UK, Switzerland start acting against Muslim Brotherhood

Sara Rashad

European states are finally realizing the dangers Islamists pose to their own security, a long time after they functioned as a refuge for Islamist figures fleeing their countries.

These states made this realization, after extremism started showing its ugly face within Muslim communities in them and the involvement of the members of these communities in terrorist attacks.

European states used to give Islamists escaping their countries a “political refugee” status. The UK allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to found the headquarters of its International Organization in it.

In the past few years, however, European states started tightening the noose around the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood organization and the state of Qatar. This happened after the emergence of a large number of intelligence reports about the roles played by Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey in funding terrorist organizations in Europe, Syria and Iraq, giving this funding a charity cover.

Tim Collins, a British counterterrorism expert, spoke about the Muslim Brotherhood at a seminar at the British House of Lords in early January. Titled “Turkey and Qatar: Do they back the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood?”, the seminar threw light on the funding given to the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe by Qatar.

Collins said Doha offered 165 million Euros to the Muslim Brotherhood, including 25 million Euros that were channeled to Islamic studies’ departments at British universities.

Senior Brotherhood figure, Youssef al-Qaradawi, Collins said, also called for offering financial support to Islamic studies departments at the British universities.

He said the Brotherhood believed in ideals that were synonymous with terrorism, which was why it viewed the western world as an enemy entity like all other terrorist organizations did. Collins cited sermons delivered by Muslim Brotherhood leaders at mosques everywhere to drive his point home.

The members of the Muslim Brotherhood, he said, do not respect the ideals of the West and try to penetrate western societies by being present in them. He even warned against support offered the Muslim Brotherhood by the Islamist-leaning government of the Turkish Justice and Development Party.

Collins said Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, received a large number of Muslim Brotherhood figures and rejected to expatriate them to their countries, despite demands in this regard by governments in these counties.

He, at the same time, Collins said of Erdogan, asks the US to deport Turkish opposition figure, Fethullah Gulen, accusing him of terrorism.

Collins also cited a 2014 review by the British government of the Muslim Brotherhood. The review concludes that those joining the Muslim Brotherhood can potentially turn into dangerous persons.

He referred to the Muslim Brotherhood’s use of two types of discourse: a moderate one it uses in addressing western governments and a radical one it uses in addressing its affiliates in Arab states.

Other European states also started acting against the Muslim Brotherhood, including Switzerland most recently.

The Swiss newspaper, Le Matin, reported in early January that Swiss authorities had opened an inquiry into suspicious ties between Qatar and its ruling family, on one hand, and some figures and charities active in Switzerland, on the other. The figures and the charities, the newspaper said, are accused of offering support to terrorist activities.

It added that the investigation had shown that three figures and charities proved to have offered secret support to terrorists under the pretext of charity. It said the inquiry depended on intelligence information provided by some governments in the Gulf region.

The newspaper also warned against some Swiss cities turning into a fertile soil for Islamists.