Anas al-Tikriti: A Controversial Figure

The controversial Mr Anas al-Tikriti will be the speaker at a webinar run by the Justice for Palestinians group of Leamington Spa.

He was born in Iraq in 1968 and moved to the UK at age 3. He holds a Masters in Translation & Interpreting from Edinburgh and a PhD in Political Science from London. He lectured in several UK Universities from 1995 until 2012. A leading figure in the international Anti-War movement and an Anti-Racism campaigner, Altikriti is a past President of the Muslim Association of Britain, a campaigner for Palestinian rights, a hostage negotiator, media commentator (both Arabic and English) and a professional trainer in Media, Politics and Public Relations.

There is an uncertain relationship between al-Tikriti, Cordoba Foundation, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Hamas is banned as a terrorist organisation throughout the Western world, but Mr al-Tikriti has stated that “the Brotherhood supports Hamas. I believe that if you are occupied you need to fight back.” Mr al-Tikriti together with a senior commander in Hamas, Mohammed Sawalha, and a Hamas “special envoy,” Azzam Tamimi, co-founded a group called the British Muslim Initiative.

Dr al-Tikriti told the UK Foreign Affairs Committee in 2016 that “There is no organisation link with the Muslim Brotherhood. But it’s clear, personally as well as organisationally, that the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and what it symbolises is something that the region—as a whole, a region that has been bereft of humanity and democracy and freedoms and civil liberties for a century at least—is in dire need of. The ideological basis, the ideology of Islamic values entering all spheres of life, particularly in politics, in peaceful transformation and reform of society, as well as Governments, in terms of including everyone and excluding none—that ideological base I share entirely.”

Regarding the invitation of al-Tikriti to speak in Leamington, Justice for Palestinians writes “Although Hamas has been condemned as a terrorist organisation by many western governments, it is worth bearing in mind that in the bloody conflict between Israel and Palestine, many times more people, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed by Israeli fire and bombing than by Hamas terrorism.”