Activities:

Also known by the name Abu Abada, is a senior Hamas activist. He is the president of the British Muslim Initiative and currently resides in London, to which he fled from the West Bank in 1990.

He was described by a Brotherhood website as being “responsible for the political unit of the international Muslim Brotherhood in the UK”.

Before emigrating to the UK, Sawalha was Hamas’s West Bank military chief. In addition, he supervised the allocation and supply of large amounts of money to Hamas operatives, an activity that led to his being named in a 2004 U.S. indictment against Hamas operative Muhammad Salah.

In addition to his work with Hamas and BMI, Sawalha is a frequent guest on the Islamist Al-Hiwar television station, and is affiliated with numerous Palestinian and Islamic charities.

Sawalha helped found the Muslim Association of Britain and ran it from 1999 to 2007. He is also a trustee of the Finsbury Park Mosque.

In addition, he signed the 2009 Istanbul Declaration, which reaffirms jihad as the proper means to achieving goals such as unifying Israel under Palestinian control.