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Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Sends Open Letter to Bush to End War
CAIRO, Oct 12 (IslamOnline) - Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, a moderate opposition force, on Wednesday sent an open letter to U.S. President George W. Bush asking him to halt the war in Afghanistan.
The group, banned from forming a political party in Egypt, has acted as a force advocating Islam as the solution to the ills befalling the country.
Since the early 1970s, the organization has dropped violence as a means to influence politics in the country. However, splinter movements not agreeing with the Brotherhood's direction formed and have pronounced to take up the call of the Brotherhood's agenda prior to the 1970s.
Among those splintering from the Brotherhood are the Gamma al-Islamiya and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, believed by the U.S. to now be a part of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The following is the text of the Brotherhood's open letter to Bush:
Mr. President George W. Bush,
Peace be upon those who follow the straight path,
I sent you, Mr. President, a letter on the day of your election, explaining to you that Islam is a religion of tolerance, freedom and dignity. I also said that the Jews had deformed the image of Islam in the West and the U.S. They depicted it as a religion of violence and terrorism. However, I asked you to get acquainted with true Islam, hoping that you might be enlightened by God Almighty.
In light of the existing conditions, I'm sending you this letter, hoping that you will understand the reality of Islam and its enemies, particularly the Jews. The Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) Group has a constant attitude that would never change, as it is based on the principles and values of our religion - Islam. The Muslim Brotherhood condemns aggression on innocent people, whether it is launched by an individual, group, state or an alliance. Therefore, we (the Muslim Brothers) denounced the incidents of September 11th, 2001, and urged you to resort to reason.
Regarding the unjust aggression on the Afghani people, we also condemn the American aggression on the brotherly Afghani people. We ask you to immediately halt this aggression and take international steps and measures, in conformity with international legitimacy that is based on U.N. charters, to arrest the perpetrators of the Washington and New York attacks and bring them to justice, instead of war, sabotage, killing of innocent people and destroying a whole country.
The American war on Afghanistan will only increase Muslim peoples' wrath and flare up hostility against the American policies and interests that side (with one party against another).
Instead of agitating people, causing wars and feeding cultural conflicts, you'd better seriously reconsider your policies, which are biased against our peoples in Iraq and Palestine, so that justice, right and peace may dominate our world that is living in turmoil, and so that the peoples may coexist thus allowing cooperation between cultures in pursuit of the common interests of mankind.
We urge you to put an end to the unjust siege of our people in Iraq, stop your full bias to the usurper Zionist enemy and break the strategic alliance with this hostile entity and terrorist presence. We ask you to recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to their land, resources, sanctities and independent free state. We also urge you to stop supplying this enemy with money and weapons, and end your full bias to it.
We assert that our religion denounces violence, rejects aggression on innocent people and calls for peaceful coexistence among the peoples. In the meantime, we insist that aggression on the Afghani Muslim people must come to a halt, so that the world may be saved from a comprehensive destructive conflict that will eliminate everything.
God Almighty always says the right, and leads to the straight path
Mustafa Mashhour
General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood
Cairo,
Ragab, 23, 1422 of the Hijra Year
October 10, 2001
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