Posts by ShiraSorko:
The Goal of the Muslim Brotherhood in America
January 14th, 2016
By Shira Sorko-Ram.
Researching the Muslim Brotherhood in America is a difficult mission. It’s not that the objectives of the Brotherhood are hard to find. Countless Islamic websites loudly proclaim their goal to create and rule a world-wide Islamic empire which they call a Caliphate. Since the Muslim Brotherhood has 2000 branches in 70 countries, their strategies are out there for anyone and everyone to find.
Whereas Islamic groups like ISIS (also called the Islamic State), al Qaeda or Boko Haram in Nigeria are bent on raw terrorism and violent warfare, the Brotherhood (Ikhwan in Arabic) prefer to reach their goal of world domination by building an indissoluble network and then taking over the country through elections. (This is what the Ikhwan attempted to do in Egypt.) Obviously they use terrorism when the time and place is right, but with subterfuge and superb organization, they plan to use physical terrorism only when their numbers and positions in government assure success.
In Western democratic nations, and especially in the U.S., slow-but-sure infiltration is their weapon of choice. It’s the frog in the slowly-heating water method. The objective is that Islam will unobtrusively grow in America below the radar until it is too late to reverse its dominance.
Because part of the American Muslim Brotherhood’s brand is to claim rejection of violence and terror to overthrow non-Islamic states, Western democratic nations believe them to be a “moderate” Islamic movement. The truth is, their goal of turning America into an Islamic state is the same as any other fundamental Islamic group. And when the Ikhwan are strong enough, their history shows they have no problem using violent Jihad.
ISRAELI PRESS CONSTANTLY REPORTS ON ISLAMIC THREATS TO THE WEST
In-depth articles on the Muslim Brotherhood can be found throughout the Israeli press, often quoting Arabic newspapers which boast of the Ikhwan’s operations to take over the world. Islamist strategies are discussed on numerous “watch” websites and serious institutions and by scholars whose purpose is to track Islam in all its forms. Examples of non-profit research groups and policy councils are Gatestone Institute, the Oak Initiative and the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). There are many more.
In the U.S. the FBI has reported on the convictions and jail sentences of operatives of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development which channeled over $12 million to Hamas terrorists. The Holy Land Foundation was the largest Muslim “humanitarian aid” organization in the U.S., collecting funds from hundreds of American Muslim entities. During that trial, a huge number of damning Islamic and Brotherhood documents were exposed. (FBI.gov Link: http://goo.gl/2vp9Ql)
But other than that very public trial when Islamic operatives were tried, convicted and sent to jail, the mainstream media is quiet concerning the Brotherhood. Actually, not quiet, but silent!
WHY AMERICA’S MEDIA DOESN’T TOUCH ISLAM
The reason is simple – American media doesn’t want to appear racist – or, heaven forbid, Islamophobic. Political correctness is their compass – not reality. It has made them blind and puffed up. There is a second reason: Fear. Fear of Islamist violent terrorist attacks – the very thing they can’t mention because of political correctness. Yet the elephant in the room is the threat that reporting on radical Islam could bring personal attacks to media personnel. It is my opinion that the fear factor is as powerful – if not more so – than even the political correctness.
Even in the recent horrific terror attacks in France, European politicians carefully avoid the word “Islam.” Even worse, Muslim Brothers like to explain to the world, “Islamist attacks are not Islam!”
In America, it will be a very brave media outlet that talks about Islamic threats after the terrorist attack against the satirist magazine Charlie Hebdo in France. In fact, President Obama can’t even say “war on terror!” He seems to see most terror attacks as simply common crimes or “work place violence.”
UNIVERSITIES ARE THE BREEDING GROUNDS
Tie that together with the Muslim Brotherhood which understands that the U.S. is at the moment still the strongest democracy in the world. The average American is not interested in coming under Sharia law – so the Ikhwan have a very big challenge. On the other hand, America is the pearl of great price. Capture America and the Ikhwan will have the world. So, you might say, they must hit this ball out of the park.
Because the Ikhwan have played their cards extremely well, the dangers of Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. is not yet on the radar of the average citizen. But in strategic venues, the Ikhwan are making huge strides. The universities in America are a major target – and Islam is currently winning. On a recent Israeli newscast, an Israeli student who is a pro-Israeli activist in the U.S. said that the Islamic presence and activities on U.S. campuses are enormous. At this rate, he said, these Muslim college graduates and their sympathizers will soon be major players in American society, including congress and, he said, “may it never happen” – perhaps the presidency. Even more alarming, Muslim Brotherhood student members are at this moment now planning to fill these offices.
And that brings me to President Barack Obama and the U.S. government today.
OBAMA’S ISLAMIC LEANINGS
No one can blame President Barack Hussein Obama for being born a Muslim. But neither can the religious ideologies of the President of the United Sates be a “forbidden” subject.
Obama’s father and grandfather were Muslims. In the Islamic world of 1.6 billion members, that means Obama was undeniably a Muslim male because Islamic birth affiliation is always based on the father’s religion. His middle name, Hussein, is only given to Muslim children.
Obama mentions in his book that his father became an atheist. But that sentence does not give the whole picture. He failed to mention his father left their home when Obama was two years old, and his mother remarried another Muslim.
Obama was registered in two Indonesian schools for four years as a Muslim, studied and memorized portions of the Koran and wore Islamic clothing in Indonesia. He has stated during his presidency that the most beautiful sound in the world is the Islamic call to prayer. He obviously has fond memories of his life as a Muslim.
MOTHER – A UNIVERSALIST
Also important, Obama states that his mother was some sort of Universalist – dipping her toe into many different religions, but believing in none of them. Obama, himself, perhaps emulating his mother, also registered for some Christian studies during his school years as a Muslim.
Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times witnessed as Obama “recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer” which includes the phrases:
Allah is the greatest
I testify that there is no deity but Allah.
I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
“MY MUSLIM FAITH”
In a conversation with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in September 2008, and recorded on a YouTube video that has gone viral, Obama spoke of “my Muslim faith.” Stephanopoulos interrupted and corrected him. Obama then quickly adjusted his sentence to, “my Christian faith.” But as one Christian leader said, “I can’t imagine in my wildest dream a true Christian making a “Freudian slip” by talking about his Muslim faith.
Robert Gibbs, campaign convention director for President Obama’s first presidential race, stated that he was not a “practicing Muslim.” But as Obama knows so well, having grown up as a child in Islamic schools and culture, Muslims, like Jews, do not consider practice central to their religious identity.
At the 2009 Presidential National Prayer Breakfast, Obama said, “I was not raised in a particularly religious household. I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists [from his mother’s side], and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion…I didn’t become a Christian until many years later, when I moved to the Southside of Chicago after college.”
MUSLIM OR CHRISTIAN?
So is Obama a Muslim or a Christian? Here is a summary of renowned Arabist scholar, Daniel Pipes, conclusions:
Thus it appears that Obama was born to a non-practicing Muslim father, and then lived for four years in a fully Muslim milieu under the auspices of his Muslim Indonesian stepfather. For these reasons, those who knew Obama in Indonesia considered him a Muslim. But with some attraction to Christendom.
One of Obama’s main problems that has caused Americans to doubt and wonder who he really is, is because the issue is not that he couldn’t convert from Islam to Christianity. Pipes points out, “The issue is Obama’s having specifically and repeatedly lied about his Muslim identity. More than any other single deception, Obama’s treatment of his own religious background exposes his moral failings.”
MY QUESTION
The question I ask myself is, could it be that in his 20’s when he began to think about a political career, he was attracted to “Christianity” when he met up with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose version of extreme Black Liberation Theology had some similarities with Islam? Both religious philosophies preach hatred of the American way of life, and “liberation” from victimization and western forms of bondage and injustice, whether social, political, economic or religious. Perhaps it was a comfortable fit. Of course, Obama may have joined the Rev. Wright’s church for reasons I cannot know.
Daniel Pipes says it this way:
I have no privileged access to Obama’s heart or mind: if he says he is a Christian, I accept that. My only caveat is the one suggested…where I note the apparent “double religiosity” of his Indonesian years and “the complexity of Barack Obama’s personal development.” This leads me to “raise the inconclusive but intriguing possibility that Obama, even at the tender age of six through ten, sought to combine his maternal and paternal religions into a personal syncretic whole, presenting himself as both Christian and Muslim. In subtle ways, he still does just that.”
(Daniel Pipes link: http://goo.gl/IS5Cmw)
What is apparent is the ascendancy of Obama to the American presidency has made the goals of the American Muslim Brotherhood far quicker to reach and easier to obtain.
SELF CENSORSHIP AT NEW YORK TIMES
One of the clearest signs of Islamic influence in America today can be found in what the press will not print. Here is a real story and here is how it was reported in the U.S.’s premier newspaper.
A female journalist at Charlie Hebdo in Paris was told by one of the attackers, “I’m not going to kill you because you’re a woman; we don’t kill women, but you must convert to Islam, read the Quran and cover yourself.”
That quote directly tying the attack to Islam was removed from a The New York Times column. Instead the Times reported the words of the terrorist as:
“Don’t be afraid, calm down, I won’t kill you. You are a woman. But think about what you’re doing. It’s not right.”
Imagine a different scenario. Suppose a gunman burst into an abortion clinic and told a woman there just before shooting the abortionist, “I’m not going to kill you because you’re a woman; we don’t kill women, but you must convert to Christianity, read the Bible and submit to your husband.”
Does anyone think for a second that the New York Times would drop that quote out of concern for the sensibilities of its Christian readers? Of course not!
That exchange would be on the front page, held up as Exhibit A for why every pastor must denounce the “radical pro-life movement.” (Gary L. Bauer, The Heritage Foundation)
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE BRAVES POLITICAL
CORRECTNESS – 10 YEARS AGO
Have you noticed? The mainstream media – on the left and the right – does not do investigative reporting on Islamic organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. Nothing! Nada! Check the Internet for yourself. Type in U.S. or American Muslim Brotherhood and see what you get from America’s mainstream “free press.” The single article I found by a well-known newspaper, which happens to be The Chicago Tribune, was written 10 years ago!
Because an article like this is so unusual, I feel it is important that you see what a mainstream newspaper was able to report concerning the mysterious and subversive Muslim Brotherhood a decade ago. Then try to imagine how far they have come since then.
The Chicago Tribune’s 2004 article declared in its headline: “A rare look at secretive Brotherhood in America.” It began:
Over the last 40 years, small groups of devout Muslim men have gathered in homes in U.S. cities to pray, memorize the Koran and discuss events of the day.
But they also addressed their ultimate goal, one so controversial that it is a key reason they have operated in secrecy: to create Muslim states overseas and, they hope, someday in America as well.
These men are part of an underground U.S. chapter of the international Muslim Brotherhood, the world’s most influential Islamic fundamentalist group and an organization with a violent past in the Middle East. But fearing persecution, they rarely identify themselves as Brotherhood members and have operated largely behind the scenes, unbeknown even to many Muslims.
FOUNDERS PREACH VIOLENT OVERTHROW OF WESTERN DEMOCRACIES
The newspaper reviewed the beginnings of the Muslim Brotherhood. It was founded in 1928 by an Egyptian schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, who wanted to return to fundamental Islam as a way to transform Muslim societies, eliminate Western influences and create a world Caliphate under the rule of Sharia (Islamic law).
The Tribune explained that the Brotherhood’s ideological voice and leading member in the 1950s and 60s was philosopher Sayyid Qutb, who abhorred Western values and believed the Koran justified the violent overthrow of un-Islamic governments. (The Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser had him executed after he tried to assassinate the president.) Today, Qutb is revered as a great founding father of the Brotherhood.
MEMBERSHIP IN THE IKHWAN
How does one join the Muslim Brotherhood? The Tribune describes the process:
Not anyone could join the Brotherhood. The group had a carefully detailed strategy on how to find and evaluate potential members, according to a Brotherhood instructional booklet for recruiters.
Leaders would scout mosques, Islamic classes and Muslim organizations for those with orthodox religious beliefs consistent with Brotherhood views, the booklet says. The leaders then would invite them to join a small prayer group, or usra, Arabic for “family.” The prayer groups were a defining feature of the Brotherhood and one created by al-Banna in Egypt.
The meetings were to be kept completely secret according to The Tribune.
But leaders initially would not reveal the purpose of the prayer groups, and recruits were asked not to tell anyone about the meetings.
Leaders were told that during prayer meetings they should focus on fundamentals, including “the primary goal of the Brotherhood: setting up the rule of God [Allah] upon the Earth.”
After assessing the recruits’ “commitment, loyalty and obedience” to Brotherhood ideas, the leaders would invite suitable candidates to join. New members, according to the booklet, would be told that they now were part of the worldwide Brotherhood and that membership “is not a personal honor but a charge to sacrifice all that one has for the sake of raising the banner of Islam.”
WITNESS OF AN “APOSTATE”
The Chicago Tribune told about a young Muslim, Mustafa Saied, who was recruited to be a member of the Brotherhood. But as he got deeper into the movement, he became fearful of the secrecy involved. “He explained how many members preferred secrecy, particularly in case U.S. authorities cracked down on Hamas supporters, including many Brotherhood members,” reported the newspaper.
Saied also “found out that the U.S. Brotherhood had a plan for achieving Islamic rule in America. It would convert Americans to Islam and elect like-minded Muslims to political office.” He is one of the few who decided to leave the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Tribune continued:
In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews…An undated internal memo instructed MAS leaders on how to deal with inquiries about the new organization. If asked, “Are you the Muslim Brothers?” leaders should respond that they are an independent group called the Muslim American Society. “It is a self-explanatory name that does not need further explanation.”
If the topic of terrorism was raised, leaders were to explain that they were against terrorism but that Jihad was among a Muslim’s “divine legal rights” to be used to defend himself and his people and to spread Islam, according to The Tribune.
American Muslim Brothers are racing toward their goal by creating an incredibly vast number of prominent organizations and institutions, university chapters, scientific and intellectual think tanks and symposiums, mosques, Islamic schools and summer camps, just to name a few. Many, if not most of these were financed by Saudi Arabia.
AN EXAMPLE OF YOUTH INDOCTRINATION
The Tribune looked into one of these institutions and reported that part of the Muslim American Society’s Chicago chapter website is devoted to teens. It includes [at least it did in 2004] materials for their youth that teach that Muslims have a duty to help form Islamic governments worldwide and should be prepared to take up arms to do so. The Ikhwan indoctrinates their American Muslim youth with concepts such as:
… “until the nations of the world have functionally Islamic governments, every individual who is careless or lazy in working for Islam is sinful.” Another one says that Western secularism and materialism are evil and that Muslims should “pursue this evil force to its own lands” and “invade its Western heartland.”
The Chicago Tribune concludes:
While separation of church and state is a bedrock principle of American democracy, the international Brotherhood preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic. The group also champions martyrdom and jihad, or holy war, as a means of self-defense and has provided the philosophical underpinnings for Muslim militants worldwide. (Chicago Tribune Link: http://goo.gl/oVR6hO)
Today, the Muslim Brotherhood is inside the White House, the State Department and the Intelligence Departments. Who will stop them?
“ISLAMIST OPERATIVES” IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
Two years ago, Republican congress woman Michelle Bachman and four other GOP members of the House sent letters to the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State asking for an investigation of the influence played by the Muslim Brotherhood on U.S. government officials in the Obama administration. The request forwarded to the Deputy Inspector General of the Department of State was shot down.
The Jerusalem Post notes, “One hundred percent of the United States Congress should have been calling for this investigation but instead less than one percent had the courage and love of country to take a stand against the radical Muslim Brotherhood whose goal is to infiltrate America and instill Sharia law.” (Jerusalem Post link: http://goo.gl/VknBFo)
So can you believe that a number of leading Arab countries have become so frightened of the Muslim Brotherhood and it’s offspring that they have declared them to be terrorist organizations while America and the Europeans coddle the Brotherhood?
Last year, Egypt banned the Muslim Brotherhood and jailed many of its leaders. Egypt’s government has also turned the tables on Hamas, an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood, blowing up their tunnels and closing the Egypt-Gaza border crossing.
Now Saudi Arabia, the source of untold treasure sent to expand Islamic fundamentalism in the U.S., has also declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization!
Moreover, the United Arab Emirates has not only banned the Muslim Brotherhood but has declared its spin-offs such as al Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, and 80 other Jihadists groups as illegal terrorist organizations! The UAE also added CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the U.S.’ largest Muslim “civil liberties” group, to its terrorist list. (Yahoo link: http://goo.gl/AmEdFY)
EGYPT WARNS THE U.S.
Nevertheless, it was quite surprising to learn that it was an Egyptian magazine, Rose El-Youssef, that spilled the beans by exposing six American Islamists who the Egyptian government says are Muslim Brotherhood operatives who have top jobs in the Obama administration, thereby exercising strong influence over U.S. policy.
Since the new Egyptian president Abdel al-Sisi took office, he is decimating the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood organization with all his might, as he is quite aware that the Brotherhood’s goal is to turn Egypt into an extreme Islamic state. A secular Muslim, he regards the Brotherhood as a fanatical extremist terrorist organization committed to forcing Egypt to adopt its brand of totalitarian Sharia rule.
To rid Egypt of the Brotherhood is an almost impossible job for President al-Sisi because the Brotherhood began in Egypt, and through massive community service organizations run by their Islamic ideologues, it has an iron grip on much of the rural population.
Therefore, it is understandable that he does not want the Muslim Brotherhood to take over important offices in the U.S. government as they will naturally turn the U.S. against Egypt. Therefore the exposé…
The Egyptian magazine maintains that Ikhwan operatives now spread through the American government have turned the White House “from a position hostile to Islamic groups and organizations in the world, to the largest and most important supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
(Investigative Project link: http://goo.gl/xyFP93)
SIX AMERICAN OFFICIALS SAID TO BE IKHWAN OPERATIVES
The six officials in the U.S. government named by the Rose El-Youssef magazine are:
Arif Alikhan, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for policy development;
Mohammed Elibiary, a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council;
Salam al-Marayati, co-founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC);
Imam Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA);
Eboo Patel, a member of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships;
Rashad Hussain, the U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
A CLOSER LOOK
FROM MANY SOURCES
Alikhan, a first generation American, from a Pakistani mother and Indian father. He is one of the founders of the World Islamic Organization (WIO), which the Egyptian magazine identifies as a Brotherhood “subsidiary.” It suggests that Alikhan was responsible for the “file of Islamic states” in the White House and that he provided the direct link between the Obama administration and the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed Mr. Alikhan to the position of Assistant Secretary for Policy Development in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. As a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Attorney General in Washington, D.C. he oversaw the National Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Program for the Department of Justice.
Elibiary is a Texas-based Islamic cleric who founded Lone Star Intelligence LLC, “to promote a centrist public-policy environment in Texas by coordinating the state-level government and interfaith community relations for the organized Texas Muslim community.”
He has endorsed the ideas of radical Muslim Brotherhood luminary Sayyid Qutb, and was given access to a highly sensitive file containing hundreds of thousands of intelligence reports intended solely to aid law-enforcement agencies. Elibiary also spoke at the infamous Dallas Muslim conference in honor of “the great Islamic visionary” the Ayatollah Khomeini. (Read full blog by Rod Dreher) (The American Conservative link: http://goo.gl/Hqc1Ud)
In fact, Elibiary may have leaked secret materials contained in Department of Homeland Security databases, according to Rose El-Youssef. He, however, denies having any connection with the Brotherhood.
Elibiary also played a role in defining the Obama administration’s counterterrorism strategy, and the Egyptian magazine asserted that he wrote the speech Obama gave when he told former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave power “but offers no source or evidence for that claim.”
Al-Marayati, originally from Bagdad, Iraq, is founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a Los Angeles-based Islamic advocacy group that defends Muslim extremist violence. MPAC has condemned the anti-terrorism measures of both the U.S. and Israel and has called for a repeal of the Patriot Act. The magazine draws connections between MPAC and the international Muslim Brotherhood infrastructure. He has justified Hamas’ existence as a political entity that promotes social programs and “educational operations.”
He has called for the U.S. government to unfreeze the assets of two Islamic charities, the Global Relief Foundation and the Holy Land Foundation, both shut down by the U.S. government because of verifiably funding terrorist organizations.
In 2010, the administration picked Al-Marayati to represent the U.S. government at the annual Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) conference, and in 2012 he was again part of that same forum in Poland. This raised many concerns from critics as Al-Marayati is an outspoken critic of Israel who once said the Jewish state should be added to the list of 9/11 terror suspects, according to Fox News, 17 October 2012.
Imam Mohamed Magid, originally from Sudan, heads the Islamic umbrella organization, ISNA, which was founded by Brotherhood members. He was appointed by Obama in 2011 as an adviser to the Department of Homeland Security to serve in a Countering Violent Extremism Working Group. The Egyptian magazine says he has also given speeches and conferences on American Middle East policy at the State Department and offered advice to the FBI. He is nicknamed the Sharia Czar by critics of the Obama Administration.
Eboo Patel, whose parents emigrated from India, appointed to the Obama Administration Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships, spoke at a Muslim Students Association (MSA) and ISNA convention, appearing on a panel alongside Tariq Ramadan, grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder, and Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and who has defended the convicted WTC bombers.
The Egyptian magazine also said that Patel maintains a close relationship with Hani Ramadan, another grandson of Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, and is a member of the Muslim Students Association, which it identifies as “a large Brotherhood organization.”
According to Rose El-Youssef, Rashad Hussain maintained close ties with people and groups that comprise the Muslim Brotherhood network in America. This includes his participation in the June 2002 annual conference of the American Muslim Council, formerly headed by convicted terrorist financier Abdurahman Alamoudi.
Rashad Hussain, son of Indian-born U.S. citizens, is the Obama administration’s envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Hussain’s background is replete with Muslim Brotherhood associations, including the American Muslim Council (founded by al-Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood operative, Abdurahman Alamoudi, now in prison); the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT ) which is on the Brotherhood’s own list of “our friends and the organizations of our friends;” and the Muslim Students Association (MSA), the original Brotherhood front group in the U.S.
In his official capacity, Hussain is responsible for providing advice on national security and Muslim outreach. He also assisted in writing the President’s June 2009 Cairo speech, in which Obama announced a new approach to the Muslim world and essentially declared war on his host, then-President Hosni Mubarak, by publicly signaling his recognition of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Hussain also acts as point man for the Obama administration’s cooperation with “the Istanbul Process,” the effort of the 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to make it an international crime to criticize Islam. (Yes, you read it right!)
Perhaps an event like the Benghazi fiasco can now be better understood. The current administration’s duplicity was incomprehensible in the aftermath of the September 11, 2012 terror attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, when it repeatedly and mendaciously claimed that an Internet video trailer sparked a protest there that got out of hand. Now it appears to have been carefully scripted not just with the OIC, but Muslim Brotherhood organizations in the U.S., as well.
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