Before arriving in Britain to set up the Muslim Association of Britain in 1997 (which became part of the FIOE), a senior Egyptian Brother Kamal Helbawi said: "This religion that is Islam shall govern the whole universe, the Islamic civilisation should rule and govern and direct people in every walk of life, but not be governed by others." As fanciful as this dream might seem, it does appear to be shared by those Muslim Brothers regarded as enlightened.
In the wake of the Arab Spring, Rachid Ghannouchi, the exiled leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunis, returned there from London to help run the country after President Ben Ali was ousted. In the Islamic world Ghannouchi is regarded as one its foremost scholars. Last year, Time magazine included him among the world's 100 most influential people and he was presented with the Chatham House Prize by the Duke of York for promoting "a culture of tolerance and bridge-building" with minority secular parties in the new Tunis.
Yet Ghannouchi has also spoken of his hopes for what he calls the "Islamic project" and the "rebirth of a civilisation" which is "qualitative and humane rather than quantitative and secular". And what has prevented the rebirth of civilisation?
"Zionism," according to Ghannouchi. Zionism "represents a secular onslaught on the heart of our Islamic nation" (i.e. Palestine), which he has portrayed as a sort of virus spreading "octopus-like over the whole planet, embracing and transforming every aspect of existence by means of its economics, communications, arts, and literature, or — more crudely — through the presence of its fleets, intelligence agencies, and the recruitment of local converts . . .", and thereby repressing "hope for a global liberation".
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