UK Brotherhood Group Leader Included In Vogue 25 Most Influential British Women Of 2021

Zara Mohammed, the first female Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain (MCB), has been named by fash­ion mag­a­zine British Vogue as one of the 25 most influ­en­tial British women of 2021. Accord­ing to an arti­cle on the British Vogue website:

August 5, 2021 “There’s a lot of stereo­typ­ing that Mus­lim women are oppressed,” says Zara Mohammed, who, in Jan­u­ary and at the age of 29, became the youngest per­son and first woman to be elect­ed as sec­re­tary gen­er­al of The Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain. “I’m here to help smash the glass on that per­cep­tion.” Born and raised in Glas­gow, as the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the most diverse Mus­lim umbrel­la organ­i­sa­tion in the UK, Mohammed is keen to show her peers – and the world – that young peo­ple can lead “and women can cer­tain­ly lead, too. Don’t define us with­out us,” she adds. “We’ll be the ones to say who we are and what we represent.”

Read the rest here. 

British Vogue includ­ed Mohammed in their list, say­ing she laid “foun­da­tions for a more equal future.” The list cel­e­brat­ing women includes Duchess­es Meghan Markle and Kate Mid­dle­ton for their phil­an­thropy work. It also includes Kate Bing­ham, chair of the British Vac­cine Taskforce.

In Jan­u­ary 2021, Mohammed was elect­ed as the new Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain (MCB) Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al, the first female SG in its his­to­ry. The MCB  is among Britain’s most influ­en­tial Mus­lim orga­ni­za­tions and has his­tor­i­cal­ly been dom­i­nat­ed by adher­ents of the Islamist Jamaat-e-Isla­mi move­ment in the UK, usu­al­ly act­ing in con­cert with the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB).

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 August 2021, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed that Mohammed had been among the speak­ers of a July 2021 Sre­breni­ca Geno­cide com­mem­o­ra­tion event that fea­tured sev­er­al mem­bers of the British Par­lia­ment and the leader of a US think-tank with close ties to the GMB. Pri­or report­ing by the GIOR about the MCB and Zara Mohammed has also included:

• An Octo­ber 2020 report that the MCB had joined a vir­tu­al Mus­lim lead­er­ship con­fer­ence that brought togeth­er a large num­ber of GMB lead­ers and groups from around the globe.

• A March 2021 report that a British Con­ser­v­a­tive Ex-Defense Sec­re­tary had been crit­i­cized by mem­bers of the British Home Office for meet­ing with Zara Mohammed despite an exist­ing “non-engage­ment” pol­i­cy with the MCB.

• A May 2021 report that the UK Labour Mus­lim Net­work had host­ed a “Vir­tu­al Iftar” event fea­tur­ing Zara Mohammed and promi­nent British pro-Hamas leaders.

• An August 2021 report that the MCB and one of its Scot­tish affil­i­ates were part of a Scot­tish par­lia­men­tary Cross-Par­ty Group that had pub­lished an inquiry into Islam­o­pho­bia in the coun­try, demand­ing far-reach­ing polit­i­cal action to mit­i­gate its alleged effects.