When the West and Arab nations differ

The writer, a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is a former ambassador to Romania, Egypt and Sweden.

Flags are seen of major international powers ahead of a meeting in Paris. (photo credit:REUTERS)

UAE says Council on American-Islamic Relations should be banned, US disagrees.

The list of terrorist organizations published on November 16 by the United Arab Emirates cabinet is causing acute embarrassment in the West, since the Muslim Brotherhood and all its offshoots, from the Middle East to Africa, Asia, Europe and the US, figure prominently there.

The UAE did not stop there and, alongside the usual suspects – al-Qaida and its affiliates, Islamic State, Boko Haram, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis and the like, listed well-known Islamic organizations in Italy, Sweden, Finland, Serbia, Great Britain (four), Denmark, Norway, Germany, Belgium and the United States (two). Though all are NGOs operating as welfare associations or associations for the defense of the rights of Muslim minorities in Western countries, they have strong ties to the Brotherhood. Some of these organizations were created by the first waves of Arab immigrants to Europe in the ’50s and were later taken over by the Muslim Brothers; others were created by the Brotherhood at the same time to make sure that the newcomers – students and workers – kept their Islamic identity and did not integrate into Western society.

The list has provoked angry reactions from European countries and from the United States because it includes powerful Muslim organizations such as the Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim American Society (MAS), or the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF). These organizations enjoy a fruitful cooperation with national governments, but according to the UAE, they are affiliated to the Brotherhood and are therefore terrorist organizations.

Also on the list is the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe, which is the European branch of the Muslim Brothers. It has been active among Muslim immigrants since the ’50s and has been registered as a NGO in Great Britain since 1989. Its center today is in Brussels and it federates more than a thousand (!) Islamic organizations in 30 countries: women’s associations, associations for the protection of children, student organizations, workers associations and welfare organizations.

Its avowed purpose is to strengthen the religious identity of all Muslims on the continent and promote its fundamental goals: restore the caliphate and impose Shar’ia law.

Western media and governments still believe that the Brotherhood is a moderate, authentic Islamic movement working for the development and modernization of the Muslim world; a movement which is the only hope of that world. In Washington the State Department said that CAIR and MAS were not terrorist organizations and asked the UAE for “clarifications”– a move duplicated by Oslo regarding the Islamic Council of Norway. Stockholm rejected the classification of the Brotherhood, and more specifically that of the Muslim Association of Sweden, as terrorist organizations.

Read more When the West and…