European Muslim Brotherhood Scholars Launch New Theological Council

As part of a 14–15 May 2022 con­fer­ence in Sara­je­vo, lead­ing Euro­pean schol­ars of the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB) have launched a new the­o­log­i­cal coun­cil named Euro­pean Coun­cil for the Holy Quran (ECHQ). Accord­ing to a Face­book post by Ger­man GMB leader Khaled Hanafy:

The city of Sara­je­vo in the State of Bosnia and Herze­gov­ina wit­nessed the launch of the Euro­pean Coun­cil of the Holy Qur’an project on 14/15 May 2022. 29 insti­tu­tions and Quran­ic bod­ies from 15 coun­tries in Europe par­tic­i­pat­ed in the found­ing con­fer­ence. […] The coun­cil aims to coor­di­nate efforts between Quran­ic insti­tu­tions and soci­eties in the Euro­pean are­na. [Trans­lat­ed from Ara­bic orig­i­nal using Google.]

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Accord­ing to Hanafy, the new body aims to recon­nect „new gen­er­a­tions of Euro­pean Mus­lims“ with the Book of Allah, help­ing them recite, mem­o­rize, inter­pret, con­tem­plate, and “live” it.

The meet­ing,  held at the invi­ta­tion of the Da’wah Depart­ment of the Euro­pean GMB umbrel­la Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims, took place at the Fac­ul­ty of Islam­ic Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Sara­je­vo. Accord­ing to Hanafy, Ital­ian nation­al Ahmed Al-Suna­mi was elect­ed Pres­i­dent of the new body. A post on the web­site of the Almu­jahirin Mosque in the west­ern Ger­man city of Bonn states the mosque is one of the ECHQ found­ing mem­bers. Accord­ing to a 2019 arti­cle in Ger­man media, the mosque is under sur­veil­lance by the Ger­man domes­tic intel­li­gence agency and serves as a reg­u­lar meet­ing place for adher­ents to the GMB school of thought.

The ECHQ found­ing con­fer­ence fea­tured sev­er­al Euro­pean GMB lead­ers and numer­ous oth­er indi­vid­u­als close­ly tied to GMB orga­ni­za­tions in Europe, including:

• Samir Falah, Chair­man of Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims (CEM) and for­mer head of the main Ger­man GMB orga­ni­za­tion Deutsche Mus­lim­is­che Gemein­schaft (DMG).

• Taha Soli­man Amer served as a leader of sev­er­al Ger­man GMB orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Ger­man off­shoot of the Insti­tut Européen des Sci­ences Humaines (IESH) and the Ger­man branch of the Euro­pean Coun­cil for Fat­wa and Research.

• Kamel Ama­ra, Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Coun­cil of Imams and a mem­ber of the CEM.

• Ahmad Al-Kahli­fa, imam at the Islamis­ches Zen­trum München, one of the ear­ly cen­ters of the GMB in Europe and affil­i­at­ed with the DMG. Al-Khal­i­fa has also served as DMG Cul­tur­al Officer.

• Said Bouhd­i­fi, Direc­tor of the IESH Quran institute.

Accord­ing to a Tweet by the CEM, as part of the con­fer­ence, Falah and Ama­ra also held a joint meet­ing with Husain Kava­zovic, the cur­rent Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims, pre­vi­ous­ly known as The Fed­er­a­tion of Islam­ic Orga­ni­za­tions in Europe, is an umbrel­la group that com­pris­es the GMB in Europe. The CEM has also spawned numer­ous oth­er orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Euro­pean Coun­cil for Fat­wa and Research and the Forum of Mus­lim Youth and Stu­dent Orga­ni­za­tions.