Muslim Brotherhood a 'firewall' against extremism, says UK
#Politics
Foreign Office agrees most political Islamists are not involved in violence, but are victims of violence themselves
Muslim Brotherhood members demonstrate against the military-backed government in Cairo (AFP/file photo)
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David Hearst
Sunday 5 March 2017 16:13 UTC
Last update:
Monday 6 March 2017 13:40 UTC
The British government has rowed back from the main conclusion of a controversial 2014 review into the Muslim Brotherhood conducted by John Jenkins, the UK's then-ambassador to Saudi Arabia, which suggested that the organisation had served as a “rite of passage” for violent militants.
It now appears to agree with an assessment offered by the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) following its inquiry into the government's policy towards "Political Islam" last year which concluded that political Islamists were a “firewall” against violent extremism and should be engaged with, either when in power or in opposition.
The damaging admission comes in a series of responses from the British foreign office to the highly critical inquiry which were published on Monday.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/muslim-brotherhood-rite-passage-firewall-violence-uk-government-1812060488
