A London mosque has twice hosted events featuring a French charity closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, according to a research report that exposed the latest controversial invites at the organisation.
The East London Mosque allowed Marwan Muhammad, director of charity Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), to speak at the mosque twice last year.
France moved to ban the group following the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty last year but organisers dissolved it and moved its reserves to other groups.
The mosque's December programme also featured a keynote speech from New York Imam, Siraj Wahhaj, who was named in court documents as being linked to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre.
In May, it hosted as guest speaker Abdur-Raheem McCarthy who in October claimed the beheadings at a church in Nice, France, were “nonsense” and “fake news”.
The CCIF has been described as an "Islamist pharmacy" by France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
It has been closely linked to two grandsons of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hassan Al Banna, and both men have represented the group as speakers at various charitable functions.
Hani Ramadan is banned from France and his assets have been frozen. He is accused of having adopted behaviour and made comments "posing a serious threat to public order on French soil".
His brother Tariq, a suspended professor at Oxford University, is facing court proceeding over rape charges.
In November, Mr Muhammad starred in an event at the mosque called “Global Islamophobia: Roots, Context and Deconstruction” and was invited back in December.
The CCIF, which offered legal support to Muslims in discrimination cases, has a number of close ties to associations in Europe which have been affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. It denies any involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The London mosque’s hosting of Mr Muhammad comes as the charity announced it will now redeploy "a large part of its activities abroad".
"The assets of our association have been transferred to partner associations which will take over the fight against Islamophobia on a European scale," it said.
It is not known if the mosque is one of these associations.
In its Winter 2020 programme, Mr Wahhaj, appeared as a keynote speaker on December 26.
In 1995, the 68-year-old was a character witness for Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahman who was convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing. Six people died in the terror attack and over a thousand more were injured.
He had told the trial that Abdel Rahman, an affiliate of Osama Bin Laden, was “a respected scholar”.
Mr Wahhaj was named on a list of 172 people by the 1995 prosecutor as an unindicted potential co-conspirator in the attack.
Three of his children are due to stand trial for allegedly running a terror training school for children in the south western US and planning deadly attacks.
The FBI say their targets included police, military officers and schools.
His son, two daughters, a daughter-in-law and a son-in-law were charged with 11 felony counts of child abuse in New Mexico in 2018.
The son, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 39, also was charged with custodial interference in the alleged abduction of his 3-year-old son, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, from the Atlanta home of the child’s mother.
The raid in New Mexico, which was as a result of Mr Wahhaj informing the authorities, found 11 children in a distressed state.
Another host, Mr McCarthy was a speaker on controversial preacher Zakir Naik's Peace TV which has been fined for radicalisation by the Office of Communications and shutdown. Naik is banned from the UK.
The US citizen posted a video on YouTube in October claiming the Nice terror attack was “fake news” adding: “Once again another fake terror attack to make Islam look bad.”
He spoke at the mosque last year and has repeatedly spoken at its events over the last three years.
East London Mosque told The National it vets all speakers.
“The East London Mosque maintains a robust speaker and vetting policy, and we do relevant due diligence to ensure that all speakers who are given a platform here adhere to our guidelines," it said.
The distance learning plan
Spring break will be from March 8 - 19
Public school pupils will undergo distance learning from March 22 - April 2. School hours will be 8.30am to 1.30pm
Staff will be trained in distance learning programmes from March 15 - 19
Teaching hours will be 8am to 2pm during distance learning
Pupils will return to school for normal lessons from April 5
Dunki
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RESULT
Uruguay 3 Russia 0
Uruguay: Suárez (10'), Cheryshev (23' og), Cavani (90')
Russia: Smolnikov (Red card: 36')
Man of the match: Diego Godin (Uruguay)
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
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About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
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PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What it means to be a conservationist
Who is Enric Sala?
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
Moonfall
Director: Rolan Emmerich
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry
Rating: 3/5
More on Quran memorisation:
Usain Bolt's time for the 100m at major championships
2008 Beijing Olympics 9.69 seconds
2009 Berlin World Championships 9.58
2011 Daegu World Championships Disqualified
2012 London Olympics 9.63
2013 Moscow World Championships 9.77
2015 Beijing World Championships 9.79
2016 Rio Olympics 9.81
2017 London World Championships 9.95
Real Madrid 1
Ronaldo (87')
Athletic Bilbao 1
Williams (14')
