On Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News, after anchor Brian Williams asked correspondent Richard Engel to respond to concerns about the radical nature of the Muslim Brotherhood that have been expressed by former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Engel asserted that the movement is "not al-Qaeda, it’s not the Taliban," but, as he went on to compare the group instead to Hamas, partly because they "wear business suits," he neglected to point out that Hamas is itself a terrorist organization.
He related that the organization is "anti-American, it’s anti-Israel, but it wouldn’t kick all the Christians out of this country."
When Williams brought up the Muslim Brotherhood, he posed the question: "And the Speaker (Gingrich) said that they were enemies of civilization. He said it’s in their own creed. I know for many years you lived and worked alongside members of the Muslim Brotherhood there in Cairo. Tell us your knowledge of this group."
Engel responded:
The group has about 20 to 40 percent support in the country. It’s not al-Qaeda, it’s not the Taliban. They do support Islamic law, but the people who are members of the Muslim Brotherhood wear business suits. It’s much more similar to, it’s much more akin to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It’s anti-American, it’s anti-Israel, but it wouldn’t kick all the Christians out of this country, but it would definitely take a more anti-American line.
The NBC correspondent also did not mention that members of the Muslim Brotherhood had been implicated in the assassinations of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981 or of the Egyptian prime minister in 1948.
Below is a complete transcript of the exchange from the Tuesday, February 8, NBC Nightly News :
BRIAN WILLIAMS: And, Richard, in this country last night, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, during an interview, was talking about the Muslim Brotherhood. You’ve been talking about them for days. It’s believed that any coalition government will have to contain a percentage of them. And the Speaker said that they were enemies of civilization. He said it’s in their own creed. I know for many years you lived and worked alongside members of the Muslim Brotherhood there in Cairo. Tell us your knowledge of this group.
RICHARD ENGEL: The group has about 20 to 40 percent support in the country. It’s not al-Qaeda, it’s not the Taliban. They do support Islamic law, but the people who are members of the Muslim Brotherhood wear business suits. It’s much more similar to, it’s much more akin to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It’s anti-American, it’s anti-Israel, but it wouldn’t kick all the Christians out of this country, but it would definitely take a more anti-American line.
