The European Commission, the primary executive branch of the European Union, funnels millions of euros into projects that promote Islam, some involving Islamists and the ideological rewriting of European history and culture.
How far will this compromise go in the name of living together?
Leading lawmakers and scholars have warned that the European Commission’s lavish funding for research on the Qur’an, Sharia, Islamophobia, and Islamic charity advances Islamist advocacy and fuels radical historical revisionism.
In particular, critics object to the EC’s funneling nearly 10 million euros into a six-year research project (2019-2025) titled “The European Qur’an (EuQu)” which seeks “to understand how the Holy Book has influenced both culture and religion in Europe.”
Rewriting European History
Despite claims of neutrality, the project admits that it is biased towards “the recognition that the Qur’an has played an important role in the formation of medieval and early modern European religious diversity and identity and continues to do so.”
Through exhibitions, conferences, and book publications, the EuQu project insists it is “rewriting the history of the European Qur’an by placing European perceptions of the Holy Book and of Islam into the fractured religious, political, and intellectual landscape of the period from 1150 to 1850.”
Academics and politicians have criticized the project for attempting to engage in historical revisionism, which is one of the best-funded initiatives of the European Research Council (ERC). Critics have also linked the initiative to voices aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Scholars Blast EU-Funded Islamic Propaganda
Islamic scholars like Raymond Ibrahim, who have also raised concerns over the EuQu, have warned that the project “has one overarching goal: to convince Europeans that Islam and the Koran were somehow foundational pillars of European civilization.”
“This isn’t just about history—it’s about shaping the present. About social engineering. About convincing Europeans that Islam has always belonged here, and if you think otherwise, well, clearly you haven’t read the Koran through our carefully curated exhibitions,” Ibrahim wrote.
“This isn’t scholarship. It’s propaganda—historical reeducation dressed in academic robes, bought and paid for by Brussels bureaucrats working with Muslim subversives, and laundered through compliant universities,” he added, explaining that the ultimate goal of the project is “to ‘prove’ that Muslims have every right to be in Europe, and that Europeans have every duty to welcome them in.”
French anthropologist Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, who has been persecuted for her work on the infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood into academic and political circles, stressed that the project would never use “taboo” historical-critical methods to study the Qur’an. She warned that the project was captive to the Brotherhood’s project of “European Islam” and would be conducted within the framework of what they call the “Islamization of knowledge.”
Bergeaud-Blackler identified leading academics on the EuQu project as aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood, including Naima Afif (translator of the writings of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood) and John Tolan (who lectures at the theological institute of the Muslim Brotherhood in Paris).
Propping Up Historical Revisionism
Aurele Tobelem, a historian and Director of Research at the Forum for Foreign Relations, told FWI that while there is “nothing objectionable about the academic study of Islam,” the “academic leadership and institutional affiliations of this program raise legitimate concerns.”
Tobelem explained that “one of the principal investigators is Prof. John Tolan, an American historian who has previously endorsed the controversial works of anti-Zionist scholar Shlomo Sand, particularly Sand’s denial of the Jewish people’s ancestral connection to the ancient Israelites exiled from their homeland during the Roman occupation of Judea.”
The historian also warned that “the project’s partnership with Columbia University and King’s College London—both recognized as significant recipients of Qatari funding and hotspots of Islamist radicalism within Western academia—should prompt serious questions about the ideological and intellectual narratives this initiative intends to promote.”
Muslim Brotherhood Links
French MEP Céline Imart has written to EC President Ursula von der Leyen protesting against the funding of “studies conducted by people close to the Muslim Brotherhood.” Imart is also objecting to the “identity-based proselytism contrary to European values.”
In an interview with CNEWS, EU parliamentarian Fabrice Leggeri said that Brussels was funding “ideological campaigns close to the Muslim Brotherhood” with European money. “How far will this compromise go in the name of living together?” he asked.
In April, Leggeri submitted a parliamentary question to the EC, noting “the involvement of researchers linked to networks close to the Muslim Brotherhood,” “direct links to institutions known for their ties with political Islamism,” and “a desire to use ideology to rewrite European history.”
“To make people believe that Islam has always had considerable importance in Europe is a falsification of history financed by public money,” Leggeri told Le Figaro. The project, “under the cover of the displayed rectitude of the human sciences, wants to make us forget what we are, like wokeism.”
Disproportionate Funding for Islamic Projects
In May, Italian MEP Silvia Sardone submitted a question to the EU parliament challenging EC funding, naming seven major Islamic projects. While the lawmaker did not specify the cash being spent on the initiatives, Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) can reveal the sums the EC has allocated to each project.
The following projects have received full EC funding for the cost of each project:
- Nativism, Islamophobia, and Islamism in the Age of Populism (€2,276,125)
- Openings to the Inclusion of Muslims in Democracies (€2,000,000)
- Mapping the Evolution of Sharia (€2,499,990)
- Animals in the Philosophy of the Islamic World (€2,343,661)
- Beyond Sharia: The Role of Sufism in the Creation of Islam (€2,499,625)
While the total cost of the above projects is €11,619,401, FWI found dozens of other fully funded Islamic projects on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. They include initiatives studying translational Islamic charity as a global force (€1,996,384), new forms of Muslim religiosity (€2,494,455), and the canonization of the Quranic reading traditions (€1,999,818).
EU Defends Funding for Islamic Projects
The EU Commissioner for research, Ekaterina Zaharieva, has responded to allegations of bias and Islamist links, insisting that the projects are “world-class scholarly undertakings that advance the frontiers of knowledge” and that “the sole criterion for funding is the scientific excellence of the proposal.”
Nolan hit back, arguing that the project would “try to understand the place of Islam and the Quran in a secular and scientific way.” He claimed that the EuQu is “against the radicalism of the Wahhabis and the Salafists.”
A 2021 report by the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament concluded that the EU has fallen into the “trap” of “disbursing large amounts of
money to finance Muslim Brotherhood organizations or empowering them and their members in different ways.”
In funding Brotherhood-influenced organizations, the EU “is embracing not a friend, but a political foe” and risks “financing the undermining, and ultimately the destruction of our own values,” the report warned.
