Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood Leader Issues Statement At WAMY Conference

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The website of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has reported that the Secretary-General of the Islamic Group in Lebanon, known to represent the global Muslim Brotherhood in that country, has issued a statement regarding the Sunn-Shia divide at a conference of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). According to the report:

The Islamic Group in Lebanon has criticized the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Shiite Hizbullah and the Salafists, dismissing it as an attempt to downgrade the problems between the Sunnis and Hizbullah in Lebanon. It called on Hizbullah to launch a serious dialogue with Sunni groups. “No one can oppose an initiative that aims at fostering mutual understanding and cooperation, but this Memorandum was a maneuvering attempt to strip the memo of its overt goals,” Secretary General of the IG Faisal Mulawi said in an annual WAMY conference Monday. He added that there are real rifts between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon which must be seriously addressed and confronted by more direct means. Mulawi called on Hizbullah to initiate a real neutral dialogue with all trends so as to define the mistakes and agree on not repeating them by both sides.

More interesting than the statement itself is the presence of Faisal Mulawi (aka Faisal Mawlawi) at a WAMY conference. Mawlawi is closely associated with Youssef Qaradawi, the leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood. He is the the Deputy Chairman of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, the theological body headed by Youssef Qaradawi as well as a trustee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, also headed by Qaradawi. In addition. Mawlawi is a trustee of the Union of Good, a worldwide collection of Islamic charities chaired by Qaradawi that appear to be raising funs for Hamas. In August 2005, Mideast news sources reported that “combatants” from the Islamic Group were fighting alongside Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon and that the group’s support of Hezbollah dated back to the 1980’s. This is the only known instance of armed Muslim Brotherhood units operating openly since the 1940’s.

WAMY, in turn, is a Saudi organization that U.S. government agencies and officials have argued has helped spread Islamic extremism around the world as well as sponsoring terrorism in places such as Bosnia, Israel, and India. Numerous previous posts have discussed WAMY’s activities throughout the world and the organization is closely tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood. For example Ibrahim El-Zayat, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Germany, was also the head of WAMY for Western Europe.

As to the substance of the statement, previous posts have noted “outreach” efforts by Qaradawi to both the Iranians on their nuclear program and to Hezbollah upon the death of Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyah.

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