International Union of Muslim Scholars

Islamism

The Inter­na­tion­al Union of Mus­lim Schol­ars (IUMS) is a promi­nent orga­ni­za­tion of Islam­ic the­olo­gians, some­times described as the “supreme author­i­ty of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood.” Found­ed on July 11, 2004, the IUMS has its head­quar­ters in Qatar and Dublin. The IUMS was estab­lished dur­ing a vis­it by the late Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi to Lon­don for a meet­ing of the Euro­pean Coun­cil for Fat­wa and Research. Al-Qaradawi served as the IUMS’s first pres­i­dent until his res­ig­na­tion in August 2022; he passed away in Sep­tem­ber 2022. Fol­low­ing his res­ig­na­tion, Moroc­can schol­ar Ahmed al-Rais­souni, a found­ing mem­ber of the Glob­al Anti-Aggres­sion Cam­paign (GAAC), suc­ceed­ed him as pres­i­dent until he was replaced by Kur­dish schol­ar Muhid­din Al-Qaradaghi in 2024. The IUMS claims to rep­re­sent approx­i­mate­ly 90,000 Mus­lim schol­ars world­wide, encom­pass­ing Sun­ni, Shia, and Iba­di Mus­lims. How­ev­er, its lead­er­ship has con­sis­tent­ly includ­ed promi­nent mem­bers of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. Notably, many indi­vid­u­als asso­ci­at­ed with the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and Hamas con­tin­ue to serve as IUMS trustees, with sev­er­al resid­ing in West­ern coun­tries. The IUMS has faced crit­i­cism and scruti­ny for its affil­i­a­tions and activ­i­ties. In 2017, Egypt, Sau­di Ara­bia, the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, and Bahrain des­ig­nat­ed the IUMS as a ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion, cit­ing its alleged con­nec­tions to extrem­ist groups. Despite these des­ig­na­tions, the IUMS main­tains that it is an inde­pen­dent orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to pro­mot­ing Islam­ic schol­ar­ship and uni­ty among Mus­lims globally.