A U.K Muslim Brotherhood organization has severely distorted the recent controversy surrounding the evidence behind a year long investigation by a U.K. think-tank into the literature available in U.K mosques and Islamic facilities. As reported in a previous post, the investigation by the Policy Exchange found that radical material, much of it from Saudi Arabia, was available in 25% of the mosques visited including some of the most important mosques in the U.K. A BBC news show has recently cast doubt on the authenticity of five of the 25 receipts provided by researchers who were assigned to purchase the materials. Despite what would seem to be an unresolved issue with a relatively small number of the receipts the British Muslim Initiative (BMI), at this point the most preeminent U.K. Muslim Brotherhood organization, has greatly distorted the nature of the controversy by claiming that the report itself was “wildly fabricated.” The BMI website states:
In line with the trend of biased and over-sensationalised reporting on the Muslim community, it has emerged that reports by the right-wing think tank Policy Exchange claiming to uncover the sale of extremist literature at British mosques were entirely fabricated. Purporting to be a reputable study based on reliable evidence, the report was in face based on wholly inaccurate information which was invented to support the authors’ prejudices. It is deplorable that a supposedly independent and academic institution has purposely chosen to single out and smear an entire community in this way. The British Muslim Initiative calls for the media to exercise more caution in reporting such findings by self-appointed agenda-driven “think tanks”.
The statement goes on to call for the Conservative Party to “reconsider their close relationship with Policy Exchange.” The Policy Exchange has said that it sticks by the conclusions of its report and that resolution of the receipt issue will have to wait for the return of its researchers who are currently out of the country on a retreat where according to the Policy Exchange director, an Islamist website had called for supporters to “hunt them down.” The claim by BMI that the report itself was fabricated indicates the sensitivity of the issue to the U.K. Brotherhood and its willingness to use the occasion for propagandizing against the Policy Exchange which it undoubtedly views as part of the “Zionist” establishment in the U.K.