UK: Whatever Happened to that Muslim Brotherhood Review?

by Douglas Murray
March 30, 2015 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5459/muslim-brotherhood-review

The former head of MI6, Richard Dearlove, has described the Muslim Brotherhood as "at heart a terrorist organization."
Officials who are soft on extremism hope that both the extremism strategy and the Muslim Brotherhood review are not merely being kicked into the long grass but will, in fact, never see the light of day.
This is, it must be said, politics at its very worst. The Muslim Brotherhood has wreaked havoc for decades. Its desire to carry out coups and to rule Middle Eastern countries according to the rule of a hardline interpretation of Islamic law is not ancient history — it is very recent history.
Britain has for some years now been the major global hub of for these revolutionaries to fundraise, organize and dip in and out of whenever they are in or out of power.
When countries harbor Britain's enemies, we rightly regard those countries as less than friendly toward us. If Britain fails to publish the Muslim Brotherhood review, it will not just show that the country is unreliable to its friends and even to its own citizens.

What has happened to the British government's "review" into the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK?

The "review" (officials have been careful not to refer to it as an '"inquiry") into the Muslim Brotherhood's "philosophy and values and alleged connections with extremism and violence" was announced by Prime Minister David Cameron almost a year ago. At a press conference, he said that Britain's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Sir John Jenkins, would lead the review. Explaining the need for such a process, Mr. Cameron said:

"What I think is important about the Muslim Brotherhood is that we understand what this organisation is, what it stands for, what its beliefs are in terms of the path of extremism and violent extremism, what its connections are with other groups, what its presence is here in the United Kingdom. Our policies should be informed by a complete picture of that knowledge."

This is indeed something that is important. So why, a year later, have the findings of this review still not been published?

From the outset, the whole process has been subject to considerable public and private criticism, not to say opposition. Those people in the commentariat and political class who are generally uncritical of non-violent extremism (or rather "not violent, here, for the time-being" extremism) protested against conducting the Muslim Brotherhood review from the outset. Last year, for instance, the Financial Times quoted a "senior government figure," saying that the investigation "Cuts against what the FCO has already been doing in this area... It risks turning supporters of a moderate, non-violent organisation that campaigns for democracy into radicals."

This was a particularly revealing statement: it showed that apart from anything else, there were, from the outset, people at the very top of government who think that the Muslim Brotherhood is a harmless, pro-democracy group that is being unfairly and unhelpfully maligned. This is not the view of many experts on Middle Eastern politics. And it is certainly not the view of the former head of MI6, Richard Dearlove, who has described the Muslim Brotherhood as "at heart a terrorist organisation." It also revealed the thinking in at least part of Britain's political class.

There were also complaints from those who saw the review as only having been ordered because it was in fact some type of political or religious sectarian set-up. There were claims that the UK government had only ordered this process at the behest of the Egyptian government – which branded the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group again in 2013, after the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood-run government. Others claimed that the review had been ordered at the behest of the Saudis – a line bolstered by the appointment of Sir John Jenkins.

Despite these objections, Sir John got on with his review. Experts were called in over the course of several months and the review itself was finished some months ago. So why has nobody seen it?

For some time, the stalling has been put down to an issue of "sensitivity." There are allied countries, potentially banks and certain figures in authority in allied countries, who may not come out well from Sir John's review. It is also likely that prominent Muslim Brotherhood figures in the UK have been identified by name. Any and all of these people could have objected to being identified. One rumour in Westminster for some time has been that Muslim Brotherhood leaders, or the organisation as a whole, had considered issuing an injunction against the Prime Minister to prevent the publication of the report. How the Muslim Brotherhood could issue an injunction against a British Prime Minister in the British courts is uncertain, but there are certainly likely to be libel and other issues around.

Of course, these problems are fairly easy to get around by issuing a heavily redacted version of the report while keeping the full version for official use only. Indeed, before the latest stall it was expected that there would be a publication only of a two-page summary of the review's main findings. But now it seems that even this will not be able to be released. So what is going on?

The UK government is running close to the period in which no more releases of potentially political information can be presented from Whitehall. This period, before the election, is generally referred to as "purdah." The UK is about to enter this period, and the Muslim Brotherhood review is not the only document likely to become a victim. The British government has yet to release its new counter-extremism strategy. This long-awaited document was meant to be launched in January, but infighting at the top of the coalition government has delayed it. Credible reports say that the coalition has stalled over the refusal of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (leader of the Liberal Democrats) to endorse measures which would, among other things, stop extremist preachers and recruiters touring UK universities.

The counter-extremism strategy was meant to be released on the same day as the Muslim Brotherhood review. But now both are about to fall afoul of the pre-election deadline, and thus fall into post-election publication. That, of course, is precisely what Nick Clegg and other officials who are soft on extremism would like. Their hope is that the Conservative Party does not become the largest party after May 5^th, so that both the extremism strategy and the Muslim Brotherhood review are not merely being kicked into the long grass but will, in fact, never see the light of day.

This is, it must be said, politics at its very worst. The Muslim Brotherhood has wreaked havoc for decades. Its desire to carry out coups and to rule Middle Eastern countries according to the rule of a hardline interpretation of Islamic law is not ancient history – it is very recent history. Britain has for some years now been the major global hub for these revolutionaries to fundraise, organize and dip in and out of whenever they are in or out of power.

Muhammad Ghanem, the representative of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK, is shown here speaking on live television from London, in 2011. (Image source: MEMRI)

A decent democracy would not behave towards its public, allies and friends like this. When countries harbour Britain's enemies, we rightly regard those countries as less than friendly toward us. If Britain fails to publish the Muslim Brotherhood review, it will not just show that the country is unreliable to its friends and even to its own citizens. It will show that it is outstandingly weak in the face of our society's most obvious enemies.

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Related Topics: United Kingdom

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Comment on this item

15 Reader Comments

Colin Jones • May 8, 2015 at 19:58

Writing post election it is at least good to see that Clegg and his cohort are out in the political wilderness and that perhaps we may now see that report.
Why are UK politicians so craven when it comes to exposing this danger in their midst. Perhaps they are currying favour with the future rulers?

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Gary Clark • Mar 31, 2015 at 09:51

The government s of today don't seem to have the courage to tackle what happening in their backyard through political correctness..maybe they will when we all pay the price. We need strong leaders to keep our Democracies alive.

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Sandra Girardau • Mar 31, 2015 at 08:08

It seems that political correctness has gone haywire.
Mr Cameron is never going to upset the Muslims in Britain, especially the powerful Saudis. Too many of them are now in power in Britain.

I am afraid the Britain I grew up in is gone forever. The indigenous Brits will never get their country back. Islamisation is in full throttle. Western civilzation needs to wake up to the threat, tolerance is now looked on as a weakness.

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jacob t chachkes, m.d. • Mar 30, 2015 at 17:18

What's new?The money from the oil countries and Palestinian sympathizers has bought the media

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Hugh Askew • Mar 30, 2015 at 13:24

Cowardice is for losers........which is what appeasers are - cowards.
Failing to face the threat now, allows the threat to metastasize, until it becomes untreatable.

One would presume, the Britain, having produce one outstanding weasel, would be aghast at repeating the mistake of letting tyrants have their way.
It is becoming obvious, that that presumption is flat wrong.

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Araf • Mar 30, 2015 at 11:31

Things are strange in Britain these days. On the one hand, officials bury the "review" of the Muslim Brotherhood, while local officials bury the evidence that young British girls have for years been systematically raped and prostituted by men from South Asia.

On the other hand, the UK has just launched an impressive and powerful aircraft carrier, presumably because there is some expectation of serious hostilities in the looming future. The building of the ship implies that when trouble comes, Britain is preparing to do her part. The enemies of Britain are likely to be the sponsors, allies, and supporters of the MB and similar groups.

Is the government waffling, or is it split, or what?

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DockyWocky • Mar 30, 2015 at 10:18

"What has happened to the British government's "review" into the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK?"

It, like most inquiries into the Brotherhood, has fallen prey to politics.

It seems it is just getting harder and harder to critique anything that has to do with Mohammed, or Allah these days, because of the siren song of political correctness.

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David • Mar 30, 2015 at 09:06

If it looks like a duck. If it waddles like a duck. If it quacks like a duck then it is a duck. Duh!

But if you don't want to know a duck is a duck, then be like the three monkeys who would not look upon truth, would not hear it and certainly change the subject as fast as possible.

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Vincent J. • Mar 30, 2015 at 08:09

Our western people are very confused. So many have no coherent philosophy based upon reality, so they have nothing upon which to base a solid understanding of the world as it really is.

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Baucent • Mar 30, 2015 at 08:00

Unlikely to see the light of day this side of the election, and perhaps never. Any schoolboy could research this organization and discover roots in Fascism, supremacist Islamist ideology, hatred of Jews, Christians and other infidels and that many of the founding members of Arab terrorist groups have been MB members. In summary a thoroughly disreputable group with no good reason for an office in London.

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Ed in North Texas • Mar 30, 2015 at 07:52

"...it will not just show that the country is unreliable to its friends and even to its own citizens. It will show that it is outstandingly weak in the face of our society's most obvious enemies."

Welcome to the modern Western World, at best dominated by political correctness and fear of giving offense to our enemies. At worst governed by those who would surrender rather than opposing enemies.

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Sandra Girardau

Ed in North Texas • Mar 30, 2015 at 09:24

Too much political pandering to all Muslim groups in Britain.The government would prefer to not upset these groups to the detriment of their own people. Political correctness and financial gain is the root cause. Whilst Saudi money is at stake Britain will continue to erode their own indigenous people. Britain is a stronghold of militant Muslims.

Trojan horses are everywhere, in schools in government in immigration. the police force. Nothing will change whilst the present government is in power. What ever party gets in in May it will be a huge challenge to get Britain back to the Brits.

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Dean • Mar 30, 2015 at 06:47

If Britain does not have the courage to release this report and to come up with a strategy to deal with terrorism, that tells me that the Muslim Brotherhood have infiltrated the government at high levels. They also have some leftist politicians firmly in their pockets. How will they ever deal with terrorism if they have no will?

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AmericanMom

Dean • Mar 30, 2015 at 10:10

It is well known that the Muslim Brotherhood had strong ties to the Nazis at its formation. It was and is a terrorist organization as the source states in the article. What is really disturbing is that the government in the USA has been chummy with it. There are Muslim Brotherhood supporters (and likely members) in our government --even in Homeland Security.

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David M

Dean • Mar 30, 2015 at 11:57

And this attitude from a country that has seen one of its soldiers murdered on a London street by a Muslim extremist, not to mention the bus bombings of several years ago. Oh, and Jihadi John, the identified Brit who cuts off prisoners' heads!!

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