While most of the attention was on Egypt and its Muslim Brotherhood takeover, a similar takeover was being championed by the defenders of democracy in Tunisia. There the Jihadists of Ennahda were suddenly transformed into moderates despite views that were anything but. The classic example of this came with the transforming of Sheikh Rachid al-Ghannouchi, its Jihadist leader into a moderate.
Despite a few minor hiccups.
Sheikh Rachid al-Ghannouchi, the head of Tunisia’s controversial Islamist Ennahda Movement, is scheduled to head a lecture Tuesday afternoon Yale’s Law School, according to the school’s website.
Al-Ghannouchi’s upcoming appearance at the Ivy League school could become controversial given the sheik’s longtime support for radical terror groups and his past calls for Muslims to wage “unceasing war against the Americans.”
The sheik’s violent rhetoric, radical leanings, and endorsement of Hamas led him to be banned from entering the United States for a time.
Sheikh Rashid Ghannouchi, of Tunisia’s equally moderate Islamist Ennahda Movement, said, “There are no civilians in Israel. The population—males, females and children—are the army reserve soldiers, and thus can be killed.”
This is what the left supported when it backed the Muslim Brotherhood. The results nearly led to a Benghazi massacre in Tunisia even before that attack took place.
And, predictably enough, as Patrick Poole reports, there were more practical consequences.
A 34-year-old Tunisian ISIS fighter captured by Kurdish forces in Raqaa recently spoke to reporter Jenan Moussa of Al-Aan TV. When asked why he had joined the terrorist organization, the fighter confessed that Ennahda -- the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate in Tunisia -- had encouraged young fighters to join the jihad in Syria.
It's not a coincidence, then, that Tunisia had the largest number of foreign fighters in Syria.
This deflates much of the U.S. think-tank and media establishment narrative that the Muslim Brotherhood serves as a "firewall" against jihadist groups
The Muslim Brotherhood serves as a feeder. It's why so many MSA presidents ended up as terrorists or why Al Qaeda is currently being run by a Brotherhood splinter group. Jihad is a continuum. Like all forms of extremism, they're gateway drugs to greater violence and ruthlessness.