• The UAE employed a Swiss firm to spread disinformation regarding Muslims in Europe, promoting anti-Islamic narratives aligned with far-right agendas.
• The campaign reportedly included funding anti-Muslim figures, influencing Western media under the guise of “counterterrorism.”
In 2023, a report published on the European Parliament’s website documented the UAE’s enlistment of the Swiss firm Alp Services. Alp Services is known for spreading disinformation and creating fake social media accounts.
The objective went beyond surveillance. It aimed to pressure European governments into banning Muslim individuals and portraying them negatively in the media. Through such methods, the UAE helped advance an anti-Islamic narrative that aligned with far-right agendas and intensified the growing wave of Islamophobia across Europe.
The UAE’s actions were not confined to smear campaigns. They also included funding anti-Muslim figures, such as “activist” Amjad Taha, who is widely known for his persistent attacks on Muslim communities in Western countries. Several other social media influencers were similarly engaged in promoting this narrative.
However, efforts by the UAE to silence Muslim voices in Europe are not new. In 2021, the UAE had reportedly given Marie La Pen 8 million dollars to fund a rampant and vile Islamophobic campaign.
On Friday, we learnt how the UAE had cut funding for their citizens to study in British universities over the UK’s refusal to ban the Muslim Brotherhood.
Although the UAE’s apprehension of the Muslim Brotherhood features prominently in their official rhetoric, there is evidently more to the story.
The UAE clearly are at unease with Emirati youth engaging with practicing, educated British Muslims. British Muslims by and large approach their faith with rigour and often command a deeper comprehension of foundational Islamic knowledge and global Muslim affairs than many of their secularised Emirati brothers and sisters.
The UAE regime is acutely aware that an intellectual revival in the Muslim world would complicate its plans. Actions like allocating $10 billion to Israel and normalising relations with such a brutal, genocidal regime would become far harder to pursue.
