The Muslim Association of Britain is reporting that an engineer with ties to the global Muslim Brotherhood has been granted Fellowship of the British Science Association. According to the report:
A leading British engineer has been granted Fellowship of the British Science Association for his work to promote the scientific and technological achievements within Muslim cultures. Professor Salim T S Al-Hassani, of Manchester University, has spent the last two decades debunking the myth of “The Dark Ages” by raising awareness of the scientific achievements that took place in India, China, Muslim Spain and the Middle East between the 7th and 17th centuries. Every year the British Science Association bestows Honorary Fellowship upon individuals who have “promoted openness about science in society” and “engaged and inspired adults and young people with science and technology”. Previous recipients have included BBC TV presenters Sir David Attenborough, Prof. Jim Al-Khalili and Prof. Robert Winston (now Lord Winston).Prof. Al-Hassani is best known as Chief Editor of the book ‘1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World’, which highlights a thousand years of social, scientific and technical achievements that are currently under-recognised in schools’ textbooks. The Professor recently announced plans to distribute 3000 copies of the book to UK schools free of charge….Professor Salim T S Al-Hassani is emeritus professor of Mechanical Engineering (UMIST) and currently a professorial fellow at the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, University of Manchester. Prof. Al-Hassani is Founder and Chairman of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC); a not-for-profit, non-religious and non-political body based in the UK but supported by academics from across the globe.
Dr. Hassani is known to have been a member of the Advisory Board of the Europe Trust, the funding/endowment arm of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), representing the global Muslim Brotherhood in Europe.
A confidential report from 2005 provides some further biographical information:
According to various Islamic websites, Dr. Salim Al-Hassani was born in Iraq and educated at University of Manchester from 1962-1965, obtaining 1st class BSc (Hons) in mechanical engineering in 1965, an MSc in 1967 and a PhD in 1969. These sources also state that he was appointed to a chair at the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST) in 1991. According to an Islamic website, Dr. Al-Hassani was active in the “fledgling” Muslim student organizations of the 1960’s including the Muslim Student Society (MSS) and the Federation of the Students Islamic Societies (FOSIS) now closely tied to the Muslim Association of Britain.
Other ties between Dr. Al-Hassani and the global Muslim Brotherhood include:
- In October 2003, Dr. Al-Hassani was one of six scheduled speakers at the Third ExpoIslamia in Wembley UK, sponsored by the Islamic charities Muslim Aid and the Human Relief Foundation. Other speakers included Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi and Dr. Tariq Ramadan.
- In September 2003, Dr. Al-Hassani was the center of a colloquium at the European Parliament in Brussels organized by the Federation of European Muslim Youth organisations (FEMYSO), the youth arm of FIOE, and Youth Forum Jeunesse in cooperation with Members of the European Parliament.
- In June 2003, Dr. Al-Hassani spoke at a conference entitled “Islam in a Changing Europe Past, Present & Future” at the Islamic Society of Edinburgh University. Other speakers included Dr. Azzam Tamimi, generally thought to be a Hamas spokesperson, and Anas Altikriti, former President of the Muslim Association of Britain, closely associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.In September 2004, Dr. Al-Hassani was on the program for the annual meeting of the Islamische Gemeinschaft Deutschland Europe Trust Trustee Ibrahim El-Zayat.
- In 2005, the British government identified Dr. Al-Hassani as one 16 members of the Education working group which was part of a larger UK government effort to generate suggestions for fighting Islamic extremism. Other members of this group included Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, Kurshid Ahmed of the Islamic Foundation, and Ibrahim Hewitt of the Palestinian charity Interpal.