The Brotherhood Conspiracy (63 page)

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is a platform, supported by a series of arches built by Herod the Great. The Mount is a formation of karstic limestone which has eroded over time by water, creating a honeycomb of cisterns, tunnels, and caverns. Other than the unofficial diggings of Charles Warren in the nineteenth century, there has been virtually no archaeological study of the space under the Temple Mount platform.

The Muslim Brotherhood, for most of its seventy-five years a little-known but powerful network, came to worldwide attention in the aftermath of the Arab Spring and the overthrow of Egyptian despot Hosni Mubarak. Now the ruling party in Egypt’s nascent parliament and the home of new president Mohammad Morsi,
The Muslim Brotherhood is, in fact, the oldest, largest, and most influential Muslim organization in the world. Founded in 1928 by an Egyptian teacher who preached a more pure and devout form of Islam, the Brotherhood’s motto makes its intent clear: “Allah is our objective; the Qur’an is our law, the Prophet is our leader; jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.”

The Brotherhood’s reach and presence is global. It is a major funding source for the terrorist group Hamas. The Holy Land Foundation (HLF), a U.S. fund-raising arm for The Brotherhood and Hamas, was indicted in federal court in 2004 of a fifteen-year conspiracy to raise funds for a terrorist organization. In 2008, the HLF and five individuals were convicted of 108 counts of tax evasion, money laundering, and funding a terrorist organization. The HLF raised over $12 million in the United States before it was shut down.

Imam Moussa al-Sadr is the founder of Amal, the military arm of al-Sadr’s Movement of the Disinherited, and the forerunner of the terrorist army, Hezbollah, that now controls the government of Lebanon. Al-Sadr and two companions disappeared in 1978 during a trip to Libya to meet with Colonel Muammar Qaddafi. Thirty years later, the Lebanese government indicted Qaddafi in the death of Imam al-Sadr.

On July 20, 2006, an Irish farmer digging peat in a remote bog at Faddan More, in north Tipperary, close to the town of Birr, uncovered a book of psalms dating back to the late eighth century. Known as the
Faddan More Psalter
, the book is an illuminated vellum manuscript encased in an unusual leather binding. Fragments of papyrus were discovered in the lining of the Egyptian-style leather binding. This potentially represents the first tangible connection between early Irish Christianity and the Middle Eastern Coptic Church.

In the Irish county of Meath, outside the small town of Loughcrew, is a pair of hilltops overlooking the Boyne River Valley on which were erected the largest complex of passage tombs in Ireland. These sixteen tombs are between five and six thousand years old, older than the Egyptian pyramids. The largest of these passage tombs is Cairn T and within its rounded burial chambers are a series of stones with megalithic decorations. Cairn T is also called the tomb of the
Ollam Foldah
. . . the Old Prophet. There are some who claim the stone carvings in Cairn T depict the flight of the prophet Jeremiah and his scribe, Baruch, from Egypt to Ireland and locate the burial place of Jeremiah within the tomb. In the smallest, furthest burial chamber of Cairn T, the ceiling contains six-thousand-year-old stone carvings that look as if they were completed yesterday. During the vernal and autumn equinox, people gather at dawn to watch sunlight enter the chamber and illuminate the decorated stones within the tomb. And the key to Cairn T is indeed available from the pastry shop at Loughcrew Gardens.

Other items: American Egyptologist Charles Edwin Wilbour (1833–1896) was all that has been portrayed here, and more . . . St. Anthony’s Monastery is the oldest inhabited Christian monastery in the world, being continually occupied by monks since its founding in 356
AD
. . . All five kings of Saudi Arabia are sons of the first king, Abdul Aziz al Saud . . . Krak de Chevaliers is a spectacular Crusader castle in the Syrian foothills of the Alawite Mountains . . . Marine One helicopters do perform the “President’s Shell Game” maneuver as they fly . . . The stealth Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopter was designed to be the world’s most advanced helicopter. Nearly seven billion dollars was spent on the program, and two prototypes constructed, before Boeing and the U.S. Army canceled the program in 2004. There is apparently no truth to the widely believed rumor that Comanche helicopters were used in the U.S. attack on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, offered up as the reason for why it was so important to destroy the one that crashed . . . And you can buy—once in a while—$5 tickets to baseball games at Yankee Stadium.

Apart from basic facts and associated research,
The Brotherhood Conspiracy
is a product of the author’s imagination. Any “errors of fact” are a result of that imagination.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terry Brennan’s twenty-two-year career in journalism included:

• Leading
The Mercury
of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, as its editor, to a Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing;

• Serving as executive editor of a multinational newspaper firm—Ingersoll Publications—with papers in the United States, England, and Ireland; and

• Earning the Valley Forge Award for editorial writing from the Freedoms Foundation.

In 1966 Brennan transferred to the nonprofit sector and served for twelve years as vice president of operations for the Christian Herald Association, Inc., the parent organization of four New York City ministries, including The Bowery Mission.

He now serves as chief administrative officer for Care for the Homeless, a New York City nonprofit that delivers medical teams to serve homeless people in shelters, soup kitchens, and drop-in centers. Two of his adult sons and their families live in Pennsylvania. Terry and his wife, Andrea, and their two adult children live in the New York City area.