The UK media appears to be just discovering that the Muslim Brotherhood has offices in London, appearing completely confused about long this office has been in existence. In April 2010, we reported on Ibrahim Munir, at that time identified as a leader in the “International Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood” as well as a spokesman for the Brotherhood in London as well as the general supervisor of the London-based Muslim Brotherhood publication known as the ‘Risalat Al-Ikhwan’ (Muslim Brotherhood Message).In December of 2010, we reported on an interview with Mohammed Ghanem, at that time identified as a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK. As we noted at that time:
The identification of Mr. Ghanem as a Muslim Brotherhood representative is supported by UK corporate records which list a Mohamed Ghanem as a director of World Media Services, known to have been affiliated with the Al-Markaz al-I’lami lil-Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Information Centre of the Muslim Brotherhood), London. Al-Da’awa, a Muslim Brotherhood magazine formerly edited by UK-based Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Kamal Helbawy, was published by World Media Services, which is known to have shared premises with the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), one of the UK Muslim Brotherhood organizations.
World Media services has long been known to operate from an address in Cricklewood and was first registered in 1993 so it should be no surprise that Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leaders relocating to London would make use of this facility. However, two major UK newspaper are reporting on the Cricklewood location as if it were a new development. The first report appeared on Sunday in the Daily Telegraph:
January 12, 2014 It is an unlikely setting from which to launch a fightback against Egypt’s new military rulers.
But a cramped flat above a disused kebab shop in North London has become the focal point of the Muslim Brotherhood’s effort to regroup after President Mohamed Morsi was forced from office and his movement declared a terrorist organisation.
In Cairo the organisation is facing one of the toughest crackdowns in decades: thousands of supporters have been arrested, while organisations linked with the Brotherhood have had their assets confiscated. Mr Morsi, who was Egypt’s first democratically elected president, faces trial for alleged treason, and he has been joined in the country’s notorious jails by the group’s supreme guide and most of its senior leadership.
The handful of senior figures that remain free have fled into exile, and have chosen London as a base from which to rebuild the organisation. The London office, in the suburb of Cricklewood, is being run by relatives of two of Mr Morsi’s arrested aides, who were seized along with the former president when troops entered his inner sanctum last July to announce that his time was up.”
Read the rest here.
Today, the Daily Mail followed with a similar report:
It looks like any recession-hit high street, with a ladies’ hair salon, a cut-price TV store and, in between, a disused kebab shop.
But secreted above the shuttered premises that once sold Middle Eastern food is an altogether different import from the Arab world.
The cramped flat in Cricklewood, North West London, is now the centre of operations for Egypt’s once-mighty Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood are reported to have set up their new headquarters above a disused kebab shop on Cricklewood high-street
It is from here that the controversial Islamist organisation, expelled from power in a bloody military coup in Cairo, is plotting its comeback.
The Brotherhood’s leader, deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, is in jail following last July’s coup in which more than 1,000 died in street clashes. But it still has the support of millions across the Arab world and has been given shelter on Cricklewood Broadway by an Islamic charity.
Yesterday, a Brotherhood official denied it was using the down-at-heel premises. The man, who would not give his name, told the Daily Mail: ‘This is the offices of a legitimate business and nothing more.’
But Mohamed Ghanem, 68, the expatriate Egyptian who has run the non-profit World Media Services for more than 20 years, confirmed: ‘This is an Islamic charity and we have same values of the Muslim Brotherhood. So when their members had to leave Egypt, we helped them.’
Read the rest here.
The GMBDW urges the major media to make use of our publication in order to better educate themselves on the subject.