A British lawmaker contesting the Labor government’s proposed definition of “Islamophobia” is alerting the U.K. Parliament to links between a pan-European Muslim youth federation and Islamist organizations.
Nick Timothy, MP, warned the new home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, on September 8, 2025, that the Forum of European Muslim Youth Organizations (FEMYSO), which recently opened a U.K. office, had been identified by France as a “key player” in the Muslim Brotherhood (MB).
“While presenting itself as an advocacy group for Muslim youth, the backgrounds of several FEMYSO figures are deeply concerning,” Timothy wrote, cautioning that the organization’s presence in Britain “raises legitimate questions about potential risks to our national security and social cohesion.”
FEMYSO’s website claims that the pan-European network, consisting of 32 member organizations across 22 European countries and headquartered in Brussels, is “the voice of Muslim Youth in Europe and is regularly consulted on issues pertaining to Muslim Youth.”
While presenting itself as an advocacy group for Muslim youth, the backgrounds of several FEMYSO figures are deeply concerning.
As “the largest network of young Muslims in Europe,” FEMYSO boasts of its links with the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the United Nations.
French Report Exposes FEMYSO’s Muslim Brotherhood Links
But Timothy pointed out that France’s Interior Ministry had published a “comprehensive report” in May 2024, specifically naming FEMYSO “as a training structure for high-potential leaders within the Muslim Brotherhood movement.”
The French report described the youth forum as preparing “a new generation of activists committed to extending the Brotherhood’s influence into political, social, and academic spheres,” Timothy observed. The lawmaker warned that FEMYSO also maintains “operational ties” with other MB-linked institutions across Europe.
While four out of 11 members of FEMYSO’s Executive Committee are based in Britain, Timothy identified three leading figures in the Islamic youth forum as maintaining significant links with Islamist organizations.
Omar Abu-Qalbain, general secretary of FEMYSO, previously served as a project manager for the Muslim Charities Forum. This organization lost government funding because of purported connections to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The youth forum’s campaigns leader, Abdulsami Arjumand, formerly held a position at Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), an organization criticized by the previous Conservative government for its alleged “Islamist orientation and views.”
A 2017 report by the Henry Jackson Society warned that MEND officials “have expressed highly concerning views on terrorism” and “regularly hosted illiberal, intolerant and extremist Islamist speakers at public events.”
Former FEMYSO president Abdelrehman Rizk has links with Human Appeal, an Islamic charity accused of having ties to Hamas. Rizk serves as a trustee of the Muslim Student Charity, led by Mohammed Kozbar, who was removed as a Metropolitan Police advisor for praising Hamas founders.
Abdelrehman Rizk, the former president of FEMYSO, has links with Human Appeal, an Islamic charity accused of having ties to Hamas. Rizk is a trustee of the Muslim Student Charity, which is headed by Mohammed Kozbar, who was dismissed from his position as a Metropolitan Police advisor for expressing admiration for the founders of Hamas.
FEMYSO’s Involvement in Islamophobia Consultation
FEMYSO, registered as a charity in the U.K. in April 2020 (just one month before the release of the French report), collaborated with the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS). In turn, FOSIS has engaged with Islamist organizations like MEND, CAGE, and Prevent Watch to subvert the government’s anti-terrorism strategy, Timothy wrote.
The parliamentarian asked the Home Secretary if FEMYSO was involved in contributing to the government’s consultation on Islamophobia. He urged Mahmood to investigate the youth forum’s Islamist links and funding to ensure that the “government is not influenced by groups with a potentially subversive agenda.”
FEMYSO condemned the French government’s report in a May press release as a “defamatory and politically driven narrative that aims to delegitimize Muslim civil society actors.” While the youth forum’s statement did not name the MB, FEMYSO said it “categorically rejects any attempt to associate us with political entities.”
The network’s controversial links have sparked questions in the European Parliament. In March, the parliament’s vice president, Sabine Verheyen, was asked if FEMYSO had been granted funding under the Erasmus+ scheme—the EU’s flagship education program.
The written question submitted to Parliament noted that “according to Baden-Württemberg’s domestic intelligence service, FEMYSO is the umbrella organisation for the Muslim Brotherhood’s youth-related work.”
The question noted that several FEMYSO member organizations can be clearly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood network, including the Council of European Muslims‒Youth Department, Jeunes Musulmans de France, and Stowarzyszenie Studentów Muzułmańskich w Polsce.
E.U. Parliament Faces Questions Over Youth Network’s Islamist Links
In June, six members of the European Parliament raised a follow-up question asking the parliament if it had information disproving the French government’s allegations against FEMYSO, given the “threat that political Islamism poses to the future of the E.U.”
“If not, will the Commission stop all collaboration with FEMYSO in order to curb the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation which appears on an EU Member State’s blacklist of organisations linked to ‘religiously motivated crime’?” the lawmakers asked.
In July, seven E.U. lawmakers noted that FEMYSO had received 210,000 euros in funding under the Erasmus+ program. “Does the [European] Commission endorse Islamist propaganda?” they queried, questioning the E.U. to justify its “support for an organization identified by a French official report as a channel of influence for the Muslim Brotherhood.”
“Nick Timothy raises questions that need to be reviewed and responded to. Britain has enough problems, and we need to be confident in the background of community organizations working in our country,” Fiyaz Mughal OBE, founder of Tell MAMA, told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI). “They must be in line with our democratic and free society values, where people have the right to question anything about religion.”
According to the Global Influence Operations Report, a key leader of FEMYSO has been German Muslim Brotherhood leader Ibrahim El-Zayat. More recently, its leadership has included members of the family of leading Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including the daughter of Rachid Ghannouchi, a prominent figure in the history of Tunisia’s political Islam.
FEMYSO’s General Secretary Omar Abu-Qalbain did not respond to a request for comment.
