Srebrenica Genocide Memorial Event Brings Together British MPs, Leader Of British Muslim Brotherhood Group

A 12 July 2021 vir­tu­al Sre­breni­ca Geno­cide com­mem­o­ra­tion event host­ed by the East Lon­don Mosque fea­tured two British MPs and lead­ers of Mus­lim Broth­er­hood groups, includ­ing the new Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain. Accord­ing to a post on the East Lon­don Mosque (ELM) web­site about the event:

The Chair­man of the East Lon­don Mosque Trust, Muham­mad Habibur Rah­man, wel­comed the audi­ence, who had joined togeth­er to remem­ber the vic­tims of Sre­breni­ca geno­cide 26 years on, the sin­gle great­est atroc­i­ty in Europe since the Sec­ond World War: “This com­mem­o­ra­tion is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for reflec­tion, to ask our­selves what lessons we have learned from such a ter­ri­ble crime that occurred in the heart of Europe.”

Read the rest here.

The event, which also includ­ed Quran recitals and video screen­ings, was co-host­ed by the ELM and the Bosnia Her­itage Foun­da­tion, a group co-found­ed by ELM trustee Abdul­lah Faliq that orga­nizes Bosn­ian Geno­cide memo­r­i­al gath­er­ings as well as “halal-con­scious” trips to Bosnia. The event was also sup­port­ed by the Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain (MCB) and Lon­don-based char­i­ty The Bosnia Trust. The MCB is among the most influ­en­tial Mus­lim orga­ni­za­tions in Britain and has his­tor­i­cal­ly been dom­i­nat­ed by the Jamaat-e-Isla­mi move­ment in the UK. The MCB usu­al­ly acts in con­cert with the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB).

One of the commemoration’s speak­ers was Zara Mohammed, who in Jan­u­ary 2017 was elect­ed as the new MCB Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al, the first female SG in its his­to­ry. From 2014–2017, Mohammed held sev­er­al lead­ing posi­tions in the Fed­er­a­tion of Stu­dent Islam­ic Soci­eties (FOSIS), a nation­al umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion rep­re­sent­ing Islam­ic soci­eties at uni­ver­si­ties through­out the UK and that has numer­ous ties to the GMB net­work in the UK. In Octo­ber 2020, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed that British Con­ser­v­a­tive Ex-Defense Sec­re­tary Pen­ny Mor­daunt had been crit­i­cized by mem­bers of the British Home Office for meet­ing with Zara Mohammed despite an exist­ing “non-engage­ment” pol­i­cy with the group.

Anoth­er event speak­er was Sarah Leah Whit­son, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of DAWN, a US think-tank whose board of direc­tors includes numer­ous indi­vid­u­als tied to the GMB. As the GIOR has report­ed, Whit­son is known for mak­ing mis­lead­ing state­ments about the Mus­lim Brotherhood;

Oth­er notable speak­ers at the event includ­ed:

• Dže­va­da Šuško, Chief-of-Office, For­eign Affairs & Dias­po­ra Depart­ment, Islam­ic Com­mu­ni­ty in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Cather­ine West MP, Shad­ow For­eign Min­is­ter (Europe & Amer­i­c­as); MP for Hornsey & Wood Green

• Rusha­nara Ali MP, For­mer Shad­ow Min­is­ter for Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment and Fur­ther Edu­ca­tion, Chair of All-Par­ty Par­lia­men­tary Groups on the Rohingya, and Burma

Pri­or report­ing by the GIOR about the MCB and its lead­er­ship has also included:

• A March 2021 report on new elec­tions held by a promi­nent Hamas sup­port group main­ly spon­sored by an MCB affiliate.

• A May 2021 report that Zara Mohammed par­tic­i­pat­ed in a “Vir­tu­al Iftar” host­ed by the UK Labour Mus­lim Net­work fea­tur­ing a promi­nent British pro-Hamas activist.

• A May 2021 report that the MCB released a state­ment con­demn­ing Israel in the recent vio­lence with Pales­tin­ian mil­i­tant groups, leav­ing out any crit­i­cism of Hamas.