A three-minute video criticizing the Muslim Brotherhood, jihad and Sharia law was removed by YouTube on Tuesday for “hate speech.”
Posted by CounterJihad on Thursday, the video criticizes “civilizational jihad,” or the imposition of Sharia in the West through nonviolent means.
Jim Hanson, executive vice president of the Center for Security Policy, told CounterJihad that the policy cited by YouTube was actually created to stop the spread of Islamic State propaganda.
“I am stunned that the policy that YouTube developed for the express purpose of fighting Islamic State propaganda is now being used to silence critics of radical jihad,” Mr. Hanson said.
“Instead of counteracting radical propaganda online, these policies are now being used to silence the very speech that YouTube said it wanted – speech that challenged ISIS,” he said.
The video [WATCH HERE] makes a distinction between “violent jihad” and “civilization jihad.”
“But there is another kind of jihad,” the video says. “In their explanatory memorandum, the Muslim Brotherhood calls this ’civilization jihad,’ saying ’the [Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers.’”
It goes on to say groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Students’ Association and the Islamic Society of North America are part of the civilization jihad.
“The Justice Department found that these groups were in fact started by the Muslim Brotherhood,” the video says. “These groups like to say that terrorism has no religion, but only Islam has Sharia and jihad.”
“Not all Muslims practice Sharia or support it, but an awful lot do,” it says.
Shireen Qudosi, a Muslim reformer who works for CounterJihad, criticized YouTube’s decision to pull the video.
“YouTube’s removal of CounterJihad’s factual analysis of the threat of ISIS and radical Islam is a devastating blow against credible counter-terrorism efforts,” Ms. Qudosi told CounterJihad. “No company or individual can legitimately say they support free speech and at the same time set up blockades against the very people doing the work necessary to counter the ideology.”
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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