Muslim Brotherhood PM invited by Obama to attend speech in Cairo

Update 6/4/09 9:19am President Obama spoke from Cairo University, rather than Al Azhar University as indicated in the text below. However, the event was sponsored by Al Azhar.

AP PHOTOMohammed Mahdi Akef, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, gestures as he leaves a press conference on parliamentary elections, in this Monday, Dec. 5, 2005 file photo, in Cairo, Egypt. A year after winning nearly one-fifth of the seats in Egypt's parliament, the Muslim Brotherhood is asserting itself as the main challenger to President Hosni Mubarak's autocratic regime in ways both big and small, overshadowing secular reform groups. Arabic slogan at top read as " Muslim brotherhood".

The International Middle East Media Center was the only one to report on the invitation, but it was more of an aside to the main thrust of its article, which dealt with al-Qaeda leader Al-Zawahiri. However, this is an instance when the 'by the way' part of a report is more important than the lead story.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been a thorn in President Mubarak's side for many decades. Many of its members, at one time or another have been jailed. However, the group has 86 members in the Egyptian parliament, and the head of the Parliamentarian bloc of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammad Al Katatini, stated on Tuesday that he had received a private invitation from the American President to come to Al-Azhar University, where Obama will deliver his speech.  This is an audacious move on the part of Obama, which managed to irritate the Egyptian leadership who say that the Brotherhood is 'illegal'. Apparently, Americans officials in Cairo met with Al Katatini according to a report from Al Jazeera. 

If Obama is not concerned about ruffling Mubarak's feathers, he should also invite all of those Egyptian bloggers who have called for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, a stop police violence and torture, a stop to random and illicit arrests, - the most vocal of which is a man called Wael Abbas, named Middle East Person of the Year 2007 by CNN. He is the recipient of many other awards which can be seen on his website, and he is an avid anti-torture voice in Egypt. He refused to meet with George Bush in 2008 and blogged about his refusal, posting a video of an ape to this blog. 

In spite of Al Katatini's acceptance to attend Obama's speech, a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman contended that Obama's visit will be useless  'unless the U.S. shows dramatic change in its policies toward Arab and Islamic countries.' It added: 

"The U.S. administration is attempting to recruit all the Arab states ... to implement its permanent agenda that favors the Zionist entity [referring to the United States' close ties to Israel]'

Ayman Al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's mouthpiece and an Egyptian, joined the Muslim Brotherhood at age 14. He recently called on Egypt to reject Barack Obama's visit, calling the American President a criminal with blood on his hands.