U.K. Poised To Expand Ties With Muslim Brotherhood
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By Hannah K. Strange
United Press International
U.K. Correspondent
Published: February 17, 2006

London--The British Foreign Office confirmed that it had established ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group banned by the Egyptian government as a terrorist organization.

The substance of a memo leaked to the British media recommending increased engagement with the group was correct, a senior Foreign Office official told United Press International. Contacts with members of the Muslim Brotherhood were ongoing and increasing, he confirmed.

The revelations have highlighted the dilemma faced by London and other western governments over how to respond to the rise of Islamist groups, either directly linked to or allegedly involved in terrorism, in mainstream Middle Eastern politics.

The memo, dated Jan. 17 and published by the New Statesman Magazine Thursday, recommends that diplomatic officials engage with the organization, the oldest Islamist group in the world.

However the memo warns: "the presentation of any change in the way we deal with the Muslim Brotherhood will have to be carefully handled, in order to safeguard our bilateral relations with Egypt."

The Egyptian government refuses to recognize the Muslim Brotherhood as a legitimate political entity, classing it instead as a terrorist group. But despite banning the Brotherhood from parliamentary elections last year, its candidates, who ran as independents, won 88 seats in the 454-strong People's Assembly--a staggering increase from 15 in 2000--to become Egypt's largest opposition group.

The memo suggests that the British government does not agree with Cairo's assessment of the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

"The Egyptian government perceives the Muslim Brotherhood to be the political face of a terrorist organizations," it states. However, it adds, research analysts "concluded there is no evidence of the current organization being involved in terrorist activities, although it is possible that they forward charitable donations to Hamas."

The memo, to Middle East Minister Kim Howells, proposes increasing "the frequency of working-level contacts with Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarians, particularly those who are pressing the United States and other European Union member states to follow suit.

Western governments have drawn accusations from within the Muslim world of only supporting democracy so far as it coincides with their own interests. The European Union and the United States attracted heavy criticism for refusing contact with elected representatives of Hamas, a group advocating the destruction of the state of Israel which won a majority in recent Palestinian elections.

The memo acknowledges this dilemma, stating, "It will be difficult for us to maintain credibility for our calls on Egypt to reform towards further democracy and better governance, if we fail to engage with the largest and most effective opposition group."

The Foreign Office launched an inquiry Thursday into the leaking of the memo, written by a member of the Arab/Israeli and North Africa group and marked "restricted."

Until 2002, Foreign Office diplomats held meetings with Muslim Brotherhood members of parliament. But according to the memo, contacts were scaled back after the Egyptian authorities expressed their displeasure. "Since 2002, we have had only occasional contacts," it says.

However within the British government too there are voices critical of its, apparent shift towards engagement. A 2005 memo from the British Ambassador to Egypt, Derek Plumbly, cautioned against talking directly to Islamists.

"I detect a tendency for us to be drawn towards engagement for its own sake, to confuse
'engaging with the Islamic world' with engaging with Islamism," he wrote in a memo dated June 23 last year also published by the New Statesman.

"Pressing for legalization of the Brothers as a political party, or dealing with them ourselves directly...will panic the horses."

"If the issue is one of knowing more about bodies like the Muslim Brother's, there are other ways of doing so besides group engagement," he said.

The Brotherhood, founded in 1928, insists that it opposes violence and seeks to bring about its vision of an Islamic society by peaceful means. However it advocates conservative religious laws and has strong links with groups that have carried out acts of violence elsewhere, for example Hamas and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood.

Chris Doyle, director for the London-based Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, said the issue of how to deal with the rise of political Islam was an "extremely difficult problem" that western governments had to address.

"I think there is a huge debate going on within the British government and indeed allied governments as to how to engage with political Islam," he told United Press International Friday.

"They have to address it because they can't call for reform and democracy without engaging with groups with large parliamentary representations."

The ultimate goal of western governments should be to bring such groups to the realization that there was a place for them in the world of democratic politics should they turn away from the path of violence, Doyle said.

If groups like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood were shunned by the International Community they could be forced into a more hardline and defensive position, he continued, noting the effect of years of diplomatic isolation on Iran.

He acknowledged the difficulties of engaging with the Muslim Brotherhood, which had in the past been linked to acts of violence. "But there is also definitely a pragmatic trend within the Muslim Brotherhood that can be encouraged. If it is ignored, the more militant strand could begin to dominate."

Engagement could also "stem the seepage" to more extreme groups, he said, noting that former members including Ayman Al-Zawahiri, now Osama Bin Laden's deputy in Al-Qaida, had turned away from the Brotherhood because it was failing to exercise influence.

However in the case of all such groups, it had to be a careful engagement, Doyle said.
"It has to be made clear that it's not an endorsement of the violent end of their campaigns."

A senior Foreign Office official told UPI: "We always were talking to Muslim Brotherhood individuals and we will continue to do so." The frequency of such contacts was now being stepped up because the organization had significantly more seats in the Egyptian Parliament, he said.

He acknowledged the dilemma surrounding engagement with such groups in an era when they were emerging as major political players. "That's the problem with democracy," he concluded.