On the whole, I think most Western politicians would find it difficult to stand up “in some ways the MB is far more important as a threat to global institutions” [than Al Qaeda]” in public.</blockquote<

However, this is not the conclusion to which the article trends. I am not suggesting that MB are a greater threat than al-Q. I am suggesting that (once again) MB can be shown to be a conniving, lying, duplicitous bunch of gangsters and their supporters, wedded to a violent ideology of clerical fascism. That was all.

Last year, Egyptian prosecutors bought charges against four people

alleging that members of the Islamist organization aided Hamas by providing components used to build aerial drones.

Egyptian security forces detained four people and have accused them of plotting to buy fuel for a pilotless aircraft for Hamas…

The sources said two of those detained were members of Egypt’s opposition Muslim Brotherhood. They said the two men had given 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($3,700) to [the] two other Egyptians to buy fuel and a remote control device for a small aircraft…

Egyptian prosecutors are investigating a group of Muslim Brotherhood members alleged to have provided Hamas operatives with equipment and technology for purposes of developing unmanned aerial vehicles.

Specifically… authorities have focused their inquiry on the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood cell, a professor who teaches at Al Azhar University, a well-known Islamic institution.

In addition, investigators also suspect an additional Brotherhood member who was thought to be responsible for the group’s activities along Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip last January [2008], when Hamas breached the fence separating the Strip with Sinai.

The goal of the initiative was to manufacture aerial drones which would then be fitted with explosives that would be detonated by remote control, Al Ahram, a paper long identified with Egyptian officialdom, reported Saturday.

The group of suspects is also reported to include members of the Hamas military wing, the Izz a-Din al Qassam Brigades.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/978062.html

And I did not mention that this is a very good, informative and intelligent article, Abu Faris. I would have expected nothing less from you.

The MB carried out bombings in Egypt in 1948 and also engaged in failed and successful assassinations.

It may not – as Ann On suggests – employ the same methodology as Al Qaeda, but in some ways the MB is far more important as a threat to global institutions.

Take the case of Hassan al-Turabi, the former head of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood. He gave shelter to both Carlos the Jackal and Osama bin Laden. In 1991 his policies of forcing sharia law upon non-Muslims in the south of Sudan helped to create the civil war in which 2 million died.

But do not forget that Awman al-Zawahiri, who is probably more important than bin Laden in the planning of Al Qaeda strategy, was a former Muslim Brotherhood member.