I know what you’re thinking, they can’t be serious . . . and yet they are.
(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration says that it has talked with members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood in order to promote small business.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned in Egypt during the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak, leads the Freedom and Justice Party which, according to the Congressional Research Service, won 235 of the 498 seats (47 percent) in Egypt’s new People’s Assembly, which convened in January. The fundamentalist Islamist Alliance won another 125 seats (or 25 percent of the assembly).
In an online briefing for foreign reporters last week, Undersecretary of State Robert Hormats said that the State Department is trying to promote collaboration between small and medium-sized businesses in the United States and businesses overseas.
In this context, he said he had talked to members of the Muslim Brotherhood about promoting smaller enterprises. He said he would be having similar discussions this week with leaders from Middle Eastern and North African countries.
“America’s a big economy with a number of big companies. We also have a lot of small and medium-sized companies. And we know in many parts of the world, there is an effort to support small and medium-sized enterprise,” said Hormats.