Hamas and the Muslim Brothers

The Jerusalem Post reports that Hamas and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood are coordinating their activities in advance of "next month's parliamentary elections in the Palestinian Authority, PA security officials said on Monday."

The cooperation comes on the heels of the Muslim Brotherhood's recent successes, including winning "88 seats in the People's Assembly, accounting for 20 percent of a total of 432 races concluded so far" in Egypt.

The Post reports,

"Hamas is trying to copy the Muslim Brotherhood model," a senior PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post. "They are now dispatching envoys to Cairo to meet with the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood."

The account also includes this troubling piece of information,

One of the Hamas candidates for the parliamentary elections, Miriam Farhat, visited Cairo over the weekend, where she met with Mehdi Akef, the spiritual leader of Muslim Brotherhood.

Farhat emerged as an icon of the intifada about three years ago after she appeared on a Hamas videotape encouraging her 17-year-old son, Muhammad, to participate in a suicide mission against IDF soldiers and settlers in the Gaza Strip. Her son was killed in the attack, as were his two other brothers in separate attacks.

Farhat, 56, is referred to many Palestinians as the "mother of martyrs." Hamas is hoping to attract many votes by including her in its national list of candidates.

I am working on a piece that details how the Muslim Brotherhood prepared the foundation for much of today's modern Islamist terror network. That Hamas is working with the Egyptian wing is not surprising, there is a long-standing history between the two.