An outspoken European Union lawmaker has sounded the alarm over Islamist funding for what is slated to be Europe’s largest mosque, amid increasing apprehension about the religious site serving as Turkey’s growing footprint in France.
This is not integration. This is a real ethnic and cultural substitution—a battle of civilization that we risk losing if Europe does nothing.”
Despite controversies over its ties to the Turkish Islamist nationalist Millî Görüş and backing from the Turkish government, the Grand Eyyûb Sultan mosque, under construction on an industrial estate approximately six kilometers from the European Parliament in Strasbourg, is nearing completion.
Concerns over the mosque’s construction have escalated after a French intelligence report on the “Muslim Brotherhood and Political Islam in France” published in July, linked the Muslim Brotherhood to Millî Görüş.
The dossier noted that Millî Görüş is a “powerful and centralized” pan-European Islamist organization, controlled by its president, Kemal Ergün, who is “considered to have absolute power over the Brotherhood at the European level” and “described as close” to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, “who reportedly meets with him several times a year.”
In September, Italian E.U. parliamentarian Isabella Tovaglieri sparked debate around the mosque by filming herself in front of the construction site, warning that the project was “not just a place of worship but a real political project to give life to Islam in Europe.”
Tovaglieri stressed that Europe’s largest mosque was being funded by Millî Görüş to accommodate 4,000 worshipers “in a place that is totally out of the state’s control” and “very close to Erdoğan’s Turkey.” The lawmaker pointed out that “the trucks used to build the mosque are Turkish trucks, as you can see from the license plate.”
“A few months ago, the French secret services openly declared that the project of the Muslim Brotherhood of the French state is to impose Sharia and make France the first Islamic state in the European Union,” Tovaglieri observed. “The replacement of our culture, our religion, and our history is proceeding at full speed.”
Turkish Islamism Makes Inroads in Europe
Tovaglieri’s concerns were rooted in the French intelligence report which revealed that “the movement has made common cause with the Turkish religious Diyanet [Department of Religious Affairs] in Europe.”
The report highlights the involvement of Necmettin Erbakan, Turkey’s former prime minister, the founder of the Islamist body, Millî Görüş in the effort to promote Islamism in Europe. The dossier states that under Erkaban’s leadership, Millî Görüş “was inspired by the Brotherhood movement in its political, religious, and social organization, adopting some of its references (Said Qutb), while presenting significant differences, including the Turkish nationalist framework.”
An article in the Current Trends in Islamist Theology journal explains that “Erbakan favored a gradualist, ‘bottom-up’ approach to Islamist revival and political reform that relied heavily on Islamist dawa, or ideological preaching and education.”
Millî Görüş, the project’s main funder, triggered outrage after it refused to sign the French government’s charter of principles for Islam in 2021, which committed Muslims to reject violence and “respect national cohesion, public order and the laws of the Republic.” The charter condemns practices like female circumcision, forced marriage, and virginity certificates. It calls for the creation of a national council of imams to replace foreign imams.
Qatar, Local Funding
In addition to the more than €32 million provided by Millî Görüş and its supporters for the mosque’s construction, Qatar has contributed €2.5 million to the project. The mosque’s website says it has also received “support through grants from Morocco, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia and aims to attract 5 million small donors.
In 2021, Strasbourg city council sparked controversy after it contributed €2.5 million towards the mosque’s construction at the behest of the Green mayor Jeanne Barseghian. Speaking from Strasbourg, Thibault van den Bossche of the European Centre for Law and Justice told FWI that the city was able to fund Islamist groups because the 1905 law separating church and state doesn’t apply in Alsace-Moselle. The region’s Concordat officially recognizes only Catholicism, Lutheranism, Reformed Protestantism, and Judaism, but in the late 1990s the Strasbourg council extended subsidies to other faiths, including Islam, if projects served a public interest. “The Administrative Court of Strasbourg eventually annulled the city’s decision in November 2022,” van den Bossche noted, “as the city already has a Grand Mosque open to the city’s broader Muslim community.”
Lawmakers Protest Islamization by Extremists
Tovaglieri isn’t the first E.U. leader to raise an alarm about the project. Labeling the project “a Eurabian nightmare,” E.U. parliamentarian Silvia Sardone warned in 2021 that “Islamists are now taking over in Europe’s capital city” and “political Islam, the most dangerous form, supported by Erdoğan’s Turkey, is gaining ground here.”
“This large building will be located just two kilometers from another large mosque in the city,” Sardone protested. “According to some data, ten percent of all those registered for terrorism come from the Strasbourg region and from Alsace in general. Here, Muslims make up over 15% of the population.”
Sardone warned that the Turkish mosque is an expression of “the decline of France and a Europe that is bowing to Islamization and to the funding of less-than-democratic countries whose goal is to make our continent more Muslim. Mosques are multiplying, hate preachers are gaining ground, and entire neighborhoods in several cities are now in the hands of extremists.”
Speaking in Strasbourg, Tovaglieri reiterated Sardone’s concerns, reporting that there are already 27 official mosques in Strasbourg, and numerous other illegal mosques. “This is not integration,” she said. “This is a real ethnic and cultural substitution—a battle of civilization that we risk losing if Europe does nothing.”
Austria, Netherlands, and Germany Pushing Back
In 2012, Millî Görüş claimed to operate over 514 mosques and cultural centers in eleven European countries. Some European countries have taken steps to halt Turkey’s Islamist incursion into Europe. Austria amended its Islam Act (Islamgesetz) in 2015, banning Turkish funding for Islamic associations and mosques, FWI reported earlier this year.
German intelligence has also warned that Millî Görüş is promoting a multi-generational expansion of its infrastructure in Germany, aiming “to familiarize children and young people with their own interpretation of Islam and the socio-political goals derived from it.”
A report by the Ministry of Justice and Security in the Netherlands titled Islamist Radicalization among the Turkish Dutch blamed Millî Görüş for the rise in Islamism, stating: “The ideology can be characterized as intolerant and seems to be at least partly inspired by Salafist thought.”
The Eyyûb Sultan mosque did not respond to FWI’s request for comment.
