TNT EXCLUSIVE: Tom Quiggin on Political Islam

The National Telegraph recently interviewed leading counterterrorism expert Tom Quiggin on the threats posed by political Islam. The profound impacts of radicalization globally were highlighted in the Qatar Papers, which signify an evolution in how the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates operate.

TNT: Before we begin, could you give us a brief overview of the Muslim Brotherhood? What does it stand to achieve, and how has it, or will it go about achieving its aims?

Tom Quiggin: The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist supremacist group that was founded in Egypt in 1928 by a guy named Hassan al-Banna. And it has since expanded to being a global organization with a permanent fix in organizations such as law schools and charities in about 85 different countries around the world. 

The objective of the Muslim Brotherhood as lofty as it sounds is to create a global caliphate. In other words, they believe that due to their supremacist nature that their particular form of political Islam should be in charge of quite literally everything. And anyone who opposes them should be crushed or converted. Worth noting that what makes the Muslim Brotherhood, dangerous, if you will, is it is political Islam, not religious Islam, which means that they believe Islam should not only be a religion or a faith, like most Muslims believe, but rather that should be expanded out to take over everything, from schools, health care, the economy, the government, the justice system, literally everything.

TNT: There was a book released on the contents of the Qatar papers by the French journalists who initially received the 140 documents. They had mentioned in their book that $80.8 million went into funding brotherhood affiliates throughout Europe, including countries like France, and Switzerland. Based on how much money is being dumped into cementing the roots of these organizations across Europe, how do local authorities go about dismantling these organizations?

Tom Quiggin: I’ve been trying things like testifying to the Senate since 1998. I testified at the Air India inquiry, and I testified in criminal terrorism trials. The message we tried and put out every time is that if you want to get rid of the problem of Islamist extremism and the violence that goes with it, one of the first answers is to start cutting off the money. 

So a couple of times in Canada that’s been done. 

There was a Muslim Brotherhood front group called IRFAN-Canada, the international relief fund to the afflicted and needy, and they had their charitable status withdrawn by the government and were listed as a terrorist entity to stop them from carrying out their mandate. 

The CRA has busted the Islamic Society of North America by example in Mississauga for funding terrorism, and they lost one of their charities, but I think they’re still running about three others. 

So if there were one solution to how to cut this down, it would be to identify and monitor money flows, which we can actually do, and then stop the local front organizations from getting foreign funding for their operations.

TNT: There’s a British-registered bank called al-Rayan that has been used as a front to fund Islamist groups like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. So how has the bank been able to continue its “legal operations,” given its political connections elsewhere?

Tom Quiggin: One of the things that Qatar has done is they have flooded the world with money to advance their cause. And it should be noted that the first country in all of this right now it’s not Saudi Arabia. It’s not Iran. It’s not Egypt. It’s Qatar. And they’re doing it with a wave of money, which they’re getting from their abundance of natural gas resources. 

They have sponsored political campaigns, funded political parties, funded chairs at universities, and put vast amounts of funding into Brookings Institution in Washington DC so that those who testify to Congress say, “What a great bunch of guys Qatar are.” They have taken away that money and spread it around the world to create a political environment where they can operate. So that’s something else that needs to be addressed. 

Northeastern University and Brookings both take vast amounts of money from these guys, and that’s something that should be stopped. So the answer to your question is, how does the bank seem to continue operating despite the fact they’re up to their eyebrows, in the funding of extremist terror? The answer is political influence.

TNT: The bulk of its money has gone to funding 240 projects, mainly mosques and Islamic centers across Europe. Given the effects of the recent migrant crisis at the midway point of the decade, countries like Austria have taken action in closing down mosques over the fear of Islamism, while others such as Poland have closed their borders to illegal immigrants over concerns for their security. 

What is the appropriate strategy in tackling the issue with those who are using the guise of being a genuine refugee?

Tom Quiggin: Yeah, one of the things that happened, as you pointed out with the wave of refugees that were brought into Europe, which Angela Merkel allowed happening, and encouraged to a certain degree is that a large number of those folks most of them were economic migrants. Contained within that were people whose intent was to go to Europe, become a burden on the system and then gradually spread the voice of Islamic extremism. This is not just a European issue. 

We also have, for instance, a lady here in Canada Fatima Bin Hata, and she is the most senior person working for Islamic Relief Canada in British Columbia itself. And she says right out loud that watching all the Syrian refugees pour into Europe is wonderful because this will allow them to help build the caliphate in Europe, which is what they’re trying to do anyway.

This idea of bringing in so-called refugees who are mostly economic migrants to use as a voter base and to use them as a population base to advance the cause of political Islam. It’s a public policy. Right across Europe, right across Canada, right across America, and increasingly down into South and Central America, we see the money trail, for instance, go from Qatar to Turkey, and then from Turkey down to places like Haiti, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.

TNT: A doctor by the name of Nirvana Mahmoud says that most European Muslims reject political Islam. In Britain, there was a recent report where approximately 23,000 jihadists live in Britain. If Britain is to tackle the threat posed by political Islam, how do they convince the public that whatever policy objective they take is not an attack on Muslims, but is it an attack on the fundamentalists who use the political ideology versus the religion?

Tom Quiggin: Yeah, it’s a tough question to answer. Part of the problem is that Muslim Brotherhood groups and a whole bunch of others have been able to be very vocal and very noisy. And because they get lots of funding, a lot of it coming from overseas, they’re able to set up organizations that then convince the government that they are the voice of the Muslim community. Here in Canada, the National Council of Canadian Muslims say it all over that they are the voice of Muslims in Canada, where in reality, they are the voice of the Islamists. 

Unfortunately, the government and, in particular, our current government, under Justin Trudeau, have brought these people on board and incorporated them into the government where they meet en mass with the Prime Minister in his office. So the message that’s going out to Muslims, who are hustling those who don’t want to be involved in extremism, who left their country over there, to get away from these idiots, now come over here, look around, and they see the same idiots in bed with our government. Those who dare speak out for are at risk of being blacklisted in their community, or they fear the government, which was, you know, typical from many of their previous homelands.

TNT: In light of the recent tragedy of flight 752, concerns have been raised about how close the Trudeau government is to the Iranian Regime. The Prime Minister’s brother was on the payroll of the regime producing propaganda videos in the past. There is a liberal MP, Majid Jowhari, who is a supposed Iranian asset. Is the Canadian government missing the forest for the trees when it comes to the threat that Islamism poses through the Iranian regime?

Tom Quiggin: When you see Trudeau saying we should bring ISIS fighters back to Canada and his brother cooperates with Iran, this is not a cultural bug in the system that is concerning. One of the things that came out of the downing of the Ukrainian airliner in Iran was a bit of attention to the relationships between Qatar, Turkey and Iran, as well as Malaysia and Pakistan. Qatar, mainly Sunni, as is Turkey, while Iran, of course, is predominantly Shia, are quite willing to cooperate on matters of extremist Islam. 

Iran has one of the most forceful or most muscular approaches to the region. They’re involved in different wars in places like Iraq, Syria, Gaza, and Yemen. Qatar is providing funding and cover for this, and at the same time, we see Turkey starting to push into the Mediterranean, starting to push harder on Greece. Now, they’re sending troops into Libya. 

One of the things that came out of that whole affair with Soleimani killed, and flight 752 shot down is it’s drawing a bit more attention to this alliance that is growing between Iran, Qatar and Turkey. And I think it’s a good thing that people are focusing on that a bit more because it gives you a sense of just how much power, how much money is behind this problem.

TNT: The EU gave billions of dollars to Turkey to control the migrant crisis when it was at its height. Is the decision to provide Turkey with excess amounts of monies present a short-sighted solution to an otherwise long term problem, where it gives countries like Turkey more power and influence, especially on policies related to immigration?

Tom Quiggin: Yeah, it’s interesting. Turkey essentially blackmailed the European Union and said, “give us 5 billion euros, or we’re going to find every refugee and internally displaced person and put them in boats and airplanes and send them your way.” Many of these so-called refugees were rounded up by the UN and other forces and sent here and other places. 

Erdogan is a strong Muslim Brotherhood supporter, whom you regularly see giving the Muslim Brotherhood salute even when he was in Berlin, which showed the arrogance he has. The war he is waging with the European Union confirms the European Union collapses at every possible moment on any of these things.

Their so-called National Security Advisor and Foreign Minister for the European Union is a communist who also says that political Islam has a role to play in Europe.

TNT: Given that Iran is a Shia nation, and the other two are Sunni, could you explain how they’re able to overcome the fact that they represent different sects of Islam in the post-9/11 era in pursuit of a common objective?

Tom Quiggin: A lot of people are under the impression that Shias and the Sunnis kill each other whenever they get a chance. And that’s true to a certain degree. We saw that in Iraq during the post-invasion period of 2003. We’ve seen it in Syria during the Syrian civil war, whatever we’re supposed to call that. They have killed each other in large numbers and have dealt with each other quite viciously. However, under different circumstances, they’re perfectly willing to work together, depending on which groups are involved.

When Ayatollah Khomeini first took over in Iran in 1979. He went out of his way to say nice things about the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. That was an obvious case that the Shias and Sunnis could work together. Osama bin Laden himself, as a Sunni, was looking at cooperating with Hezbollah, which is Shia and ultimately, by extension, Iranian, so they’re quite capable of working with each other when they want. 

By example, when the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood took over in Egypt in 2012, the guy they invited to help them set up a new internal intelligence organization to crush opposition in Egypt, as well as export the revolution if you will, was General Qassem Soleimani from the government of Iran’s Quds Force. He went to assess their Muslim Brotherhood government in setting up a new intelligence force, and external covert operations force. 

So when they want to, and when the ideology of the timing is right, they’re perfectly capable of working with each other. You see Qatar, which is on the outs with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, etc., etc. is now perfectly capable of working with Iran, who is, of course, strongly opposed to Saudi Arabia, Egypt etc., etc.

TNT: Based on the recent crisis in Kashmir, where we saw seven Labour MPs of Pakistani origin try to politicize an otherwise complex ethnic issue that’s common to that part of Asia. Also, the former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn had connections to the Iranian regime. How come the mainstream media and some notable left-wing parties fail to hold this to account?

Tom Quiggin: Yeah, it’s interesting. Even here in Canada, we’ve got the same problem with the Islamic Society of North American who got caught busted for funding terrorism overseas. Some of that went into Kashmir to fund an Islamist group, so Pakistan was involved. You see, Qatar is engaged there as well, shipping loads of money into Pakistan. 

The aim of this is to create more of an Islamist power base for them to facilitate more extremism. And with Kashmir, the goal, especially from Pakistan’s point of view, and others is to take over Kashmir.

TNT: My colleague, Daniel Bordman, wrote an article on the genocide committed against Hindu pundits in the Kashmir region. He mentions that it does not garner enough attention from the mainstream. Given that we live in an era where social justice has been revived, where we’re trying to hold each other to account for past injustices, how come incidences like that receive little to no attention?

Tom Quiggin: The problem I think that the Kashmiri pandits have is two-fold. When you talk about a lack of recognition, the first indicator is religion. They’re Hindu, which is a problem because on the social justice warrior scale, that puts you reasonably far down the range. The other problem is the oppressors, in this case, where radical Islam, who, of course, right now is at the absolute top of the social justice warrior scale of people that cannot harm. 

Another example of that, which is a feminist issue, is that a woman shouldn’t be forced to wear a hijab. This never happened until 1979 until after the homogeneous takeover of Iran. That’s when the hijab issue takes off, but because the presumption is so far up the social justice warriors scale, they can get away with misogyny, murder, terrorism, and genocide, because it’s politically incorrect to criticize political Islam.

TNT: Do you think legislation like M-103 is used to target bigotry or is it a guise to defend political Islam?

Tom Quiggin: The former Liberal Justice Minister refused to support it, and he said, if it had been expressed this anti-Muslim bigotry, he would have supported the bill. But as soon as the word Islamophobia was there, many people wouldn’t recommend it. 

For the record, there is no Islamophobia in Canada, which we’re continuously told. There are ten members of parliament sitting in Canada that are Muslims, so the whole Islamophobia thing is a fake issue. It’s been set up to silence the voice of anybody who criticizes political Islam, which is why they needed that term Islamophobia in the motion. They weren’t willing to settle for anti-Muslim bigotry. It had to be Islamophobia. But what do they say, well, anybody that criticizes any form of Islam, or the political decisions of Islam, makes you Islamophobic, and then you’re classified as a bigot. 

So I’m not allowed to criticize a Muslim political party. I’m not allowed to criticize a Muslim political policy. But if I want to criticize a Hindu or a Christian or a Jew or whatever, then you know, it’s all good fun, and away you go. The whole point of M-103 was to silence the voice of anyone in Canada who questions whether people like the Muslim Brotherhood should be allowed to continue to grow and operate in Canada.