The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) has announced that Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi is an invited speaker to its December 17th conference titled “Creating Hope.” According to the announcement, other speakers of interest include:
- Issam Al-Bashir (Sudan), a Global Muslim Brotherhood leader
- Anas Al-Tikriti (UK), a UK Muslim Brotherhood leader
- Robert Lambert (UK), former UK Special Branch officer
- Basil Mustafa (UK), Oxford Centre fellow
- Salma Yaqoob (UK), associate of George Galloway
Rachid Ghannouchi (many spelling variations) is the leader of the Tunisian Islamist movement known as Nahada (aka Ennahda, Al Nahda) and can best be described as an independent Islamist power center who is tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood though his membership in the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) and his important position in the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), both organizations led by Global Muslim Brotherhood Youssef Qaradawi. An Egyptian news report has identified Ghannouchi as a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood “abroad.” Ghannouchi is also one of the founding members of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi organization closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and dedicated to the propagation of “Wahabist” Islam throughout the world. Ghannouchi is known for his thinking on the issue of Islam and citizenship rights. Earlier posts reported on the return of Mr. Ghannouchi to Tunisia following his long exile in the UK. Other posts have detailed his extremist background.
A UK official has stated that the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) is the Muslim Brotherhood’s “representative” in the UK. According to a recent “Oral Answers to Questions Foreign and Commwealth office document:
Mr Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent reports he has received of potential links between the UK offices of the Muslim Brotherhood and (a) Hamas, (b) Islamic Jihad and (c) other organisations.
Alistair Burt: We are aware of reports which suggest that there are significant historic linkages between the Muslim Brotherhood, its overseas affiliates and Hamas. Historically the Brotherhood has presented Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement for the Palestinian people.
The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) are the Brotherhood’s representative in the UK. MAB in the UK publically rejects violence and state that they work for wider Muslim integration into British society.
The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) had for many years been the most active organization in the U.K Muslim Brotherhood. Many of the leaders of the MAB left in 2007 to form the British Muslim Initiative (BMI). According to sources in the U.K, the breakup appeared to be the result of a conflict between traditionalists in the MAB who were unhappy with the high level of involvement in U.K left-wing politics while those who who formed the BMI wished such activity to continue. Anas Al-Tikriti, the leader of the BMI, and former MAB official, is the son of Osama Al-Tikriti, one of the leaders of the Iraqi Islamic Party representing the Muslim Brotherhood in that country.