Former BBC Senior Correspondent John Ware has written a trenchant analysis of what he calls the “Double Games Of The UK Muslim Brotherhood.” The article begins:
March 2016 The tone was plaintive, almost bewildered. ‘We work tirelessly for the good of British society on several fronts,’ Anas Altikriti protested before calling a press conference to refute the government’s charge that he and other like-minded Muslim leaders are doing the opposite.
A classified government review by two of Britain’s leading civil servants, expert in the Arab world and Islamist ideology, has concluded that organisations like the one Altikriti heads are, in effect, fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood — a charge they categorically deny.
The Ikhwan al-Muslimeen, as it is known in Arabic, was established in 1928 in Egypt and its goal was — and remains — the step-by-step Islamisation of Muslim communities with the ultimate aim of creating a global Caliphate ruled by holy law. ‘Allah is our objective’ is the Brotherhood’s motto, ‘The Prophet is our leader. The Koran is our constitution. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.’
With Altikriti on the platform was Omer El-Hamdoon, president of the Muslim Association of Britain, and Mohammed Kozbar, chairman of the Finsbury Park Mosque, North London, where the press conference was held. ‘We are not enemies of the state,’ said the gently-spoken Hamdoon. All three say they ‘totally reject the allegation’ that they are ‘in any way linked to the Muslim Brotherhood’.
Altikriti, in particular, has emphasised that he has ‘absolutely no links’ and on its face his denial would seem to be consistent with the values of ‘tolerance’ and ‘positive co-existence’ which he says he is devoted to promoting. It’s certainly a vision a world away from the Brotherhood’s founder, Hassan al-Banna, who sought the moral purification of Muslims, because he regarded them as having been infected by Western decadence. That and his belief that Jews were a major source of the infection help explain why he was an admirer of Hitler and why he translated Mein Kampf into Arabic, calling it My Jihad.
Al-Banna’s legacy has bequeathed a virulent strain of anti-Semitism, homophobia, and disdain for the West and its pluralist values within the Brotherhood that survives to the present day. But no hint of that is to be found in the estimable ‘Vision’ and ‘Values’ section of Altikriti’s think-tank, the Cordoba Foundation, which he established so that Muslims and non-Muslims can ‘strive’ to ‘understand each other.’
The Cordoba Foundation says it promotes ‘intercultural dialogue and positive coexistence among civilisations’; it puts a premium on ‘compassion, peace, justice’ and is a ‘strong voice of tolerance and reason’. It asserts that its ‘independent’ research is underpinned by ‘sound’ academic authorities. What could be more in tune with those British values which the Prime Minister has done so much to promote over the last year as part of his counter-extremism strategy?”
Read the rest here.
In January of this year, the GMBDW posted an analysis of Anas Altikriti’s claim of “no links” with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In June 2013, we reported that the editor of the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch had given a presentation at the UK Parliament titled ‘Understanding the Muslim Brotherhood & Its British Connections.” John Ware wrote an article at the time about the presentation titled “Time To Wise Up To The Muslim Brotherhood.”