe I have figured out the how. It is too simple. Obviously the malaikah knew the humankind. And true enough the word "khalifa" which appears in that narrative is rooted in 'kalafa' which means "to succeed, to come after". Plus in Hebrew, until today, the word "adamma" means mankind).

But what can the Muslim Brotherhood contribute for the betterment of society?

They have only one prize in mind - Egypt. Everything else is secondary.

No they have no interest in a 'world caliphate'. That is just marketing.

Egypt is their main show. Everything else is just a source of donations.
 

They did rule Egypt but for 12 months and three days (2012-2013) and failed.
The Muslim Brotherhood ruled Tunisia and failed.
The Muslim Brotherhood ruled Sudan and they ended up splitting Sudan into two.
Err the Muslim Brotherhood also ruled Gaza (Hamas) and now Gaza is destroyed. 

To those of my frequent readers you will recall me saying 'Whenever I see Muslims getting together to do something they often end up getting into trouble.'

And whenever I see Muslims getting together to do something in the name of religion, trouble almost certainly follows.

You just have to scan the news from around the Muslim countries and Muslim societies around the world. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, UAE, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Mali, Mauretania, Nigeria, Eritrea, Somalia, Turkey, Azerbaijan - all these places have active conflicts going on within their borders or with their neighbors.  These are troublesome places.

I really do not see what the Muslim Brotherhood has to offer.

The question is how much Malaysian taxpayers money will be spent to host this 'Islamic' conference?  Or will the GLCs be sponsoring the events? GLCs are also taxpayer funded. So exactly how much money will be spent to fly in these people from all over the world?

And after the Conference is over will they all be going home to wherever they come from? Or will some of them just hang around in Malaysia because 'Malaysia is the best among the worst of the Muslim countries'  (according to Zakir Naik).

Malaysia is a beautiful and peaceful country, we are relatively prosperous because of all the people who already live here and who have worked hard to make this a successful country.

Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Malays, Dayaks, Dusuns, Chinese, Indians have all made this country the success story that it is today. That is how our name has spread far and wide and now attracts all sorts of people with all sorts of strange ideas from all sorts of failed, failing and destroyed countries and societies. 

And because the people here work so hard there is money in Malaysia. Plenty of money. Of course this attracts even more people. 

Kalau nak bagi duit bagilah duit bapak sendiri.
Jangan pula nak bagi duit orang lain kepada orang yang lain.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.