Simon Wiesenthal Center Criticizes White House for Deciding to Formally Open Talks with Muslim Brotherhood

Los Angeles, CA — The Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized the White House today for opening talks with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. The Center referred to a news wire story quoting a unidentified senior U.S. official and confirmed today by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, citing,“The Brotherhood’s rise in political prominence” as the reason for the change in the White House position. “The political landscape in Egypt may have changed since the end of the Mubarak regime,”said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “But the Brotherhood’s hatred of Jews and Israel has not changed at all. This seems like a sell out to the Europeanposition and I hope it is not a signal that the United States will acquiesce to Europe and begin talking to Hamas as well.”

A few weeks ago, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Mohamed Badie (pictured left) said, “Allahhas warned us the tricks of the Jews, and their role in igniting the fire of wars… and they labor hard to spread corruption on earth: and Allah does not love the spreaders of corruption.”

Rabbi Hier continued, “We should not be talking to an organization that can lay claim to being the world's leading purveyor of anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews. Legitimizing the MuslimBrotherhood sends the wrong message that you can hate Jews, and still sit and talk with world leaders.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agenciesincluding the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

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