The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) has always denied being an extremist organisation, yet there can be little dispute as to
the extremist views of its most “significant” director. Anas Altikriti, who was president of the MAB from 2004 to 2005, has described the mass slaughter and rape of Israeli citizens on Oct 7 2023 as “a lie” and called the taking of hostages “a very important part” of any “act of resistance”. The MAB has tried to distance itself from Mr Altikriti, saying he “does not speak for, nor represent the views of the MAB”. Yet Companies House lists Mr Altikriti as not only a current director of the MAB, but also the only director designated as a “person with significant control” of the organisation. The MAB was founded by
Muhammad Kathem Sawalha, the former Hamas chief, and was one of the groups that organised a pro-Palestine march in London on Armistice Day, a month after the Oct 7 massacre.
In a video recorded with the US imam Tom Facchine in Nov 2023, British Iraqi Mr Altikriti was asked about Hamas’s taking of hostages. He said: “The taking of hostages is a very important part of any strategic sort of military action or act of resistance or the such because for every hostage you can then negotiate. “You have personnel who are vital and crucial at least in your thinking and your mind to your adversary, to your enemy, so it’s a negotiating power.
“For the people of Gaza, for Hamas, for the resistance, call them as you may, a hostage is very, very valuable, and therefore they will be looked after, they will be cared for, they will be cared for even more than the actual citizens of Gaza simply because they provide cover for the resistance, they provide a negotiating card once the battle arrives at a point where people are sitting around the table or talking at least about some sort of deal. “Therefore those hostages were taken by Hamas in order to negotiate more freedoms, more rights, the breakout of this prison that we call Gaza, this concentration camp that we call Gaza.”
Mr Altikriti has also made highly controversial statements on X, including a post on the day of the Oct 7 attack that said: “What did we think was going to happen? That Palestinians would stay silent whilst forever subjugated, victimised, abused, violated, murdered and tortured?! “This is for every time western governments stayed silent and whitewashed Israel’s crimes and violations.”
Rape and slaughter allegations ‘a lie’
In December 2023 he objected to the British government’s designation of Hamas as a terrorist organisation and added: “Allegations of rape made by Israel are false. It’s a lie… “Just like every other allegation made by Israel turns out to be a lie, including the mass slaughter of Israeli citizens on the 7th of October. That too was a lie.” Michael Gove proposed in Parliament last year that the MAB be considered for inclusion under a new definition of “extremist” organisations. The MAB was founded in 1997 with the stated aim of helping British Muslims seeking to contribute positively within society.
But according to a 2015 parliamentary report commissioned by the then prime minister Lord Cameron, the MAB was in its early days “dominated” by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and three other countries, though not Britain. The report stated that: “MAB has links to the Cordoba Foundation, a think tank which is associated with the Brotherhood (though claiming to be neither affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood nor a lobby organisation for it).”
That link comes through Mr Alkitiri, who is the chief executive and founder of the Cordoba Foundation, which Lord Cameron described in Parliament in 2009 as a front for the Muslim Brotherhood. The report also said: “MAB…have consistently opposed programmes by successive governments to prevent terrorism.” A spokesman for the MAB said: “Mr Altikriti does not speak for MAB, and should you have any questions regarding his views or comments please direct them to him.”
