January 11, 2025 - 12:00pm

On Thursday, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that it had added 19 individuals and entities to its “Local Terrorist List” for their links to the Muslim Brotherhood, according to reports by local media. In the UAE, the Brotherhood is a proscribed terror group. What is striking about this list is that eight of the “entities” listed are UK organisations. This means that, in effect, a Muslim country is sanctioning legal UK organisations for their affiliation with terrorism.

The UAE has taken a firm stance against transnational terrorism and has taken significant measures to combat it. The country has implemented strict laws and regulations to target and dismantle networks linked to the financing of terrorism. It appears that the UAE government believes that the UK groups listed have a financial relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation the Gulf country views as a significant threat to regional stability.

But who are these “entities”? They are an eclectic bunch of organisations, many registered in Companies House with paid up returns, modest or negligible turnovers and typically only one or two personnel. Some like Nafel Capital appear to  be concerned in financial services, though their website is still largely under construction. In another named case, Cambridge Culture and Education Centre Ltd has a registered address in Coventry and lists its actual business — in contrast to its title — as “Unlicensed restaurants and cafes”. Wembley Tree Ltd which lists its activities as “sports and recreation education” was incorporated just over a year ago and faces being struck off for failing to produce accounts. Imagine Ltd is a dormant account with assets of £1. The majority of people with controlling interests in each of these firms list their nationalities as “Emirati”: in other words, citizens of the UAE.

It’s important to be clear that despite these peculiarities none of the companies above or their personnel are doing anything illegal under UK law. Nor is the Muslim Brotherhood a proscribed organisation in this country.

The Muslim Brotherhood operates in the UK primarily through a network of affiliated organisations and individuals. These entities often engage in activities such as community outreach, educational programmes, and political advocacy. The UK Government conducted a review in 2014 to understand the Brotherhood’s activities and its links to extremism. That review acknowledged that aspects of the Brotherhood’s ideology and activities were inconsistent with British values and could be linked to extremism. The review also noted that the Brotherhood’s activities in the UK should be monitored closely.

The diplomatic relationship between the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is both historic and multifaceted. It dates back to the early 19th century with the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820. This treaty established the Trucial States, which later became the UAE, as British protectorates. Today, the countries maintain strong diplomatic ties, with embassies in each other’s capitals and a British Consulate-General in Dubai. In 2024, the UAE was the UK’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and its 19th-largest trading partner globally. High-level visits and joint statements, such as the one made by UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, highlight the closeness of this relationship. So it makes this announcement all the more curious, in which one of our closest Arab allies publicly identifies UK companies — and by extension those who work for them — as “terrorists”.

As prime minister, David Cameron ordered a review into the MB’s activities but baulked at proscribing them. In contrast, the Brotherhood is outlawed in Egypt, the country which gave birth to the organisation in 1928, as well as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and even Syria. The UAE claims that these companies are affiliated to the MB and therefore, according to their laws, involved in financial support for terrorism. This is made clear in the official UAE statement: “The move is part of the UAE’s ongoing efforts, both locally and internationally, to target and dismantle networks linked to the financing of terrorism and related activities, both directly and indirectly.”

Having worked in the past with the Emirati Government on a counter-extremism project, I have been impressed by the resolute stand it has taken against violent extremism. It is crucial that the UK Government uses all the regulatory and security machinery at its disposal to ensure that we are not undermining one of our most important regional partners, and ourselves, in the fight against terrorism.


Ian Acheson is a former prison governor and author of Screwed: Britain’s Prison Crisis and How To Escape it.

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