Qatari-Brotherhood alliance seeks to export political Islamism to Europe

Shaimaa Yahya

For several years, Qatar has worked to spread its subversive agenda in European countries, taking advantage of money and support from the Brotherhood organization, which facilitated its prospects for seeking to export political Islamism by means of soft tools to penetrate various institutions.

The tiny Gulf emirate has poured a huge amount of funds to spread its agenda in Europe, especially Germany. A report by the German newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung by Michael Weissenborn revealed the suspected Qatari-Brotherhood role and the tools used to extend their influence within German society.

According to the report, Qatar provided support to the Al Maghreb Kulturverein (Maghreb Culture Association) in southern Stuttgart in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, which belongs to a mosque where Friday prayers were held with many Muslims from North Africa and Arab countries. The association requested a grant of €110,000 to buy a house consisting of five floors to convert it into a school for studying the Arabic language and teaching the Quran next to the mosque, in addition to €300,000 for restoration. The total cost of the project reached €1.3 million.

The Europe Trust charitable association, an institution that funds Islamic projects throughout Europe and has won the confidence of the Brotherhood, also provided strong support for Al Maghreb Kulturverein in southern Germany.

Qatar’s soft tools

The book “Qatar Papers” by French journalists Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot mentioned the Doha scandals regarding the financing of political Islamism in Europe. They presented documents exposing the hidden role of the Qatar Foundation, which is the most influential Qatar foundation in the world and the region and the largest Qatari aid agency active in more than 70 countries.

According to the book, the Qatar Foundation has funded around 140 various projects in many mosques, schools and Islamic centers, amounting to €72 million, in order to support the ideology and orientations of organizations and associations belonging to the Brotherhood in Europe. It invested more than €5 million in just four projects, with €96,000 going to the Münchner Forum für Islam (MFI), €400,000 to the Dar Assalam mosque in Berlin, €300,000 to a mosque in the German town of Dinslaken, and €4.4 millions to another Islamic center in Berlin.

One of Qatar’s soft tools for its plan to spread political Islamism in Europe mentioned in “Qatar Papers” is Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna. Ramadan won a large share of the pie as a representative of the Qatari regime in Europe, receiving a reward of €35,000 a month for a fake work in a Qatari institution in order to cover up his official work of luring the youth of Arab and Islamic countries and implementing orders calling for the support of the Brotherhood in Europe. Once the book was published, the French Ministry of Economy’s money-monitoring agency revealed that Ramadan had transferred approximately €590,000 from Qatar to Europe through his personal accounts in 2017.

The bottom line is that Qatar is not only concerned with its economic relations with European countries, but has mainly focused on exporting extremism through the Brotherhood.

Qatari penetration

On the other hand, Germany has played an important role in Qatar’s foreign policy. After some Arab countries classified the Qatari emirate as a sponsor of terrorism, Berlin was Doha’s most adamant European defender. In 2017, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani traveled to Berlin to invest a few billion euros in Germany.

The terrorist Brotherhood has also benefited from being in Germany by cooperating with Turkish associations, especially with the extremist Milli Gorus movement, the Turkish arm of the Brotherhood, in addition to the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), given that the Turkish state is Qatar’s closest ally.