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.

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”.

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”.