Pro-Israel Emirati influencers mocked for claims of Islamic plot to take over West
Why are Emirati influencers warning of an Islamic plot to take over Britain and the west?
It is one of the most curious developments of recent times: the rise of young men and women from the United Arab Emirates talking to British journalists and think tanks about the purported threat of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Now, however, these influencers are being strongly criticised - and even mocked and taunted - over a series of videos.
It started this week with a viral clip posted by Rauda Altenaiji, a young Emirati woman who describes herself on her X profile as a "thinker of deep truths".
The video was an edit of herself and a young Emirati man, Ahmed Sharif Al Ameri, speaking in an interview in Britain with Jonathan Sacerdoti, who recently argued that "the West should be suspicious of Islam" in an Oxford Union debate alongside far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
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"People of the West, wake up, this is happening," Altenaiji says in the video, which then cuts to a clip of the prominent American live streamer Sneako saying "Islam will be in every household".
The video continues with Al Ameri saying: "The reason the West doesnt really understand or can't comprehend what the Muslim Brotherhood is doing is because the Muslim Brotherhood instils the fear of, what if it's Islamophobic?"
The video then cuts to clips of American politician Ilhan Omar, actor Ben Affleck and journalist Mehdi Hasan saying the words "Islamophobia".
"There's an invasion that's happening by the Muslim Brotherhood in the West," Altenaiji argues. "They're not gonna use the same tactics that they did before because that was a different time.
"Now they're gonna use it through PR strategies and inclusivity meetings and all those nice-sounding words. But the end goal of that is to eventually instil a caliphate system in the UK, or in the West in general."
Are you serious? Are all Muslim organizations and campaigns across the UK and Europe are Muslim Brotherhood? Are you saying there is no “Muslim stereotyping” in many parts of the West? @FormulaRauda https://t.co/LnDRhKnN4L
— Moeed Pirzada (@MoeedNj) August 13, 2026
Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at the Defence Studies Department of King’s College London, shared the video and remarked: "Throwing fellow Muslims under the bus for a few clicks and cheers from Europe's Islamophobic Far Right... some in the UAE are happy to further tarnish their reputation in the Muslim world, in an ill-conceived and terribly executed information op".
In the interview with Sacerdoti, Altenaiji and Al Ameri both insist they are operating independently.
'I'm more liberal than young Americans'
Journalist Zaid Jilani commented: "The UAE is usually better at propaganda than this. She thinks she’s on the team, lol."
Some X users mocked the idea that Ben Affleck could be linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Sneako, meanwhile, did a livestream in which he expressed bemusement at his appearance in the video: "This is proof of how new I am to Islam; they're now accusing me of being part of the Muslim Brotherhood.
"I'm not even sure what that - like what is that?" he asked. "What is the Muslim Brotherhood? That sounds cool."
Amid the controversy, another video in recent weeks went viral of Al Ameri. It shows him declaring that "I'm more liberal than young Americans", while wearing a traditional Emirati thobe and headdress.
"Ahmed has crazy thoughts," video host Aija Mayrock, an influencer focusing on "interfaith harmony in Israel", admiringly says.
Al Ameri explains: "Today there is more radical extremism coming from the west than in Arab countries... I read every holy book and realised there is no wrong religion."
Crazy ideas (exactly what his government thinks) pic.twitter.com/3KcupxUgj3
— شرقزده sharghzadeh (@sharghzadeh) June 28, 2026
But this wasn't the most dramatic video - that was one shared this week which featured a man in traditional Emirati clothing named Omar Al Blooshi.
It shows him ominously telling the camera as dramatic music plays: "Britain, consider this a warning.
"The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist political movement and founded in Egypt nearly a century ago... Muslim Brotherhood-associated organisations and individuals have operated in British public life for decades."
Pro-Israel Emirati influencers
These new Emirati influencers are notably supportive of Israel. In the interview with Sacerdoti, Altenaiji and Al Ameri both espouse strongly pro-Israel views.
Al Blooshi, meanwhile, posted this week on X that "Anti-Zionism has become a convenient mask for antisemitism old prejudice repackaged in the language of politics".
"Read from the screen but try to look natural" https://t.co/GA2QdSLjPH
— Marc Owen Jones (@marcowenjones) August 14, 2026
Significantly, some Emirati influencers have been associated with the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), a right-wing British think tank.
Altenaiji recently featured in a video published by Ban the Brotherhood, an anti-Muslim Brotherhood campaign run by the HJS.
Another Emirati influencer, Abdulqader Almenhali, also appeared in a Ban the Brotherhood video.
The director of the HJS is Alan Mendoza, who is also the head of the Jewish National Fund UK - a British charity that has donated £1m ($1.36m) to "Israel's largest militia" and has Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, as an honorary patron.
Mendoza is also a senior adviser to Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform UK party.
One of the founders of the HJS, Matthew Jamison, later denounced the think tank as a “monstrous animal” and a “deeply anti-Muslim racist organisation”.
The rise of Emirati influencers warning about the Muslim Brotherhood in the West comes alongside increased alliances between the UAE and right-wing figures in Britain.
Middle East Eye has documented the increasingly warm relationship between Reform UK, which advocates mass deporations, and Abu Dhabi.
And last year, anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson visited Dubai. "I’m here under the invite of Emirates who I’m here to meet tomorrow to discuss terrorism organisations in the UK," he was filmed saying, although no evidence was provided for this claim.
So why is the UAE apparently so concerned about the Brotherhood?
The phantom menace
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Cairo in 1928 and is one of the world's largest and best-known groups espousing political Islam. Where free elections are held in the region, parties affiliated with the Brotherhood often win outright or form the largest opposition party.
It is chiefly the staunch opposition of the Brotherhood to autocracy and dictatorship, rather than the group's religiosity, that has marked it as an enemy to the UAE.
Abu Dhabi has previously lobbied unsuccessfully to have the Brotherhood banned in the UK.
Then, in 2023, it was revealed that the UAE paid a private intelligence firm based in Geneva, Alp Services, to smear Britain’s largest Muslim charity, Islamic Relief Worldwide, by seeking to link it with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood is understood not to operate as a unitary organisation, and no evidence has emerged from inquiries or reviews that it wields significant influence in the UK.
Yet it is precisely the phantasmic nature of the alleged Brotherhood threat that has allowed figures on the British right, including in Reform, to use it to make sweeping and unevidenced claims about Islamism.
The warnings issued to Britain by Emirati influencers, however, are apparently being received with more scepticism and derision than fear or concern.
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