Brotherhood cancer spreads throughout Europe

Shaimaa Yahya

There are many manifestations of the Brotherhood incursion into European societies, especially after the terrorist group demonstrated its ability to penetrate these societies through social and humanitarian organizations and mosques that were established with the aim of ensuring control and exploiting them to achieve an intellectual conquest of these societies and to influence the course of internal conditions in these countries or to influence their external decision-making in a way that preserves the group’s interests.

Europe has been exposed to a large influx of refugees from the Middle East conflict regions, mostly Muslim, which prompted this file to be exploited in the growing relationship between these groups and European governments.

New type of exploitation

For example, the Brotherhood has attempted to provide the needs for the waves of migrants to continue in these countries so as to control these Muslim communities to put pressure on European governments to accept the de facto situation. This was the nucleus of influencing European citizens and mobilizing them to join these organizations, in what is known as civil jihad within Western societies.

Impact weapons

Extremist groups have succeeded in penetrating into European societies through charitable organizations, taking advantage of European laws that allow pluralism. But in light of the increasing rates of refugee influx and illegal immigration, the activity of these groups increased through these organizations, and their level of interaction with European citizens increased, allowing them to spread their extremist ideas through advertisements, fundraising and other tools, which resulted in an increase in the numbers of those joining these groups. This led to terrorist attacks being carried out in European countries, including lone wolf operations, stabbings, and vehicular manslaughter, as well as some individuals going to fight in the hotbeds of various conflicts in the Middle East.

Brotherhood dangers

The European Center for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies published a study entitled “The Risks of the Muslim Brotherhood in Building Parallel Societies in Europe”, in which it touched on the nature of the Brotherhood’s activity in European societies, its tools of influence, and its control over the central Islamic councils through political pressure on European governments, as they have influence on Muslim communities.

There are many forms of Islamic councils in many European countries, including the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), founded in 1997 by Brotherhood Mufti Youssef al-Qaradawi with Qatari funds, in addition to the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD), which was founded in 1993 and headed by Aiman Mazyek. The ZMD includes 19 Islamic organizations and about 300 affiliated mosques, as well as Islamic schools. The Islamic Center in Munich is the central organization of the Brotherhood in Germany and focuses on social and advocacy services to attract Muslims.

British network

The Muslim Council of Britain is the largest Islamic institution in the country, with more than 500 Islamic bodies. It is unofficially linked with the Brotherhood, in addition to the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy (UCOII), which is involved in close cooperation with the Brotherhood in Qatar, and the Swedish Islamic Council, which falls under the umbrella of the Muslim League, which has multiple arms in Europe. In Denmark, Qatar established the Islamic Council to finance extremist currents and the remnants of the Brotherhood fleeing from Arab countries, fundraising to collect funds and distribute them to leaders of malicious groups, organizations and currents within Europe.

Social media

Most terrorist groups have taken advantage of social media platforms to expand their reach and recruit new elements, attracting those who share the same ideology, who then become media trumpets to publish everything related to extremist operations.

According to Western studies, more than 80% of youth recruitment operations among terrorist groups are carried out through social media, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites, which helps them greatly in implementing their plans by including the largest possible number of members.