1 terrorism and the muslim brotherhood “god is our purpose, the prophet our leader, the qu’ran...

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Terrorism and The Muslim Brotherhood

“God is our purpose, the Prophet our leader, the Qu’ran our constitution, jihad our way and dying for God’s cause our supreme objective.”

Hassan al-Bannafounder of the Muslim Brotherhood

http://MuslimBrotherhoodTerrorism.webs.com

© Copyright 2008-2013 Robert D. Conway All Rights Reserved

http://muslimbrotherhoodterrorism.webs.com/

© Copyright 2008-2013 Robert D. Conway All Rights Reserved 2

Class Session 4:

The Arab Spring

Course Overview• Session 1: The Creation of Islam• Session 2: Muslim Conquest and Radical Islam• Session 3: The Creation of Al Qaeda• Session 4: The Arab Spring• Session 5: The Global Caliphate


© Copyright 2008-2013 Robert D. Conway All Rights Reserved

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Class Session 4: The Arab Spring

• Al Qaeda in Iraq• Tunisia• Egypt• Libya• Bahrain• Yemen• Why Syria is Different• Mali and AQIM


Al Qaeda in Iraq• 2003 - Al Qaeda in Iraq draws on Sunni Baathists to form an

insurgency, supported by Iran.– Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) is 90% Iraqi membership however the leadership

and suicide bombers are 90% foreign fighters.

• Originally led by Jordanian, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who targeted Shia to provoke a Shia-Sunni civil war.

– Aug 03 bomb killed 85 Shia in Najaf; Mar 04 attacks Shia mosques during Ashura, killing over 180; Feb 06 destroyed Shia Mosque in Samarra

• June 2006 killed by U.S. forces; succeeded by Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian

Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi


Al Qaeda in Iraq

• AQI recruits Sunnis and uses violence to terrorize Sunnis into participation.

• By 2006 AQI was so unpopular their continued presence relied on continuous violence against their hosts.

• AQI tried to solidify its position in Anbar by marrying some of its senior leaders to the daughters of Anbari tribal leaders, as al Qaeda has done in South Asia. The sheikhs resisted; AQI attacked them and their families.

• AQI operations in Anbar were broken by sustained operations by Iraqi security forces assisting the coalition surge and commitment to remain in the province after clearing AQI leaders to prevent their return.


• Close confidant of Ayman al Zawahiri; a member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group that folded into al Qaeda under Zawahiri’s leadership.

• 2002 - Entered Iraq prior to US invasion, established the first terror cell in Baghdad. Experienced bomb maker; built car bombs and trained al Qaeda operatives.

• Attempted to unite disparate Sunni insurgent groups

• Oct 2006 - Al Qaeda established “Islamic State of Iraq”

• April 2010 killed by American and Iraqi forces near Tikrit

Abu Ayyub al-Masri

Abu Ayyub al-Masri


The “Awakening People”• 9/17/08 Dexter Filkins, NYTimes reporter and author of "Forever War"

interviewed 9/17/08 on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition program.

• Gen. Odierno (who relieved Gen. David Petraeus as Commanding General of Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNF-I)) commented that al Qaeda drove car bombs into Shia mosques, and Shia militias would then retaliate in Sunni neighborhoods. When the Sunni turned on al Qaeda the cycle was broken.

• The “awakening people” had been insurgents; then placed on the US payroll, about $500/mo. They wiped out much of the al Qaeda leadership in Iraq. The more moderate Iraqi insurgents turned on the fanatic al Qaeda leaders who were not capable of change and were killing Shia and keeping the civil war alive. A Sunni sheikh told Filkins that in six weeks they killed 466 al Qaeda leaders in his area, and he was very pleased with this. "We have a list“ said the sheikh.

• Filkins recounts how Baghdad has changed since 2003: neighborhoods where Americans couldn't even go in 2003 are now safe for Americans to go jogging, as Filkins did. "Now women are walking around alone, which was unheard of. They were wearing jeans and not covering their heads. It was completely normal."

• Reference: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94668565

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94668565

Tunisia

• Dec 2010 – 26-year-old vendor Mohamed Bouazizi immolates himself after police confiscate his fruit and vegetable cart because he lacks a permit; protests and then riots follow

• Jan 2011 - Pres. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees to Saudi Arabia ending more than 20 years of dictatorship

• Oct 2011 – Islamic party Ennahda wins first elections


Egypt• Jan 2011 protest erupt in Cairo’s Tahrir square • Feb 2011 Pres. Hasni Mubarak steps down after nearly 30 years in

power. The Muslim Brotherhood is the major opposition to the government

• Aug 2011 – Mubarak goes on trial• Oct 2011 – Coptic Christians protest destruction of a church by

Islamists; Army attacks protesters with tanks, killing 27• Nov 2011 – Muslim Brotherhood elected to a majority of seats• June 2012 – Mohammed Morsi of Muslim Brotherhood elected

president; Mubarek sentenced to life in prison• Nov 2012 – Protests against Morsi’s draft constitution giving him

unlimited power including legislation without judicial oversight; drafted by Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist allies, it could allow clerics to intervene in lawmaking and leave minority groups without proper legal protection

• Dec 2012 – Morsi signs new constitution into law


Libya• Feb 2011 – Protest begin in Benghazi

after the arrest of a human rights activist• Mar 2011 – UN authorizes a no-fly zone;

NATO airstrikes begin• Aug 2011 – Rebels enter Tripoli• Oct 2011 – Moammar Gadhafi killed by

rebels in Sirte• Sept 2012 – Al Qaeda in Islamic

Mahgreb (AQIM), Al-Qaida affiliate “Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades”, and Ansar alShariah attack US consulate and CIA annes in Benghazi, killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, embassy security personnel Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, and injuring 10 others


Bahrain• Jan - Feb 2011: weeks of protests in Bahrain are

crushed by troops from Saudi Arabia• Nov 2011 – King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa promises

reforms


Yemen• Feb 2011 – Protests in Yemen erupt then subside when

President Ali Abdullah Saleh pledges not to seek another term

• June 2011 – Saleh injured in an explosion; goes to Saudi Arabia for treatment but does not relinquish power

• Nov 2011 – Saleh steps down after 33 years; his relatives and associates continue to hold power

• Feb 2012 – Saleh transfers powers to former vice president


Syria• Muslim Brotherhood in Syria founded in the late 1930s. After

the 1963 coup brought the Ba'ath Party to power, it was banned and became a resistance movement against Alawite Assad regime. Armed struggle climaxed in the Hama uprising of 1982 - thousands killed by the military, and membership in the Syrian Brotherhood became a capital offence

• March 2011 – protests erupt; the government of Bashar Assad immediately responds with troops

• Feb 2012 – government attacks rebels in Homs

• July 2012 – government massacres 225 in Tremseh; rebel bomb kills many of Assad’s top advisors; 200,000 refugees have fled Syria

• Increasingly Al Qaeda, Islamists, and Salafists from across the Muslim world have swelled the ranks of rebel forces and call for sharia law and an Islamic republic to replace Assad


Mali• Mar 2012 military junior officers launch a coup in protest

to the government response to the rebel group National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA)

• Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM), active since 2007 in Mali, allied with MNLA then drove them out of northern Mali

• AQIM, Ansar Dine, and Mauritanian offshoot of AQIM called MUJAO (Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa), have imposed strict sharia law including stonings, amputations, and floggings; kidnapped and sometimes executed aid workers, businessmen, and tourists; recruited and armed children as young as 12


Suggested Listening and Reading• Arab Spring Timelines

– http://www.npr.org/2012/01/02/144489844/timeline-the-major-events-of-the-arab-spring

– http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest-interactive-timeline

– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Arab_Spring

• PRI America Abroad Podcasts http://www.pri.org/america-abroad.html

– Islamism in Africa

– Youth in the Arab World:

– Religious Minorities in the Middle East

– The Rise of the Islamists

– America and the Middle East

– Joined by War: A Decade of Ware in the Middle East

• Arab Spring Analyses– http://www.economist.com/node/21541404

– http://www.economist.com/node/21559968



Terrorism and The Muslim Brotherhood

“God is our purpose, the Prophet our leader, the Qu’ran our constitution, jihad our way and dying for God’s cause our supreme objective.”

Hassan al-Bannafounder of the Muslim Brotherhood

1 terrorism and the muslim brotherhood “god is our purpose, the prophet our leader, the qu’ran...

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