In this episode of The Middle East Breakdown, Hayvi Bouzo and Dan Feferman sit down with Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, the “Imam of Peace,” to unpack the difference between orthodox Islam and political Islam, and to track how the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran’s regime, and their allies built a global extremist network.

They discuss:
🕌 What “orthodox” Islam means to Imam Tawhidi, and why he rejects both liberal theology and Islamist ideology
🇮🇷 How Iran’s “Islamic regime” turned seminaries in Qom into political factories and weaponized Shia clerical authority
⚔️ Why Hamas, al-Qaeda, ISIS and similar groups are political organizations, not legitimate Islamic schools of thought
📖 How extremists cherry-pick Quranic verses, and why Tawhidi insists real interpretation must align with logic and original sources
☪️ The Muslim Brotherhood as the “mothership” of modern Islamist movements, from the Middle East to Western capitals
🌍 How Brotherhood affiliates and Iran’s proxies burrow into Western democracies using NGOs, lobbying, legal tools and identity politics
📚 The Global Imams Council (GIC): 1,600+ Sunni and Shia imams, their work with the UN, EU, Vatican and governments, and their “Symbols of Terror” guide for law enforcement
🤝 Why the Abraham Accords and a stronger UAE–US–Canada economic bloc threaten Islamist influence and empower moderates
🧭 Practical steps for Western policymakers, law enforcement, and communities to identify and push back against Islamist networks

The hosts and Imam Tawhidi lay out a clear distinction between Islam as a faith and Islamism as a political project, and explain why confronting the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran’s proxies is now a shared interest for Arabs, Israelis and the West.

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Imam of Peace on Political Islam, Iran’s Regime and the Muslim Brotherhood