Eurasia Press & News
The Islamist group sees Biden’s arrival at the White House as another opportunity to attempt to implement its project in the region.
For the international organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood, political expediency has taken the upper hand over religious dogma, as the globally-implanted militant organisation welcomed incoming US President Joe Biden’s commitment to Christian virtues.
On Thursday, the secretary-general of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Ali al-Qaradaghi, expressed appreciation for what he called the “religious trait” in Biden’s personality.
“In America, President Biden begins his presidential term with a church mass and swears on the Bible. The ceremony is interspersed with priestly words and prayers. I saw the attendees with their heads bowed when hearing the priest’s sermon with much respect and humility,” Qaradaghi wrote on Facebook.
He wondered, “Why do secularists in our Arab and Islamic countries imitate manifestations of atheism, moral failure, and attacks on the Islamic faith and its symbols, and do not respect the collective identity of their peoples and their religious sanctities?”
The United States constitution does not compel presidents to swear the oath of office over a religious book, but historical custom and tradition have turned the Bible into part of inauguration ceremonies since the election of George Washington in 1789.
Qaradaghi’s praise for Biden’s Christianity comes in the context of a particular attention by activists and leaders affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood to the inauguration of the new American president. Their focus is on the perceived paradox between what they consider the politicisation of Christianity on an important US event, and the opposition they face at home as they try to politicise religion as a way to infiltrate and control power.
Analysts see the Brotherhood’s conspicuous welcome of the new president as a way for the organisation to move closer to the Biden administration and consolidate the ties it tried to build during the election campaign between the new president’s representatives, backers and sympathisers on the one hand, and Islamic associations close to the Brotherhood that helped push members of the Muslim community to vote for Biden, on the other hand.
The organisation did not hide its “joy” over Biden’s arrival to the White House, believing his presidency will give it another opportunity to revive its project in the Arab region, with the support of Qatar and Turkey. Its leading figures also hope to receive open-ended support from Democrats based on the Islamists’ interpretation of the experience they had with former US President Barack Obama’s administration.
The Muslim Brotherhood believes Biden’s presidency could also give it a new lease on life in Egypt, as former US President Donald Trump was a strong supporter of the regime of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and did not object to the Brotherhood being designated as a terrorist organisation in countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The Islamist group posted a statement on its official website after Biden’s victory quoting its deputy general guide, Ibrahim Mounir, as saying “the time has come to review the policies of support for dictatorships, and the crimes and violations committed by despotic regimes around the world.”
But Kamal Habib, an expert on Islamist movements, says it is unlikely the group will receive any US support for its attempts to return to the fore of the political scene. He believes the Biden administration might work to “improve the situation of human rights or the treatment of political parties and civil society groups but not facilitate the return of the Brotherhood.”
Analysts say that the Biden administration cannot go back to square one in betting on the Muslim Brotherhood, and that the previous administration’s stance on the Brothrhood had nothing to do with Trump personally, but was instead part of a US policy ending support for the group that began during Obama’s presidency.
The Obama administration had bet on the Brotherhood in the early stages of of the “Arab spring,” but Islamists’ performance in power in Egypt and Tunisia, and their alliances in Syria and Yemen, prompted the US administration to change its position and distance itself from the controversial organisation.
The Obama administration witnessed the fall of the Egyptian Brotherhood in 2013, and the eruption of a mass uprising against its rule. It also followed the tense security and political situation in Tunisia and the wave of assassinations the same year. The attitude of Islamist militants against the US Embassy embassy in Tunis and the US’s diplomatic representation in Benghazi also left an indelible mark. The US did not issue any statement of support for the group or its desire to stay in power, especially in light of a wave of popular anger rejecting the Brotherhood’s rule.
