The Muslim Brotherhood has issued a very nice statement this year to congratulate Christians on the occasion of Christmas. Unlike previous years the letter is very clear and strong in its words. It is written and sent by Mahdi Akef and the entire Executive Council of the Muslim Brotherhood.
It sends its greetings not only to Copts in Egypt, but also abroad. More importantly it has some very strong words on religious freedom, tolerance and equality and state that the Muslim Brotherhood is committed to these basic principles.
I was quite taken aback by the statement. It is to my knowledge one of the strongest worded statements by the Muslim Brotherhood to congratulate Christians, but before anyone jumps to conclusions the statement was issued and published in English and on the Muslim Brotherhood’s English website. When I searched the Muslim Brotherhood’s Arabic website the result was nothing, zero, non. The statement was not published there at all.
This leaves me with a couple of possibilities to explain this.
The Muslim Brotherhood Chairman and Executive Council do not speak Arabic, but rather English. This is why they wrote it in their native tongue.
Christians in Egypt do not speak Arabic, but rather English. Thus the Muslim Brotherhood leadership thought it appropriate to congratulate Christians in their own language.
The audience and target of this letter are not the Christians, but the outside world and especially the West. This is why the statement was issued and published in English to show a moderate face of the Brotherhood.
Which possibility do you think makes more sense???