London is becoming a major focal point for the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The reports that Douglas Murray, a writer, commentator, and analyst on radical Islam, was recently humiliated and singled out in a King's College London counterterrorism training programme have intensified this. Practitioners of counterterrorism are engaged in a conflict over opposing theories and ideologies regarding radical Islam. It’s been a widely held belief that non-violent radical Islamists are the answer and antidote to Salafists. But it is not backed up by hard evidence. The Gulf States, who had once provided funding for these radical Islamist revolutionaries, are now condemning their actions. As a result, London is naturally taken off guard. Unrest in Leicester in 2022 also showed that British counterterrorism practitioners were geared up to blame ‘Hindutva’ rather than look at Jamaat’s dominance of the city’s Islamist culture. A symptom of a wider problem now the US led- Global War on Terror has run its course.
The Jewish community in the UK is currently experiencing an increase in violence and intimidation from radical Islamists and far-left figures. An overspill from the Israeli-Hamas conflict. The British government has recently outlawed Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical organisation that is primarily peaceful but has odious views, under anti-terrorism laws in response to their overt call for violence. This is a long-delayed step, but the Mawdudi and Qutb movements make much stronger cases for investigation. This essay will examine British Islam and how the Muslim Brotherhood (Al-Ikwhan al-Muslimeen) and the Jamaat-i-Islami movement in South Asia helped bring Islamic politics into Westminster's mainstream. British politics, and its multicultural landscape, are still dealing with the fallout.
On July 22, 1987, at 5:30 p.m., Britain’s main Islamists gathered in a spacious home in London's Grosvenor Crescent, close to Hyde Park. The location is currently one of the priciest residential streets in London, with average house prices exceeding £16 million per unit. At a long conference table, Salem Azzam and his deputy, Pakistani Group Captain Syed Mukkaram Ali were flanked by the UK’s most renowned Islamists. They discussed how Islamist politics could begin to influence British politics.[i] They wanted greater power for Muslims in the UK. A noble endeavour, driven by an extremely problematic leadership. The Islamic Council of Europe (ICE) was the venue. ICE is seen by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) as providing the groundwork for their integration into the British mainstream.[ii] Tansim Wasti and Chowdhury Mueen Uddin from the Jamaat movement also attended the meeting. Establishing the "Muslim Electoral Registration Campaign" was the aim. In 2013, Chowdhury Mueen Uddin was found guilty of war crimes in Bangladesh. When Chowdhury Mueen Uddin ran Jamaat’s defacto UK charity it was dogged by allegations of terrorism financing from supporting Hamas to the network that patronised the Bali bombers in Indonesia. His primary role in steering British Islam continues to haunt the UK.
The allegations of Jamaat charities being involved in terrorism harks back to their use in the Afghan Jihad. The non-Afghan fighters were managed by Jamaat-i-Islami in Pakistan with assistance from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The late Qazi Hossain Ahmad, a former Emir of Jamaat in Pakistan, ran jihad camps alongside Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam. The Pakistani media referred to Ahmad as "the godfather of jihad."[iii]Throughout the 1990s, he kept sending fighters and cash to conflicts all across the Muslim world. When Khaled Shiekh Mohammed (KSM) and other al-Qaeda officials were discovered in Pakistan sheltered by Jamaat leaders it was no real shock for those that know al-Qaeda’s history. KSM was the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. Jamaat’s role in financing al-Qaeda linked terrorism should have been a global priority. It was not. We let them off the hook.
The focus in the UK should have always been challenging the activities promoted by Grosvenor Crescent. Azzam and Ali had established Islamist front organisations that focused on Islamic economics, defence, and education. The patrons at Grosvenor played a key role in creating the Islamic Institute for Defense Technology (IIDT). They argued for Pakistan to develop nuclear weapons. In February 1979, foreign ministers, and defence leaders from across the Muslim world came to London to attend a summit at the Heathrow Hotel organised by the duo. The conference was called, "The International Conference on Defence and the Muslim World.”[iv] Azzam talked about establishing a pan-Islamic armed force. Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq sent a statement to open the conference echoing that demand. However, some cooperative aspects discussed at the conference did continue when it came to the Muslim World’s response to the Iranian revolution and the Afghan Jihad.
Adding to an already toxic mix, the Saudi Embassy in London had been a strong ally of Jamaat and the Ikwhan. Azzam, a Saudi Egyptian, had been employed by the Saudi government as a diplomat. He served as their go-between in London. Azzam met with Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq following the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, and together they began talks with the leaders of the Afghan resistance movement to establish a Mujahideen council. They made several attempts to unify the resistance in the early days of the conflict. The Islamic Alliance for the Liberation of Afghanistan was the name of the first configuration. Azzam and Ali regularly shuttled between Peshawar and Islamabad. Eventually, they were able to persuade most to accept; the only holdout was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar of the Hezb-I-Islami. Their efforts later borne what was to become the Peshawar Seven. This achievement so satisfied Zia that he gave Azzam permission to conduct conferences on Sunni and Shia cooperation in London and Islamabad.
The story of Salem Azzam shows that we must look back at the origins of modern radicalism in order to comprehend it. Cold War tensions and Islamist Revivalism peaked at the Grosvenor Crescent conference in 1987. British intelligence and political leaders gave foreign fanatics the exclusive right to practise British Islam. Islamists wanted to integrate into British politics, propagate Islam, and shield Muslims from secularism. They were successful to a degree. This practise gave rise to the Trojan Horse scandal, which examined the radicalization of education in Muslim schools in the UK. It is likely to be shielding wider scandals too.
The UK must determine if the teachings of Ikwhan and Jamaat promote communal harmony. Politicians in Britain have been misled by British security personnel and diplomats over the extent of the threat. Project Contest, the British government's counterterrorism initiative, attempted to mainstream Ikwhan and Jamaat leaders in its initial version. This was either the result of disaster or some sort of Machiavellian plot to empower Islamists so the government could subjugate them. A significant part of counterterrorism strategy was going to be played by the MCB and individuals such as Chowdhury Mueen Uddin. It would have caused a great deal of harm to have an alleged war criminal working on such an important task in British security. The British government cut all communication with the MCB because of their endorsement of radical causes. Yet an effort to bring radical Islamists onboard stretched over to British think tanks.
The offspring of the leaders of 1987 meeting at Grosvenor Crescent got roles in British society. Sajeb Mueen, the son of Chowdhury Mueen Uddin, was employed at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a think tank for the British armed forces. In 2017, Chowdhury Mueen Uddin was mistakenly called the “Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh,” by senior Turkish politicians aligned to Prime Minister Erdogan while on a trip to lobby against war crimes tribunals in Bangladesh. Salem Azzam’s daughter Maha was also brought into research radical Islamist groups for RUSI. She was the Head of Programme on Security and Development in Muslim States. Maha Azzam then went to Chatham House. Maha left the British think tank world in 2015 to join the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Egyptian Revolutionary Council.
The Muslim world has evolved. The Gulf states—apart from Qatar—as well as nations like Bangladesh and India that have been shaken by the Jamaat movement must be considered in any strategy to counter radical Islamism. For many years, the Ikwhan and Jamaat have been associated with anarchy. Their previous patrons have moved on. They desire peace and modernism. The embrace of the Abraham Accords shows a genuine need for peace and prosperity in the region. So, there needs to be a serious reckoning in British counterterrorism. Are we prepared to make Islamist revolutionaries part of British politics?
The late Salem Azzam’s role in shaping British Islam is concerning. He helped bring radicals into the fold. His organisation helped make deals between the Ikwhan and Sheikh Omar Abdul al-Rahman of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organisation in Pakistan. Should any attempt to moderate radical movements be met with historical revisionism and smear campaigns against authors like Douglas Murray for exposing their historic links to revolution, chaos, and violence? No, they should not. British Islamists are undermining community cohesion. Mawdudi and Qutb’s thoughts are the anti-thesis of democracy. So why are we allowing Islamist organisations to push these thoughts on British Muslims unchallenged? There have been a lot of positive movements in the Muslim world. The UK’s reluctance to confront Londonistan is harming those efforts with global partners. We simply have to choose — Do we want peace or anarchy?
[iv] Proceedings of International Conference on Defence and the Muslim World, 8-12 Rabi-al-Awwal, 1399 (5-9 February 1979), Islamic Institute of Defence Technology (London, England)