A member of the new Facebook Oversight Board has been found to be “partial toward the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Tawakkol Karman, a Yemeni activist and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, stated in a 2013 TV interview with BBC Arabic, that she supported the Muslim Brotherhood. She was announced as a member of the Facebook Oversight Board on May 6, 2020. The Oversight Board will make rulings on what content will stay up or be taken down.
Pro-Israel voices have been censored on Facebook in the past. Yair Netenyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu, was censored on Facebook for calling for retaliation against those implicated in the shooting of two Israeli soldiers in 2018. Hamas, the terrorist organization that engages in violent activities in Israel, is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Karman stated in 2013, “The Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters, who oppose the military rule, are engaged in a legendary struggle, which they are waging with their blood, their resolute steadfastness, and their belief that they will restore the revolution to its true path.”
When an anchor asked if she was “politically and ideologically partial to them,” Karman answered: “You can hear it from me: Yes, at this stage, I am partial toward the Muslim Brotherhood, toward the coalition that rejects the coup against legitimacy, and toward all the Egyptian youths who oppose the coup against democracy, and against the January (2011) revolution. I will not remain neutral in this battle. This is my battle.”
The video was translated by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which monitors and translates TV and social media in the Arabic world. MEMRI is a nonprofit organization located in Washington D.C.
According to The Jerusalem Post, when Tawakkol Karman won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood’s official English website put out a congratulatory statement, claiming Karman as one of its members.
In 2019, President Donald Trump wanted to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Even though The New York Times did not think the Muslim Brotherhood qualified as a terrorist organization, the group has previously been associated with two branches that are already designated as terrorist groups by the Department of State: Hasm and Liwa al-Thawra. Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Bahrain have already designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror group.
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which carries out acts of terror on Israeli targets, was at one point a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, according to Reuters. According to The Times, many members of the Muslim Brotherhood have quit the group and moved on to more violent groups such as Al-Qaeda.
The Heritage Foundation wrote: “[T]he Brotherhood has historically proven to be a hugely malignant force.” The founder of the group, according to The Heritage Foundation, “believed that an Islamic caliphate had to be restored and an unpolluted version of Sharia law implemented if Islam was to be revived in the face of Western secularism.”
