The UAE has supported Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood [Ryan Carter/AP]
A
senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood living in the UK told Al
Jazeera his organisation has "nothing to hide" after reports that the
United Arab Emirates had put pressure on the British government to crack
down on the group.
Egypt leader's contentious UK visit
Mohamed Soudan, a former foreign policy adviser to the deposed
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, said on Wednesday that if the
government had any proof of wrongdoing, it would have acted against the
group already.
"We never break the law, we don't encourage violence, we want to live
in peace and have nothing to hide... They can't do anything because
we're doing nothing wrong," Soudan said over the phone.
His reaction came after a report
carried by The Guardian newspaper that purported to show that the UAE
had promised the completion of a $9bn arms contract if the British Prime
Minister David Cameron clamped down on the group, along with other
incentives.
Cameron ordered a review into the the activities of the Brotherhood and its alleged ties to extremists in March last year.
The review was completed the following month but its finding have not yet been published, with reports in the British media suggesting it was being suppressed to appease Gulf countries, and Egypt.
Soudan said the delay proved that the British government had no
evidence against his organisation and that pressure from the UAE and its
Gulf allies had kept the issue going.
"We've seen the leaks in the Guardian, Independent, and others. There
is nothing... They [UAE] are using their money to threaten us here,"
Soudan said.
The UK prime minister's spokesman told Al Jazeera that the British
government was "still fully committed to publishing the key findings of
the Muslim Brotherhood review".
"We will be publishing those findings by the end of the year... We're
not going to speculate on its content in advance," the spokesman said. INSIDE STORY: Why does the West need Sisi?
The leak to The Guardian is not the first time the UAE has been
accused of using its vast financial clout to target the Muslim
Brotherhood and affiliated groups.
British-Palestinian activist Azzam Tamimi said that his bank account,
along with those of dozens of other individuals and groups linked to
the Brotherhood, were shut down by the HSBC bank last year.
"We now know for a fact that the UAE did pressure HSBC to close the
banking account of several Muslim individuals and organisations in the
UK, including my own and my wife's," Tamimi said, referring to reports that the UAE had influenced banking risk assessments on groups it accused of having ties to the Brotherhood.
Should Egyptian President el-Sisi be invited to the UK?
Tamimi said the government was making life "increasingly difficult"
for activists who had fallen foul of the UAE, but that the country would
not get its way.
"The UK has a vibrant civil society and a sound legal system that we
hope will stand in the way of any despotic tendencies... The UAE rulers
thought they just could use their economic leverage to get the UK to do
what they wanted."
Abdullah Arian from Georgetown University told Al Jazeera that the
UAE's policies against the Muslim Brotherhood could be viewed "in light
of a broader regional agenda to suppress opposition movements".
"The continued economic and political situation in Egypt - where the
[Abdel Fattah ] el-Sisi regime has proved incapable of restoring
stability to the country - has necessitated a continued crackdown on its
political opponents by Sisi's regional allies.
"The Muslim Brotherhood's proven ability to survive prior crackdowns
has pushed its opponents to pressure other countries to isolate the
group and deny its members freedom of movement abroad," Arian said. RELATED: Muslim Brotherhood sets up shop in London
The UAE was a backer of the July 2013 coup in Egypt that removed the
Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi from power, and the crackdown that followed.
The country has used its political and military muscle to target
supporters of the group in the Middle East and outside the region.
In Libya, leaked recordings
appeared to show that the UAE was backing General Khalifa Haftar, a
powerful commander supporting the rival government based in the eastern
city of Tobruk. It supplied arms to Haftar in his battle against the
Tripoli-based administration, which includes the Muslim Brotherhood.
US officials have also accused the UAE of launching air strikes against Tripoli-aligned militias in Libya from bases in Egypt, a charge the Tobruk government and Egypt have denied.
In November last year, dozens of organisations accused of ties with the Muslim Brotherhood were designated as terrorist organisations by the UAE.
The list included several UK-based organisations such as the
Federation of Islamic Organisations, Muslim Association of Britain, and
the charity Islamic Relief UK, which works with the British government
on a number of projects.
A spokesman for Islamic Relief told Al Jazeera it "categorically
denied terrorist links and is in the process of challenging its listing
through the Emirati courts".
Last month, an investigation by the British newspaper the Mail on Sunday found
that the UAE had hired a London-based lobbying firm, Quiller
Consultants, to help it mount a media campaign against Qatar, which has
been accused by its Gulf neighbours of backing the Muslim Brotherhood. RELATED: UAE charges Qatari with al-Islah ties
Amnesty International has condemned the UAE for targeting members of
the Islah party, which the government claims is affiliated with the
Muslim Brotherhood.
In a report published
in November last year, Amnesty said Islah members held by authorities
had complained of torture, and others were being detained at undisclosed
locations without charge or trial.
Cameron is said to have come under pressure from Gulf countries to crackdown on their opponents in the UK [EPA]
I am a Muslim. As a Muslim, I wish to pay my respect to those Parisians who lost their lives on
that terrifying night on November 13. As a Muslim, I wish to express my
condolences to all those who have lost a loved one during this diabolic
attack in Paris. As a Muslim, I wish to express my solidarity with the
French people suffering now the trauma of this murderous mayhem
perpetrated on innocent people. As a Muslim, I wish to denounce any and all acts
of genocidal, homicidal, and suicidal violence, anywhere in the world;
and in particular, I wish to denounce the criminal gangs gathered under
the flag of "Islamic State" or any other similar group terrorising
innocent people from India, Afghanistan and Pakistan to Iraq and Syria,
from North Africa to Turkey, and from the Arab and Muslim world to
Europe and the US.
World leaders condemn deadly attacks in Paris
I wish to ask, can a Muslim today say that she or
he is a Muslim, and then say what I just said? Am I - and millions of
other Muslims like me - allowed to express our sympathies, solidarities,
and sorrows on this horrific occasion, and do so from the innermost
depth of our humanities as Muslims? Talk of values In a speech expressing his solidarity and sympathy with the French, US President Barack Obama said, "This
is an attack not just on Paris, it's an attack not just on the people
of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal
values that we share." Of course, the attack on the French is an attack
on humanity, but is an attack on a Lebanese, an Afghan, a Yazidi, a
Kurd, an Iraqi, a Somali, or a Palestinian any less an attack "on
all of humanity and the universal values that we share"? What is it
exactly that a North American and a French share that the rest of
humanity is denied sharing? Live blog: Paris attacks In his speech, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking as a European, was emphaticabout
"our way of life", and then addressing the French he added: "Your
values are our values, your pain is our pain, your fight is our fight,
and together, we will defeat these terrorists." What exactly are these French and British values?
Can, may, a Muslim share them too - while a Muslim? Or must she or he
first denounce being a Muslim and become French or British before
sharing those values? Civilisational other These are loaded terms, civilisational terms, and
culturally coded registers. Both Obama and Cameron opt to choose terms
that decidedly and deliberately turn me and millions of Muslims like me
to their civilisational other.
Today, Muslims have replaced those Jews and become the civilisational
other of Europe, and these heads of states, Obama and Cameron, on this
particularly traumatic moment in Paris, perpetuate that demonisation by
casting Muslims as Muslims outside the purview of humanity.
They make it impossible for me to remain the
Muslim that I am and join them and millions of other people in the US
and the UK and the EU in sympathy and solidarity with the suffering of
the French. As a Muslim I defy their provincialism, and I
declare my sympathy and solidarity with the French; and I do so,
decidedly, pointedly, defiantly, as a Muslim. When Arabs or Muslims die in the hands of the
selfsame criminal Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gangs in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, or Lebanon, they are reduced to their lowest
common denominator and presumed sectarian denominations, overcoming and
camouflaging our humanity. But when French or British or US citizens are
murdered, they are raised to their highest common abstractions and
become the universal icons of humanity at large. Why? Are we Muslims not human? Does the murder of one of us not constitute harm to the entire body of humanity? I am who I am Some 400 years ago, in his Merchant of Venice,
William Shakespeare turned the internally demonised other of the
European Christianity - the European Jew - into a figure of defiance
against systematic stigmatisation and allowed his Shylock character to
cry out loud: "I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?" Also read: Paris and the new normal
Today, Muslims have replaced those Jews and become the civilisational
other of Europe, and these heads of states - Obama and Cameron - on
this particularly traumatic moment in Paris, perpetuate that
demonisation by casting Muslims as Muslims outside the purview of
humanity. By doing so, they are making it impossible for
Muslims to remain Muslims and join in the universal march of humanity
against the barbarity of ISIL or any other murderous act of homicide.
Why? I refuse to allow them or anyone else to alienate me from who I am. Also read: Kneejerk finger-pointing after Paris attacks
I am a man. I am a Muslim. I am a human being - and, precisely, as
all of those and remaining true to who I am, I wish to join the march of
humanity on every corner of this fragile earth against barbarism. Please, President Obama and Prime Minister
Cameron, stand aside and make room for me. I wish to join the rest of
humanity and denounce this barbaric act. Would you mind? Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Before the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria had even claimed responsibility
for the shootings and explosions that killed more than 120 in Paris on
Friday night, Muslims around the world took to social media to condemn
the perpetrators and defend Islam as a faith of nonviolence.
The bloodshed was linked to Islamic extremists early on, following reports
that the perpetrators had referred to French policy towards Muslims and
screamed “Allahu Akbar” during the attacks. President François Hollande
officially named ISIS as the group behind what he called an “act of war” just before noon local time.
Several Muslim religious and political leaders officially denounced
the attacks before the group took responsibility, including Iranian
president Hassan Rouhani, who called them a “crime against humanity,”
and Qatari foreign minister Khaled al-Attiyah, who said they were
“heinous.” Rouhani had been scheduled to visit France as part of a wider
European trip this weekend but has postponed his plans.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, leader of the world’s most populous Muslim nation, said that”Indonesia condemns the violence that took place in Paris.”
More spirited responses came from ordinary people. On Twitter, many
referred to the hashtag #TerrorismHasNoReligion, seeking divorce Islam
from the dogma espoused by extremists.
We cannot let the terrorists win by dividing us as a nation
People gather in a solidarity rally with the French people in the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks EPA/DANIELE MASCOLO
The condemnation and the sense of horror has been
the universal human reaction to the events in Paris. Even if we aren’t
directly affected, we still feel some of the pain of the families of
those killed and injured.
As a Muslim I am not only shocked at the evil and carnage
inflicted on innocent people, but I am equally if not more so angry that
these people should do so through some misguided and warped grasp of my
faith.
But there is also a real concern that in the days ahead, there will
be those who will try to use the Parisian atrocity to divide the British
society and as an excuse to launch attacks against Muslims, as happened
after the Charlie Hebdo attacks earlier this year.
With a number of horrific tweets talking about killing all Muslims
and with people such as Richard Dawkins equating Islam with Nazism, we
need to be vigilant. WikiLeaks has suggested that it is indeed the
strategy of Daesh in France is to provoke a crackdown on Muslims.
Verbal assaults against Muslims have already begun to take place. At a
bus stop in the UK today, a man shouted, “They need to all die, these
Muslims need to die. Look what they're doing in Paris,” to a young
Muslim woman. There are also unconfirmed reports of a glass bottle
thrown at a young Muslim woman in West London this morning. This adds to
the fear amongst some Muslims, after a string of recent Islamophobic
incidents including a woman who was pushed into a moving train earlier
this week.
Some parents have therefore been advising their daughters to remove
their headscarf for fear of attack, and many women, including my
own wife, feeling unsafe to go out today even though the attacks
happened in France.
Monuments around the world show solidarity with Paris
In the past week, British Muslims have also been rocked by suicide
attacks devastating Beirut which killed over 40 people, and in Baghdad,
which took over 20 lives. Da-esh or the so-called “ISIL” (who are
anything but Islamic) have claimed responsibility for each of these
attacks. These incidents come on the back of thousands being killed by
Daesh in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, amongst others.
There are many who feel wary of trying to restate the fact that
#MuslimsAreNotTerrorists, which is currently trending on Twitter – given
these actions are anything but Islamic. Once again there will be a
debate as to whether Muslims should be compelled to condemn those
terrorists who kill in our name. Sadly, I feel we have no option but to
make sure our voice is heard.
Muslim have come out in united condemnation to stand apart from this
evil. Many Muslim organisations such as the Muslim Council of
Britain (MCB) have condemned the bloodshed in the strongest possible
terms, describing the actions of the perpetrators as ‘outside the bounds
of our faith’.
There is also a desire to move beyond words and show solidarity
through action. It is remarkable to see the scale and speed of reaction
from Muslim communities across the country. By this morning - less than
one day after the attack - a silent vigil had been organised by the
Christian-Muslim Forum with support from the MCB and numerous other
groups across the country. At 6:30pm, tea lights and blue, white and red
flowers will adorn Trafalgar Square for the vigil.
As we all mourn the devastation caused by these terrorists, who try
and claim legitimacy from the faith of Islam, and as we all support
effective methods to keep our nation safe and secure, we cannot let the
terrorists win by dividing us. Together, we must stand united.
'Hundreds'
of Ugandan children are being sacrificed every year by witch doctors
who have convinced the country's superstitious elite that mutilating
them will make them even richer.
Shockingly, these 'gruesome crimes against children' are 'expected to rise' with the 2016 Ugandan elections fast approaching.
Wealthy
businessmen are paying traditional healers 'thousands of pounds' to
hunt down impoverished children and harvest their body parts, which they
believe can cure impotence and boost their fertility, a children's
charity told MailOnline.
These
witch doctors sever limbs and remove their genitals after snatching
them on the way home from school or as they go to fetch water for their
family. Their dismembered remains are later discovered in forests and
building sites.
Scroll down for video
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Victim: Allan Ssembatya is one of the
'hundreds' of Ugandan children who are abducted and castrated by greedy
witch doctors every year
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Beheaded: The decapitated body of
Steven Emmanuel Kironde (pictured) was discovered behind his home after
he inexplicably went missing one evening
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Merciless: This witch doctor does not
condone human sacrifice, but many are charging 'thousands of pounds' to
harvest the body parts of children for powerful Ugandans who think the
sacrifice will make them richer
+14
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Atrocity:
Boys like Allan are taken to huts (left) by witch doctors (right, who
does not condone human sacrifice), who hold them down and mutilate them
Cruel
witch doctors do not use their severed body parts to craft a magic
potion, but claim to 'offer them' to the spirits who commanded them to
carry out the brutal attacks.
In
February, Uganda's government created a National Action Plan to stop
the murders and approved a bill to regulate healers - some of whom were
practising as real doctors.
But
the businessmen who pay thousands of pounds for the sick rituals are
rarely prosecuted because witch doctors refuse to give up their clients.
The
boys they castrate suffer the crippling after-effects of blood clots, a
dangerous decrease of bone density and spinal fractures their entire
lives.
Binoga
warned child sacrifice will be difficult to stamp out because 'as long
as people have such a belief, that practice will continue'.
But furious activists say the senseless killings will continue because they are fueled by greed, not tradition.
'It
is a gruesome crime against children driven by superstition, religious
beliefs, witch craft and extreme poverty,' according to the founder of
the Jubilee Campaign who documented these crimes.
Danny
Smith told MailOnline: 'Ugandans will tell you this is widespread -
everyone knows about it - and children are being murdered under the
umbrella of superstition.
'Witch
doctors and traditional healers do very well because they convince them
they have to go through different levels of spells - and the most
powerful one is the blood of a human child.'
THE SEVEN-YEAR-OLD CASTRATED BY A CRUEL WITCH DOCTOR
Allan
Ssembatya was seven-years-old when he was kidnapped and taken to a
witch doctor's shrine as he made his way home from school in Mukono
village - 18 miles east of Uganda's biggest city Kampala.
Two
men held him down while the machete-wielding attacker made a deep cut
across his neck and then across his shoulders - before slicing his head
open.
After he passed out, the so-called healer crushed his testicles before cutting them off completely.
Allan was dumped in the bush where he was later discovered still unconscious, lying in a pool of his own blood.
He was rushed to hospital where doctors faced a desperate scramble to repair his broken skull.
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Chilling: Allan Ssembatya was seven
when a cruel witch doctor kidnapped him and sliced his head open with a
machete before castrating him
SHARE PICTURE
Senseless: After removing his genitals, the witch doctor left Allan (pictured in 2011) to die in a pool of his own blood
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Damaged: To this day, Allan suffers seizures, flashbacks and terrifying nightmares because of the harrowing ordeal
They
managed to close the wound but his injuries were so horrific that he
fell into a coma for a month and suffered a near-fatal stroke which took
away the use of his left leg.
Before his attack in 2009, Allan was a normal, happy boy who enjoyed playing with his friends and loved going to school.
Now,
not only does he bear the physical marks of his harrowing ordeal in a
massive scar across his head, but struggles to deal with the emotional
aftermath too.
Allan suffers seizures, flashbacks and cries out in his sleep from terrifying nightmares caused by the trauma he suffered.
His
father was forced to abandon his hair-cutting business and took up a
job doing casual building work to pay for his son's expensive hormone
treatments.
The orphan who was abducted and decapitated
After his father died, Steven Emmanuel Kironde moved in with his grandmother in the Nyamwezi village in the Jinja district.
On
July 5, 2009 - when was six - she left him alone for a few minutes
while she went to the nearby shop to buy soap to bathe him.
When she returned he was gone. She frantically ran from house to house asking her neighbours if they had seen the child.
She hastily organised a search party and went searching for Steven - eventually alerting the police at around 5pm.
She spent the whole sleepless looking for him but they found no clues or evidence of his whereabouts.
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Deceased: Steven Emmanuel Kironde was
abducted while his grandmother rushed to the nearby shops - and found
decapitated behind their home the next morning
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Heartbroken: Steven's grandmother
(pictured) stands beside the body of where his body was discovered
decapitated by a witch doctor who still has not been tried in court
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Abduction: Steven was killed near his home
but witch doctors often kidnap children as they walk home from school
and take them to their shrines (pictured)
At 6am they made a grisly discovery in the plantation of corn fields behind her own house - Steven's limp, decapitated body.
His head had been removed clean off his neck and his esophagus - or windpipe - had been removed entirely.
The police managed to track down arrest the witch doctor suspected of carrying out the ritual sacrifice.
But
only three weeks later, the head policeman in the area tried to coerce
Steven's grandmother with £110 to drop the case against him.
She
rejected the offer and took him to court but to this day, there have
been no developments in the case and she is still waiting for justice
for the murder of her grandson.
The
case had not been heard and is one of several cases that 'have been
backlogged in the court system', according to Jubilee Campaign.
THE 'SHY AND CLEVER' BOY WHO WANTS HIS ATTACKER 'TO BE KILLED'
At four-years-old, George Mukisa was described by his teachers as a 'beautiful, shy and clever child'.
It
was because of his 'trusting and polite' nature that a cruel witch
doctor was able to lure him away from a funeral service by promising him
treats - only to hold down his legs and painfully castrate him with a
knife.
After
mutilating Mukisa without anesthetic, the man known as Otema left him
to die in a secluded area of woodland in Iganga District.
His
mother discovered him bloodied and dying in a bush - and rushed him to
hospital. Doctors tried to reconstruct his genitals with skin grafted
from his forearm, but the operation was unsuccessful.
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His mother (right) discovered Mukisa
(left) bloodied and dying in a bush where the witch doctor had left him,
after castrating him at his shrine
+14
Cruel: Doctors had to reconstruct
George Mukisa's genitals with skin grafted from his forearm after he was
abducted by a witch doctor who 'promised him sweets'
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Revenge: When the 'gentle child' was asked about what should happen to his attacker, he replied: 'He should be killed'
Nearly
six years after he was butchered by a man he trusted, Mukisa urinates
through a tube and he has developed severe fracturing of his spine
because his family could not afford expensive hormone treatment.
In
an interview with Jubilee Campaign, who document such atrocities, his
grandmother said: 'When I look at Mukisa, I feel sad... Sad for what has
happened to him, and sad for what the future holds for my grandson.
When she was asked what the government did to help Mukisa and punish his attacker, she replied: 'Nothing.'
Mukisa
is still a 'gentle child' but when asked about what should happen to
Otema his reply was powerful and simple: 'He should be killed.'
