The Muslim Brotherhood in Europe...six decades until the masks fall!

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After many decades of presenting itself in Europe as a representative of Muslims and a partner of governments in dialogue and integration, the Muslim Brotherhood today faces the possibility of including some of its institutions and leaders on European terrorist lists. I find in this transformation a paradox worth contemplating. The group that has long benefited from the openness of European democracies is now being questioned within these same democracies. For many years, European governments have treated Islamic institutions and associations as part of civil society, granting some of them official recognition and funding. But fears began to rise that some of these institutions were not limited to religious and charitable work, but rather sought to build political and ideological influence within European societies. In France specifically, a government report in 2025 revealed fears of a gradual penetration strategy into institutions and society linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, followed by a French parliamentary move in January 2026 calling for a study of classifying the group on terrorist lists.

A few days ago, the European Parliament voted by a large majority on a resolution calling for a strategy to counter the influence of Muslim Brotherhood networks. I do not think that the importance of the decision lies in the voting numbers, as much as it lies in its content and what it may entail.

Parliament called on the Council of the European Union to study the inclusion of persons and entities linked to the Brotherhood on the European terrorist list. Although the decision does not represent an actual terrorist designation, it opens the door to legal procedures that may lead to this. He also called for going beyond the declared regulatory facades, to include reviewing the financial networks, institutions and platforms associated with the group.

As for the aspect that I see as the most influential, it is asking the European Commission to review the funds that reached institutions linked to the Brotherhood, and to track their ultimate beneficiaries. Money has always been an essential element in building and expanding influence, and restricting its sources may weaken the ability of these networks to continue. In addition to this, there is a call to reconsider granting these institutions political recognition and funding, especially in light of fears that their ideological project conflicts with the principles of democracy and equality before the law.

If these recommendations become binding decisions, we may see asset freezes and funding bans, as well as other legal measures against the individuals and entities on the lists.

But what stops me in all of this is the change in the European question. After the question was: How do we deal with the Brotherhood as part of the Islamic scene? Today: Were the institutions embraced by Europe working, at the same time, to spread a political project that contradicted European values?

I personally wonder: Why did it take the Europeans sixty years to reach this conviction? Wasn't it enough for them to listen to the experiences of ordinary people in the countries of the Islamic world? To those who knew the group closely, and experienced its opportunism, the colorfulness of its discourse, and the contradiction of its positions?

Perhaps what bothers me most about the Brotherhood’s experience is not just the use of religion in politics; This is something many societies have known throughout history. What really bothers me is their attempt to convince people that their political project is Islam itself, and that opposing them means opposing religion.

And here, in my estimation, lies the greatest insult that the group has inflicted on Islam: to reduce a great religion that can accommodate millions of people to a narrow partisan project, and to make faith a means of struggle for power, and of political disagreement as a dispute over the religion itself.

How I hope that Europe, as it reconsiders its relationship with the Brotherhood, realizes a simple truth that many of us know: that Muslims are not the Muslim Brotherhood, and that Islam is much larger than the group that claims to represent it.