That’ll be this Cordoba then :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliph_of_C%C3%B3rdoba

It actually took up 80% of what are now Spain and Portugal.

But Marc Lynch’s point is that the Brotherhood’s proposal for a Higher Ulema Council opened it up to this sort of hysterical attack. He doesn’t endorse these attacks.

There’s also an interesting piece that Lynch posted on his blog, recounting his discussions with Brotherhood leaders in Cairo last October, which goes into this in more detail.

http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2007/10/doing-dialogue-.html

Lynch writes:

“They were all keen to explain to me that the controversial Higher Ulema Council would only be advisory, not compulsory, and that sovereignty would still rest in the elected Parliament and the Constitutional Court. They argued that their purpose had not been to create a new religious authority, but rather to create a new body which would be elected and independent of the Executive Branch – taking power away from al-Azhar rather than imposing Shia-style religious authority.”

Incidentally, Lynch’s article, which openly discusses differences within the Brotherhood leaderhip and makes clear his own lack of sympathy for the conservatives, was reproduced on the Brotherhood’s official English language website.

http://www.ikhwanweb.com/Article.asp?ID=14330&SectionID=146

Rather odd behaviour for a “fascist organisation”, some might think.

As is not uncommon in these sorts of destinations, my guide was a big fan of British heavy metal music. I was treated to a track from the new solo album by the former lead singer of Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, famous for such songs as ‘Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter’. This particular composition was something about swords and warriors and beasts – the usual, awful, heavy metal lyrical content.

My guide was in ecstasy: ‘This Bruce Dickinson, he is great poet yes? He is like English Sufi philosopher.’

I was speechless. There are many things I could call Bruce Dickinson – but Sufi philosopher?

‘You like Judas Priest?’ asked my guide as another godawful song kicked in. This was not the soundtrack I wanted to accompany the staggering scenery we were driving through.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/feb/24/iran.skiing?page=2

When he’s on about the complexity of Islamicism, from the ‘post’-jihadists of the MAB to the Iranian theocrats, it’s strange that he hasn’t come up already his line about the Jamaat-i-Islami. That their collaboration with the Pak army in mass murder in the Bangladeshi war of national liberation was ‘long ago’ and now all is forgotten.

And from that Marc Lynch piece:

“Abdel Monem Said Aly described it as a blueprint for Iranian-style religious rule, while the Op-ed pages were filled with columns lambasting the MB for its seeming retreat from democratic convictions”

Remember the context within which this blueprint emerged. The MB’s strategy in Egyptian politics and abroad has been to present itself as a modern, moderate Islamist party. They need to partner abroad with the remenants of socialist politics, and at home, with domestic reformers who are seeking to open up a democratic politics in which they hope to thrive.

Yet, even at this crucial time, the Ikwaan was incapable of producing a platform which omitted the most obnoxious features of Islamism.

Lynch is supporter of accomodation with the Muslim Brotherhood. The best he can offer, in his analysis, is excuses. The “liberals” were in prison and couldn’t restrain the “hard liners”. Later drafts of the blueprint might omit the most objectionable requirements. The Higher Ulema Council was only ever meant to be advisory, and how silly of people to think it was supposed to be authoritative.

In short: Lynch is effectively in the business of providing the MB with an alibi.

There’s a better explanation. The MB is, at heart, a fascist theocratic organisation, which can’t dissimulate and pretend to be liberal or democratic, even when its very future depends upon it. The fact is: the Ikwaan had its chance, and it blew it.

Yes, there are certainly divisions within the MB. That’s not cause for rejoicing. Lynch’s piece acknowledges that the “rank and file” are the ones who object to even presenting the MB as liberal. A handful of westernised ideologues aren’t enough to turn the MB into a soft democratic Islamist organisation like the AKP. I confidently expect the MB in power to descend into corruption, factionalism, and violence, as it has in Gaza.

I accept that the IFE is essentially a Jamaat-aligned group. Certainly, I’m not suggesting that the Ikwaan and Jamaat are merged; but that they’re ideologically close, and prepared to work together in the UK. I probably overstated the closeness of the two groups.

Anon

You are FoS and you just waste time with your posturing and semantics. If you know (as you claim you do) the first thing about the politics of the MB then you know that the MB political philiosophy has always dictated that the leadership ask for what is realistically possible under the present circumsances. There is no question that the MB is working towards a complete theocratic state where teh Ulema will rule unhindered by anything other than their own interprtation of Sharia.

So dont waste time here with pointless Tariq Ramadan style theoretic posturing.

The MB proudly proclaims that it “seeks to instill the Qur’an and Sunnah as the “sole reference point for the ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community and state”

Because they hear the name Cordoba and imagine some orientalist fantasy of the golden age of al-Andalus and naievely believe that, at heart, all people are good intentioned, and these guys are only trying to bridge the gap and dialogue with us. Foolish – go read up on the Martyrs of Cordoba for instance to see some inter-faith dialogue…

David T in fact referred explicitly to both the Muslim Brotherhood and HT: “both parties wish to create a nightmarish Iranian style theocracy”.

David T: “And the Muslim Brotherhood is proposing an Iranian style theocracy: as you’ll see if you look at the linked article which outlines their ‘Blueprint’. You’ll see that the comparison with the Iranian regime is made in that news report. The key similarity is that the Muslim Brotherhood has come out in favour of a Council of Guardians style system, which will evidently have the power to prevent ‘un-Islamic’ legislation being passed.”

Even the conservative elements in the Brotherhood, who were responsible for pushing through the proposal for a Higher Ulama Council (while the more liberal leaders were locked up by Mubarak), are emphatic that it would have only an advisory role. Its intended purpose is to act as a democratic counterweight to the pro-regime ulama at al-Azhar. This falls some way short of a proposal for an Iranian style theocracy.

See for example Marc Lynch’s analysis:
http://www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications1/author/lynch.html

David T: “IFE is the umbrella organisation that brings together both the Jamaat and the Ikwaan streams.”

IFE is a split from Da’watul Islam and is linked to Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. It is not connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Well, because all too many are faux liberals, their agenda isn’t kosher, classical liberalism; that’s simply a facade. Their real agenda is something close variation of Chomskyism; a really rather nasty ideology. Orwell had the measure of the buggers yonks ago.