On July 14, Virginia civil rights attorney and human rights activist Asim Ghafoor was arrested and detained by UAE authorities while transiting through Dubai International Airport en route to a family wedding in Istanbul. Using time tested authoritarian practices, the Emiratis had tried Ghafoor in absentia and convicted him on charges of which he had no knowledge.
The entire affair seems bizarre at first glance – a widely respected American attorney from a quiet suburb of the nation’s capital arrested on shadowy charges while traveling to what should have been a happy family gathering.
Once you understand the UAE’s history targeting American Muslims as part of its effort to spread secular authoritarianism throughout the Middle East, what the country did to Ghafoor makes perfect sense.
UAE allegedly funded an operation to surveil British-Muslim activist Anas Altikriti, with a US mercenary reportedly discussing the possibility of killing him, ITV News reports
A mercenary allegedly hired and paid millions of dollars by the United Arab Emirates carried out a covert surveillance operation against a British activist and academic in London, according to an investigation by ITV News.
Abraham Golan, a dual Hungarian-Israeli citizen who ran the private security company Spear Operations Group, travelled to Britain in December 2016 to target Anas Altikriti, the chief executive of the London-based Cordoba Foundation think tank, ITV News reported on Wednesday.
Emirati financial records seen by ITV showed that Golan, who lived in the US, was being paid by the UAE while carrying out the operation. He was receiving a six-figure annual retainer, as well as substantial bonuses, including a $1m payment weeks before his trip to London for an operation in Yemen.
ITV's investigation, based on witness testimony, emails, WhatsApp messages and financial records, found that Golan worked with a former US special forces operative to locate and monitor Altikriti.
According to the UK broadcaster, Golan told a British strategist assisting him that he was working for the UAE and that Abu Dhabi considered Altikriti and the Cordoba Foundation to be aligned with groups it regarded as terrorist organisations.
“The Canadian government’s direct funding of organizations with documented links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas is a betrayal of public trust and a threat to Canada’s national security,” wrote Dr. Charles Asher Small, Executive Director of ISGAP.
Campus radicalization
They point to radicalization on campuses such as McGill, Concordia, University of Toronto, York and others by groups affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood such as Samidoun Canada, Students for Palestinian Human Rights, and the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC).
Samidoun has been active in Canada for years and was a leading group in the protests and marches on Canadian streets in support of Hamas after the terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. They openly support terrorist groups and were recently named one themselves by the federal government.
In March 2023, The New Yorker published an article, “The Dirty Secrets of a Smear Campaign,” revealing a large-scale systematic smear campaign that disseminated false allegations of purported links of European residents to Islamists with the aim of willfully destroying their reputation. The article discussed the case of US-Italian businessman Hazim Nada of Lord Energy SA. The Swiss private investigative firm Alp Services SA targeted Lord Energy because it was seen as an economic threat by the UAE and its state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.
Alp Services identified Lord Energy as a front company to fund terrorist organizations and hired academics and journalists to write articles falsely accusing Lord Energy of links to the Muslim Brotherhood and funding terrorism.
According to The New Yorker, Alp Services intentionally published rumors, false and misleading information about Muslims in Europe to make millions of dollars from the UAE. Lists of alleged members of the Muslim Brotherhood were compiled and reports written to smear individuals, businesses, and institutions, causing irreparable harm. Documents obtained by Nada after his company’s bankruptcy in 2019 state that Alp Services pitched its services to the UAE in 2017 claiming it would employ “tested advanced confidential techniques in ‘dark PR’” to “discredit and embarrass key targets.”
Why are Emirati influencers warning of an Islamic plot to take over Britain and the west?
It is one of the most curious developments of recent times: the rise of young men and women from the United Arab Emirates talking to British journalists and think tanks about the purported threat of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Now, however, these influencers are being strongly criticised - and even mocked and taunted - over a series of videos.
It started this week with a viral clip posted by Rauda Altenaiji, a young Emirati woman who describes herself on her X profile as a "thinker of deep truths".
The video was an edit of herself and a young Emirati man, Ahmed Sharif Al Ameri, speaking in an interview in Britain with Jonathan Sacerdoti, who recently argued that "the West should be suspicious of Islam" in an Oxford Union debate alongside far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
Read the rest of the article in the link.
www.middleeasteye.net/trending/pro-israel-emirati-influen...
This cannot be undone and I am sure it will be greatly appreciated.
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