UK media has reported that a parliamentary monition regarding a University Muslim research center has apparently cited GMBDW research. According to a report in the Guardian newspaper:
The early day motion tabled on Friday also claims that a research centre at the university was funded by the Cordoba Foundation and Islam Expo, which were said to have links to an Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood. “The European Muslim Research Centre at the University of Exeter was launched after funding provided by Islam Expo and the Cordoba Foundation (founded by Anas Al-Tikriti, a leader in the British Muslim Initiative and a former leader of the Muslim Association of Britain, both organisations being part of the UK Muslim Brotherhood),” the motion says.
Anas Altikriti, chief executive of the Cordoba Foundation, said his organisation had no relationship to the Muslim Brotherhood, whom he said he had criticised in the past. Altikriti said he suspected claims of a link had risen because his father, Osama Altikriti, now an Iraqi MP, was a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq. The Cordoba Foundation’s stated aims including promoting dialogue between cultures, he said.
The University of Exeter said it had received £100,000 from the Cordoba Foundation and Islam Expo for academic reports created in 2010.
“The reports form part of a 10-year project led by the European Muslim Research Centre at the University of Exeter that is conducting research into Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate crime in urban areas across Europe,” it said in a statement. “No one in the research team has any link whatsoever to companies or organisations with a political interest in the subject. The analysis and reporting of the findings is independent. The University of Exeter is not aware of any relationship between the Cordoba Foundation, Islam Expo and the Muslim Brotherhood.”
The actual motion cited by the Guardian states:
… the European Muslim Research Centre at the University of Exeter was launched after funding provided by IslamExpo and the Cordoba Foundation (founded by Anas Al-Tikriti, a leader in the British Muslim Initiative and a former leader of the Muslim Association of Britain, both organisations being part of the UK Muslim Brotherhood); recognises that IslamExpo is an event that is strongly associated with the global Muslim Brotherhood and has been supported by organisations such as the British Muslim Initiative, the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe andthe Muslim Council of Britain; and calls on the Government to establish an independent inquiry to trace the huge amounts of money from Middle Eastern dictatorships that has flowed into British universities andto introduce a mechanism whereby for every 1 that a British university receives in donations from a totalitarian or despotic regime, such as Libya, 1 should be withdrawn from that university in public sudsidy.
A previous post from February 2010discussed the European Muslim Research Centre (EMRC) stating in the opening:
The European Muslim Research Center (EMRC) at the University of Exeter in the U.K. was launched with funds provided by the U.K Muslim Brotherhood who also funded it’s recently released report on anti-Muslim hate crimes in the U.K….The Cordoba Foundation was founded by Anas Al-Tikriti who also serves as the Foundation’s Chief Executive. Al-Tikriti is a leader in the British Muslim Initiative and a former leader of the Muslim Association of Britain, both organizations being part of the U.K. Muslim Brotherhood.
The motion then goes on to discuss the ties of the EMRC to Anas Al-Tikriti and FIOE.
GMBDW notes that Mr. Al-Tikriti’s denial of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood is disingenuous and relies on the common failure to distinguish between the Egyptian and Global Muslim Brotherhood.