Britain reaps its embrace of Brotherhood and ‘armed opposition’ groups

Nahla Abdel Moneim

Britain is stigmatized as the European country most affected by terrorist groups, as it is a safe haven for many of them, with some even calling its capital Londonistan. The UK also serves as the headquarters of the international Brotherhood in Europe, where many associations and entities affiliated with the terrorist organization are hosted.

Brotherhood entities

The Brotherhood carries out numerous activities in the country, including charitable societies that are used as the group’s economic arm to strengthen political Islamism in Europe. It also owns several media organizations that trumpet the group’s policies, while several economic institutions are owned by senior Brotherhood members in London, all serving to increase terrorism in the UK and spread the group’s affiliated organizations.

European confusion

As a result of the UK’s strategic weakness in dealing with terrorism, or even condoning its confrontation for hidden purposes, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) was able to expand to the point of harming public peace in the country. This is evidenced by the recent terrorist operation carried out by Libyan Khairi Saadallah, a member of the group, in the town of Reading on June 20, bringing to the fore the hidden relations between the UK, the Brotherhood and international terrorist organizations.

In November 2019, the British parliament had voted to remove the LIFG from the list of terrorist organizations, considering it just a political opposition current against the regime of late President Muammar Gaddafi. But the recent attack shows that sponsoring terrorism will not be a weapon only against the Middle East, but against everyone if given the opportunity.

Moreover, the European consideration of terrorist currents as armed opposition groups is an incomprehensible confusion, perhaps intended to reshape the Arab region through extremist groups as a new colonial alternative. But in Britain’s case, the hostility shown by the LIFG against British citizens while being considered a political group makes it clear that carrying arms against national regimes is pure terrorism, not political opposition based on balanced discourse and political projects, such as the unarmed opposition in the Catalan region wishing to secede from Spain.

Weak confrontation

Statistical figures reveal the extent of British involvement in terrorist group networks on its soil and the resulting victims. The UK ranked first in the European Union in terms of countries most affected by terrorist operations by number of victims, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2019, and it was ranked 28th globally.

The GTI has shown a sharp rise in the UK over recent years. In 2017, it ranked 35th globally in terms of vulnerability to terrorism, but it rose seven places in 2018 and remained there in 2019.