US SHOULD HAVE LEARNED TO LIVE WITH THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

by: İlnur Çevik*

The Muslim Brotherhood had gained the upper hand in many Middle Eastern countries after the Arab Spring. The brotherhood acted independently in each country and managed to mobilize all the Muslim forces in a democratic manner and thus managed to forge an easy transition in many countries from dictatorial rule to the rule of a popular administration.

Of course they made mistakes here and there, after all, it took half a century for many Western countries to establish democratic standards and create a workable system.

Patience was needed, but even a year was too much for some circles that helped to sabotage the administrations set up by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The best example was Egypt. The West, led by the U.S., helped the Egyptian military topple the democratically elected government of Mohammed Morsi, installed the Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi administration and the Muslim Brotherhood was banished.

In Syria, Western powers feared that the Syrian opposition would fall into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood and a new Syrian government would be dominated by them, so they stalled efforts to topple the Bashar Assad regime and helped the frustrated Sunni Muslims to opt for the extremism of the Islamic State for Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

In Iraq, Sunni Arabs were driven to ISIS as they were systematically alienated and discriminated against. The West just looked on as the problem mushroomed into a crisis.

The U.S. did not understand the Turkish way of thinking, which was to encourage the Muslim Brotherhood to take a moderate stand and gain power through democratic means.

Turkey saw how the Middle East could fall into the hands of extremists who would use religion to further their cause.

Turks, especially under the late Necmettin Erbakan, had built strong ties with the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East and North Africa and the Turkish administration, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, effectively and successfully cultivated these links.

The founding fathers of the U.S. established a strong democratic base that respected human values.

Yet today we see that Americans have abandoned these values and are still helping dictatorships, they are the source of most of the weapons used for genocides throughout the globe and they are the source of a global population that is threatening humanity.

Today we see that the West has effectively destroyed the moderate Muslim groups and thus created a vacuum that is being filled by ISIS not only in Iraq and Syria, but is threatening Saudi Arabia, Yemen and even Pakistan.

It is true that Muslims also have a duty to spread the good word of Islam, which is peace, tolerance, goodwill and compassion and thus fight the extremists who have created a radical way of thinking that has nothing to do with Islam and its values.

But unfortunately the West is also doing everything in its capacity so that this does not happen.

They are simply shooting themselves in the foot.

Those who could not tolerate the Muslim Brotherhood now face the prospect of coping with the ISIS menace.(T/R04/P3)

*This article published on Daily Sabah

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)