Muslim
Brotherhood-linked groups tried to influence EU: Report
French
authorities allege the Islamist group has gone to great lengths to push its
fundamentalist agenda in France and throughout Europe.
May 21, 2025
7:39 pm CET
By Clea
Caulcutt, Victor Goury-Laffont and Sarah Paillou
PARIS — A bombshell report from the French
authorities alleges that organizations with links to the Muslim Brotherhood
have been attempting to influence European Union institutions through
“significant lobbying activities.”
A version of
the document seen by POLITICO before its official publication says the Islamist
group’s supposed ideological allies sought to push Brussels to criminalize
blasphemy and promote a “singular” vision of religious freedom that clashes
with France’s strict model of a secular state that protects both freedom of
religion and freedom from religion. The European Parliament and MEPs were
“particularly targeted,” the report said.
The French
Ministry of the Interior had been expected to release a sanitized version of
the document, which would not include the names of sources that could be
endangered by its release and mentions of ongoing legal cases, on Wednesday
after it was discussed during a national security council meeting chaired by
French President Emmanuel Macron.
Following
the meeting, Macron’s office said the report would be released by the end of
the week.
The version
of the report seen by POLITICO alleges that the Muslim Brotherhood, which was
founded more than 100 years ago in Egypt with the aim of creating a state ruled
by Islamic law, is pushing its agenda via several pan-European organizations
that share the group’s ideology and have received money from Qatar and Kuwait,
states known to fund both Muslim and Islamist causes overseas.
Among the
organizations listed were the Council of European Muslims (CEM) and the Forum
of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO). The report claimed
that members of the Brotherhood’s inner circle were members of CEM and that
FEMYSO was used as a “training structure” for Muslim Brotherhood officials.
FEMYSO in a
statement strongly denied the allegations while CEM did not immediately respond
to POLITICO’s request for comment.
The reports’
findings, which are based on dozens of interviews with academics, Muslim
leaders and intelligence officers, are similar to those of a government review
published in the United Kingdom a decade ago.
The report
alleged that the Muslim Brotherhood waged parts of its influence campaign under
the guise of combatting Islamophobia, but at times struggled to tie specific
pieces of purported evidence, like an anti-discrimination campaign featuring
the slogan “freedom is in hijab,” directly to the group.
France has
in recent days gone to great lengths to protect its secular nature. Earlier
this week, France’s Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad called for tighter checks
on the way the EU allocates grants following allegations that Brussels funded
campaigns that did not respect the country’s secular values, and purportedly
entities linked to Islamist movements.
Macron has
tasked his government with proposing measures to fight the Muslim Brotherhood’s
influence, which are expected to be discussed next month, the president’s
office said Tuesday.
Early
version leaked
An early
version of the report was leaked to the conservative daily Le Figaro and
right-wing magazine Valeurs Actuelles, an act that one high-ranking member of
government, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, attributed to Interior
Minister Bruno Retailleau.
Retailleau,
who had access to the full report due to his role, told reporters earlier this
week that the document would demonstrate how “Islamist infiltration is a
threat.”
Presidential
hopefuls jumped on the leak to put forward their own talking points even before
the findings were officially made public. The president of the far-right
National Rally, Jordan Bardella, told France Inter on Wednesday morning that
the Muslim Brotherhood poses “one of the most existential challenges facing our
country.”
And Gabriel
Attal — who briefly served as prime minister last year and now leads the
centrist pro-Macron Renaissance party — responded by floating a ban on Muslim
headscarves for those under 15.
On the left,
the far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon accused the government of stoking
Islamophobia and “giving credence” to far-right talking points.
“That’s
enough! You’re going to destroy the country,” he wrote on X.
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