Bob Lambert and the Muslim Community

Subsequent to his retirement from police service in 2007, Bob Lambert - previously an undercover officer with and then operational commander of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch's Special Demonstration Squad - pursued a second career as an academic, until his exposure as a police spy in October 2011 slowed things down.
This page summarises the many groups and people Lambert associated with in his capacity as a former-police-officer-turned-academic specialising in Islamophobia and de-radicalisation, building on his work with the Met's Muslim Contact Unit. The other half of this page is Bob Lambert and the Academic Community. Also see Bob Lambert Writing and Speaking.
* For a full overview of all pages on him, see Bob Lambert.
The intention is to show how Lambert worked his way into networks and discourse subsequent to his retirement from the Metropolitan Police in a manner consistent with the way he did whilst a serving officer, particularly during his time in the Special Demonstration Squad. It also aims to map how he used a relatively small number of individuals to effect his passage into and through much larger numbers of organisations.
Disclaimer. This page was developed using only open source materials, and it is not meant as a critique (or, for that matter, as an endorsement) of the groups and individuals mentioned.Please note that many of the sources used here could be considered hostile to the groups they describe. The intention is to show that Lambert willingly - and knowingly - engaged with or even supported organisations and individuals at a time when they were being openly being criticised for connections to (perceived) extremists; and to show that such criticism came not just from traditional conservative or neoconservative quarters (e.g. the Daily Telegraph, Policy Exchange), but also from those in the neoconservative tradition such as Harry's Place and the Quilliam Foundation. The latter reportedly received £700,000 as part of the government's Preventing Violent Extremism Programme, £400,000 of which was given by the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT). Vikram Dodd Spying Morally Right, says Think-Tank, The Guardian, 16 October 2009
+++++ Last Updated November 2016 +++++
==Background== 
This is one of a series of pages on Bob Lambert and his work, first as an undercover for the Special Demonstration Squad, and later as a mentor to and manager of further generations of spycops. Towards the end of his police career Lambert focused on islamophobia and deradicalisation. With at least two other former undercover officers, he set up the Muslim Contact Unit as a pilot within Special Branch, to work with muslim communities to push out jihadi recruiters. After his retirement on 2007, Lambert continued this work for his PhD. His thesis was published as Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011 Little over a month after the book was launched in September 2011, Lambert was exposed, and his academic career has dwindled since.
When working with muslim communities, Lambert has always been open about his career of 27 years with the Metropolitan Police's Special Branch and the Counter Terrorism Command. On the contrary, when embarking on his academic career he presented this as his unique selling point - that he has “a perspective that combines academic research and police practitioner experience”.Robert Lambert, ‘British Muslim Organisations: The Target of an Orchestrated Neocon Campaign of Denigration’. Arches Quarterly Volume 4 Issue 7, pp128-142, Winter 2010. 
What Lambert consistently failed to mention, was the fact that at least ten of those years had been with the Special Demonstration Squad),To be clear, he served in the Special Demonstration Squad from no later than September 1983 until sometime in 1989, and then from November 1993 until late 1998. See Lambert's police career timeline for details and references. infiltrating activist groups and gathering intelligence about their political work.
A note on Lambert's use of language, he would talk of 'Islamist' to describe groups which have the risk to radicalise, a contested term often strategically used by conservative or government spokespersons to brand people as possibly terrorist and to exclude them from the debate.
==Policing-related contacts==
Engaging with Muslims on Islamophobia and deradicalisation - both whilst in the Muslim Contact Unit and as an academic - Lambert has of course utilised police-community panels.
===Muslim Safety Forum (MSF)===
The Muslim Safety Forum was set up In London in 2001 by the Diversity Directorate of the Metropolitan Police "following the events of 9/11 to provide a platform for Muslim community representatives to voice their attitudes and concerns about crime, security, Islamophobia and violent extremism.Policing Terrorism: A Review of the Evidence, The Police Foundation, February 2009 (accessed 7 October 2015).John Upton, ‘In the Streets of Londonistan’, London Review of Books, 22 January 2004 (accessed 14 April 2016). The forum was to become “home to regular meetings between senior police officers and representatives of Islamic institutions and Muslim community organizations.”Robert Lambert, ‘The Muslim Safety Forum: Senior Police and Muslim Community Engagement during the War on Terror’. P. Daniel Silke, Basia Spalek & Mary O’Rawe (ed.), Preventing Ideological Violence: Communities, Police and Case Studies of “Success”, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, p67. 
The MSF was initially an ad hoc arrangement to facilitate dialogue between the Metropolitan Police and representatives of Muslim interest groups - typically those with which the Met had previously dealt with. Lambert notes that “two of its first leading members” were Zaki Badawi (then approaching eighty years of age, and a founder of the Muslim College; director, Islamic Cultural Centre; senior imam, London Central Mosque) and Sayed Yousif Al-Khoei (who has run the Al Khoei Foundation since 1991).Robert Lambert, ‘The Muslim Safety Forum: Senior Police and Muslim Community Engagement during the War on Terror’. P. Daniel Silke, Basia Spalek & Mary O’Rawe (ed.), Preventing Ideological Violence: Communities, Police and Case Studies of “Success”, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, p70. Both had previously worked with the Met; Lambert himself had, whilst in E Squad, worked with Badawi as early as 1989 when dealing with the Salman Rushdie affair.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p81.
Initially - from 2001 until 2003 - MSF meetings were usually chaired by David Veness, the Met's long-serving Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations,Robert Lambert, ‘The Muslim Safety Forum: Senior Police and Muslim Community Engagement during the War on Terror’. P. Daniel Silke, Basia Spalek & Mary O’Rawe (ed.), Preventing Ideological Violence: Communities, Police and Case Studies of “Success”, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp71. or another senior officer. After this though, “MSF community appointees” took on the role of chair, with Azad Ali from the Islamic Forum of Europe first taking the responsibility,Vikram Dodd, ‘Special Branch to track Muslims across UK’, The Guardian, 20 July 2005 (accessed 9 March 2015).‘Participants Biographies’, School of Oriental and African Studies website, 2008 (accessed 30 March 2016). and then “briefly” in 2004 Raza Kazim from the Islamic Human Rights Commission.Robert Lambert, ‘The Muslim Safety Forum: Senior Police and Muslim Community Engagement during the War on Terror’. P. Daniel Silke, Basia Spalek & Mary O’Rawe (ed.), Preventing Ideological Violence: Communities, Police and Case Studies of “Success”, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp70-71. Later on Abdurahman Jafar took on the chairmanship,Abdul-Rehman Malik, ‘Building on the foundations’, The Guardian, 13 August 2007 (accessed 9 March 2015). with Fatima Khan acting as vice-chair.Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015).Robert Lambert MBE, ‘7/7: What a Public Inquiry Would Have Addressed’, The Platform website, 17 May 2011 (accessed 16 May 2016).‘Fatima Khan’, LinkedIn.com, 2016, (accessed 18 May 2016).
In time the MSF took on a more solidified form. This included having monthly meetings with the Met, registration with both Companies House (incorporated April 2006) and the Charity Commission (registered November 2007).‘THE MUSLIM SAFETY FORUM’, Companies House website, 2016 (accessed 12 May 2016). The MSF's directors were Naeem Darr (secretary), Azad Ali, and Tahir Butt (until February 2009).‘THE MUSLIM SAFETY FORUM’, Charity Commission website, 2016 (accessed 18 May 2016). The MSF's trustees were Azad Ali, Abdurahman Jafar, Abul Kalam, Fatima Khan and Mujibul Islam. It developed into a formalised group which was independent of the Met, meeting in locations of its own nomination, and complete with its own organisational structure - by 2004 the MSF had “its own constitution, held election for chair and the executive committee” and even “a dedicated office with two employed staff, a voluntary executive body, and a membership of over 30 national and regional Muslim organisations.”‘Introduction’, Muslim Safety Forum website, September 2006 (accessed via Archive.org 17 May 2016). Temporary office space was initially found near Marble Arch before more permanent accommodation at the London Muslim Centre was arranged in 2006.‘Muslim Safety Forum (MSF) Community Update’, Muslim Safety Forum website, 2 June 2006 (accessed via Archive.org 17 May 2016).) 
Lambert notes that the MSF was “both a forum for debate between police and Muslim community representatives and a forum for discussion simply among those Muslim community representatives who are engaging with police.” He adds that:Robert Lambert, ‘The Muslim Safety Forum: Senior Police and Muslim Community Engagement during the War on Terror’. P. Daniel Silke, Basia Spalek & Mary O’Rawe (ed.), Preventing Ideological Violence: Communities, Police and Case Studies of “Success”, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, p72. 
::often those MSF meetings away from police would take place in the board-room of the Islamic Cultural Centre adjacent to the London Central Mosque [or] the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel. [...] At an early stage in the development of the MSF, Muslim participants sought and obtained a degree of independence and came to take ownership of MSF as a body that engaged with police.
Lambert had attended meetings of the MSF from the earliest days of the Muslim Contact Unit, as a researcher he also began to share platforms with its representatives at academic and activist events. The groundwork was laid in October 2007 whilst still a serving police officer when he attended ‘The Politics Of Radicalisation: Reframing The Debate And Reclaiming The Language’, a one-day seminar organised by Marie Breen Smyth and the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation & Contemporary Political Violence at the University of Wales Aberystwyth, where he took part in discussion with others including Azad Ali representing the Muslim Safety Forum.Centre for the Study of Radicalisation & Contemporary Political Violence, ‘The Politics Of Radicalisation: Reframing The Debate And Reclaiming The Language’ (event leaflet), University of Wales Aberystwyth, 2007 (accessed 17 March 2016). 
By March 2010 Lambert (and his EMRC colleague Jonathan Githens-Mazer) was well-thought of enough to be invited to a special closed meeting to be an expert witness on the subject of “the growing spate of attacks in all its forms against British Muslims” held at the House of Commons, organised by the Muslim Council of Britain “in partnership with the Muslim Safety Forum...and the University of Exeter’s European Muslim Research Centre”; Abdurahman Jafar represented the MSF.Dr Chris Allen, ‘Momentous Occasion: A report on the All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia and its Secretariat’, All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia, 2011 (accessed via ConservativeHome 19 May 2016).‘Tackling Islamophobia - Reducing Street Violence Against British Muslims’ (notice of debate), Cordoba Foundation website, 3 March 2010 (accessed 21 November 2014).MCB Press Office, ‘MCB Brings Experts and Parliamentarians Together to Discuss Islamophobia’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 10 March 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016). 
In October 2011, Lambert spoke on how the English Defence League was “an extremist organisation” at the ‘One Society Many Cultures’ conference; Shamiul Joarder, the Muslim Safety Forum's counter terrorism spokesman, delivered a talk critical of the ‘Prevent’ programme, noting “it has been imposed upon the community and risks being counterproductive as counter-terrorism must not alienate the Muslim community.”‘Celebrate Diversity Convention unites communities to oppose racism, fascism and Islamophobia’, One Society Many Cultures website, October 2011 (accessed via 26 March 2012 archive.org cache, 28 August 2014).
The Muslim Safety Forum was certainly considered important enough in 2005 that two of its representatives - Azad Ali and Tahir Butt - were personally briefed about the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes on 22 July (a case of mistaken identity following the failed 21/7 bombings) by senior police officers. This included Commissioner Ian Blair, Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson, Assistant Chief Constable Robert Beckley (Hertfordshire Police), Commander Alfred Hitchcock, Commander Roderick Jarman, Acting Commander Steven Gwilliam and Acting Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Wolfenden.Stockwell Two: An investigation into complaints about the Metropolitan Police Service's handling of public statements following the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes on 22 July 2005, Independent Police Complaints Commission, July 2007(accessed via StateWatch 21 November 2014), pp124 & 128.
In 2007, Lambert and Basia Spalek had characterised the Metropolitan Police as being “loyal to engagement with Islamist and Salafi groups, most notably in support of the Muslim Safety Forum (MSF)”.Basia Spalek & Robert Lambert, ‘Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Muslim Community Engagement post 9/11’. Rebecca Roberts & Will McMahon (ed.), Social Justice and Criminal Justice, Centre for Crime & Justice Studies, 2007, p209. 
London Muslim Communities Forum
In 2011 the Forum was closed down when the Met decided to instead engage with Muslims through its own London Muslim Communities Forum. This was to be a strategic consultative group chaired by senior Met officers, hosted in Met premises, and with attendance limited to representatives nominated through the Met's four Area-based Local Muslim Communities Forums (each of which was to be similarly chaired and hosted by the Met).‘London Muslim Communities Forum’, Metropolitan Police Service website, 2012 (accessed 17 May 2016). The first meeting of the LMCF took place at New Scotland Yard, chaired by former head of SO15 Counter Terrorism Command Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh.‘London Muslim Communities Forum launched’, Metropolitan Police website, 27 March 2012 (accessed 16 July 2014). 
It is perhaps worth noting that of twenty-three attendees at the inaugural LMCF meeting, thirteen were police officers (with one representing each of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the City of London Police, and the Association of Muslim Police), two were civilian staff members, and one was an official from the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPaC). Only seven were there representing London's Muslim Communities (or eight if one includes the local AMP rep).Chris Hulbert, ‘Minutes of the London Muslim Community Forum 26.03.2012’, Metropolitan Police Service website, 26 March 2012 (accessed 18 May 2016). 
This contrasts with an MSF meeting, which Lambert estimates would typically comprise around fifteen MSF community reps, ten officers from the Metropolitan Police Service, one from the Metropolitan Police Authority (subsequently replaced by MOPaC), one from the Independent Police Complaints Commission, and one from the Crown Prosecution Service.Robert Lambert, ‘The Muslim Safety Forum: Senior Police and Muslim Community Engagement during the War on Terror’. P. Daniel Silke, Basia Spalek & Mary O’Rawe (ed.), Preventing Ideological Violence: Communities, Police and Case Studies of “Success”, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, p72.It is perhaps instructive that the LMCF comes under the administrative purview of SO15 - Counter Terrorism Command; and it is not uninteresting to note that the Met has not published any further minutes of LMCF meetings (if indeed any more have taken place).
The MSF was listed as a group “Political/entry-level Islamist” group ”associated with Jamaat-e-Islami”by the Quilliam Foundation, a London based 'counter-extremism' think-tank, in a controversial briefing paper aligning peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology..Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016).Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015). In contrast, the Forum was also thanked by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in their London Case Study.Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer & Dr Robert Lambert MBE, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: A London Case Study (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2010 (accessed via counterextremism.org 16 April 2014), p9.
===National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP)===
Set up in July 2007 as “the first national representative body of Muslim Police Officers and Police Staff” in the UK,‘About us’, National Association of Muslim Police website, May 2008 (accessed via Archive.org 16 May 2016).‘Home page’, National Association of Muslim Police website, May 2008 (accessed via Archive.org 16 May 2016).Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘National Association of Muslim Police’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 16 May 2016). the National Association also assists in establishing local Associations, such as in the Metropolitan Police area.‘Association of Muslim Police’, Metropolitan Police Service website, 2016 (accessed 20 April 2016). Given the overlap in interest, Lambert does not appear to have engaged with NAMP very much. However, in March 2010 Lambert along with his then-principal academic collaborator Jonathan Githens-Mazer were among invited attendees at a closed session on Islamophobia hosted at the House of Lords; also in attendance was President of NAMP Zaheer Ahmed.MCB Press Office, ‘MCB Brings Experts and Parliamentarians Together to Discuss Islamophobia’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 10 March 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016). In his book, Lambert does note that prior to 9/11, “British Muslims had grown used to their faith identity being relegated to a private space while their ‘Asian’ or ‘ethnic’ identity was actively engaged by government, police and public servants”.Former Metropolitan Police Commisioner Ian Blair lends support to this in his autobiography, which whilst published in 2009, refers to how in the immediate aftermath of 7/7 (i.e. 7 July 2005) he was “much helped in [his] decision to [challenge casual Islamophobia perpetuated in the media immediately after the bombings] by Tarique Ghaffur, the country's senior Asian officer.” See: Ian Blair, Policing Controversy, Profile Books, 2009, p28. In support of this he claims that prominent senior Muslim police officers Tariq Ghaffur and Ali Dizaei “only came to describe themselves publicly as Muslims after 9/11”,Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p54. adding that “in 2008 [both Ghaffur and Dizaei] were aligned to the National Black Police Association (NBPA) rather than the more recently formed” NAMP.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, n54 p314.
From mid-2013 until October 2015, the President of NAMP was Asif Sadiq, who in February 2014 followed in the footsteps of Lambert colleague Tim Parsons as Head of Equality, Diversity and Human Rights at the City of London Police.‘Asif Sadiq’, LinkedIn.com, 2016, (accessed 16 May 2016).Büşra Akin Dinçer, ‘Muslim police: A bridge between different cultures’, Daily Sabah website, 20 March 2015 (accessed 16 May 2016).
==Mosques and Islamic centres==
 
In the early days of the Muslim Contact Unit he had set the “ambitious target of visiting every mosque, Islamic institution and Muslim organisation in London.”Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p79. By 2011 at a round table discussion at Strathclyde University's ‘9/11 Ten Years On’ conference he claimed that he had visited more than three hundred Islamic associations across Britain.David Miller, ‘Public meeting: From 9/11 to the Arab Spring, The Norway killings and the English riots: What have we learned about political violence and terrorism?’, A Decade of Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism (blog), 28 August 2011 (accessed 8 February 2016).Mancha Productions, ‘Bob Lambert, Plenary: Muslim Partners or Muslim Extremists?’, via Vimeo, filmed 8 September 2011 (accessed 9 February 2016). Accordingly - and for the sake of brevity - this section focuses on a small number of such institutions in London which Lambert had repeated contact with, particularly after he had left the Metropolitan Police.
===Brixton Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre (Masjid Ibn Taymiyyah)===
Established in 1990,‘Welcome to MasjidIT.co.uk!’, Brixton Mosque website, 2006 (accessed 10 May 2016). Brixton Mosque is a Salafi place of worship strongly associated with black British Muslim converts.Simon Hooper, ‘Black Britons confront 'radical Islam'’, Al Jazeera website, 19 December 2013 (accessed 12 May 2016). In the early 1990s the extremist Jamaican convert Abdullah el Faisal preached there, until he was expelled in 1993.Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘Abdullah el-Faisal’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 12 May 2016). The mosque's managers (including Abdul Haqq Baker, chair 1994-2009)‘Abdul Haqq Baker’, The Guardian, 2013 (accessed 12 May 2016). attempted to engage with local police in Lambeth over concerns about el Faisal and the threat of extremism in the 1990s, but were rebuffed. Nonetheless they challenged el Faisal and other extremist preachers such as Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada in Brixton and elsewhere,Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, pp182-5.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p191. and in the late 1990s had attempted to persuade local convert Richard Reid (in December 2001 to become infamous as the attempted ‘Shoe Bomber’) away from a path of radicalisation.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p58.
By the end of 2002, the Muslim Contact Unit had already having visited more than one hundred and eighty mosques and Muslim centres, and drawn up a shortlist of ten where it had found expertise in countering Al Qaeda - with Brixton topping it. With this in mind, Brixton Mosque and its Salafi leadership became one of two principal foci for the MCU's work during the 2000s (the other being Finsbury Park Mosque and its Muslim Brotherhood-linked new management). Lambert (and the MCU) worked closely with Brixton Mosque, its Salafi leadership and Baker in particular.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p197.
Lambert worked closely with Baker whilst at MCU and then later as an academic, both as a director of the STREET outreach project, and as an academic mentor to Baker, who was to become a colleague at both the European Muslim Research Centre (where Lambert oversaw his PhD research) and the University of St. Andrews (where Baker like Lambert lectured in the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence).Jonathan Githens-Mazer, Robert Lambert, Abdul-Haqq Baker, Safiyah Cohen-Baker & Zacharias Pieri, Muslim Communities: Perspectives on Radicalisation in Leicester, UK, Centre for Studies in Islamism and Radicalisation, March 2010 (accessed 5 January 2016).‘Dr A H Baker’, Abdul Haqq Baker PhD website, 2015 (accessed 7 February 2016).
Baker - whom Lambert referred to as “my good friend” during his Chatham House Q&ADr Bob Lambert & Professor Rosemary Hollis, ‘Partnering with the Muslim Community as an Effective Counter-Terrorist Strategy’, Chatham House, 20 September 2011 (accessed 17 April 2014), p6. - later dedicated his book Extremists In Our Midst: Confronting TerrorAbdul Haqq Baker, Extremists In Our Midst: Confronting Terror, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. to the memory of Lambert's acknowledged son Adam, an employee of STREET until his death in February 2011. Lambert similarly dedicated his own book to the memory of Adam.Lambert directly refers to Adam Lambert, his work with STREET, and his untimely death in February 2011 in his talk at IISS in September of that year. See around 22m into Robert Lambert & others, ‘Countering al-Qaeda in London’, International Institute for Strategic Studies, 19 September 2011 (accessed 15 April 2014).Lauren Collins, ‘The Spy Who Loved Me: An undercover surveillance operation that went too far’, The New Yorker, August 25 2014 issue (accessed 30 September 2014).Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda In London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, C Hurst & Co, 2011, p vii. Note that this dedication indicates that Lambert had inducted his acknowledged son into his Special Branch-related work at STREET UK.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda In London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, C Hurst & Co, 2011, p13.Mark Duell, ‘Metropolitan Police agrees to pay £425,000 compensation to woman who had child by undercover officer: She had 'psychiatric care after learning of his real identity'’, Mail Online, 24 October 2014 (accessed 8 November 2014).Glenda Cooper, ‘Bob Lambert, undercover cops, and the awful cost of sleeping with the enemy’, Daily Telegraph, 25 October 2014 (accessed 8 November 2014).
Brixton Mosque was listed as a “Wahhabist influenced” mosque by the Quilliam Foundation, a London based 'counter-extremism' think-tank, in a controversial briefing paper aligning peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology.Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016).Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015).
===East London Mosque (ELM)===
Replacing a smaller venue which served as a place of worship from 1940 until 1974, the current East London Mosque opened its doors in 1975. Since then the trust operating it has expanded its reach with two large multi-purpose buildings located adjacent - the London Muslim Centre and the Maryam Centre.Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘East London Mosque’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 3 May 2016). Among its prominent trustees is Muhammad Abdul Bari, who chaired the ruling trust from 2003 until 2013.‘EAST LONDON MOSQUE TRUST’, Companies House website (accessed 3 May 2016). Bari was a member of the Advisory Board the European Muslim Research Centre.
East London Mosque and the London Muslim Centre have both been closely associated with the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), a primarily Bangladeshi organisation based in East London, which had been set up in 1988 with Bari as its founding President.Konrad Pędziwiatr, The New Muslim Elites in European Cities: Religion and Active Social Citizenship Amongst Young Organized Muslims in Brussels and London, Centre for Sociological Research, Catholic University of Leuven, 2008 (accessed 27 April 2016), p129 n140.Andrew Gilligan, ‘Inextricably linked to controversial mosque: the secret world of IFE’, Daily Telegraph, 28 February 2010 (accessed 26 April 2016). Lambert has noted that he “first saw East London Mosque and Islamic Forum Europe street skills in action in 2005 when they robustly dispatched extremists from Al Muhajiroun who were in Whitechapel attempting to recruit youngsters into their hate filled group.”Dr Robert Lambert, ‘Muslims Tackle Looters and Bigots’, Huffington Post UK website, 14 August 2011 (updated 14 October 2011) (accessed 5 January 2016).
In 2007 an article in The Times based on a report by right-wing think tank Policy Exchange led to accusations of extremist literature being sold at the mosque;Denis MacEoin, The Hijacking of British Islam, Policy Exchange, 2007 (accessed via Scribd 2 April 2016).Sean O'Neill, ‘Lessons in hate found at leading mosques’, The Times, 30 October 2007 (accessed via Free Republic 26 April 2016). a subsequent apology indicated that the bookshop where the material was purchased was a commercial tenant and that the mosque “has no responsibility for or control over the material that is being sold there.”‘Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari’, The Times, 17 December 2007 (accessed 26 April 2016).
When their Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies report was published by the European Muslim Research Centre in 2010, Githens-Mazer and Lambert began it with a three page dedication to Muhammad Abdul Bari, praising his leadership of the East London Mosque as well as that of the Muslim Council of Britain (where he was Secretary General 2006-2010).Robert Lambert & Jonathan Githens-Mazer, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies 2010 - An introduction to a ten year Europe-wide research project (first edition) (research project) European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, November 2010 (accessed via counterextremism.org 11 June 2014), pp11-14.Robert Lambert & Jonathan Githens-Mazer, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies 2010 - An introduction to a ten year Europe-wide research project (second edition) (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2011 (accessed via Archive.org 11 June 2014), pp13-16.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p255.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p272.The East London Mosque is an affiliate of the Muslim Council of Britain.‘Affiliates’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 2016 (accessed 26 April 2016). 
The Quilliam Foundation, a London based 'counter-extremism' think-tank, listed it as a “Political/entry-level Islamist” group ”associated with Jamaat-e-Islami” in a controversial briefing paper aligning peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology.Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016).Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015).
===Finsbury Park Mosque (also known as North London Central Mosque)===
Located in a busy North London neighbourhood, the Finsbury Park Mosque was set up in 1988, with the main building opening in 1994.‘ABOUT US’, Finsbury Park Mosque website, 2016 (accessed 16 May 2016).Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p82.Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘Finsbury Park Mosque’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 3 May 2016). By 1997 the Egyptian-born veteran jihadist Abu Hamza al Masri had become involved - ostensibly to broker peace among various factions of trustees - and gradually took over the mosque, which then developed a reputation for extremism. In 2003 the mosque was raided by police in relation to suspected terrorist activity,John Stevens, Not For The Faint-Hearted, Phoenix, 2006 (revised paperback edition), pp354-359. Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens notes that “Operation Mermant, the raid on the mosque, carried very high risks, and was authorised by Assistant Commissioner David Veness”. As we have seen elsewhere, the later career of Veness is closely entwined with that of Lambert.‘Anti-terror police raid London mosque’, BBC News website, 20 January 2003 (accessed 16 May 2016).‘Mosque raid: Police statement in full’, BBC News website, 20 January 2003 (accessed 16 May 2016).‘Q&A: Finsbury Park mosque raid’, BBC News website, 20 January 2003 (accessed 16 May 2016). and the building subsequently closed leading to the spectacle of the “one-eyed, hook-handed”It's difficult to find a contemporary report that doesn't include some epithetical variation on this. jihadist preaching to hundreds in the streets outside the shuttered building.‘Abu Hamza profile’, BBC News website, 9 January 2015 (accessed 16 May 2016).
In time a new board of trustees comprising local worshippers and Anas Altikriti's Muslim Association of Britain (then based nearby at the Muslim Welfare HouseRobert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p126.) was put together and supported by Lambert and his Muslim Contact Unit.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, pp79-154. This new mosque administration was able to fully wrest control both legally and practically from Abu Hamza's followers in February 2005, in an operation involving around a hundred MWH and MAB volunteers, coordinated by senior MAB leaders from the Muslim Welfare House. Lambert claims the four person police team including two from the MCU, running a liaison office at MWH at the time had a crucial role in this take-over.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, pp142-143. Dominic Casciani & Sharif Sakr, ‘The battle for the mosque’, BBC News website, 7 February 2006 (accessed 16 May 2016).‘NORTH LONDON CENTRAL MOSQUE TRUST’, Charity Commission, 2016 (accessed 16 May 2016). The new trustees (Mohamed Kozbar, Mohamed Sawalha, Ahmed Sheikh Mohammed, Abdel Shaheed El Ashaal and Hafez al Karmi) were all at the time trustees of the Muslim Welfare House, and all bar al Karmi had also been office holders at the Muslim Association of Britain. MAB founder Kemal Helbawy also served as a spokesman.American Foreign Policy Council, World Almanac of Islamism 2011, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011, p399. The mosque was initially renamed North London Central Mosque to underline the break with Abu Hamza,‘About Us’, Finsbury Park Mosque website, November 2005 (accessed via Archive.org 16 May 2016). though it has since reverted to Finsbury Park Mosque.‘ABOUT US’, Finsbury Park Mosque website, 2016 (accessed 16 May 2016).
Lambert has noted that the close working relationship between the MCU and the MAB/MWH Islamist group which subsequently took over the Finsbury Park Mosque lasted from January 2002 until October 2007 (i.e. ending around the time he was coming to the end of his time in the Metropolitan Police).Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p72.
In June 2010 Lambert was a featured speaker at the ‘Stop Islamophobia Defend the Muslim Community’ one-day conference co-organised by Stop The War and the British Muslim Initiative (which itself was co-founded by Finsbury Park Mosque/Muslim Welfare House trustees Mohamed Kozbar and Mohammad SawalhaThe BMI was set up in early 2006, and dissolved - as a company - in late 2014. Its only directors were Mohammad Sawalha and Mohamed Kozbar - both former directors of MAB, previous directors of the Muslim Welfare Trust/House, and current directors of Finsbury Park Mosque after it was rid of Abu Hamza. See: ‘BRITISH MUSLIM INITIATIVE LIMITED’, Companies House website, (accessed 14 April 2016). However, whilst its website has been suspended, it continues to have an active Facebook page. See: ‘About BMI’, British Muslim Initiative website, 2013 (accessed via Archive.org 10 April 2016); and ‘British Muslim Initiative’, Facebook, 2016 (accessed 10 April 2016). Amongst Sawalha's other business interests, he founded and ran Islam Expo from 2004 until 2013.) and supported by (inter alios) North London Central Mosque.Stop The War, ‘Stop Islamophobia: Defend the Muslim Community’, Stop The War website, June 2010 (accessed 18 February 2015).Paul Hanes, ‘Dr Robert Lambert Stop Islamophobia Defend the Muslim Community - 05.06.10 ’, Counterfire, 8 June 2010 (accessed 4 May 2015).[Bristol] info@bristolstopwar, ‘Stop Islamophobia: Defend the Muslim Community’, Indymedia UK, 20 May 2010 (accessed 3 February 2015).
The mosque listed as a “Political/entry-level Islamist” group “associated with the Muslim Brotherhood”by the Quilliam Foundation, a London based 'counter-extremism' think-tank, in a controversial briefing paper aligning peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology.Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016).Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015).
===London Central Mosque (‘Regent's Park Mosque’)===
The mosque dates back to 1944 when the UK government donated land in Regent's Park to the Muslims of the Empire in exchange for land provided by the Egyptian government in Cairo for the building of an Anglican cathedral; the mosque itself was built in 1977.‘About Us’, London Central Mosque Trust Ltd. & The Islamic Cultural Centre website, 2016 (accessed 3 May 2016).Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘London Central Mosque’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 3 May 2016). London Central Mosque as well as its associated Islamic Cultural Centre is administered by a board which includes representatives of thirteen foreign states.‘LONDON CENTRAL MOSQUE TRUST LIMITED(THE)’, Companies House website, (accessed 25 April 2016).The governments acting as trustees of the mosque are currently represented by: the embassies of Iran, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, Qatar, Oman, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, as well as the High Commissions for Brunei and Pakistan, and the Kingdom of Bahrain. Its Director General is Ahmed al Dubayan, an educationalist who was an advisor to the European Muslim Research Centre run by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer at Exeter University.Lucy Lips, ‘Dr Ahmad Al-Dubayan and the EMRC’, Harry's Place website, 1 August 2011 (accessed 21 March 2016). 
Lambert has said that his personal experience of working with London Central Mosque stretches back to 1989 when he was in Special Branch's E Squad working on the Salman Rushdie affair and liaising with “prominent figures” at the mosque.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p81.Lambert's involvement with the mosque was fully reignited by 2003, by which time his Muslim Contact Unit duties saw him again working closely with its staff.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p96. Lambert appears to praise al Dubayan for his support, though he does not name him: “In London the best support came from the London Central Mosque where the director lent his personal authority to the task.”
It was listed as a “Wahhabist influenced” mosque by the Quilliam Foundation, a London based 'counter-extremism' think-tank, in a controversial briefing paper aligning peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology.Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016).Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015).
===London Muslim Centre===
Run by the trust which also governs the adjoining East London Mosque (and the Maryam Centre next door),‘Management’, East London Mosque & London Muslim Centre website, 2016 (accessed 3 May 2016). the London Muslim Centre has been host to a number of events in which Lambert has been involved.Centre for the Study of Radicalisation & Contemporary Political Violence, ‘The Politics Of Radicalisation: Reframing The Debate And Reclaiming The Language’ (event leaflet), University of Wales Aberystwyth, 2007 (accessed 17 March 2016). An event there to promote Lambert's book and the SpinWatch Islamophobia report in October 2011 was cancelled following his outing as a former undercover policeman.Cordoba Foundation, ‘Cancellation of the Reports Launch’, Cordoba Foundation website, 29 October 2011 (accessed via via Archive.org 21 March 2016).Lucy Lips, ‘“Unforseen circumstances”’, Harry's Place website, 29 October 2011 (accessed 21 March 2016).
According to the Quilliam Foundation, a London based 'counter-extremism' think-tank, in a controversial briefing paper aligning peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology, the Centre was a “Political/entry-level Islamist” group ”associated with Jamaat-e-Islami”.Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016).Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015).
===Muslim Welfare House (MWH)===
Originally set up in 1970 as a way of helping Muslim students who had come to study in Britain, the MWH - based on Seven Sisters Road in Finsbury Park, North London - is now a “social, cultural, learning and advice centre for more than 15 nationalities, ranging from Algerians and Somalis, to Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.”‘ABOUT US’, Muslim Welfare House website, 2016 (accessed 16 May 2016).‘MUSLIM WELFARE HOUSE’, Companies House website, 2016 (accessed 16 May 2016).‘MUSLIM WELFARE HOUSE’, Charity Commission website, 2016 (accessed 16 May 2016). It is a short distance away from the Finsbury Park Mosque, from which it is separated by a railway bridge.This is a geographical fact which Lambert is particularly fond of repeating. See: Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, pp92-93, p104, p105, p111, p114 & p115. Lambert has noted that he first met officials at the MWH in November 2001 - that is, before the creation of the Muslim Contact Unit.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p111. In 2002 the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) (then perceived as aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood through the involvement of Anas Altikriti and others) moved into offices in the MWH;Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p111. it was this combination of location and personnel which Lambert and the Muslim Contact Unit was later able to utilise in the ouster of Abu Hamza and his followers from the Finsbury Park Mosque.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, pp79-154.Peter Marshall, ‘The Muslim Brotherhood in Britain’, The Report, Radio 4, 24 April 2014 (accessed 16 June 2014).
The Muslim Welfare House, according to the Quilliam Foundation, a London based 'counter-extremism' think-tank, in a controversial briefing paper aligning peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology, a “Political/entry-level Islamist” group “associated with the Muslim Brotherhood”.Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016).Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015).
==Festivals and cultural projects==
Lambert started making public connections with Islamist at large cultural events in the mid-2000s, predating his retirement from the Metropolitan Police, and his second career as an academic.
===Global Peace & Unity (GPU)===
A large cultural conference first held in London in 2005, and most recently in 2013,Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘Global Peace and Unity’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 5 May 2016). Global Peace & Unity (GPU) is organised by the Islam Channel, with that television station's founder Mohamed Ali Harrath acting as chair.Mohamed Ali Harrath, ‘Message from Mohamed Ali Harrath, Chairman’, Global Peace & Unity website, 13 September 2013 (accessed via Archive.org 5 May 2016). Harrath was the former Tunisian Islamist identified as an ‘advisor’ of Lambert's Muslim Contact Unit.Richard Kerbaj & Dominic Kennedy, ‘Unanswered questions about a ‘man of peace’ on Interpol list’, The Times, 15 December 2008 (accessed 4 May 2015).habibi, ‘Mohamed Ali Harrath: CEO of Islam Channel, Anti-Semite, and Convicted Terrorist’, Harry's Place, 12 December 2008 (accessed 4 May 2015). Lambert attended the event in 2007, when he was presented with a ‘Friends of Islam’ award by the Muslim Council of Britain.Richard Jackson, ‘Counter-terrorism and communities: an interview with Robert Lambert’, Critical Studies on Terrorism volume 1 number 2, August 2008 (accessed 16 June 2014).Robert Lambert, Staff profile page, Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews website, 2012 (accessed 19 April 2014).Hadi Yahmid, ‘True Islam Image in London Conf.’, On Islam website, 24 November 2007 (accessed via Archive.org 22 March 2016). In July 2008, Lambert attended a GPU event hosted by the Islam Channel at the House of Lords.‘Islam Expo 2008: Building Bridges of Understanding’, Islamic Tourism website, July 2008 (accessed 22 March 2015).
===Islam Expo===
Intended as an annual conference and exhibition, Islam Expo was founded in November 2004 by Fida Alaeddin, Asif Laher and Muslim Association of Britain director Mohammed Sawalha, who also acted as company secretary. In September 2005, Laher left the board, to be replaced by Anas Altikriti, Ismail Patel and Azzam Tamimi. (Tamimi stayed a director until late 2009, Sawalha resigned in September 2013, and the rest remained until the company was dissolved in 2015.David Rich, ‘The Very Model of a British Muslim Brotherhood’, Barry Rubin (ed.)The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist Movement, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p131.‘ISLAM EXPO LTD’, Companies House website (accessed 14 April 2016). 
Whilst still leading the Met's Muslim Contact Unit, Lambert attended the first Islam Expo, held at Alexandra Palace in 2006,Robert Lambert, ‘The Strength of Local Partnerships: Overcoming Obstacles During the War on Terror’, Arches Quarterly, Spring 2012 (accessed 22 November 2014). and he was a featured speaker at the 2008 event (at which he was also presented with an award by Cordoba Foundation).Azizul Azizan, ‘'Understanding Political Islam' Specialist Seminar’, Majlis Syura Muslimun UK & Eire Yahoo Group, 2008 (accessed 21 March 2016).Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p389.Robert Lambert, Staff profile page, Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews website, 2012 (accessed 19 April 2014).‘Islam Expo 2008: Building Bridges of Understanding’, Islamic Tourism website, July 2008 (accessed 22 March 2015). Islam Expo was thanked by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in their London Case Study produced through the European Muslim Research Centre.Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer & Dr Robert Lambert MBE, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: A London Case Study (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2010 (accessed via counterextremism.org 16 April 2014), p9. This is not surprising, given that Islam Expo bankrolled their research projects to the tune of £100,000.‘Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies: Externally funded research projects’, University of Exeter website, 2016 (accessed 10 April 2016).
==Pressure groups and advocacy==
This section includes some of the larger and more visible organisations seeking to influence civil society from a Muslim perspective with which Lambert has ingratiated himself. Some have a relatively narrow sectional focus (e.g. FoSIS, serving students), while others can be seen as umbrella organisations to which others are affiliated (e.g. the MCB). Some have had - at least at some times - an Islamist edge to them.
Also listed are organisations active in advocacy, rather than seeking to influence policy on a macro level (though clearly there is overlap). These groups work directly with those supposedly ‘vulnerable to radicalisation’ or, indeed, those who already have been ‘radicalised’. Some of them are quite likely to already be on the radar of Special Branch or other security and intelligence agencies. This makes Lambert's involvement with these groups - sometimes a at a quite personal level - particularly interesting.
===British Muslim Initiative (BMI)===
The British Muslim Initiative (BMI) was set up in 2007 by members of the ‘young activist’ faction within the Muslim Association of Britain when the ‘old educationalist’ tendency came into control of the organisation. The founders were people active in other organisations as well, - notably Anas Altikriti, Muhammad Sawalha and Azzam Tamimi.Sophie Gilliat-Ray, Muslims in Britain: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp76-77.‘Who speaks for British Muslims?’, The Economist, 15 June 2006 (accessed 14 April 2016).David Rich, ‘The Very Model of a British Muslim Brotherhood’, Barry Rubin (ed.)The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist Movement, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p127. It was formally run by Sawalha and Mohamed Kozbar; who had a history as director of the MAB, and of the Muslim Welfare Trust/House; at the time they were directors of Finsbury Park Mosque after Abu Hamza was forced out. Other prominent activists involved include Daud Abdullah.‘BRITISH MUSLIM INITIATIVE LIMITED’, Companies House website, (accessed 14 April 2016). Whilst its website has been suspended, it continues to have an active Facebook page.‘About BMI’, British Muslim Initiative website, 2013 (accessed via Archive.org 10 April 2016).‘British Muslim Initiative’, Facebook, 2016 (accessed 10 October 2016).‘Who speaks for British Muslims?’, The Economist, 15 June 2006 (accessed 14 April 2016).David Rich, ‘The Very Model of a British Muslim Brotherhood’, Barry Rubin (ed.)The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist Movement, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p127.
The BMI was one of the hosts of the July 2008 Islam Expo event in London, at which Lambert was a featured guest. The Initiative also co-organised the ‘Stop Islamophobia Defend the Muslim Community’ one-day conference with Stop the War Coalition in June 2010, with Lambert as one of the speakers.Fourman Films, ‘Jeremy Corbyn M.P. - Stop Islamophobia Stop the Attack on the Muslim Community - 5.6.10.’, 5 June 2010, (accessed 4 April 2016).Stop The War, ‘Stop Islamophobia: Defend the Muslim Community’, Stop The War website, June 2010 (accessed 18 February 2015).Paul Hanes, ‘Dr Robert Lambert Stop Islamophobia Defend the Muslim Community - 05.06.10 ’, Counterfire, 8 June 2010 (accessed 4 May 2015).</ref> Lambert and Daud Abdullah both featured as speakers at Enough Coalition Against Islamophobia event at London Muslim Centre in May 2011.Enough Coalition Against Islamophobia, ‘Confronting Anti-Muslim Hatred in Britain and Europe’ (event flyer), Cordoba Foundation website, 2011 (accessed 2 March 2016).
The Quilliam Foundation, a London based 'counter-extremism' think-tank, in a controversial briefing paper aligning peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology listed the BMI as a “Political/entry-level Islamist” group “associated with the Muslim Brotherhood”.Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016).Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015).
===Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FoSIS)===
The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FoSIS), founded back in the early 1960s,‘About Fosis’, Federation of Student Islamic Societies website, 2016 (accessed 5 May 2016). hosted or sponsored at least two events at which Lambert was a guest speaker. These include the June 2010 one-day conference ‘Stop Islamophobia’ mentioned aboveStop The War, ‘Stop Islamophobia: Defend the Muslim Community’, Stop The War website, June 2010 (accessed 18 February 2015).Paul Hanes, ‘Dr Robert Lambert Stop Islamophobia Defend the Muslim Community - 05.06.10 ’, Counterfire, 8 June 2010 (accessed 4 May 2015). and ‘Radical thinking – between extremes of freedom and security on campus’, in March 2011.UCL Islamic Society/Federation of Student Islamic Societies, ‘Radical thinking – between extremes of freedom and security on campus’ (conference schedule), Joseph Interfaith Foundation website, 2011 (accessed 25 April 2016). The Federation was thanked by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in their London Case Study produced through the European Muslim Research Centre.Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer & Dr Robert Lambert MBE, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: A London Case Study (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2010 (accessed via counterextremism.org 16 April 2014), p9.
FoSIS has been accused of being a Muslim Brotherhood front.Adrian Morgan, ‘Muslim Brotherhood Influence in the United Kingdom’, Family Security Matters website, 9 February 2011 (accessed 26 April 2016).
===Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE)===
With its roots in groups going back to the 1970s, the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) was formally set up in 1988 to represent the interests of British Bangladeshis, with its first chairman being Muhammad Abdul Bari.Islamic Forum of Europe is a community organisation that seeks social and spiritual renewal, Islamic Forum of Europe website, 2012 (accessed via Archive.org 3 May 2016).Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘Islamic Forum of Europe’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 3 May 2016). It is closely linked with the East London Mosque and the adjoining London Muslim Centre, where its governing trust is based.‘ISLAMIC FORUM TRUST’, Companies House website (accessed 3 May 2016).
Lambert has noted that he “first saw East London Mosque and Islamic Forum Europe street skills in action in 2005 when they robustly dispatched extremists from Al Muhajiroun who were in Whitechapel attempting to recruit youngsters into their hate filled group.”Dr Robert Lambert, ‘Muslims Tackle Looters and Bigots’, Huffington Post UK website, 14 August 2011 (updated 14 October 2011) (accessed 5 January 2016).
Lambert has attended a number of IFE-hosted events, and events organised by others at its principal venue, the London Muslim Centre.Konrad Pędziwiatr, The New Muslim Elites in European Cities: Religion and Active Social Citizenship Amongst Young Organized Muslims in Brussels and London, Centre for Sociological Research, Catholic University of Leuven, 2008 (accessed 27 April 2016), p129 n140.Andrew Gilligan, ‘Inextricably linked to controversial mosque: the secret world of IFE’, Daily Telegraph, 28 February 2010 (accessed 26 April 2016). He appeared alongside Respect Party MP George Galloway in April 2010.Islamic Forum of Europe, ‘Confronting Anti-Muslim Hatred in Contemporary Britain’, Islamic Forum of Europe website, (pre-30 March) 2010 (accessed via Internet Archive 14 June 2015). In addition whilst attending the Muslim Safety Forum in his capacity as head of the Muslim Contact Unit, Lambert worked closely with IFE's Azad Ali, who functioned as the Forum's chair for much of its life,‘THE MUSLIM SAFETY FORUM’, Companies House website, 2016 (accessed 12 May 2016).Robert Lambert, ‘The Muslim Safety Forum: Senior Police and Muslim Community Engagement during the War on Terror’. P. Daniel Silke, Basia Spalek & Mary O’Rawe (ed.), Preventing Ideological Violence: Communities, Police and Case Studies of “Success”, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. and who very publicly complimented the work of the MCU.Vikram Dodd, ‘Special Branch to track Muslims across UK’, The Guardian, 20 July 2005 (accessed 9 March 2015). He also came across Ali in other spheres, such as those involving Unite Against Fascism, of which Ali was Vice Chair.‘Our officers’, Unite Against Fascism website, 2016 (accessed 8 May 2016). 
The Quilliam Foundation, a London based 'counter-extremism' think-tank, in a controversial briefing paper aligning peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology called them a “Political/entry-level Islamist” group ”associated with Jamaat-e-Islami”.Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016).Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015).
===Muslim Association of Britain (MAB)===
The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) was set up in 1997 by Kamal Helbawy, an Egyptian-born Islamist who moved to the UK in 1994 and acted as spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood in the West; he brought “tens of Muslim activists...together to establish a community grassroots organisation.”‘Dr Kamal Helbawy: Bio’, Facebook, 2016 (accessed 26 April 2016).Muslim Association of Britain, ‘Our History’, Muslim Association of Britain website, 2016 (accessed 10 April 2016).‘MUSLIM ASSOCIATION OF BRITAIN LTD’, Companies House website, 2016 (accessed 14 April 2016). The Association is an affiliate member of the Muslim Council of Britain, which Helbawy also helped found.‘Affiliates’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 2016 (accessed 26 April 2016).
The MAB played a key role in organising anti-war protests from 2002 onwards, notably co-organising the two million-strong February 2003 London demonstration with the Stop the War Coalition and CND.‘'Million' march against Iraq war’, BBC News website, 16 February 2003 (accessed 23 April 2016). This can be seen as an effect of the activist-minded leadership of the time, which centred around Anas Altikriti.Sophie Gilliat-Ray, Muslims in Britain: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp76-77. 
This same MAB leadership group was integral to Lambert and the Muslim Contact Unit's plans to seize back the Finsbury Park Mosque from Abu Hamza.Peter Marshall, ‘The Muslim Brotherhood in Britain’, The Report, Radio 4, 24 April 2014 (accessed 16 June 2014).Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, pp106-7. According to Abdul Haqq Baker, in 2005 Lambert appraised the MAB to be “amongst the few to have effectively tackled Al-Qaida. It was an organisation that had gained significant credibility due to its stance regarding the Palestinian issue.”Robert Lambert, ‘The Threat from Salafi-Jihadist Groups’, Developing currents within Political and Radical Islam: How to construct a differentiated Western response, NATO Advanced Research Workshop, Amman (Jordan), 10-11 October 2005.Cited in Abdul Haqq Baker's doctoral thesis, Countering Terrorism in the UK: A Convert Community Perspective, University of Exeter, November 2009, p341 (accessed 18 November 2014).
The Association was named as a “Political/entry-level Islamist” group “associated with the Muslim Brotherhood” by the Quilliam Foundation, a London based 'counter-extremism' think-tank, in a controversial briefing paper aligning peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology..Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016).Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015). The Quilliam Foundation has also noted that “the MAB aims to draw attention to perceived injustices against Muslims throughout the world and seeks to mobilize both Muslims and non-Muslims to campaign on these issues”.Haras Rafiq, The Muslim Brotherhood in the UK, Quilliam Foundation, 28 August 2014 (accessed 20 April 2016), p9.
Former Islamist-turned-think tank founder Ed Husain describes the foundation of the MAB as coming from a split in the Islamic Society of Britain (ISB) in which “the Muslim Brotherhood brigade broke off”, and which subsequently “was instrumental in creating George Galloway's Respect Party in 2004”.Ed Husain, The Islamist, Penguin, 2007, p172.
===Muslim Council of Britain (MCB)===
Founded in 1997 after negotiations between various bodies stretching back to 1994, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is an umbrella organisation of around 450 affiliated groups and mosques. From 1997 until 2000, and then from 2002-2006 its Secretary General was Iqbal Sacranie,Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘Iqbal Sacranie’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 26 April 2016). whom previously had built up a profile as a spokesman of the UK Action Committee on Islamic Affairs.Frank Gardner, ‘How Islam got political: Iran’, BBC News website, 10 November 2005 (accessed 26 April 2016).It is perhaps of interest that when novelist Salman Rushdie became subject to the fatwa of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, UKACIA spokesman Sacranie reportedly declared that “Death, perhaps, is a bit too easy for him his mind must be tormented for the rest of his life unless he asks for forgiveness to Almighty Allah.” See: Peter Murtagh, ‘Rushdie in hiding after Ayatollah's death threat’, The Guardian, 18 February 1989 (accessed 26 April 2016). Lambert had at this time just been pulled out of SDS duties and redeployed to the Metropolitan Police Special Branch's E Squad, where he appears to have first been tasked with dealing with ‘Muslim issues’. By his account, in 1991 he arrested Omar Bakri Mohammed in relation to death threats connected to the Rushdie fatwa. For more details, see E Squad (1989-1993) and Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain's Secret Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent's Tail, 2012 (updated edition), p273. It is not currently known whether Lambert crossed paths with Sacranie or the other UKACIA activists, many of whom later crossed over to the MCB, at this early juncture. Sacranie was clearly someone with whom establishment figures felt that they could do business with on ‘Muslim issues’. Labour Cabinet Minister Jack Straw called him “a personal friend”,Jack Straw, Last Man Standing: Memoirs Of A Political Survivor, Macmillan, 2012, p480. Note that Straw does incorrectly call his title ‘President’. whilst London Mayor Ken Livingstone recalls how Sacranie stood with him at a press conference in the immediate aftermath of the July 2005 bombings and was applauded.Ken Livingstone, You Can't Say That, Faber & Faber, 2011, pp533-534. Bob Lambert notes that it was “not uncommon” for Sacranie to meet Met Commissioner John Stevens personally at New Scotland Yard.Robert Lambert, ‘The Muslim Safety Forum: Senior Police and Muslim Community Engagement during the War on Terror’. P. Daniel Silke, Basia Spalek & Mary O’Rawe (ed.), Preventing Ideological Violence: Communities, Police and Case Studies of “Success”, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp73. Subsequent Secretaries General have been Yousef Bhailok (2000-2002),‘Muslims Want a Better Britain for All Its Citizens’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 17 May 2000 (accessed 26 April 2016). Muhammad Abdul Bari (2006-2010),Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘Muhammad Abdul Bari’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 26 April 2016). Farooq Murad (2010-2014),‘Have You Got What it Takes? Previous MCB Leaders Giver Their Perspective’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 2014 (accessed 26 April 2016). and Shuja Shafi (2014 to present).‘Muslim Council of Britain Elects New Leadership and Discusses British Values’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 15 June 2014 (accessed 26 April 2016).‘Governance’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 2014 (accessed 26 April 2016). Lambert has written and spoken approvingly of Bari in particular, considering him a “mainstream Islamist” in contrast to the “khalifate revolutionaries” such as those associated with the Quilliam Foundation.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, pp121, 249-250.Robert Lambert & Jonathan Githens-Mazer, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies 2010 - An introduction to a ten year Europe-wide research project (second edition) (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2011 (accessed via Archive.org 11 June 2014), pp13-14. (For more on the relationship between Lambert and Bari, see below Political activists)
Affiliates of the MCB include a number of organisations in which Lambert has shown great interest, such as the Muslim Association of Britain and the Muslim Welfare House, as well as others to which he has had connections, including the Islamic Forum of Europe and Interpal.‘Affiliates’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 2016 (accessed 26 April 2016). The MCB is thanked by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in their London Case Study produced through the European Muslim Research Centre.Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer & Dr Robert Lambert MBE, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: A London Case Study (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2010 (accessed via counterextremism.org 16 April 2014), p9.
Lambert has attended many events hosted by the MCB, and has shared platforms with its representatives, since before he left the Metropolitan Police. These include Marie Breen Smyth's conference on ‘The Politics of Radicalisation’ in October 2007,Centre for the Study of Radicalisation & Contemporary Political Violence, ‘The Politics Of Radicalisation: Reframing The Debate And Reclaiming The Language’ (event leaflet), University of Wales Aberystwyth, 2007 (accessed 17 March 2016). the IHRC's tenth anniversary event that November, the Global Peace & Unity conference later the same month (where he was presented with a ‘Friend of Islam’ award by the MCB),Richard Jackson, ‘Counter-terrorism and communities: an interview with Robert Lambert’, Critical Studies on Terrorism volume 1 number 2, August 2008 (accessed 16 June 2014).Robert Lambert, Staff profile page, Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews website, 2012 (accessed 19 April 2014).Hadi Yahmid, ‘True Islam Image in London Conf.’, On Islam website, 24 November 2007 (accessed via Archive.org 22 March 2016). as well as events in 2008,School of Oriental and African Studies, ‘Conference Programme’, SOAS website, 2008 (accessed 30 March 2016).Department of Politics and International Studies, Muslim-Government Relations in Changing Security Contexts: Prospects for Transformation, University of Warwick, 5-7 June 2008 (accessed 4 May 2015).‘Partnership and Continuum in the Age of Conflict’, IFE Sweden website, 28 September 2008 (accessed 26 April 2016). 2009,‘Invitation to House of Lords discussion on Preventing Violent Extremism’, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities website, 20 October 2009 (accessed 26 April 2016). 2010,MCB Press Office, ‘MCB Brings Experts and Parliamentarians Together to Discuss Islamophobia’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 10 March 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016). and many more in 2011 and onwards.See the appearance chronology for more details. He lent particular support to MCB media officer Murtaza Shibli, whose 2010 book, 7/7: Muslim Perspectives,Murtaza Shibli (ed.), 7/7: Muslim Perspectives, Rabita, 2010. was launched at the House of Lords on the fifth anniversary of the London terrorist attacks under the auspices of the European Muslim Research Centre, with strong endorsements from both Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer.Margaret Ali, ‘7-7 Muslim Perspectives’, Universal Peace Foundation website, July 2010 (accessed 27 June 2016).‘7/7: Muslim Perspectives - edited by Murtaza Shibli’ (promotional leaflet), MohammedAmin.com, 2010 (accessed 27 June 2016).
Sacranie acted as trustee of the think tank ENGAGE, which Lambert helped set up and acted as ‘Policy Research Specialist’ for (with MCB media officer Inayat Bunglawala acting as CEO).ENGAGE, ‘Political Participation Media Awareness’, PowerPoint presentations, December 2008 (accessed via Harry's Place 20 April 2016).
The Quilliam Foundation, a London based 'counter-extremism' think-tank, in a controversial briefing paper aligning peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology, thinks of the MCB as a “Political/entry-level Islamist” group “associated with the Muslim Brotherhood”.Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016).Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology’, The Guardian, 4 August 2010 (accessed 9 March 2015).
===CAGE (formerly CagePrisoners)===
Initially set up in 2003 as a human rights pressure group to raise “awareness of the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other detainees held as part of the War on Terror,” in 2005 Moazzam Begg, himself a former Guantanamo detainee, took up the post of Director at what is now an advocacy organisation.‘Background’, CAGE website, 2016 (accessed 26 April 2016).Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘CAGE (Organisation)’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 2 May 2016). For a number of years CAGE activists have sometimes crossed paths with Lambert. The first known instance is in October 2007, when shortly before his retirement from the police Detective Inspector Lambert attended Marie Breen Smyth's ‘The Politics Of Radicalisation: Reframing The Debate And Reclaiming The Language’ a one-day seminar at the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel, East London, along with a number of other police officers, politicians, academics and activists including Makbool Javaid, Moazzam Begg, Adnan Siddiqui and Saghir Hussain from CAGE.Centre for the Study of Radicalisation & Contemporary Political Violence, ‘The Politics Of Radicalisation: Reframing The Debate And Reclaiming The Language’ (event leaflet), University of Wales Aberystwyth, 2007 (accessed 17 March 2016). Begg and Lambert were also both featured guests at the tenth anniversary event held for the Islamic Human Rights Commission at the London Muslim Centre in November 2007. By June 2010 Lambert and Begg were both featured speakers at the ‘Stop Islamophobia Defend the Muslim Community’ a one-day conference co-organised by Stop The War and the British Muslim Initiative.Stop The War, ‘Stop Islamophobia: Defend the Muslim Community’, Stop The War website, June 2010 (accessed 18 February 2015).Paul Hanes, ‘Dr Robert Lambert Stop Islamophobia Defend the Muslim Community - 05.06.10 ’, Counterfire, 8 June 2010 (accessed 4 May 2015). In September 2011 the pair were part of a panel discussing Islamophobia on Mohamed Ali Harrath's Islam Channel.Salma Yaqoob, Politics & Media ‘5 September 2011 Part 1’, 5 September 2011, Islam Channel (accessed 20 February 2016).Salma Yaqoob, Politics & Media ‘5 September 2011 Part 2’, 5 September 2011, Islam Channel (accessed 20 February 2016).Salma Yaqoob, Politics & Media ‘5 September 2011 Part 3’, 5 September 2011, Islam Channel (accessed 20 February 2016).Salma Yaqoob, Politics & Media ‘5 September 2011 Part 4’, 5 September 2011, Islam Channel (accessed 20 February 2016).Salma Yaqoob, Politics & Media ‘5 September 2011 Part 5’, 5 September 2011, Islam Channel (accessed 20 February 2016). The following month they spoke at a ‘Bangladesh In Crisis’ event in East London.Bangladesh Crisis Group, ‘Bangladesh In Crisis’, Islamic Forum of Europe website, September 2011 (no longer accessible October 2016 ), see instead: Paris Vision News, Bangladesh state terrorism condemned by a gathering of thousand in east London, 5 October 2011 (accessed October 2016)
CAGE and Moazzam Begg appear to have been targeted by the Lambert-led Muslim Contact Unit as part of its efforts to engage with non-violent extremists to neutralise key Salafi and Islamist figures such as Abu Qatada. The Unit does not appear to have been successful in this regard.For more on this, see section on isolating key Muslim figures.
=== Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC)===
An “independent, not-for-profit, campaign, research and advocacy organization” Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) was set up to “work with different organizations from Muslim and non-Muslim backgrounds, to campaign for justice for all peoples regardless of their racial, confessional or political background.” It was set up in 1997,‘About IHRC’, Islamic Human Rights Commission website, 2016 (accessed 5 May 2016). with both a formal corporate structure and an underlying charitable trust established in early 2003.‘ISLAMIC HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION’, Companies House website, 2016 (accessed 5 May 2016).‘ISLAMIC HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION TRUST’, Charity Commission website, 2016 (accessed 5 May 2016). Thanked by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in their London Case Study produced through the European Muslim Research Centre.Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer & Dr Robert Lambert MBE, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: A London Case Study (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2010 (accessed via counterextremism.org 16 April 2014), p9. 
Lambert provided a strong endorsement of Policing, Protest and Conflict: Report Into the Policing of the London Gaza Demonstrations in 08-09. This report, published by the IHRC in January 2010, was highly critical of the Metropolitan Police's handling of demonstrations in London against the Gaza war. He describes it as “precisely the kind of perspective the Met should engage with as it seeks to restore confidence in its unique tradition of public order policing in the capital”. He claims that the Met “is generally at its best when listening to its sternest critics”, and evokes the willingness of John Grieve (“who led the Met's radical and effective response to Lord Macpherson's stinging criticism at the conclusion of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry”) to do just that.Islamic Human Rights Commission, ‘Policing, Protest and Conflict: Report Into the Policing of the London Gaza Demonstrations in 08-09’, Islamic Human Rights Commission website, 26 January 2010 (accessed 4 May 2015). 
Shortly before his retirement from the Metropolitan Police a little over two years prior to this, Lambert was honoured with an award by the IHRC at its tenth anniversary celebrations. It was inscribed “In appreciation for his integrity and commitment to promoting a fair, just and secure society for all, which, is a rarity and will be greatly missed”.Innovative Minds, ‘Islamic Human Rights Commission 2007: A Decade of Fighting Injustice’, Innovative Minds, November 2007 (accessed 3 February 2015).
===Islamix===
The website of Islamix (which describes itself as “the premier community cohesion advocate organization - working nationally with Governments and relevant agencies with a local perspective, always at the forefront”) has Lambert described as a member of the ‘team’. Also cited as ‘team members’ are Jonathan Githens-Mazer, businessman Kevin McGrath, and politicians Phyllis Starkey MP and Peter Skinner MEP.Islamix, ‘Team’, Islamix website, 2010 (accessed via Archive.org 30 March 2016).It should be noted that the website bears a copyright date of 2010, and appears not to have been updated for several years. The founder of Islamix, which appears not to be either a registered company or a registered charity, is Mohammed Khaliel. He has featured in media articles over the years as an expert, variously described as a “Community leader and diversity trainer”,Andrew McCorkell, ‘Muslims call for action against hate crimes’, The Independent, 11 June 2011 (accessed 26 March 2016). someone “who advises the Metropolitan Police and Thames Valley Police on gang, gun and knife crime”,BBC Newsnight, ‘Has there been a Muslim backlash post Woolwich murder?’, BBC News website, 31 May 2013 (accessed 30 March 2016). and someone “whose advocacy group works to create a deeper understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims”.Sky News, ‘Leading British Muslim: 'What More Can We Do?'’, Sky News website, 29 June 2015 (accessed 30 March 2016). Local paper the Bucks Free Press has referred to him as “director of community relations organisation Islamix” as recently as 2015.Andrew Colley, ‘Mohammed Khaliel, director of Islamix, talks after Mohammed Saboor, from High Wycombe, is jailed’, Bucks Free Press, 21 May 2015 (accessed 26 March 2016). 
Previously Khaliel had been cited as spokesman for High Wycombe's Muslim Education Centre,Charity Commission, ‘1076268 - MUSLIM EDUCATION CENTRE AND WELFARE TRUST’, Charity Commission website, 2016 (accessed 30 March 2016).Andy Carswell, ‘Islamic Awareness Week a success’, Bucks Free Press, 3 April 2008 (accessed 26 March 2016). which in 2007 was accused of selling Islamist texts by right-wing think-tank - a claim refuted by the Centre and in some respects subsequently rebutted by BBC's Newsnight.Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘Policy Exchange’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 30 March 2016).Lucy Clapham, ‘Muslim bookshop considering legal action against think tank’, Bucks Free Press, 13 December 2007 (accessed 26 March 2016).
===Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism (FAIR)===
Set up in 2001 to monitor Islamophobia and to promote positive images of Muslims,‘INTRODUCTION TO FAIR’, Forum Against Islamophobia & Racism website, 2016 (accessed 5 May 2016). FAIR has some tangential connections to Lambert. In 2004 FAIR and both Lambert and the Muslim Contact Unit were among the groups and individuals consulted by the EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program of the Open Society Institute for its Muslims In The UK: Policies for Engaged Citizens. The report's authors included Basia Spalek (later a close academic associate of Lambert's) and Zamila Bunglawala, sister of Shenaz Bunglawala (ENGAGE and MEND) and Inayat Bunglawala (Muslim Council of Britain and ENGAGE).Tufyal Choudhury, Maleiha Mali, Prof. J. Mark Halstead, Zamila Bunglawala & Dr. Basia Spalek, Muslims In The UK: Policies for Engaged Citizens, Open Society Institute, 2005 (accessed 15 May 2016).Inayat Bunglawala, ‘Young, Educated and Dissatisfied in the Gulf’, St. Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace website, 2016 (accessed 12 May 2016). The Forum was also thanked by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in their Islamophobia: A London Case Study report for the European Muslim Research Centre.Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer & Dr Robert Lambert MBE, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: A London Case Study (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2010 (accessed via counterextremism.org 16 April 2014), p9. In 2011 the inaugural chairman of FAIR, Jeremy Henzell-Thomas, was published in the same Spring/Summer edition of the Cordoba journal Arches as Lambert.Arches Quarterly Volume 4 Issue 8, Spring/Summer 2011.
===Islamophobia Watch===
Set up in 2005 by Eddie Truman and Bob Pitt to monitor what its authors perceived to be anti-Muslim and racist sentiments, the Islamophobia Watch website was supportive of the Muslim Contact Unit, Bob Lambert and his academic work for a number of years.Bob Pitt, ‘Cameron’s counter-productive counter-terrorism’, Islamophobia Watch website, 8 February 2011 (accessed 9 January 2016).Bob Pitt, ‘How neo-conservative ideology undermines counter-terrorism’, Islamophobia Watch website, 15 June 2011 (accessed 9 January 2016).Bob Pitt, ‘Smearing Sheikh Raed Salah’, Islamophobia Watch website, 1 July 2011 (accessed 9 January 2016).Bob Pitt, ‘Muslims tackle looters and bigots’, Islamophobia Watch website, 12 August 2011 (accessed 9 January 2016).Bob Pitt, ‘We need to listen to the man from special branch’, Islamophobia Watch website, 14 February 2008 (accessed 9 January 2016).Bob Pitt, ‘EMRC’s ‘Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime’ report published tomorrow’, Islamophobia Watch website, 26 November 2010 (accessed 9 January 2016). The founders split in 2013, with Truman's site being mothballed sometime in 2014 and Pitt shuttering his iteration in 2015.Bob Pitt, ‘Islamophobia Watch’, Islamophobia Watch website, 2015 (accessed 2 April 2016).Eddie Truman, ‘Islamophobia Watch’, Islamophobia Watch website, 2014 (accessed via Archive.org 2 April 2016).Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘Islamophobia Watch’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 2 April 2016). In 2014 Bob Pitt was given as a referee in support of Lambert's work in the John Grieve Centre's impact summary to the Research Excellence Framework.London Metropolitan University, ‘The definition, organisation and policing of ‘gangs’, ‘organised crime groups’ and ‘terrorists’ (REF3b: John Grieve Centre)’, REF2014 website, 2014 (accessed 22 March 2016). Thanked by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in their London Case Study produced through the European Muslim Research Centre.Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer & Dr Robert Lambert MBE, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: A London Case Study (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2010 (accessed via counterextremism.org 16 April 2014), p9.
===Middle East Monitor (MEMO)===
Established in 2006 by Daud Abdullah (a former senior elected official of the Muslim Council of Britain),Middle East Monitor, ‘About Us’, Middle East Monitor website, 2016 (accessed 2 March 2016). MEMO is a media monitoring website which has published essays and articles by Bob Lambert,Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer & Dr Robert Lambert, ‘Sentencing of protesters against war in Gaza: community concerns should not be ignored’, MEMO website, 18 February 2010 (accessed 21 March 2016).Dr Robert Lambert, ‘Mohammed Sawalha: a maligned and vindicated British-Palestinian citizen’, MEMO website, 25 November 2010 (accessed 21 March 2016).Dr Robert Lambert, ‘An engagement ring, a pendant and the seeds of two dates’, MEMO website, 27 April 2011 (accessed 21 March 2016). of which Abdullah is the director.Middle East Monitor, ‘About Us’, Middle East Monitor website, 2016 (accessed 2 March 2016).. MEMO also published a book edited by Abdullah, in which Lambert had a chapter.Robert Lambert, ‘Extremist nationalism in Europe and support for Israel‘. Daud Abdullah & Ibrahim Hewitt (ed.), The Battle for Public Opinion In Europe: Changing perceptions of the Palestine-Israel Conflict, MEMO Publishers, 2012. Lambert has sometimes cited MEMO without declaring his own involvement, such as in July 2011.Dr Robert Lambert, ‘Murdoch's dirty tricks against Palestinians’, MEMO website, 11 July 2011 (accessed 21 March 2016).Robert Lambert, ‘Murdoch's dirty tricks against Palestinians’, Al Jazeera English website, 11 July 2011 (accessed 21 March 2016).
It was at MEMO's invitation that Sheikh Raed Salah, a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, came to Britain for a speaking tour in 2011, only to be arrested and detained with a view to being deported at the behest of Home Secretary Theresa May. Subsequent appeals in the tribunals process (which saw Lambert and SpinWatch's David Miller speak on Salah's behalf as expert witnesses) ultimately proved successful.Asa Winstanley, ‘UK government conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism in Salah trial’, Electronic Intifada website, 30 September 2011 (accessed 21 March 2016).Asa Winstanley, ‘UK government conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism in Salah trial’, MEMO, 1 October 2011 (accessed 21 March 2016).Tom Whitehead, ‘Banned preacher can be removed says tribunal’, Daily Telegraph, 27 October 2011 (accessed 21 March 2016).Ben Quinn, ‘Palestinian activist wins appeal against deportation’, The Guardian, 9 April 2012 (accessed 21 March 2016).David Hearst, ‘Theresa May's haste to ban Raed Salah will be repented at leisure’, The Guardian, 9 April 2012 (accessed 21 March 2016).
In his capacity as founder of MEMO, Abdullah has shared a number of platforms with Lambert over the years, including at the book launch in 2011 for the SpinWatch report The Cold War On British Muslims.Tom Mills, Tom Griffin & David Miller, The Cold War On British Muslims: An Examination Of Policy Exchange And The Centre For Social Cohesion, SpinWatch (sponsored by the Cordoba Foundation), September 2011 (accessed 4 March 2016).Midddle East Monitor and The Cordoba Foundation, ‘The Cold War On British Muslims’ (flyer), MEMO/Cordoba Foundation, 2011 (accessed via Harry's Place blog 10 March 2016).Samira Quraishy, ‘Event Review: The Cold War on British Muslims - The Instigators and Funders’, MEMO website, 12 October 2011 (accessed 21 March 2016).
===Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK (MPACUK)===
The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, which was set up in February 2006 by Asghar Bukhara, Zulfiquar Bukhari, Catherine Heseltine and Mohammed Safdar,‘MPAC UK LIMITED’, Companies House website, 2016 (accessed 12 May 2016). describes itself as “a grass roots civil liberties pressure group, set up in 2001 to encourage civil engagement within the Muslim community at all levels in the UK”.‘Who are we?’, Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK website, 2016 (accessed 12 May 2016).Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 10 May 2016). The group - through Asghar Bukhari - was involved with Lambert and others in setting up the think tank/media monitoring organisation ENGAGE in 2008.Carl Arrindell, ‘Politics & Media/Islamophobia Project’, Islam Channel, 18 May 2008 (accessed via Harry's Place 25 April 2016). It was thanked by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in their London Case Study produced through the European Muslim Research Centre.Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer & Dr Robert Lambert MBE, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: A London Case Study (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2010 (accessed via counterextremism.org 16 April 2014), p9.
==People==
In addition to the groups above, this section focuses on individuals who have had specific and direct public interplay with Lambert. 
*Daud Abdullah: A defender of Lambert following his exposure has been Daud Abdullah; in a comment piece for the Guardian website, he claimed that those who brought about Lambert's “exposure” (Abdullah's scare quotes) “seek to achieve two things: to assassinate Lambert's character and discredit his academic work” and that in contrast to Lambert's own achievements, those “who smear Lambert have no such accomplishments”.Daud Abdullah, ‘Can those who smear Bob Lambert claim such anti-terrorist success?’, The Guardian, 18 October 2011 (accessed 8 November 2014). This reciprocated the support provided by Lambert and his colleague Jonathan Githens-Mazer in 2009, when Abdullah himself had been on the receiving end of criticism for perceived support for Hamas.Vikram Dodd, ‘Government suspends links with Muslim Council of Britain over Gaza’, The Guardian, 23 March 2009 (accessed 2 March 2016).
:Abdullah has been involved in a number of organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain (where he has been described variouslyMuslim Council of Britain, ‘New MCB Secretary-General to Visit Forest Gate This Evening to Listen to Muslim Concerns’, MCB website, 5 June 2006 (accessed 2 March 2016).Vikram Dodd, ‘Government suspends links with Muslim Council of Britain over Gaza’, The Guardian, 23 March 2009 (accessed 2 March 2016). as a former assistant or deputy secretary-general), and the British Muslim Initiative. He has served as a director of media monitoring website the Middle East Monitor (MEMO), which has published essays and articles by Bob Lambert.Middle East Monitor, ‘About Us’, Middle East Monitor website, 2016 (accessed 2 March 2016). Lambert also provided a chapter for a book edited by Abdullah and published by MEMO.Robert Lambert, ‘Extremist nationalism in Europe and support for Israel‘. Daud Abdullah & Ibrahim Hewitt (ed.), The Battle for Public Opinion In Europe: Changing perceptions of the Palestine-Israel Conflict, MEMO Publishers, 2012.
:Abdullah and Lambert have shared many conference and meeting platforms, including the Islamic Human Rights Commission's tenth anniversary celebration in 2007, at which Lambert was honoured,Innovative Minds, ‘Islamic Human Rights Commission 2007: A Decade of Fighting Injustice’, Innovative Minds, November 2007 (accessed 3 February 2015). and the ‘Stop Islamophobia: Defend the Muslim Community’ event in June 2010.Paul Hanes, ‘Dr Robert Lambert Stop Islamophobia Defend the Muslim Community - 05.06.10 ’, Counterfire, 8 June 2010 (accessed 4 May 2015).Stop The War, ‘Stop Islamophobia: Defend the Muslim Community’, Stop The War website, June 2010 (accessed 18 February 2015).
:Abdullah has also been a trustee of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism (CfSoT) set up by Kamal al-Helbawy,Centre for the Study of Terrorism, ‘Dr Daud Abdullah - Trustee’, CfSoT website, 2007 (accessed via Archive.org 2 March 2016). a Middlesex-based think tank which describes itself as “an independent research and training organisation that looks at terrorism and security-related issues from the other point of view including Islamic one”.Centre for the Study of Terrorism, ‘About Us’, CfSoT website, 2007 (accessed via Archive.org 2 March 2016).Dr K Helbawy, ‘Introduction to CFSOT and its activities’, Islamism Digest website, 2009 (accessed 2 March 2016). Other Lambert-connected people involved in CfSoT have included Anas Altikriti from the Muslim Association of BritainCentre for the Study of Terrorism, ‘Anas Altikriti - Trustee’, CfSoT website, 2007 (accessed 2 March 2016). and Abdullah Faliq, editor of the Cordoba Foundation's journal Arches.Centre for the Study of Terrorism, ‘Abdullah Faliq - Director of Training’, CfSoT website, 2007 (accessed via Archive.org 2 March 2016). 
:Abdullah was lecturer at various academic insitutions and active in the An Noor mosque in West London.Birkbeck Stratford Islamic Studies, ‘Islamic Studies (Certificate of Higher Education)’, Birkbeck Stratford website (Birkbeck College, University of London), 2009 (accessed via Archive.org 2 March 2016).Coincidentally, former Metropolitan Police Special Branch officer, suspected Special Demonstration Squad member and co-author of a book about MPSB, Ray Wilson, was in the late 2010s a student at Birkbeck. See: Ray Wilson & Ian Adams, Special Branch - A History: 1883-2006, Biteback Publishing, 2015, p.ix; and ‘Sally's Night’, Birkbeck College website, 2009 (accessed 5 May 2016).Knowledge International University, ‘Dr. Daud Abdullah’, Knowledge International University website, 2016 (accessed 2 March 2016).Faculty of Islamic Studies, ‘Instructors’, Islamic Online University website, 2016 (accessed 2 March 2016).Faculty of Islamic Studies, ‘Instructors’, Islamic Online University website, 2016 (accessed 2 March 2016).Companies House, ‘AN NOOR TRUST: OFFICERS’, Companies House website, 2016 (accessed 2 March 2016).
*Anas Altikriti: Altikriti (whose name is sometimes rendered al-Tikriti) has been a significant partner of Lambert in his work both at the Muslim Contact Unit and in academia. He was also a member of the EMRC advisory board and was thanked by Lambert and Jonathan Githens-Mazer in their London Case Studies report.Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer & Dr Robert Lambert MBE, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: A London Case Study (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2010 (accessed via counterextremism.org 16 April 2014), p9.
:Altikriti is often linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, either through family connection (his father Osama Tawfiq Altikriti was a leader of MB in Iraq)Peter Marshall, ‘The Muslim Brotherhood in Britain’, The Report, Radio 4, 24 April 2014 (accessed 16 June 2014).‘Full profile: Anas Altikriti’, The Guardian, 3 June 2008 (accessed 14 April 2016). or by way of the organisations in which he has been involved.For example: the Muslim Association of Britain, the British Muslim Initiative, the Cordoba Foundation and Finsbury Park Mosque were all critiqued in the secret briefing on Islamist-linked groups sent to the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism by the rival Quilliam Foundation - see Maajid Nawaz & Ed Husain, ‘Letter to Charles Farr, Director General OSCT’, Quilliam Foundation, 14 June 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016) & Preventing Terrorism: where next for Britain?, Quilliam Foundation, 2010 (accessed 2 April 2016). Altikriti has also been involved in other more recent creations, such as the short-lived International Coalition for Freedoms & Rights (ICFR), which was incorporated between 2014 and 2015 with Altikriti as sole director. See: ‘ICFR LTD’, Companies House website, (accessed 14 April 2016); and ‘About us’, International Coalition for Freedoms & Rights website, 2014 (accessed 10 April 2016). Like the Cordoba Foundation, ICFR was also headquartered in Westgate House, a serviced office block in West London. See: Andrew Gilligan, ‘How the Muslim Brotherhood fits into a network of extremism’, Sunday Telegraph, 8 February 2015 (accessed 14 April 2016). He rose to prominence in his own right first as a spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain in 1997, and became its president in 2003. On behalf of the MAB he helped organise, along with the Stop the War Coalition and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the two million-strong anti-war march in central London in February 2003.‘'Million' march against Iraq war’, BBC News website, 16 February 2003 (accessed 23 April 2016).Simon Jeffery & agencies, ‘UK's 'biggest peace rally'’, The Guardian, 15 February 2003 (accessed 25 April 2016). This then led Altikriti into the StWC-inspired Respect Party in 2004 (for which he headed up the party's slate at the European elections for the Yorkshire and Humberside constituency).Timothy Peace, ‘All I’m asking, is for a little Respect: assessing the performance of Britain’s most successful radical left party’, Parliamentary Affairs Volume 66 Number 2, 2015 (accessed 14 April 2016). Note that Peace has Altikriti as MAB president from 2004-5. Following the 2005 London bombings, Sophie Gilliat-Ray, Muslims in Britain: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp76-77. he founded the Cordoba Foundation, which defines itself as “an independent public relations, research and policy think tank promoting intercultural dialogue and positive coexistence among civilisations, ideas, cultures and people”,‘Who We Are?’, Cordoba Foundation website, 2011 (accessed 10 April 2016).Altikriti is the sole director of two separate corporate entities representing TCF - The Cordoba Foundation Ltd, and The Cordoba Foundation UK Ltd, both founded in 2008, and both extant. See: ‘THE CORDOBA FOUNDATION LTD’, Companies House website (accessed 14 April 2016); and ‘THE CORDOBA FOUNDATION UK LTD’, Companies House website (accessed 14 April 2016). With Muhammad Sawalha and Azzam Tamimi he then set up the British Muslim Initiative, “an organisation which seeks to fight racism and Islamaphobia, combat the challenges Muslims face around the world, encourage Muslim participation in British public life, and improve relations between the West and the Muslim world.”‘Who speaks for British Muslims?’, The Economist, 15 June 2006 (accessed 14 April 2016).David Rich, ‘The Very Model of a British Muslim Brotherhood’, Barry Rubin (ed.)The Muslim Brotherhood: The Organization and Policies of a Global Islamist Movement, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p127.The BMI was set up in early 2006, and dissolved - as a company - in late 2014. Its only directors were Mohammad Sawalha and Mohamed Kozbar - both former directors of MAB, previous directors of the Muslim Welfare Trust/House, and current directors of Finsbury Park Mosque after it was rid of Abu Hamza. See: ‘BRITISH MUSLIM INITIATIVE LIMITED’, Companies House website, (accessed 14 April 2016). However, whilst its website has been suspended, it continues to have an active Facebook page. See: ‘About BMI’, British Muslim Initiative website, 2013 (accessed via Archive.org 10 April 2016); and ‘British Muslim Initiative’, Facebook, 2016 (accessed 10 April 2016). Amongst Sawalha's other business interests, he founded and ran Islam Expo from 2004 until 2013.
:It was through the Muslim Association that Altikriti first came to work with Lambert and the Muslim Contact Unit, when Altikriti's Muslim Brotherhood-aligned MAB assisted the Met in ousting Abu Hamza and his supporters from Finsbury Park Mosque, and to take over its management.Peter Marshall, ‘The Muslim Brotherhood in Britain’, The Report, Radio 4, 24 April 2014 (accessed 16 June 2014).
:The pair have shared platforms a number of times since then, with Altikriti typically representing the Cordoba Foundation or the BMI (which have both sponsored or co-hosted various of these events). Lambert and Altikriti were both speakers at the ‘Stop Islamophobia Defend the Muslim Community’ one-day conference in June 2010, which was co-organised by Stop The War and the British Muslim Initiative.Fourman Films, ‘Jeremy Corbyn M.P. - Stop Islamophobia Stop the Attack on the Muslim Community - 5.6.10.’, 5 June 2010, (accessed 4 April 2016).Stop The War, ‘Stop Islamophobia: Defend the Muslim Community’, Stop The War website, June 2010 (accessed 18 February 2015).Paul Hanes, ‘Dr Robert Lambert Stop Islamophobia Defend the Muslim Community - 05.06.10 ’, Counterfire, 8 June 2010 (accessed 4 May 2015). Altikriti and Cordoba also hosted two launch parties for the EMRC's UK Case Studies,Cordoba Foundation, ‘Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies’ launch event flyer, Cordoba Foundation website, 2010 (accessed 9 February 2016).University of Exeter Press Office, ‘Muslims face higher level of threats outside the big cities’, University of Exeter website, 26 November 2010 (17 March 2016).John Grieve Centre, ‘About us (2013 version)’, London Metropolitan University website, 2013 (accessed 22 March 2015). and a further two for Lambert's own book - though one was cancelled following his exposure.Cordoba Foundation, ‘Book Launch: The Muslim Community and Countering al-Qaeda’, Cordoba Foundation website, September 2011 (accessed 4 May 2015).‘UNISON statement on Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance’, London Met Unison website, 13 January 2015 (accessed 22 March 2015). A few days before his exposure, both Lambert and Altikriti also attended the launch of SpinWatch's book on Islamophobia.Samira Quraishy, ‘Event Review: The Cold War on British Muslims - The Instigators and Funders’, MEMO website, 12 October 2011 (accessed 21 March 2016).Tom Mills, Tom Griffin & David Miller, The Cold War On British Muslims: An Examination Of Policy Exchange And The Centre For Social Cohesion, SpinWatch (sponsored by the Cordoba Foundation), September 2011 (accessed 4 March 2016). They also both attended events organised by Islam Expo.Middle East Monitor, ‘Wadah Khanfar honoured at IslamExpo dinner’, MEMO website, 10 October 2011 (accessed 5 January 2016). It should also be noted that in addition to the aforementioned book launches and other events Cordoba has also funded several projects on which Lambert has worked, including both the London Case Study and the UK Case Studies, and the foundation and operation of the European Muslim Research Centre.Of a total of £912,482.09-worth of research funding accrued by Jonathan Githens-Mazer between 31 August 2007 and 31 August 2011, £100,000 - more than 10% - came from the Cordoba Foundation, a sum matched by Islam Expo. Together with £35,000 from Al Jazeera media network, this proportion rises to one-quarter. As a side note, in addition to setting up the EMRC together, and collaborating on the Islamophobia reports, Lambert and Githens-Mazer also worked together on the latter's ‘Cultures of Repression’ project, which pulled in a further £412,448.09 from funders. See: ‘Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies: Externally funded research projects’, University of Exeter website, 2016 (accessed 10 April 2016).Martin Bright, ‘New questions on Exeter's Middle East funding’, Jewish Chronicle, 14 April 2011 (accessed 14 April 2016).Between 2010 and 2014 SpinWatch also received funding from Cordoba in the form of three tranches each worth £5,000. See: ‘Our funding’, SpinWatch.org, 2016 (accessed 22 March 2016).
:Like Daud Abdullah, Altikriti has acted as a trustee for the Centre for the Study of Terrorism (CfSOT), an “independent research and training organisation” set up in 2006 by Kamal el-Helbawy.Dr K Helbawy, ‘Introduction to CFSOT and its activities’, Islamism Digest website, 2009 (accessed 2 March 2016).
*Muhammad Abdul Bari: When Lambert and Githens-Mazer published their 2010 UK Case Study on Islamophobia for the European Muslim Research Centre, they prefaced it with a three page dedication to Muhammad Abdul Bari, praising his leadership of the East London Mosque and the Muslim Council of Britain, where he had been Secretary General 2006-2010.Robert Lambert & Jonathan Githens-Mazer, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies 2010 - An introduction to a ten year Europe-wide research project (first edition) (research project) European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, November 2010 (accessed via counterextremism.org 11 June 2014), pp11-14.Robert Lambert & Jonathan Githens-Mazer, Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: UK Case Studies 2010 - An introduction to a ten year Europe-wide research project (second edition) (research project), European Muslim Research Centre/University of Exeter, January 2011 (accessed via Archive.org 11 June 2014), pp13-16.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p255.Robert Lambert, Countering Al-Qaeda in London: Police and Muslims in Partnership, Hurst & Company, 2011, p272. In addition, Bari was a member of the Advisory Board of the European Muslim Research Centre]].‘EMRC Advisory Board’, University of Exeter website, 5 October 2011 (accessed 1 February 2015 via Archive.org). In 2010 Lambert was one of the first signatories of an open letter drafted by Bari in his capacity as Secretary General of the MCB to Prime Minister David Cameron calling for the Israeli blockade of Gaza to be lifted.Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, ‘Lift this inhumane blockade of Gaza NOW!’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 7 June 2010 (accessed via Cross-Cultural Understanding website 26 April 2016).Other signatories included union leaders John F Smith, Dave Prentis, Christine Blower, Brendan Barber, Billy Hayes, Sally Hunt, Matt Wrack, Mark Serwotka, Hugh Lanning, Chris Keates, Steve Gillan, Gerry Doherty, Jeremy Dear and Bob Crow, politicians Ken Livingstone, Jeremy Corbyn, John Griffiths, Sandra White, Hywel Williams, Tony Benn, Christine Chapman, Bethan Jenkins and Lords Ahmed of Rotherham and Dafydd Elis-Thomas, as well as Lambert-linked figures like Ibrahim Hewitt, Daud Abdullah, Jonathan Githens-Mazer, Oliver McTernan, Lindsey German, Anas Altikriti and Mohammed Sawalha. 
:Bari is also closely identified with the Islamic Forum Europe (IFE), a primarily Bangladeshi organisation based in East London (set up in 1988 with Bari as its founding President); Lambert has attended a number of IFE-hosted events, and events organised by others at its principal venue, the London Muslim Centre.Konrad Pędziwiatr, The New Muslim Elites in European Cities: Religion and Active Social Citizenship Amongst Young Organized Muslims in Brussels and London, Centre for Sociological Research, Catholic University of Leuven, 2008 (accessed 27 April 2016), p129 n140.Andrew Gilligan, ‘Inextricably linked to controversial mosque: the secret world of IFE’, Daily Telegraph, 28 February 2010 (accessed 26 April 2016).
:Lambert has attended several events where both he and Bari have been prominent guests or participants, including a 2007 conference hosted by the School of Oriental and African Studies.School of Oriental and African Studies, ‘Conference Programme’, SOAS website, 2008 (accessed 30 March 2016). a 2008 iftar reception organised by IFE at the London Muslim Centre,‘Partnership and Continuum in the Age of Conflict’, IFE Sweden website, 28 September 2008 (accessed 26 April 2016). a Parliamentary meeting on the Prevent programme organised by Lord Ahmed of Rotherham and the Cordoba Foundation later in 2009, the formation of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia, which was launched at an invitation-only event at the House of Commons in 2010,MCB Press Office, ‘MCB Brings Experts and Parliamentarians Together to Discuss Islamophobia’, Muslim Council of Britain website, 10 March 2010 (accessed 4 April 2016). and at a conference entitled ‘Radical thinking – between extremes of freedom and security on campus’ hosted by the UCL Islamic Society and the Federation of Student Islamic Societies at University College London in 2011.UCL Islamic Society/Federation of Student Islamic Societies, ‘Radical thinking – between extremes of freedom and security on campus’ (conference schedule), Joseph Interfaith Foundation website, 2011 (accessed 25 April 2016).
*Ibrahim Hewitt: The chairman of the Palestinian Relief and Development Fund, also known as Interpal,‘About Interpal’, Interpal website, 2016 (accessed 26 April 2016).Various Wikipedia contributors, ‘Interpal’, Wikipedia, 2016 (accessed 26 April 2016). and a senior editor on Daud Abdullah's MEMO website.‘Ibrahim Hewitt’, MEMO website, 2016 (accessed 26 April 2016). Though Hewitt has not shared conference tables or writing credits with Lambert as much as others, there are repeated connections. Hewitt was a featured speaker (along with Anas Altikriti from Cordoba Foundation and Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding) at the Parliamentary launch of Lambert's book hosted by Jeremy Corbyn at Portcullis House in September 2011.Cordoba Foundation, ‘Book Launch: The Muslim Community and Countering al-Qaeda’, Cordoba Foundation website, September 2011 (accessed 4 May 2015).starbush, ‘countering al-qaeda in london & debate on 'non-violent extremism'’, the tanjara website, 1 October 2011 (accessed 4 May 2015).Robert Lambert, Staff profile page, Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews website, 3 November 2015 (most recent update) (accessed 5 January 2016).Full disclosure: in 2014/15, Interpal made a grant of £2,000 to Public Interest Investigations, which runs SpinWatch and Powerbase projects. See: ‘Our funding’, SpinWatch.org, 2016 (accessed 22 March 2016).
:During his talk at Chatham House in 2011 Lambert himself noted that he first visited the offices of Interpal in 2002 “because they had been attacked [with] bricks thrown through the window.” He further indicated that he visited many times after that - “it was also a pleasure, to be able to spend so many days, so many hours and days at the Interpal office” - and added that “it's a great pleasure that Ibrahim Hewitt is here this evening.” Hewitt then provided the first question of the Q&A session that followed.Dr Bob Lambert, ‘Partnering with the Muslim Community as an Effective Counter-Terrorist Strategy’, transcript of Chatham House talk on 20 September 2011 (accessed 9 February 2016).
==Further Undercover Research resources on Bob Lambert==
* Bob Lambert
* Bob Lambert as Bob Robinson 
* Bob Lambert Exposure and Post-Exposure 
* Bob Lambert Career Timeline 
* Bob Lambert and the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry
* Bob Lambert Consultancy
* Bob Lambert and the Academic Community
* Bob Lambert Writing and Speaking
* Bob Lambert Gallery
* Muslim Contact Unit
==Notes==