Labour has insisted Jeremy Corbyn was just 'standing up for democracy' by making the salute of a controversial Muslim movement.

Mr Corbyn was seen making the Rabbi'ah four-fingered gesture popularised by the Muslim Brotherhood – the political movement condemned as 'counter to British values and democracy'.

The shot, which emerged in the Daily Telegraph, shows Mr Corbyn standing alongside a man in a Muslim Association of Great Britain badge at Finsbury Park Mosque in the MP's Islington North constituency.

Gesture: Mr Corbyn and an unidentified man make the Rabbi-ah sign, which has become linked to the controversial Muslim Brotherhood

The paper said the picture was believed to have been taken in February 2016, after he became party leader.

The controversial sign rose to prominence after the August 2013 massacre of 600 protesters in Cairo's Rabaa-al-Adawiya square who were supporting the deposed Egyptian government of Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi.

The sign is regulary used on social media by Muslim Brotherhood members to identify one another. However other experts insisted it is simply a sign of solidarity with the peaceful protesters killed in the square.

The four-fingered gesture is used at demonstrations such as this one in Cairo in 2014

Protesters, left in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2015 and right in Cairo in 2014, hold signs showing the Rabbi-ah symbol

The Brotherhood is banned across much of the Middle East and Russian after being linked to terrorism. In 2015, David Cameron said membership could be seen as 'a possible indicator of extremism'.

Counter-extremism campaigner Maajid Nawaz told the Telegraph the Muslim Brotherhood was to Muslims 'what the BNP are to the English – bigoted, identitarian and dangerous'.

But a spokesman for Mr Corbyn said he had been 'standing up for democracy' when he used the Rabbi'ah symbol.

'Jeremy was standing up for democracy, justice and the right to protest in Egypt after the military had staged a coup against an elected president,' the spokesman said.

What is the Muslim Brotherhood? The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Sunni Islamist movement that seeks to implement sharia (Islamic law) under a global caliphate. Founded in Egypt in 1928, the Brotherhood is that country's oldest Islamist organization and has branches throughout the world. While these branches operate under a variety of names and use a variety of social, political, and occasionally violent methods, they share a commitment to the overarching goal of establishing rule according to sharia. The most notable and lethal Brotherhood offshoot is the Palestinian terror group operating out of the Gaza Strip. Some analysts also argue that the Brotherhood has served as the ideological forerunner of modern violent Islamist groups. The group has been labeled a terrorist organization by the governments of Bahrain, Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. (Source: Counter Extremism) Advertisement

'The four-fingered gesture is a well-known symbol of solidarity with the victims of the 2013 Rabaa massacre in Cairo, in which over a thousand people were estimated to have been indiscriminately killed and many thousands of peaceful protesters injured by the Egyptian security forces.'

The latest row comes after days of controversy for Mr Corbyn after he was photographed at a wreath-laying ceremony in a Tunis graveyard where members of Black September – the terror group behind the Munich Olympics massacre of 11 Israeli athletes – are buried.

He admitted on Monday that he was 'present' when it was laid but he didn't believe he was 'actually involved in it'.

The 1972 attack on German soil is still remembered in Israel as a national trauma.

Eleven Israelis were taken hostage by the Black September terror group, two were murdered in the Olympic village.

Last night the Labour leader was also blasted by the widow of one of the victims.

Ankie Spitzer's husband Andrei, a fencing coach, was murdered at the 1972 games by Palestinian terrorists.

She told Sky News she believed Corbyn must apologise and said: 'Imagine when an Israeli politician would go and put flowers on the graves of those murderers that killed people in London or England - how would the British people accept that.

'They would not accept, so we don't accept this behaviour.'

Corbyn admitted on Monday that 'I was present when it was laid, I don't think I was actually involved in it'.