A London mosque has twice hosted events featuring a French charity closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, according to a research report that exposed the latest controversial invites at the organisation.
The East London Mosque allowed Marwan Muhammad, director of charity Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), to speak at the mosque twice last year.
France moved to ban the group following the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty last year but organisers dissolved it and moved its reserves to other groups.
The mosque's December programme also featured a keynote speech from New York Imam, Siraj Wahhaj, who was named in court documents as being linked to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre.
In May, it hosted as guest speaker Abdur-Raheem McCarthy who in October claimed the beheadings at a church in Nice, France, were “nonsense” and “fake news”.
The CCIF has been described as an "Islamist pharmacy" by France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
It has been closely linked to two grandsons of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hassan Al Banna, and both men have represented the group as speakers at various charitable functions.
Hani Ramadan is banned from France and his assets have been frozen. He is accused of having adopted behaviour and made comments "posing a serious threat to public order on French soil".
His brother Tariq, a suspended professor at Oxford University, is facing court proceeding over rape charges.
In November, Mr Muhammad starred in an event at the mosque called “Global Islamophobia: Roots, Context and Deconstruction” and was invited back in December.
The CCIF, which offered legal support to Muslims in discrimination cases, has a number of close ties to associations in Europe which have been affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. It denies any involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The London mosque’s hosting of Mr Muhammad comes as the charity announced it will now redeploy "a large part of its activities abroad".
"The assets of our association have been transferred to partner associations which will take over the fight against Islamophobia on a European scale," it said.
It is not known if the mosque is one of these associations.
In its Winter 2020 programme, Mr Wahhaj, appeared as a keynote speaker on December 26.
In 1995, the 68-year-old was a character witness for Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahman who was convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing. Six people died in the terror attack and over a thousand more were injured.
He had told the trial that Abdel Rahman, an affiliate of Osama Bin Laden, was “a respected scholar”.
Mr Wahhaj was named on a list of 172 people by the 1995 prosecutor as an unindicted potential co-conspirator in the attack.
Three of his children are due to stand trial for allegedly running a terror training school for children in the south western US and planning deadly attacks.
The FBI say their targets included police, military officers and schools.
His son, two daughters, a daughter-in-law and a son-in-law were charged with 11 felony counts of child abuse in New Mexico in 2018.
The son, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 39, also was charged with custodial interference in the alleged abduction of his 3-year-old son, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, from the Atlanta home of the child’s mother.
The raid in New Mexico, which was as a result of Mr Wahhaj informing the authorities, found 11 children in a distressed state.
Another host, Mr McCarthy was a speaker on controversial preacher Zakir Naik's Peace TV which has been fined for radicalisation by the Office of Communications and shutdown. Naik is banned from the UK.
The US citizen posted a video on YouTube in October claiming the Nice terror attack was “fake news” adding: “Once again another fake terror attack to make Islam look bad.”
He spoke at the mosque last year and has repeatedly spoken at its events over the last three years.
East London Mosque told The National it vets all speakers.
“The East London Mosque maintains a robust speaker and vetting policy, and we do relevant due diligence to ensure that all speakers who are given a platform here adhere to our guidelines," it said.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
About Krews
Founder: Ahmed Al Qubaisi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Founded: January 2019
Number of employees: 10
Sector: Technology/Social media
Funding to date: Estimated $300,000 from Hub71 in-kind support
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Match info
Uefa Nations League Group B:
England v Spain, Saturday, 11.45pm (UAE)
The team
Photographer: Mateusz Stefanowski at Art Factory
Videographer: Jear Valasquez
Fashion director: Sarah Maisey
Make-up: Gulum Erzincan at Art Factory
Model: Randa at Art Factory Videographer’s assistant: Zanong Magat
Photographer’s assistant: Sophia Shlykova
With thanks to Jubail Mangrove Park, Jubail Island, Abu Dhabi
Australia squads
ODI: Tim Paine (capt), Aaron Finch (vice-capt), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye.
T20: Aaron Finch (capt), Alex Carey (vice-capt), Ashton Agar, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Jack Wildermuth.
