{"id":36306,"date":"2026-05-14T14:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/36306\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:13:09","slug":"muslim-association-of-britains-anas-al-tikriti-denied-entry-to-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/36306\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslim Association of Britain&#8217;s Anas Al Tikriti denied entry to Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-0-XK57STAZMZDQXE7Z5SMJ7PQFC4\">A high-profile director of the Muslim Association of Britain has claimed he is a victim of \u201ccancel culture\u201d after he was refused entry into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenationalnews.com\/tags\/canada\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-1-RQWM6RAJN5C7XHBM2EEPQR32D4\">Anas Al Tikriti, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenationalnews.com\/tags\/uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.thenationalnews.com\/tags\/uk\">British<\/a>-Iraqi activist, said he had been turned away on Monday while travelling for a speaking engagement with the Muslim Association of Canada. He said officials had refused him entry on the grounds that he had \u201cmisrepresented\u201d himself in his application and had not declared a previous visa refusal from the US in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-4-XIKQW7R4RBGQBDPZOZIWVXP2V4\">Mr Al Tikriti disputes this account \u201cunequivocally\u201d and says that he disclosed the fact immediately during questioning. He believes he was refused entry because of his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-6-YI22XT5UJNB2HMZGOPSGVUXG7Y\">\u201cI would, frankly, have had more respect for the Canadian immigration authorities had they simply said &#8230; that they were under pressure not to admit me. That my views on Palestine were unacceptable to them. That my criticism of Israel&#8217;s crimes against humanity was intolerable,\u201d he wrote on Facebook. <\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-7-UIAVD5VD7NGL3GWCO3F4AN7TJE\">The British-Iraqi campaigner is listed as a director of MAB, which operates within Muslim communities in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenationalnews.com\/tags\/uk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UK<\/a> and runs campaigns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-9-47QCS6KGUBFFFB6LQLXOMKMOAI\">MAB was accused of having links to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenationalnews.com\/news\/us\/2026\/05\/07\/trumps-terrorism-strategy-set-to-shrink-space-for-muslim-brotherhood-to-operate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.thenationalnews.com\/news\/us\/2026\/05\/07\/trumps-terrorism-strategy-set-to-shrink-space-for-muslim-brotherhood-to-operate\/\">Muslim Brotherhood<\/a> \u2013 a charge it has repeatedly denied \u2013 in a 2015 government report. The UK government report on the Muslim Brotherhood&#8217;s presence in the country, co-authored by the senior diplomat John Jenkins, linked MAB with the Brotherhood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-10-BQG3UGPKWRBGJPOQBVVKLLEG7M\">\u201cMuslim Brotherhood organisations in the UK \u2013 including charities \u2013 are connected to counterparts elsewhere in Europe,\u201d it concluded. \u201cMab are associated with the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe (FIOE), established by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1989. <\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-11-WSNWI5DGORGWRGUFHBCZHWWTDE\">\u201cFIOE subsequently created the European Council for Fatwa and Research, another pan-European Muslim Brotherhood body, intended to provide religious and social guidance to Muslims living in Europe.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-12-U3PJF4WPQVGNZIGSPVNESV5MPQ\">MAB was founded in the 1990s and Mr Al Tikriti served as its president from 2004 to 2005. The Muslim Brotherhood is a designated terrorist organisation in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-13-HX2K5D3PZRBH3DUGKCZ7DRXXU4\">Mr Al Tikriti was recently criticised for claiming in the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks that &#8220;the taking of hostages is a very important part of any strategic military action or active resistance\u201d on a podcast with Imam Tom Facchine. Mab has previously sought to distance itself from those statements. A representative for Mab told The National that Canada\u2019s immigration decision was a \u201cserious overreach\u201d on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-14-WS5U3A5WABFHTP4YNJGB7WSROE\">\u201cThis appears to be a serious overreach by the Canadian government, seemingly driven by bad-faith pressure from those seeking to suppress voices speaking out against Israel\u2019s crimes and the genocide in Gaza. It raises grave concerns about freedom of speech and the targeting of those advocating for Palestinian rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-15-Q2M4HN4FW5BUPN2ESIOM2FXTMA\">The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said it reserved the right to ask on arrival for an examination to determine whether a traveller is allowed to enter. It said it could not comment on this case because of privacy laws. <\/p>\n<p class=\"defaultstyled__StyledText-sc-11u52t4-1 huqwQJ margin-lg-bottom\" id=\"el-16-2UP5VWIQINCCHPGHBHHFY5TZMM\">\u201cInadmissibility concerns may be identified before a person travels to Canada, at the time that they seek entry to Canada, or after they are already inside Canada,\u201d the agency said. \u201cGenerally speaking, individuals who are found to be inadmissible cannot travel to or enter Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A high-profile director of the Muslim Association of Britain has claimed he is a victim of \u201ccancel culture\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,1193,1366,3551,330,3040,5,3041],"class_list":{"0":"post-36306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-iraq","11":"tag-muslim","12":"tag-standard","13":"tag-story","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-uk-bureau"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116573346443966956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}