UK media reported late last month that Ibrahim Halawa, the son of a prominent Imam in the Irish Muslim Brotherhood, has been freed after spending over four years in an Egyptian prison. According to a BBC report:
An Irishman who was freed after spending more than four years in an Egyptian prison has said it ‘feels like a dream’ to return home to Dublin.
Ibrahim Halawa was 17 years old when he was arrested during a siege at the Al-Fath mosque in Cairo in August 2013. Now 21, he was acquitted of all charges last month but his release from prison was delayed until last week. After his flight from Cairo landed in Dublin on Tuesday he said: ‘This is the moment I’ve waited for for four years.’
Mr Halawa and 500 others, including his three older sisters, were accused of inciting violence, riot and sabotage after their arrest. His sisters were allowed to return home to Ireland within three months, but he remained imprisoned and his family led a lengthy campaign for his release.
Mr Halawa was released and reunited with some of his family last Thursday after being acquitted of all of the charges against him.”
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In a subsequent statement, Ibrahim Halawa denied being part of the Muslim Brotherhood, stating ‘Of course I’m not with the Muslim Brotherhood, at 17 you don’t know what that is” and that it was not a Brotherhood rally he attended and that he did not go to Egypt to be politically active, it just happened “by accident.” However, a Global Muslim Brotherhood Research Center (GMBRC) report on the Muslim Brotherhood in Ireland details the links between the Global Muslim Brotherhood and his father, Hussein Halawa including:
- Serving as the Secretary-General of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), a theological body headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi whose membership consists almost entirely of Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders.
- A close, personal friendship with Qaradawi.
- Attending multiple conferences associated with the Global Muslim Brotherhood where Brotherhood leaders such as Tariq Ramadan and Ibrahim El-Zayat also attended.
- Playing a leadership role in the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), the umbrella group for the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe.
In addition, the GMBRC report documents that the Islamic Cultural Center of Ireland (ICCI,) where Hussein Halawa has long served as imam, functions as the headquarters for the Global Muslim Brotherhood in Ireland including serving as headquarters for the ECFR and having hosted a large number of Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders over the years including Qaradawi, Jamal Badawi, and Zhagoul El-Naggar. Irish media reported last month that Hussein Halawa called homosexuality “sinful” in a statement days before his son was to return home. The Dublin Live report also confirms Hussein Halawa’s role in the ECFR:
The head of the biggest mosque in Ireland and father of acquitted Ibrahim Halawa has blasted homosexuality as ‘sinful.’
Sheikh Hussein Halawa has made the shocking statement just days before he is due to welcome home his 21-year-old son, who has been locked up in Egypt since 2013.
Sheikh Halawa is Ireland’s most senior Muslim cleric and Imam of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh, Dublin, has been living in the country for over 20 years but has very little English.
He told the Sunday Business Post he is ‘general secretary’ for Dublin-based Muslim think tank the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR).
The ECFR is chaired by controversial Qatar-based Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 90, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, who advocated the death penalty for homosexuals.
Halawa said homosexuality ‘has never been debated in the council. It has never been discussed. Never.
‘Our place is to say what is Islamically sinful and not sinful.’”
Shockingly, almost none of the Irish or UK media reports on this subject reviewed by the GMBDW made any mention of the links between the father of Ibrahim Halawa and the Global Muslim Brotherhood.