NO HISTORY PLEASE, WE’RE AMERICANS: So say some, but not Ian Johnson, journalist and author of A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West. Johnson is big on Islam and history:
It starts during World War II with the Nazis deciding they could use Muslims to fight the Soviet Union. Then, after the war, the very same group of Muslims are recruited by the CIA to do the same thing–fight the Soviets by using Islam. This group is then taken over by the Muslim Brotherhood, which uses Munich as a beachhead to spread into the West. This is twenty years before Afghanistan and the mujahidin; it’s the prequel to a lot of what’s gone on since.
Plus, this continues right up to the present. The Muslim Brotherhood still plays a key role in setting a radical agenda for Islam in Europe. It’s no coincidence that the mosque in Munich is associated with many major terrorist attacks in the West, including the two attacks on the World Trade Center. As our governments try to figure out how to deal with Islam, we need to know our own history first.
UPDATE: Duplicate material in quote deleted. Thanks, Matthew T.