UK Labour Muslim Network Hosts “Virtual Iftar” Featuring Pro-Hamas & Global Muslim Brotherhood Leaders

On 22 April 2021, the UK Labour Mus­lim Net­work (LMN), an orga­ni­za­tion that seeks to pro­mote British Mus­lim engage­ment with the Labour Par­ty, host­ed this year’s vir­tu­al edi­tion of its annu­al Iftar meet­ing to cel­e­brate the holi­est month of the Islam­ic cal­en­dar. The event brought togeth­er over 150 Labour Par­ty mem­bers, MPs, and Coun­cil­lors. Accord­ing to an announce­ment on the LMN website:

The event gives us a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to hear from a range of speak­ers, both from our Labour move­ment and the British Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty. This annu­al event is our chance to reflect on the spir­it and val­ues that tie our com­mu­ni­ties together.

Read the rest here.

The meet­ing was addressed via video by Labour leader Keir Starmer and Lon­don May­or Sadiq Khan and fea­tured speak­ing appear­ances by sev­er­al oth­er promi­nent Labour politi­cians, includ­ing MPs Azfal Khan and Yas­min Qureshi.

Among the pan­elists was also Zara Mohammed, who in Jan­u­ary 2021 was named the first female Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain, one of the most influ­en­tial Mus­lim orga­ni­za­tions in the UK that usu­al­ly acts in con­cert with the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. From 2014–2017, Mohammed held sev­er­al lead­ing posi­tions in the Fed­er­a­tion of Stu­dent Islam­ic Soci­eties, a nation­al umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion rep­re­sent­ing Islam­ic soci­eties at uni­ver­si­ties through­out the UK and that has numer­ous ties to the country’s GMB net­work. In March 2021, the GIOR report­ed that British Con­ser­v­a­tive Ex-Defense Sec­re­tary Pen­ny Mor­daunt had been crit­i­cized by mem­bers of the British Home Office for meet­ing with Mohammed despite an exist­ing “non-engage­ment” pol­i­cy with the group.

The Labour Iftar event was also attend­ed by Zaher Birawi, a promi­nent British pro-Hamas activist and long-time Direc­tor of the Pales­tin­ian Return Cen­tre (PRC), des­ig­nat­ed by the Israeli gov­ern­ment and described as “Hamas’s orga­ni­za­tion­al branch in Europe.” In March 2021, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed that Birawi had par­tic­i­pat­ed in an online con­fer­ence orga­nized by the UK-based Friends of Al-Aqsa, which brought togeth­er numer­ous pro-Hamas and GMB activists. Pri­or GIOR report­ing about the British and inter­na­tion­al Hamas sup­port net­work has included:

• A Decem­ber 2020 report about a vir­tu­al Pales­tin­ian advo­ca­cy con­fer­ence that fea­tured Hamas sup­port groups and three US Congresswomen.

• A Jan­u­ary 2021 report that the Euro­pean Hamas sup­port net­work had estab­lished a new front group.

• An April 2021 report that a Dan­ish MP for the left-wing Red-Green Alliance had par­tic­i­pat­ed in a vir­tu­al con­fer­ence host­ed by the same Hamas sup­port group.