Muslim Brotherhood Live Blog

Damascus has sent a letter to the United Nations accusing some Lebanese areas of helping al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood to take root along the Syrian border.

"Some Lebanese areas next to the Syrian border are incubating terrorist elements from al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, who are messing with the security of Syrian citizens and work on undermining the United Nations Special Envoy's plan," Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari wrote.

The letter was sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council.

"In some areas [of Lebanon] ... warehouses have been set up for weapons and ammunition that is arriving to Lebanon
illegally, either by sea, or sometimes through using the planes of specific countries to transport weapons to Lebanon and then smuggle them to Syria, under the excuse that they [aircraft] are carrying humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees," Ja'afari said.

He specifically said charities run by Lebanese Salafists and the Future Movement, led by the son of assassinated Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, were being used to provide safe haven to terrorists in Lebanon. 

Washington Post is exploring how the Muslim Brotherhood is gaining influence over the Syrian uprising, after decades of prosecution in Syria.

The movement was crushed in the 1982 Hama massacre, and membership of the organisation was outlawed. 

Now, the Brotherhood and their supporters hold the biggest number of seats in the Syrian National Council, the main opposition bloc.

Brotherhood leaders say they have been reaching out to Syria’s neighbors, including Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon — as well as to U.S. and European diplomats — to reassure them that they have no intention of dominating a future Syrian political system or establishing any form of Islamist government.

“These concerns are not legitimate when it comes to Syria, for many reasons,” said Molham al-Drobi, who is a member of the Brotherhood’s leadership and sits on the Syrian National Council’s foreign affairs committee.

“First, we are a really moderate Islamic movement compared to others worldwide. We are open-minded,” Drobi said. “And I personally do not believe we could dominate politics in Syria even if we wanted to. We don’t have the will, and we don’t have the means.”

Egyptian presidential candidate and Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi stirred controversy on Wednesday night during an appearance on a satellite television talk show during which he failed to make a total condemnation of the practice known as female circumcision or genital mutilation.

According to blogger Bassem Sabry, Morsi "embarked on a long and vague answer which left a few ... uncertain to a considerable extent as to his concise statement of position".

Most who watched Morsi came away believing he said the decision about whether to circumcise a young girl, condemned throughout the world but still done in some places in Egypt, should be left to families to decide.

The Brotherhood's official Twitter account quickly responded, reasserting the group's long-publicised line that it firmly opposes female genital mutilation and said that Morsi's answer may not have been clear due to the "sensitivity" of the issue.