Special to WorldTribune.com

Originally published June 30, 2013

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has launched a drive for a U.S.
alliance with the ruling Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt, a leading
analyst said.

Analyst Barry Rubin asserted that Obama has formed a U.S. strategic
alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and other countries. Rubin,
director of Israel’s Gloria Center, said Obama signaled his intention to
establish such an alliance as soon as he entered office in 2009.

“For all practical purposes the closest allies to the United States are no longer Israel, Saudi Arabia, and a moderate Egypt, but an Islamist Egypt, an Islamist regime in Turkey, and the Syrian rebels led by the Brotherhood,” Rubin said in a recent analysis.

[See WorldTribune’s Greatest Hits]

Rubin said the Brotherhood alliance formed the basis of the U.S. security doctrine in the Middle East. He said the doctrine was concealed from the American people, although hinted in Obama’s speech in Cairo in 2009.

“Two and a half years ago, who would ever have thought that the United
States would enter an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood?” Rubin asked.
Other analysts agreed. The Investigative Project on Terrorism has traced
White House invitations to leading members of the Brotherhood and other
Islamist groups. On June 13, Obama hosted Sheik Abdullah Bin Bayahall, vice
president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, headed by Qatar’s
Yusef Qaradawi, himself banned from the United States.

“The IUMS has a long history of supporting Hamas — a top Hamas leader
is an IUMS member — and of calling for Israel’s destruction,” IPT, in a
report by Steven Emerson and John Rossomando said.

The White House portrayed the invitation as part of the administration’s
Muslim outreach program. Bin Bayahall, seen on his website in White House
meetings, was said to have met senior officials, including then-National
Security Advisor Tom Donilon.

“The White House visit also raises questions relative to the degree the
Obama administration is willing to go to court the Muslim Brotherhood both
at home and abroad,” IPT said.

A poll shows that Obama’s courting of the Brotherhood has divided the
nation. In a June 22 survey by Rasmussen Reports, 51 percent of likely U.S.
voters regard what was termed radical Muslims as a bigger threat than the
conservative Tea Party movement. Only 29 percent of pro-Obama respondents
agreed.

“Conservatives overwhelmingly see radical Muslims as the greater terror
threat,” Rasmussen said on June 27. “Liberals are fairly evenly divided
between radical Muslims and the Tea Party.”

  Barry Rubin, Gloria Center, GREATEST HITS 2013: Analyst: Obama has formed strategic alliance with Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Morsi, Sheik Abdullah Bin Bayahall, Tom Donilon