France’s lower chamber of parliament has passed a resolution categorizing the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, citing its “subversive ideology, its backing of terrorist entities like Hamas, its calls for hatred, and its covert action against democratic institutions.”
During a five-hour acrimonious debate, the National Assembly voted 157 to 101 on January 22 to include the MB and its leadership on the European list of terrorist organizations, with the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI)—“France Unbowed”—voting to kill the non-binding resolution.
[I]f you want to stone homosexuals, vote for La France Insoumise.
The resolution “emphasizes strongly” that the Brotherhood movement “constitutes a global ideological threat to the fundamental principles of the European Union,” by promoting “a politico-religious separatism based on the challenge to the sovereignty of civil laws.”
It asks the European Union to legally recognize the political dimension of Islamist separatism advocated by the MB to “effectively combat institutional subversion carried out under the cover of associations,” whether religious, cultural, educational, sporting, or charitable.
Ban Could Drive Groups Underground
The rapporteur for the proposal, Éric Pauget, said that the initiative introduced by the Les Républicains (LR) party was intended to target a “political movement” whose goal is to “establish Sharia law over the law of the Republic.” It would also enable the freezing of funding and facilitate the exchange of information between EU member states.
The resolution follows an explosive report, titled “Unmasking the Muslim Brotherhood: Brotherism, Islamophobia and the EU,” co-authored by Florence Bergeaud-Blackler and Tommaso Virgili, which found that the EU has directed substantial taxpayer funding to MB affiliates, enabling them to advance an Islamist agenda, Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) reported in December.
“The resolution adopted by the National Assembly is a positive signal sent by French members of parliament,” Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, president of the European Centre for Research and Information on Brotherism, told FWI. The anthropologist, however, warned that such a resolution “can create a false sense of security, as banning a secret society is often ineffective when that society operates within the bounds of the law.”
Bergeaud-Blackler, author of The Muslim Brotherhood and Its Networks: The Investigation, elaborated:
The Brotherhood is a subversive ideology that uses democratic institutions against democracy. Only by understanding how it operates and disseminating this knowledge to the entire population can the public defend itself and stand firm on secularism, diversity, and democratic values. A ban can be counterproductive in the case of a victimhood ideology.
Debate Reveals Islamo-Leftist Alliance
During the debate, right-wing politicians remarked on how the unanimous opposition of Leftist parties to the resolution served to highlight the sinister alliance between Leftist parties and Islamist movements.
Laurent Jacobelli, representing Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) party, slammed LFI’s opposition to the bill. “The Muslim Brotherhood wants to stone homosexuals, well, if you want to stone homosexuals, vote for La France Insoumise,” he stated.
“I cannot, for a single moment, tolerate your insinuation that my commitment goes against human equality,” retorted Pierre-Yves Cadalen, a member of LFI and who identifies as gay.
LFI has demonstrated its collusion with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“You don’t need a hammer to kill a fly!” Aurélien Saintoul (LFI) argued. “I don’t want to put the Muslim Brotherhood on the list of terrorist organizations, even though I have nothing in common with them.” “Name one terrorist attack perpetrated by the Muslim Brotherhood!” he asked.
Justine Gruet (RN) stressed that the resolution was “a first step in the fight against Islamist infiltration in France.” But, by “systematically obstructing” it throughout the morning, “LFI has demonstrated its collusion with the Muslim Brotherhood,” she noted.
Gabriel Amard (LFI) attacked the resolution as a “racist text,” while Algerian-born Soumya Bourouaha from the French Communist Party slammed the proposal as a vehicle to stigmatize Muslims and pander to the far-right. “By calling for the blanket and indiscriminate inclusion of such a heterogeneous movement in this proposed resolution, a tool of the fight against terrorism is being misused,” she observed.
“Why this stubborn insistence on defending the Muslim Brotherhood?” Ian Boucard (RN) asked. Parliamentarians traded insults using epithets like “racists,” “conspiracy theorists,” “Islamophobes,” “witch hunts,” “fascists,” “anti-Semites,” and “Hamas supporters” during the rancorous debate.
France Sees Spike in Islamist Movements
Several reports and surveys over the last year have warned of a sharp rise in Islamism in France.
A November 2025 survey, published by the French Institute of Opinion Polls, found that a significant number of young French Muslims privilege Sharia over state laws, prefer to wear a veil and refuse to shake hands with the opposite sex. Most Islamists align with the Muslim Brotherhood (32%), while others are favorably disposed to Salafism (9%), Wahhabism (8%), Tabligh (8%), Takfir (6%), and Jihadism (3%), FWI reported.
In a decree issued on September 3, 2025, France’s interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, announced the dissolution of the European Institute of Human Sciences (IESH). President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister François Bayrou co-signed the decree.
The five-page decree asserted that leading Muslim Brotherhood figures have led IESH since its founding in 1990 in Château‑Chinon, central France. It noted that the Brotherhood “advocates a radical Islamist ideology aimed at the advent of a society governed by Islamic law.”
In May 2025, a confidential report produced by France’s intelligence agencies concluded that the Brotherhood movement is a “threat to national cohesion” in France, and action must be taken to stop the spread of “political Islamism.”
The report pointed to the spread of Islamism “from the bottom up” and at the municipal level, adding that the phenomenon constituted “a threat in the short to medium term.” It highlighted the “subversive nature” of the Islamist project,” saying it aims “to gradually bring about changes to local or national rules,” particularly those concerning secularism and gender equality.
According to a classified report from French intelligence agencies in May 2025, the MB poses “a threat to national cohesion” within France, necessitating measures to halt the expansion of “political Islamism.” The report identified Islamism as spreading “from the bottom up” and locally, deeming it “a threat in the short to medium term.”
It underscored the “subversive nature” of the Islamist agenda, which seeks “to gradually bring about changes to local or national norms,” particularly those related to secularism and gender equality.
