Monday, September 9, 2013

DOUGLAS THOMPSON: MORE BOOK DISCOURSE COMMENTS AND ISLAMIC RESURGENCE CONFERENCE REMARKS








Douglas Thompson is the co author of Inside the Muslim Brotherhood with Youseff Nada



I am surprised at the extent of the invitation and the range of distinguished speakers of the conference. I appreciate the welcome and the warmth of Malaysians.

Referring to the book, it ends with the announcement that Dr Morsi had won the presidential elections. Youseff Nada and myself were watching the election results on TV. Being human after all, Nada cheered when the results came out.

What happened in Egypt is terribly sad and dispiriting. To the Muslim Brotherhood it may well be just another hiccup for it is 85 years old but still healthy. What Al Asisi did makes the whole world become more aware of the Muslim Brotherhood. Now people who had no idea, now know who the Brotherhood are. We in the West talk about Muslims from where we are. And Muslims question us from where they are.

We can see the Russians swaggering, Cameron's sheepishness and Obama's hesitations in this whole sordid affair.

So what about Dr Morsi's leadership? Its was very hard to govern and Morsi had to prove to the world that he spoke for Egypt and not the Brotherhood. The pretext for a coup was what Morsi stood for. And actually, Egypt is an economic basket case. Nobody is going to put money on a blanket on fire. Even the Chinese who dare to take risks dare not invest.

It needs theological coherence in running through what happens next.  I do not see how Islamic values can bring problems. But its actually the human problems. The Muslim Brotherhood were opportunistic politically but they wanted to make the world a better place. But to the West, Islam seems massive and sinister. Newt Gingrich once called the Brotherhood "murderers and pests".

I learned of the struggles and tribulations that Youseff Nada and the Brotherhood went through. And if you were watching TV on what is happening in Egypt now in black and white, it’s a repeat of Egypt in the 60's.

The Brotherhood had decided to be open to change and inclusiveness. Therefore, we should bring out issues like it or not in the  open and debate the Brotherhood. If we could keep talking calmly - it is not terribly hard. But there has been unmentionable provocation. Many lives have been lost - thousands wounded and maimed. You can see the suffering in the hospitals and the tragedy befalling families.

These conferences are good because we get to talk to people. We could spread the message and form popular opinion. How can we present Islamic resurgence in a calm and sensible way. It needs order above the jumble causing the problems.

The generals and the army for 60 years have been brought up in a system infested with corruption. A lower ranking soldier in the those days of persecuting the Brotherhood may now be one of the generals. It seems to be a catch 22 situation all over again.

We are all responsible. How can we get the two to work together - political Islam and the others?


Q & A


Why did I write the book?

To try to make a small contribution to understand and respect each others beliefs. You know it’s a hard sell for me to go to British publishers and say I got a book on the Muslim Brotherhood!


Syria
A destroyed Syria will be like a country where people only live to live surviving day to day.


On whether the Muslim Brotherhood's peaceful and pacifist like stance is merely tactical:-

Actually it is an Islamic ethos - do not harm and do not be a cause of harm. And as I know it, Islam regards the killing of a single person as the killing all of humanity. The Brotherhood is being provoked continuously and if someone breaks, the whole movement can be broken. So it is a peaceful movement that needs world support at the moment. Of course it’s a challenging task to get rid of the thousands and thousands of tons of baggage existing in Egypt's "deep state" government.




(Shah Alam)

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