German Intelligence Details Muslim Brotherhood Networks In Germany And Europe

Germany’s domes­tic intel­li­gence agency has pub­lished its annu­al “con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tion” report for Hesse, a fed­er­al state, in which it pro­vides infor­ma­tion on the dan­gers to a free demo­c­ra­t­ic order and detail­ing the Ger­man and inter­na­tion­al net­works of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (MB). Accord­ing to the report:

In Ger­many, the DMG, for­mer­ly the Islam­ic Com­mu­ni­ty in Ger­many e. V. (IGD), with its head­quar­ters in Berlin, is the orga­ni­za­tion of MB sup­port­ers with the largest num­ber of mem­bers in Ger­many. The DMG rep­re­sents the Egypt­ian branch of the MB and has been a mem­ber of the Fed­er­a­tion of Islam­ic Orga­ni­za­tions in Europe (FIOE), now the Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims (CEM), since its foun­da­tion as IGD. [Trans­lat­ed with Google Translate]

Read the full report here.

The report notes that while the MB does not appear under its own name, there is a wide­ly devel­oped net­work of the MB in Ger­many and Europe and lists the most impor­tant insti­tu­tions tied to the Broth­er­hood as fol­lows:  [Trans­lat­ed with Google Translate]

Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims (CEM) | In Europe, the MB, which is strict­ly hier­ar­chi­cal­ly orga­nized, is rep­re­sent­ed by the CEM, a Euro­pean umbrel­la asso­ci­a­tion of MB-relat­ed orga­ni­za­tions based in Brus­sels (Bel­gium). Until Jan­u­ary 2020, the asso­ci­a­tion was called the Fed­er­a­tion of Islam­ic Orga­ni­za­tions in Europe (FIOE, Fed­er­a­tion of Islam­ic Orga­ni­za­tions). Accord­ing to its own infor­ma­tion, the CEM brings togeth­er orga­ni­za­tions from 28 coun­tries, includ­ing many nation­al umbrel­la organizations.

Euro­pean Coun­cil for Fat­wa and Research (ECFR) | The ECFR, based in Dublin (Ire­land), belongs to the Euro­pean net­work of MB and reg­u­lar­ly issues legal opin­ions for Mus­lims liv­ing in Europe. The main task of the ECFR is to estab­lish itself as a reli­gious author­i­ty in Europe. To this end, the ECFR pub­lished the “Euro Fat­wa” app in 2019, with which users have been able to call up the ECFR fat­was and deci­sions by top­ic in Ara­bic, Eng­lish, and Spanish.

Euro­pean Coun­cil of Imams | In Novem­ber 2019, the Euro­pean Imams Coun­cil met for the first time in Paris, France. Accord­ing to its own state­ment, the com­mit­tee has some 50 mem­bers from 20 Euro­pean coun­tries. This also includes peo­ple from Hes­sen with a con­nec­tion to the MB / DMG net­work. The aim of the orga­ni­za­tion is, among oth­er things, to coor­di­nate the activ­i­ties of var­i­ous Islam­ic orga­ni­za­tions, to act as a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of inter­ests, to pro­mote the Islam­ic pres­ence in the polit­i­cal and social sphere, and to con­sol­i­date the Islam­ic identity.=

Fat­wa-Auss­chuss in Deutsch­land (Fat­wa Com­mit­tee in Ger­many) | The major­i­ty of the mem­bers of the Fat­wa Com­mit­tee in Ger­many, which was found­ed in 2016, are mem­bers of the ECFR. The fat­wa com­mit­tee adopts the fat­was of the ECFR, trans­lates them into Ger­man, and pub­lish­es them on its own web­site and on social media. The fat­was are part­ly based on Islam­ic law and Islam­ic rit­u­al require­ments of the Sharia, which are not com­pat­i­ble with the free demo­c­ra­t­ic basic order.

Rat der Imame und Gelehrten in Deutsch­land (Coun­cil of Imams and Schol­ars in Ger­many| Sim­i­lar to the ECFR at the Euro­pean lev­el, which was chaired by MB ide­ol­o­gist Yusuf al-Qaradawi until Octo­ber 2018, the RIGD claims for Ger­many to act as a sci­en­tif­ic author­i­ty on ques­tions of the inter­pre­ta­tion of the Koran for Mus­lims liv­ing here. The RIGD, which has been based in Frank­furt am Main since 2004, is both orga­ni­za­tion­al­ly and ide­o­log­i­cal­ly close to DMG.

Europäis­ches Insti­tut für Human­wis­senschaften (EIHW) (Euro­pean Insti­tute for Human Sci­ences) | In 2012, the EIHW, based in Frank­furt am Main, was found­ed as an asso­ci­a­tion based on the mod­el of the Euro­pean Insti­tute of Human Sci­ences in Great Britain (Euro­pean Insti­tute of Human Sci­ences, EIHS) and in France (Insti­tut Européen des Sci­ences Humaines, IESH). In 2013 the EIHW start­ed its teach­ing pro­gram. As a train­ing cen­ter, the EIHW serves to spread the MB ide­ol­o­gy and acts as a train­ing facil­i­ty for MB and DMG officials.

Final­ly, the report con­cludes that “there is an increased risk of the spread of the MB ide­ol­o­gy,” high­light­ing the high num­ber of fol­low­ers MB orga­ni­za­tions have on social media. The report also notes that MB sup­port­ers and orga­ni­za­tions close to MB “endeav­ored to make their ide­ol­o­gy social­ly accept­able and to gain broad acceptance.”

Islamists, notably the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, are orga­nized in exten­sive transna­tion­al net­works that attempt to gain legit­i­ma­cy as the sole voice of Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ties in their respec­tive coun­tries. They also attempt to exert con­trol and influ­ence over their respec­tive Mus­lim pop­u­la­tions in ser­vice of an Islamist agen­da. The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) has exten­sive­ly cov­ered the activ­i­ties of the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, and many of its front orga­ni­za­tions can be found in the GIOR Wiki. Past GIOR report­ing on Mus­lim Broth­er­hood net­works in Europa has included:

• In July, we report­ed that a Euro­pean Mus­lim Broth­er­hood-tied youth group issued a state­ment call­ing for a revi­sion of a judg­ment by the Euro­pean Court of Jus­tice that allowed employ­ers to ban reli­gious sym­bols in the workplace.

• In March, we report­ed that a vir­tu­al con­fer­ence brought togeth­er Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood lead­ers to “revive” the Inter­na­tion­al Islam­ic Fed­er­a­tion of Stu­dent Orga­ni­za­tions (IIFSO), essen­tial­ly the inter­na­tion­al youth/student orga­ni­za­tion of the GMB.

• In Feb­ru­ary, we report­ed that a coali­tion of 36 NGOs, many with Mus­lim Broth­er­hood ties, was tak­ing action against France at the UN Human Rights Coun­cil (UNHCR) over its alleged sys­temic dis­crim­i­na­tion of Muslims.

• Last Octo­ber, we report­ed that the Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims issued a state­ment crit­i­ciz­ing French Pres­i­dent Macron for a speech on com­bat­ing Islamist separatism.