Trump,

Islamophobia and the New McCarthyism

Dr. Hatem Bazian

A purported secret document is being used by the Islamophobes, Alt-right operatives, Israel and
Arab lobbyists in order to push for a presidential executive order that would designate the
Muslim Brotherhood movement as a terrorist organization. In fact, successive Republican and
Democratic U.S. administrations have investigated the Muslim Brotherhood movement and
reached the conclusion that the group does not actually engage in terrorist activities and has
maintained its commitment to non-violence in pursuit of political engagement. One can debate
whether the Muslim Brotherhoods engagement in politics is a good or bad thing, critique their
social agenda, neoliberal economic vision and opposition to Israel and U.S. policies in the region,
but none of these items can justify the terrorist label that is being sought.

Each involved state or non-state is pressing for this label from a purely narrow self-interest and
is using the current U.S. administration as a mere tool in their strategy. With this I am not implying
that the U.S. is without interests of its own in the current regional alignment, far from it. The U.S.
has played a very pernicious role in the on-going Sunni versus Sunni low-intensity warfare
which is a strategy focused on fomenting and exaggerating conflicts between various Muslim
groupings in order to establish who would best represent an imperially accommodationist Islamic
worldview in the region. Rest assured that the one the U.S. is seeking will be determined by
alignment with its economic and political interests in the region. On the one hand, the U.S. and
its allies have played a complex and dirty game in fueling and intensifying the Sunni-Shia conflicts
and have been utilizing this bloody confrontation to cement and foster a more militarized and
interventionist foreign policy in the region and across the globe.

As for the Islamophobes, what can we say concerning their frothing at the mouth over this
possible label? Critically, the Islamophobes and clash of civilization advocates see Muslims as a
threat to their distorted and demented worldview which is founded upon a mixture of conspiracy
theories and an imagined and ignorant re-reading of the past. The groups and individuals that
make up the Islamophobia industry have worked tirelessly to demonize Islam and Muslims, and
Trumps possible executive order will be a sweet triumph for their diligent racism and bigotry.
The purported Muslim Brotherhood secret document is used as evidence of a conspiracy to
undermine and take over America. It is important to remember that this Islamophobic cabal was
likewise on board on attacking Obama for supposed ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and were
key activists in the Birther movement. The document is entered as exhibit A for the existence of
a deep Islamic conspiracy to take over America and this populist message fueled the anger and
delegitimizing of President Obama. These are the same individuals and groups that targeted
Obama for his Muslimness and insinuated of his supposed connection to the Muslim
Brotherhood. Taking our country back has to be understood within its racist and Islamophobic
current that brought Trump into the White House and is now pushing for this labeling.

Why Islamophobes would seek such a decision is an important question to turn our attention to
next. Islamophobes used the secret document to argue for the existence of a plan that
supposedly connects all major Muslim American organizations in an effort to undermine
Americas power from the inside and then plan for an Islamic takeover. Here, we have the
foxiness of Islamophobes who are masquerading and dressing up their cruel and ugly racism with
the garb of patriotism and defense of country. Setting such labels will form the basis for the new
McCarthyism and will be unleashing a systematic targeting of Muslim groups and individuals.

Consequently, this label will make it possible to attack all American Muslim organizations in one
swoop by asserting a connection to the Muslim Brotherhood movement. Once the claim is made,
it would be much easier to push most if not all these organizations out of civil society and limit
their access to policy making circles. In addition, this terrorist label will provide Islamophobes
with a new legitimacy to once again serve as the go to experts on everything Islam-related in
policy making circles, after serving only as behind the scene conduits for information and
research to Congressional hearings.

Another set of interests that is heavily pushing for this executive order are held by Egypt and
other Arab Gulf States who view this terrorism label as a tool that can be used as a deadly weapon
to further eliminate internal opposition and consolidate power. It is not a secret that since the
initial period of the Arab Spring that witnessed the overthrow of few dictators, Arab
monarchies and other long ruling elites targeted the Muslim Brotherhood movement because it
was the best organized and the only real contender for power in post-revolutionary Egypt, and
Tunisia as well as the push for reforms in Yemen. The campaigns against Muslim Brotherhood in
all these countries were funded heavily by some Gulf States as well as funding and nurturing
alterative Islamic groups that can counter the grassroots movement and undermine their Islamic
credentials. Existing theological and legalistic principles within the global Islamic community were
utilized and got magnified to drive this strategy. This is a very complex topic that needs its own
article, but Egypt and some Gulf States are pursuing the U.S. decision as a legitimizing tool to
shore-up failed policies and dead-end visions for the future.

Likewise, we find a persistent engagement from pro-Israel think tanks and anti-terrorism
experts in the demonization of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. Israel has shifted its focus
away from Arab nationalist threats to Islamic threats in the mid 90s, which contributed to a
steady stream of demonization and bigotry directed at Muslim groups and individuals including
first and foremost the Muslim Brotherhood movement. Israels demonization of the Muslim
Brotherhood has been in play since the founding of the country in 1948 because the organization
took an active role in resisting Zionism and mobilizing popular opposition to it. In the current
context, Israels interest in this decision rests in maintaining the pressure on Hamas, which is
already included in the state department list, but more importantly this would provide further
tools to prevent or continue to frustrate a possible Palestinian unity government.

Right now it is critical to recall is that the Muslim Brotherhood movement is well known to
Washington policy makers and strategists, which makes the designation on prior events a little
complicated. Indeed, the U.S. government has worked and recruited the Muslim Brotherhood
movement and many other Islamic sects and groups during the Cold War to confront
communism. Thus, the U.S. itself had a great role in publicizing and promoting particular Islamic
worldviews that played a critical part in challenging communist and socialist oriented post-
colonial leaders and political parties across the Arab and Muslim worlds. The example of Egypt is
illustrative as the U.S. worked with Gulf States in the 1960s and other monarchies to support the
Muslim Brotherhood movement in order to derail and prevent Nassers Arab socialist program
post 1953 Free Officers Revolution.

Another example of this strategy was the recruitment of all Muslim religious and political trends
into the war effort against the Russians in Afghanistan and during the Iran-Iraq conflict. Here,
one has to say that the modern intensification of violent trends in the Arab and Muslim world
have to be traced to the dual strategy of confronting the socialists on the one hand and success
of the Iranian Revolution on the other. All Islamic Sunni trends and groups were involved into this
confrontation, as well as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Wahhabi Movement and Sufi groups. The
global Jihad movement was birthed during the Cold War and was part of the tools chest in the
superpowers confrontation.

The proposed terrorist labeling boils down to an attempt to criminalize a set of related ideas and
beliefs that are connected to a group that came into existence in 1928. The Muslim Brotherhood
is not shy to express its desire to have a political system in Muslim-majority countries based on a
modern interpretation of classical texts. The notion of political Islam and its role in the modern
state is what the Islamophobes, some Arab countries and clash of civilization advocates oppose.
Yet, this labeling is more about targeting Muslim groups in the West and not in Muslim-majority
countries. Again, the debate on the viability or desirability of a political program sponsored by
the Muslim Brotherhood is not the same as labeling them a terrorist group, which would be a
major mistake if it is allowed to occur.

Certainly, the Islamophobes are the real inheritors of Senator McCarthy since their goal is to
pursue other Americans under a dubious plan. Once this labeling is logged into the books the real
McCarthyism witch-hunt against American Muslim individuals and groups will be unleashed.
Islamophobes are pushing for a modern style political and religious inquisition in the same way
that Senator McCarthy used the hearing to punish and torment the liberal class and presided
over a reign of political terror in the country.