On Monday, a post at Al Jazeera reported that Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, issued a tweet saying an Egyptian newspaper is claiming that Barack Obama is a "full-on" member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
"If you missed it, 'liberal' Egyptian newspaper has front page headline claiming Obama as full-on member of Muslim Brotherhood international," he tweeted.
"Newspaper also claims that son of MB leader threatened Obama w- release of 'papers' revealing his MB membership," he added in a separate tweet.
A post at the conservative Fire Andrea Mitchell says the claim is too far-fetched to be believable.
"Sorry, just don’t buy it. If this were true, then release the damn ‘papers’ already. I’m sure the whole world would want to know. I just don’t believe it and wouldn’t until I see proof," the blog said.
A post at Weasel Zippers wasn't quite as generous, saying the news "would certainly explain Obama’s inexplicable support for the Brotherhood."
In another tweet, Hamid said the Egyptian media upped the ante with a claim Obama's brother is affiliated with the terrorist group Al Qaeda.
"On State TV, they say Obama's brother is MB financier. Then newspaper ups the ante, saying Obama himself is MB member and his brother is AQ," he tweeted.
Walid Shoebat said the news was interesting in that Hamid was listed as a participant in the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar in June, a forum Shoebat described as "a who’s who of Muslim Brotherhood members, apparatchiks, and sympathizers."
According to Shoebat, the person threatening to release "papers" on Obama appears to be Saad al-Shater, the son of former Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate, Khairat al-Shater.
"Multiple reports from Arabic sources indicated that Saad had said his father had documents that were incredibly damaging to Barack Obama," Shoebat said. He noted that a couple weeks later, Saad was arrested.
According to a Fox News report, the arrest appears to have been connected to the president.
"It was not immediately clear why police detained el-Shater’s 23-year-old son. Officials only said Wednesday that police had arrested Saad el-Shater and that he had threatened to release documents allegedly showing ties between his father and U.S. President Barack Obama. Officials did not elaborate," Fox said in late August.
Just search for "Obama member of muslim brotherhood" and you'll see news articles from several different sources. This particular one came out of the Washington Examiner.
