Article On Emirati News Site: The D.C. Terror Attack In In Which Two Israel Embassy Staffers Were Murdered Is A Mini-Version Of 9/11 And A Direct Result Of The West Ignoring The Danger Of The Muslim B

Memri

05-06-2025

In a May 23, 2025 article on the Emirati news site Al Ain, Yemeni columnist Hani Salem Mashour responded to the May 21, 2025 murderous attack in Washington D.C. in which two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot dead. Hani wrote that the shooting was a "mini-version" of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S. and a direct continuation of them, since both attacks sprang from the same ideological root and were perpetrated under the same political pretext. Moreover, both were a direct result of the Western policy that allows political Islam organizations, in particular the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), to operate in the West in the name of liberties and the freedom of expression while ignoring its discourse of incitement and hatred.
Mashour added that, despite the time that has elapsed since the September 11 attacks, no meaningful action has been taken to constrain the incitement of political Islam: the Arab world has not purged its religious discourse of extremism, and the West continues to permit the activity of these extremist organizations within its borders, along with their inciting discourse. Furthermore. the West disregarded the warning of Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Aal Nahyan in 2017 that "the MB is more dangerous than Al-Qaeda and ISIS," and that tolerating political Islam in Western countries would turn them into incubators of terrorist and hate-filled discourse.[1] In these circumstances, he said, the terrorist attack in Washington comes as no surprise.
Mashour urged the Arab countries and the West to join forces in a comprehensive campaign against political Islam, and warned that hesitation in this matter would only lead to more attacks.
Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, the two Israel Embassy staffers murdered in Washington D.C. (Source: Thevoice.ma, May 22, 2025)
The following are translated excerpts from Mashour's article:[2]
"What happened in Washington [i.e. the murder of the two Israeli Embassy staffers] did not take place in a vacuum. It was a distant echo of a larger explosion that occurred more than two decades ago in New York. The equation has not changed since September 11, only the façade has changed: from planes to guns, and from Al-Qaeda to lone wolves nourished by the discourse of political Islam dressed up in slogans about discrimination. Between the former terrorist attack [i.e., 9/11] and the recent bullet, the Arab world missed the opportunity to renew its religious discourse, and the West hesitated in its struggle against organizations that despise its democracy yet are nourished by its laws.
"What took place in Washington is just a replica, albeit in miniature, of the September 11, 2001 [attacks] – the same ideological root, the same political justification wrapped in slogans, and the same fatal Western disregard of those who lead the hate-filled discourse, [disregard] under the banner of 'rights and freedoms.' Between these two dates there was sufficient time to learn lessons, but the Arabs did not renew their religious discourse and the West did not dry up the wellsprings of terrorism.
"On the contrary, at their conferences, Arab [Islamists] began to refer to Western cities – from London to Amsterdam and from Paris to Washington – as 'London-stan,' 'Amsterdam-stan,' 'Paris-stan' and 'Washington-stan.' [These] cities started to produce a discourse of hatred in the name of Islam, [discourse that emerged] not from the caves of Kandahar and Tora Bora in Afghanistan but from the heart of licensed mosques, non-governmental organizations and university classes.
"The murderer in Washington [D.C.] needed no orders from any leadership [to perpetrate the attack]. It's enough that he was raised in an ideological atmosphere that enabled [the name] Palestine to be mixed up with terrorism and [the demand for] liberty to be mixed up with slaughter. The words he uttered before firing [his weapon, i.e., "Free Palestine!"] were no slip of the tongue, but the essence of the incitement that has been ongoing for decades in the name of the just [Palestinian] cause, which was long ago highjacked by political Islam.
"In this context precisely came the courageous early warning of Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Aal Nahyan, who said what many hadn't dared to say, [namely that] the Muslim Brotherhood is more dangerous than Al-Qaeda and ISIS. This was no exaggeration but a prescient truth, [precisely] because the [MB] organization does not knock on doors with explosives but rather with legal documents and media platforms. It infiltrates [societies] as a [charitable] association and spreads as an ideology, and when the times comes it produces from its ranks the one who squeezes the trigger.
"Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan did not just warn about the [MB] ideology, but explicitly noted that hosting political Islam organizations in the West under the slogan of freedom of expression and democracy would turn these [Western] countries into incubators of terrorist, hate-filled discourse. This is exactly what we are seeing today, when shots are fired in the heart of the American capital in the name of a highjacked cause and a polluted ideology.
"The West did not take this warning seriously. It counted on the 'moderation' of the [MB's] discourse, while [the latter] built its networks within [the West's] institutions. The biggest mistake was and remains the false distinction between the 'moderate MB' and the 'extremist Islamists' – [for] they are all products of the same text, even if [their] executive mechanisms are different.
"The event in Washington was not surprising. On the contrary, it was only a matter of time. The failure to pass deterrent laws that prohibit the activity of the MB and of the [other] streams of political Islam is the biggest problem, not only in the U.S. but in all the countries that have yet to acknowledge that the battle is not only against armed terrorism but [also] against the soft terrorism that starts with incitement and ends in bloodshed.
"France began to comprehend this too late, but today it understands and sees the MB as a key threat to its security. It monitors its financing, limits its activity in its low-income neighborhoods and realizes that permitting its presence in the name of democracy means the systematic dismantling of the Republic itself. As for Washington, it is still in a state of shock: it suffices with condemnations following every [violent] event and then goes back to nurturing these groups that preach violence under the cover of freedom [of expression].
"During his first term in office, president [Donald] Trump came close to designating the MB as a terrorist organization, but the decision was held up by the red tape of the deep state and the opposition of pressure groups and media circles. Today, with his return to the White House, the opportunity is back.
"This is where the true role of the moderate Arab countries comes in, and we must not miss this opportunity again. The coordination with the Trump administration must go far beyond a security alliance or the exchange of information. We are at a political juncture that allows [us] to incriminate the MB on a global scale, dry up its ideological wellsprings and expose its continent-spanning financing network.
"[Today], after the shooting in Washington, the situation must change. There is no longer any justification for legal tolerance or political leniency toward the lighthouses of inciting ideology. There is choice but to wage an ideological, legal, security and media struggle against all those who claim a monopoly on Islam in order to establish their caliphate over the [spilled] blood of Jews, Christians and the Muslims themselves.
"This article is not a cry of fury but a repeated warning for those who have not yet woken up. Whoever fails to see that the threat of political Islam has become tangible, deadly and present in the streets of the Western capitals must be blind or in collusion [with the MB]. The shooting at the Jewish Museum will not be the last. It is just a reminder that the fire is still burning and that we are living with a ticking bomb that does not explode only when its sound is heard but when we are silent for too long and fail to prevent it [from exploding]."