British-Turkish “Thought Leadership” Group Provides Training For Global Muslim Brotherhood Youth Leaders

In Decem­ber 2020, the Sinan Wren Foun­da­tion, a Turk­ish-British self-described “thought lead­er­ship” group pro­vid­ing media and exec­u­tive train­ing cours­es to young Mus­lim lead­ers, held the lat­est of its annu­al “Nel­son Man­dela Lead­er­ship Pro­grams.” Accord­ing to a course descrip­tion on the foundation’s web­site:

Sinan-Wren Coach­es work with our glob­al par­tic­i­pants through a com­pre­hen­sive and very intense 5 day pro­gramme that seeks to build lead­er­ship through a mul­ti polar approach. By focus­ing on case stud­ies about lead­ing glob­al cor­po­ra­tions, his­toric and top­i­cal world events, show­cas­ing chal­lenges as well as solu­tions deployed by gov­ern­ments and NGOs whilst hon­ing in on the abil­i­ty to work in an entre­pre­neur­ial inter­na­tion­al team, our alum­ni leave with hav­ing been part of a unique experience.

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Past Sinan Wren lec­tur­ers include Intis­sar Khe­ri­gi, daugh­ter of the Tunisian Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leader Rachid Ghan­nouchi, and its course alum­ni include Abrar Omeish, daugh­ter of for­mer Mus­lim Amer­i­can Soci­ety Pres­i­dent Esam Omeish, who in 2007 had to step down from a Vir­ginia State Com­mis­sion post after advo­cat­ing for jihad. Oth­er course par­tic­i­pants include Kau­thar Bouchal­likh and Ibrahim Kraria, who have served on the exec­u­tive com­mit­tee of the Forum of Euro­pean Mus­lim Youth and Stu­dent Orga­ni­za­tions, the youth/student arm of the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in Europe. FEMYSO has also adver­tised Sinan Wren pro­grams on social media.

Since 2015, the foundation’s Istan­bul office has been head­ed by Murat Yasa, a for­mer head of the IHH Human­i­tar­i­an Relief Foun­da­tion, the major spon­sor of the June 2010 Gaza Flotil­la involved in a vio­lent alter­ca­tion with Israeli naval forces. Our pre­de­ces­sor pub­li­ca­tion also report­ed on IHH recruit­ment of “human shields” for Gaza, the inves­ti­ga­tion of the IHH Pres­i­dent for financ­ing Al-Qae­da through the IHH, and alle­ga­tions that IHH might have been involved in trans­port­ing weapons to Syr­ia on behalf of the Syr­i­an Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. In Lon­don, Sinan Wren’s reg­is­tered address is also known to have been used to reg­is­ter a large num­ber of com­pa­nies tied to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and Hamas, includ­ing Al-Quds TV and Britain 2 Gaza.

Past GIOR report­ing about influ­ence oper­a­tions where mem­bers of the Turk­ish gov­ern­ment have act­ed in con­cert with the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood has included:

• A Decem­ber 2020 report that Turkey’s gov­ern­ing Jus­tice and Devel­op­ment Par­ty (AKP) had inten­si­fied its rela­tions with the Turk­ish Islamist Mil­lî Görüş move­ment in Germany.

• A Decem­ber 2020 report that Turk­ish Pres­i­dent Recep Tayyip Erdo­gan had sent a video mes­sage express­ing his sup­port for the Mus­lim Amer­i­can Soci­ety, part of the US Mus­lim Brotherhood.

• A Jan­u­ary 2021 report that a high-rank­ing AKP offi­cer and a senior mem­ber of an orga­ni­za­tion linked to the British Mus­lim Broth­er­hood had estab­lished a new think tank.

• A Feb­ru­ary 2021 report detail­ing Turk­ish efforts to use soft pow­er influ­ence in Europe to estab­lish a hege­mon­ic posi­tion in the Mus­lim world.