Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s Leader Says Jihad on Israel Is Every Muslim’s Duty

Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Muhammad Badi (AP photo)

by Sharona Schwartz

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Chairman Muhammad Badi — also known as the group’s “Supreme Guide” – said last week that waging jihad against Israel is an imperative for every Muslim. Middle East watcher Raymond Ibrahim who scours the Arabic press and translates it to English for Western eyes posted this revelation on his blog:

According to last Thursday’s edition of Al Wafd, during his weekly sermon, “Muhammad Badi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Supreme Guide, confirmed the necessity for every Muslim to strive to save al-Quds [Jerusalem] from the hands of the rapists [Israelis] and to cleanse Palestine from the clutches of the occupation, deeming this an individual duty for all Muslims.”
More specifically, he “called on all Muslims to wage jihad with their money and their selves to free al-Quds”—the same exact language one finds in al-Qaeda’s tracts.

Earlier this year, the Middle East Media Research Institute translated a sermon of Badi’s in which he called for gradually establishing a global Islamic Caliphate leading to “mastership of the world.”
Another sermon of Badi’s which raised eyebrows in the U.S. was delivered in October 2010, when he said the U.S. was doomed to collapse due to its immorality. MEMRI translated the sermon from the Muslim Brotherhood’s website, titled “How Islam Confronts the Oppression and Tyranny [against the Muslims],” and reported:

Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Muhammad Badi’ accused the Arab and Muslim regimes of employing tyranny against their peoples, of avoiding confrontation with the Muslims’ real enemies – the Zionist entity and the U.S. – and of disregarding Allah’s commandment to wage jihad against the infidels.
About the U.S., he said that it is immoral and therefore doomed to collapse, and that it is “experiencing the beginning of its end and is heading towards its demise.”

Badi said:

“Today the Muslims desperately need a mentality of honor and means of power [that will enable them] to confront global Zionism. [This movement] knows nothing but the language of force, so [the Muslims] must meet iron with iron, and winds with [even more powerful] storms. They crucially need to understand that 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 pursue life.”

Then, Badi also stated that he believed Mubarak’s government had become weak because it had not subscribed to “Allah’s commandment to wage jihad…so that Allah’s word will reign supreme” over all non-Muslims.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travels to Egypt next week to meet Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi. Just last month she said the Obama administration was pleased so far with commitments made by Morsi.
Now, she will have the opportunity to assess President Morsi’s leadership up close and assess his commitment to the treaty with Israel and to reigning in terrorist activity in the Sinai Peninsula. This latest jihad-promoting call from the supreme leader of Morsi’s movement can only undermine the more optimistic assessments coming from Washington.