Badi

I’d be willing to bet that you have no idea who Muhammad Badi is. If the MSM was doing its job, you’d know, but, Badi’s recent speeches don’t fit the narrative that asserts that al Qaida is the only Islamist group that we need worry about, that they’re a tiny fringe group, and all other elements of Islam are, well, moderate.

So who is Mohammad Badi?

First, some background, beginning with The Muslim Brotherhood. According to Wikipedia:

The world's oldest and largest Islamic political group, it [the Muslim Brotherhood] was founded in 1928, in Egypt by the schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna.

The Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Qur'an and Sunnah as the "sole reference point for ... ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community ... and state". Since its inception in 1928 the movement has officially opposed violent means to achieve its goals, with some exceptions such as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or to overthrow secular Ba'athist rule in Syria (see Hama massacre). This position has been questioned, particularly by the Egyptian government, which accused the group of a campaign of killings in Egypt after World War II.

The Muslim Brotherhood has a very conservative view of Islam, and some argue that its basic philosophy provided the underpinning for al Qaida. They are the philosophical founders of radical Islam (Islamism)

But because it disavowed violence (at least in theory), the Muslim Brotherhood has gotten relatively little play in Western media.

Mohammad Badi is the new Supreme Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and he is exhibiting far more radical and violent tendencies than his predecessor. In a recent speech (in Arabic) he stated:

"The improvement and change that the [Muslim] nation seeks can only be attained through jihad and sacrifice and by raising a jihadi generation that pursues death just as the enemies [the USA, Israel, the West] pursue life."

So, a heretofore “non-violent” branch of Islamist thought is now moving toward violence. Badi believes that violent jihad (death vs. life) is the answer to the question (quoting Barry Rubin : “Why is it—especially since we are a superior people (Arabs) with a superior religion (Islam)--are we behind the West?”

Rubin notes what Badi's excludes as part of the answer:

Not through solving problems by compromise; not by ending foreign conflicts; not by better educational systems that are open to science and other imported ideas; not by modernizing Islam; not by granting equality to women; not by democracy; not by human rights. No and no and no. But only by: “…jihad and sacrifice and by raising a jihadi generation that pursues death just as the enemies pursue life."

Some might argue that Badi’s rhetoric is just that, words and nothing more. In fact, that’s the MSM narrative that seems to cover any unpleasant comment by any Islamist leader, whether it’s Mahmoud Amadinejad, Hassan Nasrallah, or Mohammad Badi, among many others. These men have millions of followers and additional millions of silent supporters within Islam. They advocate extreme violence and zero-religious tolerance.

It’s time that we listen to them and understand that they’re deadly serious. But that can only happen if the media lets us know what they’re saying.