Posted on 04/07/2007 3:53:36 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAIRO, Egypt - A top U.S. Democratic congressman met a leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed opposition group, during a recent visit to the country, the Islamic fundamentalist group and U.S. officials said Saturday.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record) met with the Muslim Brotherhood's parliament leader, Mohammed Saad el-Katatni, twice on Thursday — once at the parliament building and then at the home of the U.S. ambassador to Egypt, said Brotherhood spokesman Hamdi Hassan.
U.S. Embassy spokesman John Berry would only confirm that Hoyer, who represents Maryland, met with el-Katatni at U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone's home at a reception with other politicians and parliament members.
Though officially banned since 1954, the Brotherhood is tolerated by the government and has become Egypt's largest opposition group and President Hosni Mubarak's most powerful rival.
Its members, who run as independents, make up the largest opposition bloc in parliament, holding about one-fifth of its 454 seats.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has refused in the past to meet with the Muslim Brotherhood.
But Berry said U.S. government policy does not bar meetings with Brotherhood members of parliament and Hoyer's talks with el-Katatni were not a change in U.S. policy toward the group.
"It's our diplomatic practice around the world to meet with parliamentarians, be they members of political parties or independents," Berry said. "We haven't changed our policy with regard to the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization."
The State Department had no comment Saturday on Hoyer's meetings with the group.
Berry stressed that Hoyer met with el-Katatni in his capacity as an independent member of Egyptian parliament. He would not say what the two discussed.
Hassan said the two lawmakers discussed developments in the Middle East, the "Brotherhood's vision" and opposition movements in Egypt. He said the two met privately at the ambassador's home and with other members of Hoyer's bipartisan delegation and Egyptian lawmakers at the parliament building.
Hoyer's meeting came just a day after Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) drew sharp criticism from the Bush administration for meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus.
Pelosi and other Democrats argue the administration needs to engage Syria to resolve some of the most intractable problems in the Middle East, such as Iraq and the Israeli-Arab conflict. But the Bush administration rejects that approach, accusing Syria of exacerbating the troubles in neighboring Iraq and Lebanon.
Jon Alterman, a Mideast specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Bush administration officials may have avoided meeting Muslim Brotherhood members because that could strain relations with the secular Egyptian government, one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East.
"The difficulty when it gets to Egypt is that the Brotherhood is not a legal group within Egypt and the U.S. government is wary of violating laws in countries in which it operates," he told The Associated Press on Saturday.
"The larger constraint on our willingness to meet the Brotherhood is the Egyptian government's unease with our government's meeting with the Brotherhood."
Hoyer, who also met with Mubarak during his visit, left Egypt on Friday. A telephone message left with his spokeswoman Saturday was not immediately returned. Calls to el-Katatni also went unanswered Saturday.
The Muslim Brotherhood's parliament bloc Web site said the meetings were not part of an effort to engage the United States.
"The Brotherhood not only has reservations on dialogue with the Americans but rejects the unfair American policy in the region," the Web site said.
Washington has been pressing Mubarak for years to enact reforms as part of a Bush administration campaign to spread democracy in the Mideast. And Rice expressed concern in March that "all voices" were not being heard in deliberations over amending the constitution as part of those reforms.
"There's been a growing sense in Washington over 20 years that Islamic politics are here to stay, and the U.S. interest in promoting democracy around the world means we should be engaging with a growing number of actors," Alterman said.
___
Associated Press writers Anna Johnson in Cairo and John Heilprin in Washington contributed to this report.
LOL. I was thinking that, too. And hoping it wasn't too much to ask for :)
But wouldn't Hoyer? He's not that dumb, is he? I wonder whose idea it was to meet at the US ambassador's home.
Sand.. I dont recall hearing about it in my college history classes. I learned about them from my readings on world war 2.
I don’t think it’s so much as dumb anymore,, we’re talking liberals , well connected driven liberals.
We’ll have to wait and see if this one gets legs..
Are these Democrat meetings with enemies of the U.S. enouraging attacks on our troops in Iraq?
mew, I tell you these idiots dont know the history behind the group, I would be willing to bet a case of Tastycakes on it.
Maybe we could have a congressional panel established and look into it. ;-)
Oh wait..
Look who’s involved.. Waxman’s plate is already full.
A race to see who is the bigger traitor
Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda
Sigh. I'd say that's a sure thing.
Not only are the dems trying to make the pres look bad, now they are screwing with our allies, too?
The modern Islamist movement is captivated by the writing of Sayid Qutb, the Muslim Brother executed in 1966. Qutb hated the West with a passion and sought to influence Muslims to follow in the path of the early Muslim leaders -the Salaf, who were close to Muhammad. I know of no case where any Ikhwan leader has renounced the writings of Qutb. Nor, for that matter, has anyone in the Ikhwan renounced the Hamas charter. The Hamas, an Ikhwan chapter in Palestine, is devoted to the elimination of Jews in the Holy Land, and there is absolutely no question of living together in peace. None. Hoyer along with the ignoramus Pelosi demonstate that diplomacy should really be left to the professionals.
Actually,Zawahri the operational commander of al Qaeda is an alumnus and associate of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is blatant “in yer face” treason.
"The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main Islamic opposition group, said Thursday that the Nazi Holocaust was a myth and slammed Western governments for criticising disclaimers of the Jewish genocide."
http://www.freemuslims.org/news/article.php?article=1187
Ummmmm .. Are the Democrats trying to kick Mubarak out of office?
Qutb also attended college in the US, and followed the proscribed approach even back then of “blending in with the Americans so as to not draw attention”.
ping to post #54 ... the Dems REALLY stepped in it with this trip to the middle east
Yeppers...It sounds like Hoyer is trying to mess up the “relationship” between Washington and Mubarek.
These people are playing with fire....
Some foreign policy those dems have isnt it??
This would rate three sirens.
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