al-Qaradawi, The Muslim Brotherhood & The Future

Muslim televangelist Yusuf al-Qaradawi says he knows what the Muslim Brotherhood in Egpyt thinks -- and he provides clues to how they might act. A profile in Germany's Der Spiegel called him the "Muslim Dear Abby." He made an appearance in Cairo on Friday.

Washington may reconsider the Muslim Brotherhood and engage with the moderate Islamist movement. Or not...


The Society of the Muslim Brothers (often simply الإخوان Al-Ikhwān, The Brotherhood or MB) is an Islamic transnational movement and the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. The group is the world's oldest and largest Islamic political group, founded in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna, a 22-year-old elementary school teacher, as an Islamic revivalist movement in Egypt, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The group has followers in 70+ countries. The Brotherhood was not the lead actor in the demonstrations in Egypt leading up to the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, but it played an important supporting role and made a conscious effort not to hijack the revolution away from idealistic young people brought together by social networking.

Related: A Young Girl's Response to Anti-Islamic Sentiment in the USA.

Readers can get a better understanding of the Muslim Brotherhood influence in America by reviewing Sayyid Qutb’s works ‘Milestones’ [ pdf ] and ‘In The Shade of The Quran’ (15 volumes, also downloadable in pdf form here). Chris Gaubatz has written "My Life Inside CAIR and The Muslim Brotherhood" - in which he purports to reveal the true aim of the organization.

A Look At The Youth Of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

Journalist Charles Sennott recently returned from Tahrir Square, where he was filming a documentary on the revolution for PBS's Frontline. It focuses on the young members of the Muslim Brotherhood [official website] who played an important role in Egypt's revolution. [Audio report].

So where exactly is all this leading to? It's that little bug of social revolution, of political upheaval, of "time for a change." Once it gets momentum going, it is very difficult to stop.

We cannot and should not FEAR change, but we can ACCEPT it and DEAL WITH IT! Remember, nothing is forever!

Tags: Muslim Brotherhood, Middle East uprising

For The Chinese Islamist organization known as the Muslim Brotherhood, see Yihewani.

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Glee, Gaga, Minaj, Aguilera and Lara Logan

Two current pop culture icons have the savviest teams of public relations people behind them.

Lady GaGa and Nicki Minaj.

You may think Ms. Minaj [#6] is relatively new on the scene. She's been with us for awhile, like one of those programs that runs silently in the background on your computer. When enough foundations and associations were made, her PR team sprang into action in a "Minaj Barrage" that truly catapulted her to stardom within and beyond the hip hop community.

Lady GaGa emerged as a cheap imitation Madonna wannabee. I heard from people who have an in with the Lady's PR folk. They actually read my post about Gags NOT being the new Madonna. That prompted a little thinking outside the box... they decided to exploit that very idea, which blossomed at the Grammies. This is a remarkably rare occurrence where a star gives her blessing to a wannabee. And that lifts the "wannabee curse" immediately!

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Recent news that GLEE charted a whole bunch of tunes and supposedly "beat Elvis" is straight-out BS. The music industry is a ghost of what it once was, and this GLEE "news" is utter nonsense.

I posted this several years ago:

The New Information Age (and co-incidentally, the beginning of the total collapse of the music industry in America) began around 1999. The critical event was the making of a star, Christina Aguilera, by use of the Internet.

Soon, the downloading of pirated music CDs (and a bit later on, Movies) changed the face of so-called "Top 40" music and the radio FOREVER: When executives at RCA Records were plotting ways to create buzz around teen pop singer Christina Aguilera's debut album, they knew the Internet would play a crucial role.

The trick was marketing Ms. Aguilera without making teens feel they were actually being marketed to. On a 1-10 scale, Internet marketer Ken Krasner says, teens "have their B.S. detectors on 11." So RCA hired a team of young cybersurfers to swarm the Web and start chatting about the 18-year-old Ms. Aguilera on popular teenInternet sites such as www.alloy.com, www.bolt.com and www.gurl.com. They posted information casually -- sometimes sounding like fans, sometimes like official spokesmen -- but always making sure not to come off as lame adults trying to be cool or marketers pitching a product. It worked.

Thanks in large part to the advance buzz online, the album "Christina Aguilera" was No. 1 on the charts when it debuted in late August. Doesn't sound like much of a big deal, does it? But that's the day "Top 40" died. Today's so-called "Top 40" does not accurately reflect what music the general public is listening to.

WHAT? YOU THINK I'M KIDDING? Think again!

Moral of the story:

Once upon a time, Christine Aguilera had a crack team of PR people behind her... too bad she must have lost them, or they got too fat and happy.

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Last week this humble weblog enjoyed sky-high traffic thanks to a 2008 post about Lara Logan.

The search terms that brought visitors in by the droves were "Lara logan swimsuit pics" "lara logan nude" "lara logan sex" --- you get the idea!

In August 2005 my blog featured multiple posts about Albany area teacher Beth Geisel, a hot blonde who admitted having sex with boys at the military high school where she was employed. A single post about Geisel brought 20-thousand visitors to my over a 9-hour time period! Such was, and is, netizen's interest in sex.

Tags: Lady GaGa, Glee, Nicki Minaj, Christina Aguilera

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