On January 27th, the FBI
foiled a plot to attack a Scottish Rite building in Milwaukee. A 23-year-old
man named Samy Mohamed Hamzeh had planned to enlist two accomplices and kill as
many people as possible at the Humphrey Scottish Rite Center. In his statement
to authorities, Hamzeh said, “We are Muslims, defending Muslim religion…And we
will eliminate everyone.”
Since the story was first
publicized, Freemasons have asked why a Muslim man would want to murder Masons,
particularly since our fraternity openly welcomes members of all faiths who
believe in a Supreme Being. Lodges all around the world often initiate Islamic
members, who take their obligations on their holy book, the Qur’an.
Like Christianity, Judaism, and the
overwhelming majority of the world’s religions, there is no conflict between
Freemasonry and the teachings of Islam. Few groups owe more to the region of the
Middle East for the origin of its symbolism than Freemasonry. Nevertheless,
Masonry has been outlawed in most Muslim-majority countries, with notable
exceptions like Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
After Pope Clement XII
excommunicated Catholic Freemasons in 1738, Sultan Mahmut I, ruler of the
Ottoman Empire, outlawed Freemasonry throughout the entire Middle East and
North Africa, under pressure from his Christian subjects and allies, and with the approval
of his ulema (Islamic theologians).
Masonry became popular for a while
in Egypt and Algeria in the 1800s, mostly beginning with Europeans living there. After
World War I and the breakup of the territory that made up the Ottoman Empire,
Freemasonry briefly came back to the Middle East, often by way of English,
Scottish, and French oil industry workers. A few lodges still exist in Muslim
countries on U.S. and British military bases and in residential zones set aside
for foreign workers, but most Arab Muslims are forbidden to join by their
governments and religious leaders.
One of the most influential
organizations for interpreting Islamic law (at least in the Sunni and Sufi realms of theology) is the Islamic Jurisdictional
College of El-Azhar University in Cairo. In 1978, it issued an opinion
concerning “The Freemasons’ Organization.” Among its findings were the
following:
* Freemasonry is a clandestine organization,
which conceals or reveals its system, depending on the circumstances. Its
actual principles are hidden from members, except for chosen members of its
higher degrees.
* The members of the organization, worldwide,
are drawn from men without preference for their religion, faith, or sect.
* The organization attracts members on the
basis of providing personal benefits. It traps men into being politically
active, and its aims are unjust.
* New members participate in ceremonies of
different names and symbols, and are too frightened to disobey its regulations
and orders.
* Members are free to practice their
religion, but only members who are atheists are promoted to its higher degrees,
based on how much they’re willing to serve its dangerous principles and plans.
* It is a political organization. It has
served all revolutions, as well as military and political transformations. In
all dangerous changes, a relation to this organization appears either exposed
or veiled.
* It is a Jewish organization in its roots. Its
secret higher international administrative board is made up of Jews, and it
promotes Zionist (pro-Israel) activities.
* Its primary objectives are the distraction
of all religions, and it distracts Muslims from Islam.
* It tries to recruit influential financial,
political, social, or scientific people to utilize them. It does not
consider applicants it cannot utilize. It recruits kings, prime ministers, high
government officials, and similar individuals.
* It has branches under different names as a
camouflage, so people cannot trace its activities, especially if the name of
Freemasonry has opposition. These hidden branches are known as Lions,
Rotary, and others. They have wicked principles that completely contradict the
rules of Islam.
* There is a clear relationship between
Freemasonry, Judaism, and international Zionism. It has controlled the
activities of high Arab officials in the Palestinian conflict.
* Any Muslim who affiliates with it, knowing
the truth of its objectives, is an infidel to Islam.
Active, practicing Freemasons know
these allegations have absolutely no merit. Unfortunately, many Islamic
countries do not believe in the separation of church and state. Communities
that are governed by strict Qur’an-based Sharia law, which is believed to have
been derived directly from the Prophet Mohammad, strongly accept that they are
following God’s law, which supersedes any law that is written by Man. Freemasonry,
which developed during the Enlightenment in Europe, is seen as promoting
Western values that encourage blasphemy towards the Islamic faith. The recently publicized brutal punishments of non-believers by Islamic extremist groups like ISIS (the
Islamic State), Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, the Taliban, and strict governments like
Saudi Arabia and Iran, are stark examples of Sharia law taken to its most
severe level. As a result, being a Freemason can result in prison, torture, and
even a death sentence in these places.
Because Freemasons are seen as
agents of pro-Israeli Zionism, conspiracy theories about Masons are rampant throughout
Islamic communities. One of the most common sources of such theories originates
in a pamphlet that has been widely distributed for more than a century. In the
late 1800s, the Okhrana, the Russian
Czar’s secret police, created a notorious piece of propaganda called the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In it,
a secret meeting was described of a group of Jews who discussed their world domination
plans, with the Freemasons as their accomplices.
The
Protocols are the origin of a widely supposed
“conspiracy” of a secret group of Jewish bankers who control the world’s
governments, economies and religions. According to various versions of the Protocols, Jews are behind a plan for
world conquest, and use Freemasons as their willing stooges. Jews and the
Masons control the press and the courts, and Jewish revolutionaries use
liberalism to weaken religion and governments. Jewish intellectuals confuse the
common people, and they replace traditional educational curriculum to
discourage independent thinking, and encourage immorality among children. They
use their international banking monopolies and the use of credit to destroy the
economy, favoring paper currency not tied to the gold standard. Jews and the
Masons control governments from behind the scenes by blackmailing politicians.
And during times of great emergencies, Jews will suspend civil liberties and
then secretly make the measures permanent.
When
Adolf Hitler came to power, he partially used the Protocols as justification for his plans to exterminate the Jews.
Freemasons were also on his hit list, and they too were sent to concentration
camps. One of the many popular slogans of the Nazis was “All Masons Jews — All Jews Masons!”
The
Protocols have been rewritten and circulated for
over a hundred years, and today they can be found all over the Internet, posted
by a wide range of conspiracy-believing groups. The Protocols remain very popular in Islamic countries, including Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Iran, and especially the Palestinian territories, where they are distributed
as official texts for school children to study. In 2002, a multi-part
television docu-drama was produced for several Arab language networks based on
the Protocols, entitled Knight Without A Horse. There are many other
organizations, including the American Nation of Islam, some militia groups, the
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, and the American Nazi Party who still peddle
the Protocols as fact.
Another area of contention between Islam
and Freemasonry concerns something most Masons believe to be harmless, but Muslims
clearly do not. The Ancient Arabic Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, now more
correctly known as simply the Shriners, was started in the 1870s as the
playground of Freemasons. The language of its ceremonies, and its costumes and
decorations, came straight out of the exotic Tales of the Arabian Nights. Shriners called their jurisdictions oases; built their buildings to look
like mosques, some complete with minarets and domes; wore fezzes; and adopted the
Arabic phrase al salam aleikum
(“peace be with you”) as a greeting. Unfortunately, many devout Muslims do not
think such things are a homage to their culture. Instead, they feel their faith
and culture is being mocked.
Open attacks against Freemasons by
Islamic extremists are very rare, but they do happen. One violent event
occurred in 2004, when attackers with automatic weapons and explosives burst
into a Masonic lodge in Istanbul, Turkey, sprayed it with bullets, and set off
several bombs. One person was killed, along with one of the terrorists, and six
people were injured. Ultimately, eighteen suspects were questioned, and ten
were charged with the operation. In 2006, a Muslim man was arrested in Atlanta,
and was accused of providing material support to terrorists. He had taken
videotapes of the Scottish Rite House of the Temple in Washington DC, which
were uploaded to an al-Qaeda computer expert in London. He told investigators
that he “believed Freemasons were like the Devil.”
Stories of theft and vandalism of
Masonic lodges have been happening with greater frequency around the world, and
most recently a Masonic lodge in California was burned to the ground under
suspicious circumstances that are being investigated. With religious-inspired violence increasing, Masons
need to be aware of the dangers that conspiracy theorists pose to our
fraternity, especially when they decide to do more than just vent their anger
over the Internet. In the Milwaukee situation, the suspect took a public tour
of the building and made note of upcoming events, exit doors, stairwells and
other details that would not be of interest to most casual tour-goers. Every
lodge should consider an alarm system and other security measures, such as installing security cameras, locking their outer doors during meetings, and perhaps even asking local police
departments to drive through their parking lots during meetings and events.
It is unfortunate that an
organization that prides itself so much on love for our fellow man should have
to consider our own safety, but that is the nature of the times in which we
live. In particular, ISIS and al-Qaeda both are actively recruiting would-be
terrorists via social media like Facebook and Twitter, encouraging them to
strike against their own neighbors by any means possible.
Unfortunately,
Freemasons make an easy target because we are so visible and our organization
is deemed blasphemous to their beliefs.
