Muslim Association of Britain and the UK Pro-Palestine Protest Network: What the Evidence Shows
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The Arab Post
- . September 8, 2026
- . Update: September 8, 2026 3:57 pm
The organisations that have been part of Britain’s pro-Palestine protest infrastructure since the country’s ‘October’ protests have come under fresh scrutiny in a report from Italy’s newspaper, Il Tempo, published on 5 September 2026. UK pro-Palestine protest network, In the United Kingdom, six organisations were found in a majority of the 40 protests and mobilisation events that were studied, as reported by Il Tempo in their July 2026 report. One of these organisations which regularly reappeared was the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB). Read the news from the Italian newspaper “Il Tempo” dated 5 September 2026
In its report, Imported Influence: Foreign Funding, Regulatory Black Holes and Extremist Connections of the Post-October 7 UK Protest Infrastructure, NGO Monitor says that it maps 40 major protests and mobilisation campaigns to reveal organisations and individuals which it claims “repeatedly used to participate in coordination, advocacy and related activity”. In 32 of the 40 cases, it claims that six groups were seen: MAB, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Stop the War Coalition and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
The numbers reflect the repeated involvement of organisations and do not necessarily mean that there is a control structure, nor that one organisation dominates the other ones.
MAB’s Documented Role in Palestine Mobilisation
Palestine campaigning is prominent in MAB’s political activity, which it makes public. In its written submission to Parliament last year (2025), MAB identified itself as a member of the national Palestine coalition, and had said it has a “pivotal role” in organising and mobilising national demonstrations to advance Palestinian rights.
The statement is important because it is in the mouth of MAB. It sets the ground for the institution of the organisation regarding involvement in national Palestine mobilisation, not just as a mere attendance at demonstrations.
MAB’s organisational structure also contains a portfolio on politics and media and is spread across the UK, giving it an existing structure to enable it to engage in political and campaigning work.
A Network of Recurring Organisations
There is greater evidence of cooperation than of direct control. The following lists are not exhaustive, and show that there is a degree of overlap in participation between MAB and the other organisations listed in each category with other national mobilisation groups.
The NGO Monitor report digs deeper, however, in the area of connections between organisations and individuals, and in the discovery of what is termed a ‘bigger ecosystem’ of around 40 organisations. It also names 11 groups that it alleges are connected to actors such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Iran or the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. These are NGO Monitor’s assessments and not findings that have been determined by a court.
The Muslim Brotherhood Connection
It is important to stress that the MAB-Muslim Brotherhood question has a historical basis, but has to be carefully qualified.
In their 2015 Muslim Brotherhood Review, the UK Government concluded that Muslim Brotherhood members and associates had influenced a number of organisations in the UK. It’s published findings said the Brotherhood for a time “dominated” MAB and that the membership of the Brotherhood was secret and their networks not necessarily organised as one command structure.
The review thus can draw conclusions regarding a historical assessment by the government, rather than prove that MAB is now run by the Muslim Brotherhood.
This was followed by a separate political judgment, made by then-Communities Secretary Michael Gove in 2024, who called MAB a “British affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood.” That characterization should also be considered a ministerial rather than judicial one.
Anas Altikriti and the Cordoba Foundation Connection
More solid organisational connections have been recorded on the current Companies House records with Dr Anas Osama Altikriti. Altikriti is an active director of MAB and its active person with significant control as per the information provided on the Companies House website. On 4 March 2026 he was appointed to the MAB board as evidenced in the records.
Altikriti is also previously registered with Companies House as having been involved with the Cordoba Foundation. These filings create corporate and historical ties between the person and the organizations in question, but not necessarily that MAB is under current control by Cordoba Foundation and the Muslim Brotherhood.
What the Funding Evidence Does — and Does Not — Show
One of the most opaque aspects of the larger system, identified by NGO Monitor, is funding. Its report for 2026 looks at funding from overseas, funding via public money and other funding sources and notes that funding sources could not be determined for several key protest organisations.
An MAB level grant is also established. According to Charity Commission records, the mosque has paid £8,000 to the Muslim Association of Britain, a charity which is the fundraising arm of the Muslim Council of Britain, for the year ending July 2023.
This makes a home institutional grant to MAB. It does not prove that the funds came from a foreign government, that the funds were directed politically or that the funds were linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Those findings would need to be substantiated by other evidence.
Government Scrutiny Has Continued
There have been no recent UK Government comments that would suggest that the issue is not being reviewed and is not seen as illegal.
In June 2026, the Government reported that it did not interact with MAB and that the Anti-Muslim Hatred/Islamophobia Working Group had not met with the organisation.
The Government revealed on 1 September 2026 that the Home Office is responsible for assessing the threat landscape of extremists and keeps developing its knowledge of groups which could represent a national security threat and will take action when there is a legal threshold crossed by an individual or group. The statement didn’t say that MAB had reached such a threshold.
What the Evidence Supports – UK pro-Palestine protest network
The evidence available confirms that MAB is a recurring position in the pro-Palestine mobilisation network within the UK, and that it has publicly admitted it has been involved in the organising of national demonstrations. It also introduces historical statements made by the UK Government about MAB and the Muslim Brotherhood and corporate records show that Anas Altikriti was a key member of MAB, and had previously worked for other organisations.
The evidence does not prove that the MAB is currently under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood, that MAB is the central axis of the wider protest movement, or that foreign funds identified elsewhere in the protest movement was channeled into MAB.
Thus the conclusion is tighter: MAB is found to be an important repeat performer on the broader UK pro-Palestine organisational stage, whose leaders, historical associations, partnerships and funding links are rightly treated as relevant for the analysis of how that network operates and performs.
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