More Timely Than Ever!

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Supreme Irony

How ironic that the U.S. and Britain once saw the Muslim Brotherhood as the religious-right counterweight to secular Arab nationalism and leftism.

5 comments:

Kevin Carson said...

I believe Israel, similarly, initially saw Hamas as a religious counterweight to Al Fatah.

Sheldon Richman said...

Quite so. See here.

Sheldon Richman said...

President Eisenhower entertained a young Muslim Brotherhood official at the White House in 1953 -- knowing full well the Brotherhood's reputation for violence and its ambition for an Islamic state in Egypt.

Kevin Carson said...

Come to think of it, wasn't the U.S. supporting Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan at one time, as a "counterbalance" to some set of secular socialists or other? Cough cough blowback cough.

Sheldon Richman said...

I'm sure you're mistaken. The U.S. government would never do anything like that.