What is your story with the Muslim Brotherhood, and were you a Brotherhood member who then left them?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Well, my Shaykh, regarding your story with the Muslim Brotherhood, what exactly is the story, because there are many circumstances and back-and-forth, and of course, perhaps this will be the final word on the matter?
The Shaykh : From which aspect, I mean?
The questioner : I mean, how did you start your relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, and why did you leave the Muslim Brotherhood?
The Shaykh : This is a wrong question. I was never a Brotherhood member, so it cannot be said: why did you leave?
The questioner : And this is the problem.
The Shaykh : So I say: I am now as I was in the beginning, meaning: I do not adopt any of the parties, nor do I call for partisanship. Therefore, in my person, I am willing to attend with all the groups, just as the other groups, those who are not rigid or extreme among them, are willing to attend my lectures, because I do not call for a specific party or a specific group. So, I was with the Muslim Brotherhood there in Syria for the entire time I spent, just as I am with all Muslims, meaning: I listen to their lectures and attend their circles as far as is possible for me, and if there is an opportunity for reminding and teaching, I did so and did not fall short. This teaching and conveying the call is what kept me closely connected to the Muslim Brotherhood to the extent that I would travel with their trips and enjoy their outings, seizing them as an opportunity to convey the call, because in my previous belief, which has only changed slightly later regarding this country where I am now: my position regarding the Muslim Brotherhood has not changed. So, I still call them, as I call all Muslims, to follow the Book and the Sunnah, and I am still, as I was before, not of the Muslim Brotherhood in their methodology and tactics, as they say, for their methodology differs completely from our methodology. This can be summarized in a very short word: "Our methodology is based on the principle: educate then mobilize; their methodology is based on the principle: mobilize then educate". And this is a completely deviant methodology. Therefore, their methodology required that there be in the Muslim Brotherhood the sectarian and the independent of the sects, the Salafi and the Sufi, and even the Shi'i, because their call is based on aggregation and not on education. So, I was and still am utilizing this aggregation for the benefit of the call, but at some times, their partisan fanaticism leads them to contradict this methodology of theirs based on aggregation, so they divide.
The Shaykh : From which aspect, I mean?
The questioner : I mean, how did you start your relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, and why did you leave the Muslim Brotherhood?
The Shaykh : This is a wrong question. I was never a Brotherhood member, so it cannot be said: why did you leave?
The questioner : And this is the problem.
The Shaykh : So I say: I am now as I was in the beginning, meaning: I do not adopt any of the parties, nor do I call for partisanship. Therefore, in my person, I am willing to attend with all the groups, just as the other groups, those who are not rigid or extreme among them, are willing to attend my lectures, because I do not call for a specific party or a specific group. So, I was with the Muslim Brotherhood there in Syria for the entire time I spent, just as I am with all Muslims, meaning: I listen to their lectures and attend their circles as far as is possible for me, and if there is an opportunity for reminding and teaching, I did so and did not fall short. This teaching and conveying the call is what kept me closely connected to the Muslim Brotherhood to the extent that I would travel with their trips and enjoy their outings, seizing them as an opportunity to convey the call, because in my previous belief, which has only changed slightly later regarding this country where I am now: my position regarding the Muslim Brotherhood has not changed. So, I still call them, as I call all Muslims, to follow the Book and the Sunnah, and I am still, as I was before, not of the Muslim Brotherhood in their methodology and tactics, as they say, for their methodology differs completely from our methodology. This can be summarized in a very short word: "Our methodology is based on the principle: educate then mobilize; their methodology is based on the principle: mobilize then educate". And this is a completely deviant methodology. Therefore, their methodology required that there be in the Muslim Brotherhood the sectarian and the independent of the sects, the Salafi and the Sufi, and even the Shi'i, because their call is based on aggregation and not on education. So, I was and still am utilizing this aggregation for the benefit of the call, but at some times, their partisan fanaticism leads them to contradict this methodology of theirs based on aggregation, so they divide.