Europe warned of Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘divisive,’ ‘dangerous’ influence

Supporters and opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood clash in Egypt, where the group is now banned. (AFP)
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Updated 31 August 2020
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Europe warned of Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘divisive,’ ‘dangerous’ influence

  • Dr. Lorenzo Vidino’s new book ‘The Closed Circle” sheds light on a secretive organization that ‘even denies it exists’
  • In exclusive interview, he says European governments should not regard the group as representative of Muslims

ROME: European governments should not fall for the Muslim Brotherhood’s attempts to be seen as the representative of Muslims, says Dr. Lorenzo Vidino, an expert on Islamism in the West.

The Brotherhood is “a problematic entity within the Muslim community” whose influence as “dangerous,” he told Arab News in an exclusive interview.

Defining the Brotherhood’s role in Europe is “very difficult” because “unlike in the Middle East … there are no groups or individuals that openly identify themselves as (linked to the) Brotherhood in any European countries,” said Vidino, who is director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University and author of the recently published book “The Closed Circle: Joining and Leaving the Muslim Brotherhood in the West.”

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The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna and has sought to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate. It has influenced Islamist movements around the world with its model of political activism combined with charity work. By the late 1940s, the group is estimated to have had 500,000 members in Egypt, and its ideas had spread across the Arab world.

According to Vidino, from the 1960s, individuals and organizations with links to the Brotherhood in the Arab world moved to the West and “created networks throughout Europe that are now fairly independent from the Middle East.”




Dr. Lorenzo Vidino. (Supplied)

They “adopt the ideology of the Brotherhood” but are “for the most part free to choose their tactics and strategies,” said Vidino, whose research has focused on the mobilization dynamics of jihadist networks in the West, and the activities of Brotherhood-inspired organizations.

“These networks have been able to exert an influence that’s much greater than their small numbers.”

They are “highly problematic” because of the impact they have on social cohesion and integration in Europe, said Vidino, who has held positions at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, the US Institute of Peace, RAND Corp. and the Center for Security Studies in Zurich.

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“The message they send out, at least internally within the Muslim community, is a very polarizing one. It creates a mindset of ‘us’ and ‘them,’ of constant victimhood, which pushes the idea that the West is out to get Muslims and is against Islam,” he told Arab News.

“This obviously creates a very divisive society. It prevents the integration process. It poisons relationships between communities.”

Opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood argue that it has become a breeding ground for terrorists. For instance, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al-Qaeda, joined the Brotherhood in the 1960s, when he was 14. In comments to Arab News last year, Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri, a Saudi political analyst, said: “One must remember that terror organizations like Al-Qaeda and Daesh drew inspiration from Muslim Brotherhood ideologues.”

In a 2015 paper entitled “The Muslim Brotherhood in the UK,” Dr. Vidino identified three categories of individuals and organizations operating inside the UK who could be regarded as Muslim Brotherhood: “In decreasing degrees of intensity, these are the pure Brothers, Brotherhood affiliates and organisations influenced by the Brotherhood.”

Dr. Vidino added: “Significant attention has been devoted to the activities of members of the Egyptian branch of the Brotherhood living in London. This small cluster of a handful of senior leaders and young activists is engaged in media, legal and lobbying efforts aimed at challenging the current Egyptian regime.”

The Egyptian government declared the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group in December 2013, after accusing it of carrying out a series of bomb attacks in Cairo.

With the group pushed underground in Egypt and a number of other Arab countries, many of its members and top supporters found refuge in Turkey and Qatar.

A book published last year by two French investigative reporters, Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot, claimed to reveal the details of lavish payments made by Qatar to Muslim Brotherhood organizations across Europe. Titled “Qatar Papers - How the State Finances Islam in France and Europe,” the book is reportedly based on official documents and testimonies that shed light on Doha’s extensive funding to promote the Brotherhood’s ideology on the continent.

The book published evidence of cheque and money transfers from Qatar that had been used to underwrite Brotherhood-linked projects around Europe.

Vidino, who has testified before the US Congress and other parliaments and has advised law-enforcement officials worldwide, says the Muslim Brotherhood in the West is “such a secretive organization. It even denies it actually exists.”

“This is why I thought that one of the best ways to get information about it and its structure, on what it thinks and wants, was to interview people who are part of that organization in the West,” he told Arab News.

INNUMBERS

  • 1928 - Muslim Brotherhood founded by Hassan al-Banna in Egypt.
  • 14 - Age at which Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri joined the Brotherhood.
  • 140 - Islamic centers in Germany reportedly funded by Qatar Charity.

While there are “different experiences” among those he interviewed for his book, “all of them were recruited after a very long process. They became part of what they described as a very sophisticated machinery in each country.”

Vidino added: “All of them eventually left for different reasons that had something in common: They all saw internal corruption within the organization and a lack of internal democracy. They all came to see the Brotherhood as deceitful. They saw a lot of hypocrisy, a lot of using religion to pursue purely political goals.”

People who leave the group are “ostracized,” he said. “They lose a lot of their social circles because being a member of the Brotherhood is a fully absorbing experience.”

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He added: “It’s obviously difficult for anybody who has devoted 10, 20 years of their life to say that they were wrong, and that the organization and the ideology they devoted their lives to was incorrect. It takes a lot of intellectual courage to do so.”

Some apparently do summon up the requisite intellectual courage. For instance, a recent report in the German news media was part of a cache of leaked confidential documents that shed light on Qatar’s use of its wealth and charities to fund and infiltrate mosques, activate Muslim Brotherhood networks and buy influence across Germany.

The documents reveal that Qatar Charity has used its deep pockets to fund at least 140 mosques and Islamic centers across Germany since it began its campaign — costing an estimated €72 million ($84.69 million). In 2016 alone, the charity spent roughly €5 million on various construction projects in major German cities, including Berlin and Munich.

Not far behind Qatar is Turkey, which has provided various forms of support to the Muslim Brotherhood, including granting asylum to wanted Brotherhood members and equipping them with satellite TV and radio stations. In a recent paper titled “Erdogan’s influence in Europe: A Swedish case study” in The Washington Institute’s Fikra Forum, Magnus Norell, adjunct scholar, wrote: “Turkey’s political leadership appear deeply invested in a number of small European parties that align with Erdogan’s own political vision he is enacting in Turkey.”




Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has provided lots of support to the Muslim Brotherhood. (AFP)

Norell said Erdogan explicitly outlined his policy on Albania TV in June 2017, when he said that there was nothing wrong with supporting political parties in the Balkans and other European countries that shared an ideology similar to that of his Islamist AKP, and that “nobody should be bothered by this effort.”

Referring to its presence in Europe, Vidino describes the Muslim Brotherhood as “a very elite group.” “To them it’s not about big numbers. You don’t simply join. They’re very selective in who they take,” he told Arab News.

“We’re not talking about very big numbers. We’re talking about maybe a few hundred people in a country like Italy, maybe 1,000 in countries like France or Germany. Their power lies in their ability to mobilize other people, to influence a Muslim community, to influence policymaking in the West … They have a keen ability to adapt to the environment.”

Muslim Brotherhood members, he said, want to be viewed by “Western establishments, governments, media and so on as the representatives of Muslim communities and basically to become those who shaped Islam in Italy, in Germany and Sweden, in Belgium and so on.”

In conclusion, Vidino said: “It’s up to the ability of European governments to understand that that they’re not the representatives of the Muslim community, and that they are, if anything, a problematic entity within the Muslim community that influences how important and dangerous they’re going to be.”

 


Following Kashmir attack, Modi cuts short Saudi trip after talks on energy, defense

Updated 9 sec ago
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Following Kashmir attack, Modi cuts short Saudi trip after talks on energy, defense

  • Saudi Arabia is one of the top exporters of petroleum to India
  • Modi met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before cutting short his visit 

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia and India agreed to boost cooperation in supplies of crude and liquefied petroleum gas, according to a joint statement reported by the Saudi state news agency on Wednesday following a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was cut short by a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. 

Saudi Arabia is one of the top exporters of petroleum to India. 

Modi met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before cutting short his visit and returning to New Delhi after an attack on India's Jammu and Kashmir territory which killed 26 people, the worst attack in India since the 2008 Mumbai shootings. 

The two countries also agreed to deepen their defense ties and improve their cooperation in defence manufacturing, along with agreements in agriculture and food security.

"The two countries welcomed the excellent cooperation between the two sides in counter-terrorism and terror financing," the joint statement said.


Denmark’s King Frederik to visit Greenland, daily Sermitsiaq reports

Updated 36 min 50 sec ago
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Denmark’s King Frederik to visit Greenland, daily Sermitsiaq reports

  • The visit to Greenland by Denmark’s head of state comes as US President Donald Trump seeks a takeover

COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s King Frederik will travel to Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, on April 28, Greenlandic daily Sermitsiaq reported on Wednesday, citing the island’s own government.
The visit to Greenland by Denmark’s head of state comes as US President Donald Trump seeks a takeover by the United States of the minerals-rich and strategically important island.
Denmark has rejected Trump’s ambition and says only Greenlanders themselves can decide the territory’s future.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik-Nielsen will travel to Denmark on April 26, where he will meet with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, according to Sermitsiaq.
The king will travel to Greenland together with Nielsen when the prime minister returns to the island, according to the report.


Chechnya leader’s son, 17, becomes head of Chechen security council

Updated 23 April 2025
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Chechnya leader’s son, 17, becomes head of Chechen security council

  • It is the fourth time Adam Kadyrov has been appointed to an official position since 2023, when he was 15
  • He already serves as his father’s top bodyguard

The teenage son of Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechnya region and close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has been appointed secretary of the region’s security council, according to the council’s Telegram channel.
Adam Kadyrov turned 17 in November 2024. It is the fourth time he has been appointed to an official position since 2023, when he was 15.
He already serves as his father’s top bodyguard, a trustee of Chechnya’s Special Forces University, and an observer in a new army battalion.
Ramzan Kadyrov has led Chechnya, a mountainous Muslim region in southern Russia that tried to break away from Moscow in wars that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, since 2007.
He enjoys wide leeway from Putin to run Chechnya as his personal fiefdom in return for ensuring the stability of the region, where an Islamist, anti-Russian insurgency continued for around a decade after the end of full-scale conflict there in the early 2000s.
His rise to power came after his own father, Akhmat, was killed in a 2004 bombing by insurgents who saw him as a turncoat.
In September 2023, Adam Kadyrov was shown, in a video posted by his father on social media, beating a detainee accused of burning the Qur'an. Ramzan Kadyrov said he was proud of his son for defending his Muslim religion.
The detainee, Nikita Zhuravel, has since been sentenced to three and a half years in prison.


Russian drone strike on bus kills 9 in Ukrainian city of Marhanets, Kyiv says

Updated 23 April 2025
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Russian drone strike on bus kills 9 in Ukrainian city of Marhanets, Kyiv says

  • Zelensky said the Russian strike hit a bus that was transporting workers of a mining and processing plant
  • “An ordinary bus. Clearly a civilian object, a civilian target,” Zelensky said

KYIV: A Russian drone hit a bus carrying workers in the Ukrainian city of Marhanets on Wednesday, killing nine people and injuring close to 50, Kyiv officials said, in an attack President Volodymyr Zelensky said was a “deliberate war crime.”
Zelensky said the Russian strike hit a bus that was transporting workers of a mining and processing plant.
“An ordinary bus. Clearly a civilian object, a civilian target,” Zelensky said on X.
“It was an egregiously brutal attack – and an absolutely deliberate war crime,” he added, calling for “an immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire.”
Russia fired a total of 134 attack drones at targets in Ukraine overnight, Kyiv’s air force said. There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Ukrainian officials arrived in London on Wednesday, even as most other big power foreign ministers pulled out, to hold talks about ways to achieve a ceasefire as a first step toward peace.
Marhanets, in south-central Ukraine, lies on the Ukrainian-controlled north bank of the Dnipro river’s dried-up reservoir that separates the warring sides.
Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak said nine people were killed in the attack and 49 were injured.
Zelensky shared photographs of the aftermath of the attack on X, showing bodies lying in and next to the bus and being carried away by emergency workers.
Zelensky added most of the injured were women.
Elsewhere, an energy plant that provides electricity to the city of Kherson near southern front lines was destroyed in an artillery and drone attack, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Ukraine’s emergency service also reported a drone strike on the Synelnykivskyi district in the Dnipropetrovsk region that injured two people and sparked a fire at an agricultural enterprise.
Russia further fired drones into the central region of Poltava, injuring at least six people, its governor said.
A drone attack on civilian infrastructure in the suburbs of the Black Sea port city of Odesa injured two people and sparked several fires, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.
Russian drone salvoes also set off large-scale fires in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, in the northeast, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram.
Seven private houses, a storage building and an outbuilding were also damaged by drones hitting the Kyiv capital region, where a fire also broke out in a restaurant complex, its regional governor said.
Both Russia and Ukraine are under pressure from the United States to demonstrate progress toward ending the war that began with Russia’s 2022 full-blown invasion amid warnings that US President Donald Trump could walk away from peacemaking.


India warns of ‘loud and clear’ response after deadly Kashmir attack

Indian soldiers are on guard in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, April 23, 2025. (AP)
Updated 15 min 12 sec ago
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India warns of ‘loud and clear’ response after deadly Kashmir attack

  • Gunmen kill 26 men in the popular tourist resort of Pahalgam
  • Kashmir Valley shuts down in response to region’s deadliest attack in years

NEW DELHI: India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh vowed on Wednesday to pursue those who planned and carried out a deadly attack in Jammu and Kashmir, where gunmen opened fire on visitors at a popular Himalayan tourist hotspot.

The attackers killed 26 people, all men, and left many critically injured at a site near the resort town of Pahalgam. It was the deadliest such incident in years, shattering the relative calm in the disputed Indian-controlled region.

“We will not only reach the perpetrators of this act but also the actors behind the scenes,” Singh said in a press briefing in New Delhi. “The responsible will soon see a loud and clear response.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to New Delhi on Wednesday morning in the aftermath of the attack, which took place as US Vice President J.D. Vance is visiting India.

The assault is seen as a setback to the peace and stability that Modi’s government has touted as a key achievement of revoking Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in 2019.

“It is a big setback because they claimed that everything is normal in Kashmir,” Showkat Hussain, former dean of the School of Legal Studies at the Central University of Kashmir, told Arab News.

“They have been portraying to the whole world that we have managed to (cut) the resistance in Kashmir, and it seems that that mirage has dissipated because of this attack. Kashmir is as volatile as it used to be before 2019.”

The Kashmir Valley shut down on Wednesday following a call by the local ruling party, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference.

Several newspapers across the region printed black front pages as a gesture of mourning, people across the valley held vigils to protest the violence, while government employees observed two minutes of silence in respect for those killed in Pahalgam.

“And a sense of insecurity has spread all across Jammu and Kashmir,” Hussain said.

The region is part of the larger Kashmiri territory, which has been the subject of international dispute since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Both countries claim Kashmir in full, and rule in part.

Indian-administered Kashmir has for decades witnessed outbreaks of separatist insurgency to resist control from the government in New Delhi.

According to Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, a retired officer of the Indian Air Force, the Pahalgam attack was not, however, an indication of insurgency being on the rise after decades of lull but rather that the forced scrapping of the Muslim-majority region’s constitutional autonomy has not brought what the Indian government has been referring to as “normalcy.”

It was a message by the perpetrators and “some elements on the ground in the valley,” he said, that “Kashmir is not normal, and those elements have a role. They may lie low, they may come up ... and that’s what they’ve done.”

Attacks such as the Pahalgam shooting have over decades strained ties between India and Pakistan. In 2019, a suicide bombing in Kashmir’s Pulwama district killed 40 Indian paramilitary personnel and triggered cross-border air strikes, pushing the nuclear-armed neighbors to the brink of war.

Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement that it was “concerned” about the attack and extended condolences to the victims’ relatives.