In January of this year, the GMBDW reported that both the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and UK Muslim Brotherhood leader Anas Altikriti had denied strenuously that they had any links to the Muslim Brotherhood. As the media reported at the time:
British organisations criticised in an official report which branded members of the Muslim Brotherhood as ‘possible terrorists’ have denied they have any link to the organisation.
The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), which helped the Finsbury Park mosque emerge from the shadow of militant preacher Abu Hamza, and the Cordoba Foundation, a Middle Eastern thinktank which has negotiated the freedom of 19 hostages in Iraq – sometimes at the request of the government – denied having ‘any links to the Muslim Brotherhood’.
Released by David Cameron a few hours before parliament’s Christmas recess, the report stopped short of banning the Muslim Brotherhood but said the group characterised the UK as fundamentally hostile to the Muslim faith and identity and had expressed support for terrorist attacks by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
The stories you need to read, in one handy email Read more The Cordoba Foundation, set up to promote peace in the Middle East, was said to be ‘associated with the Brotherhood’. However in a press conference held at Finsbury Park mosque, Anas Altikriti, the founder of the Cordoba Foundation, said he had ‘absolutely no links to the Muslim Brotherhood’.
Read the rest here.
In our post, we presented what we believe to be clear and persuasive evidence that both the MAB and Anas Altikriti do indeed have multiple links to the Muslim Brotherhood. However, even more compelling is testimony given this week by Altikriti before a UK Parliamentary committee inquiry into “Political Islam.” When asked outright by a committee member if he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Altikriti employs the usual and tortured “no organizational links” canard followed by the startling admission that not only is the MAB “the closest there is” to the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK but that he has returned to the organization as its Chairman:
Q80 Nadhim Zahawi: Thank you very much indeed. My next question is to Sondos and to Anas. In your written submissions to us, you are sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood, and you are both perceived to have organisational links to it. But am I right that neither of you are members of the Brotherhood?
Dr Altikriti: I think that “perceived” is the magic word in your question. It is perceived that there are organisational links. There is no organisation link with the Muslim Brotherhood. But it’s clear, personally as well as organisationally, that the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and what it symbolises is something that the region—as a whole, a region that has been bereft of humanity and democracy and freedoms and civil liberties for a century at least—is in dire need of.
The ideological basis, the ideology of Islamic values entering all spheres of life, particularly in politics, in peaceful transformation and reform of society, as well as Governments, in terms of including everyone and excluding none—that ideological base I share entirely.
Q81 Nadhim Zahawi: But you’re not a member of the Brotherhood?
Dr Altikriti: Well, in Britain particularly we do not have a Muslim Brotherhood. We do not have a Muslim Brotherhood organisation—
Q82 Nadhim Zahawi: But you are not a member of the Brotherhood anywhere?
Dr Altikriti: No. This is my country; I belong to whatever organisation there is here. And the closest there is to the Muslim Brotherhood, and which espouses the basic tenets of the Muslim Brotherhood ideology, is the Muslim Association of Britain, which I am a member of, I am a founding member of and I was a president of, and now I’m the chairman of.
A short while later, Altikriti continues his gushing description of the Brotherhood and concludes that the tenets and ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood “would be a fantastic addition to the mosaic that makes up the likes of British society or other Western societies”:
Q85 Chair: Do you think that a Muslim Brotherhood is not required in a free society? Is that what you’re saying?
Dr Altikriti: No, I think the tenets that the Muslim Brotherhood aspires to and promotes are quite valid in every society. This is my point; I try to make this clear in my submission. The problem of oppression is that it does not just violate human rights for the Muslim Brotherhood or those who are against the coup. The problem is that it deprives those movements of the ability to evolve, to operate under the sunlight, to change their views and, if you wish, to use the term “moderate”. It deprives them of that. If you drive anything—anything—underground, you will find that the extremists within that particular party win the day. They win the argument within the organisation. Therefore, I would say that actually, in free societies, the tenets and ideological and philosophical backbone of what constitutes the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology would be a fantastic addition to the mosaic that makes up the likes of British society or other Western societies.
So let us translate the words of Anas Altikriti into more plain language:
No, I am not a “member” of the Muslim Brotherhood (wink, wink) but I am a member of the closest thing there is here and I would be overjoyed if the Muslim Brotherhood ever came to operate openly in the UK at which point I would certainly declare myself an official member. (OUR TRANSLATION)
Anas Altikriti is the son of Osama Altikriti, one of the leaders of the Iraqi Islamic Party representing the Muslim Brotherhood in that country. Altikriti had been one of the leaders of the British Muslim Initiative (BMI), another part of the U.K. Muslim Brotherhood but which now appears defunct. The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) had for many years been the most active organization in the UK Muslim Brotherhood but many of the leaders of the MAB including Altikriti 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 UK left-wing politics while those who formed the BMI wished such activity to continue. As is now known, Altikriti has returned to the MAB as its Chairman and is the also head of the Cordoba Foundation, a “think-tank” serving the aims of the UK Muslim Brotherhood.
For more links of Anas Altikrii to the Muslim Brotherhood, go here.