An investigation by Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism has documented a “significant penetration” by the Muslim Brotherhood and its Hamas-linked affiliates across Europe, through a sprawling network of charities used to fund terrorism.
The report, titled “The Muslim Brotherhood Across Europe,” warns that the MB is promoting a radical vision of Islam geared towards a Shariah-governed society, supporting terrorist organizations through charitable fronts, and promoting narratives normalizing antisemitism and delegitimizing Israel.
Sweden, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain, and the Netherlands have been extensively infiltrated as the MB “operates through ‘soft’ methods” putting on “a façade of moderation and pragmatism” to advance its objectives, the 73-page dossier warns, adding that the network’s tactics pose an existential threat to the future of Jews on the continent.
Published in late February, the report finds that the MB works through a sprawling network of pan-European networks, such as the Council of European Muslims (CEM), the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organizations (FEMYSO), the Europe Trust, the European Council for Fatwa and Research, and the European Institute of Human Sciences.
While presenting a veneer of diversification through these bodies, the “upper echelon” of the European Brotherhood remains in the grip of “a small, Islamist, closed, and cohesive clique whose objective is to exercise control over organized Islam across the continent.”
Doctrine of “Financial Jihad”
According to the report, MB-affiliates finance terrorism, including funding for Hamas, under the conceptual model of “financial jihad” (al-jihad bil-mal), which expands the meaning of “holy war” to include financial support for jihadi fighters as of paramount religious importance.
The model cites rulings by leading religious figures, such as Ayatollah Khomeini, authorizing the use of zakat funds (Islamic alms) to finance armed struggle against Israel, and calls by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi to provide financial donations to the mujahideen (holy fighters).
Since zakat is a religious obligation imposed on all Muslims, the doctrine of “financial jihad” serves as a “sustainable mechanism” ensuring a steady flow of funds for terrorist activities. Further, it offers religious justification by reinterpreting charity as a mandate for “holy war” and also enables the concealment of subversive financial activity from law enforcement authorities.
The report identifies the Union of Good (Ittilaf al-Kheir) as an umbrella organization for a decentralized network of over 50 Islamic charities and foundations operating worldwide. It names 16 charities operating in the U.K. and Europe, including INTERPAL, Al-Aqsa Charitable Foundation, Muslim Hands, Muslim Aid, Islamic Relief, and Education Aid for Palestine.
While multiple governments, including the U.S. and the E.U., have linked several of the charities to the funding of terrorism and even banned them, the organizations have attempted to evade sanctions through public denials, legal countermeasures, narratives of victimization, and by using multiple aliases and establishing successor entities, the report states.
The NGOs also adapt by using modern financial tools, including small bank transfers routed through third countries, informal cash courier networks, and potentially cryptocurrencies, the report reveals, citing the example of the Al-Aqsa Foundation.
The inquiry explains how the NGO operated as part of a broader network of Islamist charities so that when one node was shut down, donations could be rerouted through parallel channels.
“The Al-Aqsa saga exposes one of the structural vulnerabilities of European democracies: the capacity of organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood to operate in a grey zone,” the report observes. “Even after the original foundation ceased to function as a significant financial actor, its offshoots continued to operate under different names and through new tactics.”
Fatwas Promoting Death Penalty for Apostasy and the Hijab
“The study confirms what the intelligence community has been claiming already for years, namely that the Muslim Brotherhood is deeply infiltrated [and] embedded in the very texture of European society and that it therefore poses an imminent threat to our democracy and way of life,” Tomas Sandell, director of the European Coalition for Israel, told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI).
The report also highlights the role of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR)—a transnational body of Muslim jurists that issues collective religious legal rulings for Muslims in Europe—as the supreme religious authority of the MB in Europe.
The ECFR’s mobile app EURO FATWA was removed from the U.K. by Google Play because of its antisemitic content, including a statement asserting that “Muslims had brought shame upon Islam and behaved similarly to Jews who ruled that theft was permissible.” British media outlets described it as “the Muslim Brotherhood’s radicalization app.” The organization did not respond to an email inquiry from FWI.
In one of its most controversial fatwas on apostasy, the ECFR legislated in favor of the death penalty. The ruling states that the punishment is to be handed down by an Islamic state, is intended to protect the collective, and that it does not infringe upon freedom of expression or belief, since the apostate’s actions are deemed to harm the broader community and the state.
While the ECFR, which includes religious scholars from diverse legal schools like the Maliki, Hanbali, and Salafi, has also sparked controversy for its praise of jihad, support of Hamas, and for consistently requiring the hijab as a religious obligation.
A 2002 fatwa ruled that women in Europe must cover their hair, because doing so presents them as “serious and respectable women.” The ECFR further stated that the hijab is a religious obligation agreed upon by religious consensus. Another fatwa ruled that women must obtain their husband’s consent to cut hair, because the husband is the one who “benefits from her hair.”
Despite the above rulings, no Western government has banned the ECFR’s activities, the report noted.
“These warnings flagging up the penetration of the Muslim Brotherhood are not coming only from Israel or from those in the security apparatus but from Arab states where the Brotherhood is already banned and from inside Europe, where the political class is slowly waking up to this grim reality and is finally considering a ban,” Sandell told FWI. “One hopes, however, that it is not too little too late.”
