Muslim Association of Britain lashes out at David Cameron over Muslim Brotherhood report

A British Muslim organisation that ousted radical cleric Abu Hamza from Finsbury Park Mosque has lashed out at David Cameron after being criticised in a government report into the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain.

Mohammed Kozbar, the vice president of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and chairman of Finsbury Park Mosque, has claimed in an exclusive editorial in IBTimes UK that Cameron has patronised and insulted the MAB despite the government working alongside it when it seized control of the mosque from Hamza and his followers.

Since it ousted Hamza in an operation supported by both the Metropolitan Police and the government in 2005, Finsbury Park Mosque has been praised by politicians including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who spoke at an anti-Islamophobia rally in December alongside Kozbar and is close to the MAB.

Kozbar argues that at a time when Cameron's Conservatives are slashing welfare spending, Finsbury Park Mosque and the MAB have provided outreach work and support in its north London community, including feeding the homeless and organising educational and social events for locals of all faiths.

"While many armchair experts were theorising about the perils of extremism from the comfort of their luxurious offices, the MAB and other Muslim organisations mentioned in the report were busy organising scouting activities for the youth, teaching them useful life skills, and steering them away from the scourge of criminality. Yet for whatever reasons, Cameron saw no need to acknowledge or appreciate these initiatives," Kozbar writes.

The MAB has also criticised Cameron for welcoming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, as leader of the Hindu Bahartia Janata Party, failed to stop the 2002 massacre of more than 1,000 Muslims in Gujrat and, as a result, was deemed a persona non grata to Britain for more than a decade.

It also points to Britain's cosy relationship with both Egyptian leader General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the rulers of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who have long lobbied Britain to crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK.

"Most reasonable and fair-minded observers would be more inclined to deem the MAB a greater champion of British values than David Cameron, while he supports undemocratic countries like UAE and the military despot who currently rules Egypt," Kozbar writes.

Only 11 pages of the report into the Muslim Brotherhood, chaired by Sir John Jenkins, the former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, has been released to the public with the rest classified. Kozbar said that Muslim Brotherhood lawyers had requested to see the report in its entirety but had been refused.

Many British Muslim organisations have been linked to the Brotherhood, a global organisation with branches in most Arab states as well as Europe, and which governed Egypt under Mohammed Morsi until he was overthrown, jailed, and sentenced to death in 2015.