English
David Cameron has described members of the Muslim Brotherhood as possible extremists but stopped short of banning the group after a long-delayed official inquiry into its activities in Britain.
The prime minister said the review found the Islamist organisation, of which the ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi is a senior member, had had significant influence in groups claiming to speak for British Muslims.
He added that the Brotherhood, which is opposed by some Gulf states, characterised the UK as fundamentally hostile to Muslim faith and identity and had expressed support for terrorist attacks by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
“The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism,” Cameron said in a written ministerial statement to MPs. “Parts of the Muslim Brotherhood have a highly ambiguous relationship with violent extremism.”
The prime minister’s statement went far further than expected, and the report ends by claiming that “aspects of Muslim Brotherhood … are contrary to our values and have been contrary to our national interests and our national security”.
The review was undertaken by the former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sir John Jenkins, and Charles Farr, the director general of the office for security and counterterrorism in the Home Office. The findings were due to be published in July 2014 but have been long delayed, with no explanation from Downing Street.
An 11-page summary makes it clear the government accepts that the “Muslim Brotherhood has not been linked to terrorist-related activity in and against the UK” and has “often condemned terrorist-related activity in the UK associated with al-Qaida”.
However, the report raises concerns over the “sometimes secretive, if not clandestine” way the Brotherhood operated in the recent past and noted it sought to shape – by stealth – Muslim thinking through three UK mainstream organisations: the Muslim Association of Britain, the Muslim Council of Britain and the Islamic Society of Britain, which has now disowned its roots.
The Jenkins report says that “for some years the Muslim Brotherhood shaped the [then] new Islamic Society of Britain, dominated the Muslim Association of Britain and played an important role in establishing and then running the Muslim Council of Britain.”
It says in its conclusions: “Much about the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK remains secretive, including membership, fundraising and educational programmes. But Muslim Brotherhood associates and affiliates here have at times had significant influence on the largest UK Muslim student organisation, national organisations which have claimed to represent Muslim communities (and on that basis have sought and had a dialogue with government), charities and some mosques.
“Though their domestic influence has declined, organisations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood continue to have an influence here which is disproportionate to their size.”
The report also concludes that while engagement with the government has at times been facilitated by what appeared to be a common agenda against al-Qaida and militant Salafism: “But this engagement did not take account of Muslim Brotherhood support for a proscribed terrorist group and its views about terrorism which, in reality, were quite different from our own.”
The prime minister said that under the new counter-extremism strategy, ministers would ensure that government did not inadvertently provide legitimacy or a platform for extremists and would keep the question of banning the Muslim Brotherhood under review.
Last month, the Guardian revealed that the United Arab Emirates, dominated by the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi, threatened to block billion-pound arms deals with the UK, stop inward investment and cut intelligence cooperation if Britain did not act against the Muslim Brotherhood, which it regards as a terrorist outfit
A trio of the UK’s closest allies in the Arab world – Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – have all complained that London is a base for the Brotherhood, which began and was developed in Egypt.
These Arab nations have all outlawed the group and accused it of links to terrorism. The Brotherhood denies this, saying it is a peaceful political movement. The report accepts that the organisation has opted for “non-violent incremental change on the grounds of expediency”.
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood said Cameron was effectively condemning millions of Muslims as extremists and its lawyers were putting together a case to take the government to court. Its foreign relations chief, Yehia Hamed, said the report was not based on credible evidence or a proper review process.
The South Asian versions of the Brotherhood were also criticised. One such group – the Islamic Forum for Europe – was shown to be privately advocating sharia law in Tower Hamlets, east London.
The Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, grew into an international organisation with chapters across the Muslim world. The report says that while it has been non-violent and taken part in democratic elections in Egypt and Tunisia, the “Muslim Brotherhood at all levels have repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers”.
While the armed wing of Hamas is banned in Britain, the organisation’s political wing has held talks with senior UK officials – most recently this year with the former prime minister, Tony Blair, who reportedly invited Hamas’s leader to the UK.
Cameron said the government would keep a close watch on the views promoted by Brotherhood associates in Britain in Arabic and English, as well as their activities. Britain would also continue to refuse visas to members and associates of the Brotherhood who were on record as having made extremist comments.
There would be a particular focus on fundraising in Britain for the Brotherhood to ensure that money raised by charities with links to the organisation was not used to finance it, he said.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, said the Jenkins review had been requested by the Saudi government and “shines a light into the shady corners of our relationship with the kingdom. We should decide these things based on real and credible intelligence and not pressure from Riyadh,” he said.
“We need to be less of a slavish ally and more critical of their role both within the region and on human rights. We are now calling on the government to start a formal inquiry into the external funding for extremist perversions of Islam.”
Source: www.theguardian.com