When Germany invaded Russia in 1941, it quickly found that the Soviet citizens most hostile to the Communist regime were the Turkic nationalities persecuted by Stalin. They were Muslims. "I consider only the Mohammedans to be safe," said Hitler. He set up an Ostministerium (literally, East Ministry) for the occupied Eastern territories. Gerhard von Mende, a Nazi who was also an expert on Turkic studies, was in charge of the ministry's Caucasus division. He recruited Muslim leaders to help resist the Soviets.
After the German defeat in 1945, the Cold War required that Muslims be enlisted against Communism again. Von Mende was eventually hired by the West German secret service to apply his skills to the new circumstances.
Both von Mende and Dreher wanted a mosque built in Munich to give more power to Muslim exiles. The meeting which gave birth to the mosque took place in a Munich church on Boxing Day, 1958. In the complicated political, ethnic, religious and personal battles that ensued, von Mende's approach, based more on stirring up nationalities and less on backing universalist Islamism, lost out to Dreher's radicalism. After many struggles, Ramadan got control of the mosque in Munich. From then on, Islamism had a European base. His right-hand man, Ghaleb Himmat, ran the mosque for 30 years until he was forced to resign after being accused – though the accusation was never proved – of helping fund the leadership of al-Qaeda.
How much Ramadan was "turned" by the Americans and how much he fooled them is not at all clear. But what is clear is that the mosque became an Islamist bridgehead. It was actually easier for Islamists to operate from Europe than from their own countries. When Egypt got too hot for the Brotherhood after the assassination of the peacemaking President Anwar Sadat in 1981, Mahdi Akef, the Brotherhood's "Supreme Guide", took refuge in Munich, becoming the head imam of the mosque from 1984-87.
Gradually, the Brotherhood's friends built up a network of institutions. Today, their European centre is at Markfield Conference Centre, near Leicester. The most famous intellectual inspiration for the Brotherhood's followers is Youssef Qaradawi, much praised by Ken Livingstone. He has ruled in favour of killing Israeli children and extreme punishments for homosexuals.
ou will often hear that the Muslim Brotherhood is a reasonable organisation. While all those demonstrations were taking place in Tahrir Square, Jeremy Bowen was on the BBC saying the Brotherhood was "a fairly moderate force here". It is true that, in Egypt, it is not currently advocating violence (though its more militant wing took control of the Brotherhood in Egypt last year, and is now controlled by a man suitably called Badie).
But this misses the point about its ideology, which is absolute. The doctrine is that "Islam is the solution", in a political sense. Muslim societies must be governed by sharia. No countries otherwise governed are legitimate. Many Brothers also believe that any Muslim not accepting this approach is an apostate and may therefore be killed.
This Islamist school of thought often has articulate, educated spokesmen who can talk in a European idiom. Western bureaucracies like dealing with such people, because they believe that they can cut deals with them. In terms of intelligence, it is, of course, sensible to have contacts with extremists, to keep an eye on what is going on. But that should not justify a social or political policy of legitimising any extremist who avoids advocating actual violence on our doorstep. This book shows how, for 50 years, the West has been empowering those who are adamantly opposed to our entire way of life. Bad ideas lead to bad actions, but few of our leaders point this out. One who does is David Cameron. He said as much, very strongly, a fortnight ago. The place he chose to make that speech was Munich.
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