Kuala Lumpur Forum on mission to unite Muslim Brotherhood

Doaa Emam

A number of Muslim Brotherhood figures are attending the so-called Islamic summit in Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. These figures include Muhammad al-Hassan Walid al-Dido al-Shanqiti, the Muslim Brotherhood leader in Mauritania.

Al-Shanqiti is accused of spreading extremism and encouraging Mauritanians to travel to Syria; Libya; Yemen, and Egypt to fight there. He chairs the Scientists Formation Center, the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Mauritania.

Attending the summit is also Abderrazak Makri, the Muslim Brotherhood leader in Algeria. Makri is known to be one of the Muslim Brotherhood hawks in Algeria, especially after the split of the movement into smaller parties. Makri heads the Movement of Society for Peace.

Sudanese national Abdel Hai Youssef also attends the summit. Youssef is a well-known extremist. He issued a fatwa earlier, sanctioning the killing of those protesting against the regime of ousted Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir. Before this, the same man led a protest in support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Together with these radicals, Berat Albayrak, a son-in-law of Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also attends the summit. Albayrak plays roles commissioned to him by the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Most of the Muslim Brotherhood figures attending the summit met Malaysian President, Mahathir Mohamed, in Istanbul in July this year.

Turkey organized a series of conferences in the past months with the aim of unifying the Muslim Brotherhood. The gatherings brought together the Muslim Brotherhood’s country leaders with the leaders of the international organization of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Beginning

In 2014, Mahathir Mohamed formed what came to be known as the Kuala Lumpur Forum. The forum would have been hosted by the countries backing the Muslim Brotherhood, such as Turkey, Sudan and Tunisia. It was formed immediately after the downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt.

The forum focuses each time it convenes on one of the studies or researches. It also offers an award of $20,000. It tries to build a network of Islamist researchers.

Lebanese political analyst, Nidal al-Sabaa, said remarks by Erdogan about leading the Islamic world are not reasonable.

“Erdogan is responsible for the presence of Islamic State terrorism in Iraq and Syria,” he told The Reference.