Muslim Brotherhood influence in Saskatchewan?

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna with the goal of a fully Islamic state and ultimately the Islamization of the world and restoration of the caliphate.  What does that mean?  That everyone should live their lives according to the Quran and the Hadiths.  Sharia law for everyone.  Although they started in Egypt, the MB have influence throughout the world including North America.  As decribed in a Chicago Tribune article,

They have this idea that Muslims come first, not that humans come first,” says Mustafa Saied, 32, a Floridian who left the U.S. Brotherhood in 1998.

While separation of church and state is a bedrock principle of American democracy, the international Brotherhood preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic. The group also champions martyrdom and jihad, or holy war, as a means of self-defense and has provided the philosophical underpinnings for Muslim militants worldwide.

RTWT.

The Muslim Brotherhood credo is “Allah is our goal; the Qur’an is our constitution; the Prophet is our leader; Struggle is our way; and death in the path of Allah is our highest aspiration.”

There are Muslim Brotherhood front groups in the United States and Canada and groups established by the MB as recruiting sources.  These include CAIR and the Muslim Student Association which was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood seeks to spread Islam … not as simply a religion that some might choose to convert to but also as a political system.  A worldwide caliphate under Sharia Law starting in the Middle East.

According to the Hudson Institute,

The tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood may be nonviolent in the West and less violent than other groups in the Muslim world, but the ideology behind those tactics remains fundamentally opposed to the Western democratic system and its values.

This is from a stategy paper found in the home of an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial:

“The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions,” it states. This process requires a “mastery of the art of ‘coalitions,’ the art of ‘absorption’ and the principles of ‘cooperation.’ ”

How much influence does the Muslim Brotherhood have in Saskatoon?  Last year, I would have answered “very little.”  Now, I’m not so sure.  I know Muslims in Saskatoon and they are no different from anyone else, no different from people of other faiths.  However, things may be changing within the Muslim community.  Consider the following:

1. The Saskatoon Muslim Foundation is sponsoring a family retreat.  One guest speaker is Dr. Ahmed Deif, an Assistant Professor of Engineering at the University of Regina and head of the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) Youth Department.  The MAC is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

MAC adopts and strives to implement Islam, as embodied in the Qur’an, and the teachings of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and as understood in its contemporary context by the late Imam, Hassan Albanna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. MAC regards this ideology as the best representation of Islam as delivered by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

They also promote prayer times in association with the Muslim Student Association on the U of S campus.  (See #3.)

2. Another new local Muslim group has appeared calling itself “The Third Way.”  They lament the lack of an “Hassan Al-Banna” here in Saskatoon.  Hassan Al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood.  And he encouraged  jihad.  The main goal of “The Third Way” group seems to be to place the Saskatoon Misbah School at the Islamic Centre in Saskatoon.  They claim to have the same goals as a vast majority of Muslims in Saskatoon and yet they don’t give their names.

Are these two groups actually one?  Why is The Third Way group so secretive?

3.  There is a chapter of the Muslim Student Association at the University of Saskatchewan.  The MSA was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Frankly, I find the links to the Muslim Brotherhood to be worrisome.  Are they real?  I’m not sure but I’d rather be alert than caught unaware.

There is a deep rift in the local muslim community.  In the past, many Muslim immigrants moved to Canada for the freedoms and opportunities available here.  They are Canadians and Muslims.  More recent immigrants seem to want to import a fundamentalist version of Islam to Saskatoon.  They are Muslims living in Canada.  See the difference?  Are they attempting to impose their interpretation of Islam on other Muslims?  And where is the funding coming from for these new groups?