Referring only to “some Muslims”, probably a new low in the major media’s failure to understand the subject, BBC News has published an article giving background to the HSBC Bank’s decision to close the accounts of UK Muslim Brotherhood leader Anas Altikriti as well as other accounts tied to the UK Brotherhood. According to the report:
Anas Altikriti
HSBC bank has written to Finsbury Park Mosque and other Muslim organisations in the UK to tell them that their accounts will be closed.
“The reason given in some cases was that to continue providing services would be outside the bank’s ‘risk appetite’.
The wife and teenage children of a man who runs a London based Islamic think tank have also been contacted.
HSBC said decisions to close accounts were ‘absolutely not based on race or religion’.
‘We do not discuss relationships we may or may not have with a customer, nor confirm whether an individual or business is, or has been a customer.
‘Discrimination against customers on grounds of race or religion is immoral, unacceptable and illegal, and HSBC has comprehensive rules and policies in place to ensure race or religion are never factors in banking decisions.’
The bank said it was ‘applying a programme of strategic assessments to all of its businesses’ after a $1.9bn fine in 2012 over poor money-laundering controls.
‘As a result of these ongoing reviews, we have exited relationships with business and personal customers in over 70 countries.
‘The services we provide to charities are no exception to this global review,’ the bank added.”
The GMBDW was the first to report last week on the HSBC actions.
Anas Al-Tikriti is the son of Osama Al-Tikriti, one of the leaders of the Iraqi Islamic Partyrepresenting the Muslim Brotherhood in that country. In addition to his role at Cordoba, Al-Tikriti is one of the leaders of the British Muslim Initiative (BMI), part of the U.K. Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) had for many years been the most active organization in the U.K Muslim Brotherhood but many of the leaders of the MAB left in 2007 to form the BMI. According to an Israeli think-tank report, 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 formed the BMI wished such activity to continue. Altikriti is also head of the Cordoba Foundation, a “think-tank” serving the aims of the UK Muslim Brotherhood.
The Finsbury Mosque had a long history of ties to extremist Islamic clerics but was closed and re-opened under the management of the UK Brotherhood.
