Qatar Slammed For Funding Muslim Brotherhood In UK

By Greg Wilcox

Qatar has been strongly criticized for its alleged funding of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK by a senior British Army veteran and counter-insurgency expert, who also called the group a “terrorist organization.”

Col. Tim Collins, who served in Northern Ireland and the second Iraq War, was speaking in Westminster and said the Muslim Brotherhood was a problem in the UK and that the government needed to challenge it more.

He also hit out at Qatar for allegedly funding the organization, questioning why they would “hurt a friend.”

“(The Muslim Brotherhood) has been a problem and continues to be a problem in the United Kingdom and we need to challenge it — and indeed it is challenging our response to terrorism,” Collins told Arab News.

“In fairness to Turkey they are not actively promoting it in this country. I understand why they would have a close relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood given the nature of Turkish politics, but the Qataris are actively funding this, what do they think they are doing?”

“We are a close ally and we stood by them in tumultuous times. They’ve been isolated in the Gulf yet we’ve stood by them, we have to ask them to show their friendship and comradeship and stop doing this.

“It’s not using leverage, what you say to friends is ‘why are you hurting us, why are you doing this?’”

Four years ago the UK government ordered a review into the Muslim Brotherhood. The result, the Jenkins Commission, concluded that the organization — while outwardly purporting peaceful means to promote its agenda — was willing to use violence and terror in pursuit of its long-term goals and that aspects of its ideology and tactics “are contrary to the (UK’s) national interests and security.”

Collins said he would go further and describe the Brotherhood as an out and out terror group.

“I believe they are a terrorist organization,” he said.

“They have tried to rubbish and make an issue out of the Contest (UK counter-terrorism) strategy … which is there to confront radical Islam.

“We have to work with allies and friends to reduce (the Muslim Brotherhood’s) influence.

“We have to be careful; we don’t want to sow disharmony in our attempts to reduce its influence. We need to challenge it and to do so in such a way we don’t offend, isolate or alienate our Muslim population so we have to be very careful in how we do that.”