On March 12, 2025, the House of Lords hosted a significant event organized by Trends and the Forum for Foreign Relations, chaired by Lord Walney, in which the immediate threat of the Muslim Brotherhood to the Arab World and the West was meticulously examined. This was not a routine discussion but a thoughtful exploration of the United Kingdom’s troubling evolution into an incubator for radicalism.
Drawing on the insightful discourse that emerged, this analysis reveals a serious challenge: the UK’s universities and media, influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology, Qatari funding, and a reluctance to enforce the law, face a critical moment. The risks are profound, and the UK’s hesitation to address this threat – often misconstrued as tolerance or “Islamophobia” – endangers not only its own stability but also Israel’s security and the West’s broader order.
The event, a collaboration between Trends and the Forum for Foreign Relations (FFR), brought together a distinguished group of experts, policymakers, and advocates under Lord Walney’s thoughtful leadership. Speakers, including yours truly, carefully dismantled the facade of moderation surrounding the Muslim Brotherhood, presenting it not as a benign socio-political movement but as a revolutionary force established in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna.
Its key thinker, Sayyid Qutb, developed a framework for jihadist extremism, challenging national sovereignty, secular governments, and the House of Saud’s custodianship of Mecca, which the Brotherhood seeks to overtake.
The Brotherhood’s role in inspiring groups like al-Qaeda, Hamas, and ISIS was clearly articulated, alongside its ambition to impose a totalitarian Islamic state. Most notably, the discussion highlighted its often-overlooked alliance with the Iranian regime, challenging the common assumption that Sunni and Shi’ite radicalism cannot overlap.
This partnership, where Iran supports Brotherhood proxies like Hamas and the Houthis, seeks to destabilize the Arab order – a reality too often ignored by experts adhering to outdated perspectives.
The UK has become an incubator for radicalism
A thought was made painfully clear by Aurele Tobelem, FFR’s new director of research, that the UK’s universities and media have been infiltrated, their sanctity compromised by Qatari wealth and a culture of capitulation.
Campuses like the London School of Economics (LSE) and King’s College London have become crucibles of hate, where student societies host Brotherhood-linked speakers, as chronicled in the 2018 Policy Exchange report, “Extremism on Campus.”
Jewish students endure a barrage of vitriol and violence, their voices drowned by radical mobs, yet universities tremble, fearing accusations of stifling free speech or, absurdly, “Islamophobia.”
The 2023 Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, intended to safeguard debate, has been twisted to shield extremists, while the Community Security Trust (CST) reports a staggering 1,978 antisemitic incidents in the first half of 2024, including 17 on campuses.
Qatari funding, such as the £10 million poured into LSE in 2018, has corrupted academia, while Al Jazeera and other Qatari-backed outlets peddle Brotherhood narratives, as noted in the 2015 Guardian exposé, “UK accused of turning blind eye to Muslim Brotherhood.”
This financial stranglehold, coupled with the UK’s failure to proscribe the Brotherhood, despite its terrorist designation by the United Arab Emirates in 2014, has normalized radical thought, eroding our democratic fabric.
The UK's refusal to wield the law with resolve, its reluctance to proscribe the Brotherhood, and its grotesque conflation of criticism with Islamophobia constitute a moral and strategic abyss. As the 2012 Henry Jackson Society report, “The Muslim Brotherhood in the UK: A Threat to National Security?” warns, this narrative silences scrutiny, enabling the Brotherhood’s multi-pronged assault of infiltration, radicalization, and violence.
Universities, paralyzed by fear of legal reprisal or public outrage, neglect anti-radicalization policies like Prevent, while media outlets, swayed by Qatari influence, amplify extremist propaganda, undermining public trust and national security.
This complacency imperils not only Britain but Israel and the West. The Brotherhood’s alliance with Iran, overlooked by too many due to archaic assumptions about sectarian divides, fuels a shared crusade to destabilize Saudi Arabia and expand Islamist dominion, threatening Jewish communities and democratic values.
Historical cases, like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s radicalization at University College London, underscore how campuses breed terror. The UK’s failure to emulate the UAE’s iron resolve risks transforming our streets and lecture halls into launchpads for jihadist fury.
This moment demands a fierce reckoning. The UK must ban the Brotherhood and its affiliates, uproot its networks in academia and media, and enforce unyielding policies to prosecute incitement and combat radicalization. Universities must forge strict codes of conduct, train staff and students with tools like Educate Against Hate, and partner with law enforcement.
The UK must also abandon its perilous delusion that equates criticism of radical Islamist ideology with Islamophobia, adopting instead the UAE’s resolute clarity to protect our society from this existential peril. This mischaracterization, rooted in a misguided fear of offending, has paralyzed action against the Muslim Brotherhood, allowing its insidious influence to fester within our institutions.
For Israel, this is no distant specter but a frontline siege. The Muslim Brotherhood’s influence, amplified by Qatari funding and its covert collusion with the Iranian regime, directly endangers Jewish students on UK campuses, the Zionist project, and the fragile stability of the Middle East.
Readers must heed this warning with urgency, pressing their governments – both in Israel and the West – to act decisively. Failure to do so risks allowing the UK’s complacency to ignite a conflagration of jihadist terror that could engulf us all, leaving Israel isolated and the West vulnerable.
Yet, there is hope in unity. The Abraham Accords, forged in 2020 to normalize relations between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and later Morocco, must now evolve into a robust framework for a global collaboration against the evil of our time: jihadism. Named to evoke the shared heritage of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity through Abraham, these accords offer a model of cooperation that transcends historical animosities.
By expanding this alliance to include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other nations wary of the Brotherhood and Iran, we can forge a coalition to counter radicalism’s spread. The UAE’s resolute stance against the Brotherhood, combined with Israel’s strategic insight and the West’s resources, could create a formidable bulwark against jihadist ideology.
This partnership would prioritize intelligence sharing, joint anti-terrorism operations, and public campaigns to expose the Brotherhood’s true nature, as well as Qatari funding’s role in sustaining it.
Such a framework, rooted in the Abraham Accords’ spirit of mutual respect and security, would not only protect Israel and its Diaspora but also safeguard the Arab world and the West from the Brotherhood’s totalitarian ambitions, ensuring a future where jihadism’s shadow no longer looms large over our shared humanity.
The writer is the executive director of the Forum for Foreign Relations.