The European Parliament escalates against the Brotherhood to curb “soft penetration”

Bethlehem - Ofoq News - European policies towards the Muslim Brotherhood are moving towards a decisive stage, as they have moved from tightening practical procedures and controls, to tracking financial flows and dismantling the economic networks affiliated with the transnational organization.

On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a position calling for a unified European strategy to deal with the “Brotherhood” networks and its influence, in a new step that places the issue of including the group and entities linked to it on the European terrorism list before the Union’s institutions.

The resolution received 381 votes in favor and 167 against, while 15 members abstained from voting, according to the results of voting on the resolution related to developing a European strategy to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood network and its influence.

The Parliament calls for an evaluation of the possibility of including entities and individuals linked to the Muslim Brotherhood on the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations, in addition to measures related to financing and cooperation between member states to confront the activities of networks linked to the group, with the need to permanently exclude Femiso, the Forum of European Organizations for Muslim Youth and Students, from European institutions, an organization considered close to the Brotherhood.

Through the resolution, Parliament requests member states to tighten oversight of funding and institutional partnerships, and to review the access of organizations linked to these networks to European institutions and resources. Thus, dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood as a controversial political and religious movement moves to scrutinizing the nature of their cross-border networks.

The decision targets external financing and cross-border partnerships, especially those involving actors linked to Qatar or Turkey, to ensure that no support reaches political Islam networks, with the need for security and judicial cooperation, to enhance security and judicial coordination between member states and European agencies such as Europol and Eurojust, in addition to activating the tools of the Schengen system and European databases to impose strict border control.

A decisive step

The European decision is not considered merely a political position towards the Brotherhood, but rather reflects a broader discussion regarding the European Union’s relationship with political Islamic groups, and the limits of their activity within European institutions and societies.

It came after a report published by the French Ministry of the Interior in May 2025 entitled “The Brotherhood and Political Islam in France,” where the authorities warned of a strategy based, according to their assessment, on gradually expanding influence through associations, schools, and religious institutions.

According to the report, some of the institutions that the authorities consider close to the organization are active in the fields of education, social services, and youth work, which allows them to participate in public discussions and communicate with local officials.

Finnish European Parliament member Sebastian Tinkkonen, who belongs to the European Conservatives and Reformists group, described what he said was a plan by the Muslim Brotherhood to “Islamize Europe” through funding and building mosques.

In March 2026, MEPs Bert Jan Roijsen of the European Conservatives and Reformists and Tomasz Zdichovski of the European People's Party hosted a separate conference in Parliament entitled “Protecting Europe: Exposing the growing threat of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Soft penetration

In recent years, the Brotherhood organization in Europe has become dependent on soft penetration strategies that combine civil work, charities, educational institutions, and cultural activities.

The organization takes advantage of the difficulty of distinguishing between legitimate civil activity and activity that hides hidden organizational goals, which has enabled it to build civil institutional networks that can gradually spread among members of society.

Civil associations and educational institutions also constitute a legitimate front for the organization’s activities, as they provide social and educational services, and also provide youth programs aimed at vocational guidance and psychological and social support.

The French report says that some networks linked to the Brotherhood are seeking to build relationships with local officials and public institutions, and to benefit from their community presence to participate in discussions related to public policies, explaining, “This type of work depends on building a long-term presence within society, through legally independent institutions, which may intersect in their intellectual orientations or organizational relationships.”

After the issuance of parliamentary and security reports indicating that the Brotherhood was investing in its civil activity in building long-term networks of political and social influence, some countries had already begun to review their policies towards associations linked to the Brotherhood, and to impose restrictions on funding or cooperation with specific institutions.

Pursue funding

The funding file has become one of the main paths proposed for joint action, starting with reviewing previous European grants, through revealing the ultimate beneficiary of the funds, and reaching the tracking of financial ties between associations and organizations in more than one country.

Studies say that funding is of exceptional importance to the Muslim Brotherhood, not only because it is considered one of the foundations of the group’s strength and the most important tools for implementing its intellectual and political project, but also because it is employed in building the social arm that supports the group also through aid and service projects that the group establishes to attract segments of society to it, especially the poor and marginalized, and to seek support from it when necessary.

The movements of France and a number of European countries reflect a fundamental change in the way of dealing with Muslim Brotherhood networks, after years in which the authorities focused on monitoring individuals and associations individually.

During the past year, the French Defense Council discussed the ideological and security threat resulting from the group’s activities, especially with regard to its penetration into private educational institutions, Islamic schools, and cultural associations. The presence of independent religious universities and institutes in Europe, including institutions that began in Switzerland and Britain, contributed to the institutionalization of this presence, as these institutes provide religious training with an explicit Brotherhood reference, which is re-exported to mosques and public religious discourse within Muslim communities.

The origin of extremist organizations

The mother group of political Islam is considered to have contributed an influential role in the space of political Islam by nourishing the founding ideas and statements regarding issues of politics and governance, such as the caliphate state, and various issues of takfir, as well as hostility to the West and the United States.

The Brotherhood and jihadist organizations such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda share the principle of the so-called caliphate, and study centers confirm that all extremist organizations, including Al-Qaeda and ISIS, emerged from the womb of the Brotherhood.

The administration of US President Donald Trump issued the US Counter-Terrorism Strategy for 2026 (in May 2026), which adopted a prominent intellectual and institutional shift in confronting extremism. The document considered the Muslim Brotherhood to be the “source and root” from which modern jihadist organizations (such as Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Hamas) branched out or whose ideas were inspired.

The document stated that “all modern jihadist groups trace their roots to one organization: the Muslim Brotherhood” and that it is the origin of terrorism based on the idea of ​​restoring the caliphate.