Beware the Brotherhood

“Look to the rock from which you were hewn

And to the quarry from which you were dug.”

–Isaiah 51:1b¹

When it comes to Islamism and the Muslim Brotherhood, Britain and France pay close and wary attention while Canada barely glances. It should be different. The Western European nations share the same Christian and democratic roots as well as a Muslim presence. In addition, the Canadian coat of arms includes the Union Jack and Fleur de Lys in acknowledgement of Britain and France as founding nations.² Governments from these motherlands have made official investigations of the ideology, presence, and Islamist practices of the Brotherhood, and concluded it is a threat worth responding to. It is time for Canada to take a look of its own.

In April of 2014, British Prime Minister David Cameron commissioned a report on the origin, ideology, and activities of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in the UK, western Europe, and the Arab world. Former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Sir John Jenkins and Charles Farr, the Director-General of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism in the Home Office were assigned to the task. Jenkins visited twelve countries, met representatives of academia, religion, politics, and governments, and also talked to independent commentators. Jenkins also talked to representatives of MB and other Islamist movements.3

The findings were so politically sensitive that they were never fully released. The investigation wrapped up in July of 2014, but citizens only received a few pages of “Main Findings”4 in December of 2015. Some of these findings follow in the paragraphs below.

The report stated that when Hassan al Banna founded MB in Egypt in 1928, his goal was “the religious reformation of individual Muslims, the progressive moral purification of Muslim societies and their eventual political unification in a Caliphate under sharia law. . . . Al Banna and others argued that secularisation and westernisation were at the root of all contemporary problems of Arab and Muslim societies and that nationalism was not the answer.”5 To advance these goals, MB “organized itself into a secretive ‘cell’ structure, with an elaborate induction and education programme for new members. It relied heavily on group solidarity and peer pressure to maintain discipline. This clandestine, centralised and hierarchical structure persists to this day.”⁶

In 1954, Egyptian President Gamal Nasser cracked down on this threat to Egyptian democracy using arrests, torture, and executions. Twenty years later, while Anwar Sadat was president, MB made a resurgence and gained a foothold in Egyptian politics. The MB grip was more firm on trade unions, professional syndicates, and student organizations as it developed a somewhat clandestine network of commercial enterprises and charities. MB held power in Egypt through President Mohamed Morsi and his Freedom and Justice Party between 2011 and 2013. Jenkins concluded MB “did not do enough to demonstrate political moderation or a commitment to democratic values, [and] had failed to convince Egyptians of their competence or good intentions.”⁷

During the lifetime of Al Banna, who supported the use of violence for political goals, assassinations were attempted “against Egyptian state targets and both British and Jewish interests,” some successfully.⁸ Sayyid Qutb, a key MB ideologue, was imprisoned under Nasser. Qutb promoted takfirism as he drew on the thinking of Abul Ala’a Mawdudi, founder of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami in India. The takfiri doctrine “has consistently been understood as a doctrine permitting the stigmatisation of other Muslims as infidel or apostate, and of existing states as unIslamic, and the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society.” Qutb regarded many Islamic states of his day as “unIslamic” and held that it was legitimate and inevitable that their “unjust” rulers would be confronted. Qutb was executed in Egypt in 1966.⁹ 

The MB has never “institutionally disowned” his views, although the Egyptian MB officially disowned violence in exchange for renewed freedom to reorganize politically and socially. Regardless, the takfiri ideology espoused by Qutb grew. Takfirism inspired the assassins of Sadat (under whose reign MB was allowed to exist openly while it promised non-violence). The ideology also inspired many terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda. In Palestine, the founding charter of Hamas listed it as a branch of MB and the Brotherhood has openly supported it with funds. The MB at all levels has defended Hamas’ use of suicide bombers and killing Israeli civilians. In addition, the Egyptian and Jordanian branches of MB are closely connected to Hamas.¹⁰ Jenkins concluded that MB prefers “non-violent incremental change on the grounds of expediency” but is “prepared to countenance violence—including, from time to time, terrorism—where gradualism is ineffective.”¹¹

The international network of MB had expanded to Europe by the 1950s, comprised largely of exiles and overseas students. Their main focus was to recruit and educate through study groups. In the 1990s MB and other Islamists established national organizations that did not admit connections to MB. The Muslim Association of Britain became politically active and promoted candidates locally and nationally while the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) established a dialogue with government. That dialogue ended in 2009 after one of its leaders signed a public document that condoned violence against any country that supported an arms blockade against Gaza.¹²

Since 2001, the Islamic Society of Britain has distanced itself from MB and the MCB and has attempted to promote a British identity with British values. The report accepted it as the first post-Islamist organization that had emerged from the MB movement.¹³

By 2014, the UK Islamic Mission (UKIM) ran fifty mosques. Materials UKIM promoted claimed it was “not possible for an observant Muslim to live under a non-Islamic system of government (and anticipated the forthcoming ‘victory’ of Islam over communism, capitalist democracy and secular materialism.)” Documentary footage in 2010 showed members of the Islamic Forum For Europe advocating sharia law in Tower Hamlets. They also supported Lufter Rahman while he was mayor of Tower Hamlets.¹⁴

MB-inspired organizations in the UK are vocal supporters of Hamas. Even though the EU had placed assets for Hamas under seizure and the UK had declared its military wing a terrorist organization since 2001, Hamas was found to have been politically active in the UK since 2004. Charities such as Interpal were found to be an important part of Hamas and MB infrastructure. London had become a communications outpost for MB organizations both within the UK and abroad. The report noted that despite its denials, the UK-based Cordoba Foundation was associated with MB.¹⁵

The report concluded that “aspects of Muslim Brotherhood ideology and tactics, in this country and overseas, are contrary to our values and have been contrary to our national interests and our national security.” Also, “much about the Muslim Brotherhood in the UK remains secretive, including membership, fundraising and educational programmes,” but “organisations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood continue to have an influence here which is disproportionate to their size,” especially upon Muslim student, community, and charitable organizations.¹⁶

Prior to the public release of the report’s main findings, Prime Minister David Cameron told students in Birmingham, England,

What we are fighting, in Islamist extremism, is an ideology. It is an extreme doctrine.

And like any extreme doctrine, it is subversive. At its furthest end it seeks to destroy nation-states to invent its own barbaric realm. And it often backs violence to achieve this aim – mostly violence against fellow Muslims – who don’t subscribe to its sick worldview.¹⁷

Cameron promised anti-extremism measures were forthcoming. He acknowledged the 4,000 cases of female genital mutilation that occurred in the UK in 2014 and 11,000 known cases of honour-based violence over the previous five years. Cameron promised legislation against forced marriage. He acknowledged the “Trojan Horse scandal” where 21 schools in Birmingham were investigated over apparent efforts by Muslims to Islamicize them.¹⁸

Across the English Channel, France would soon make its own examinations. The first of these was penned by Hakim El Karoui and his colleagues at the Paris-based Institut Montaigne in their 2018 report, “The Islamist Factory.”¹⁹  The report was backed by extensive research, including reviews of over 200 books and scholarly reports, 60 interviews, WikiLeaks documents from Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry, analysis of 275 fatwas and an extensive examination of the origin and frequency of Islamist content on social networks.²⁰ El Karoui found that Islamism was incompatible with western values, but the west had not comprehended it. He wrote,

[I]t appears that Islamism is a powerful but poorly understood contemporary ideology. Its aim is clear: to create a global project with religion as the life framework and the project for the individual and society. Its values are often opposed to Western values: group vs. individual, religious norm vs. individual freedom, inequality between men and women vs. the pursuit of equality, etc. . . .

While there are major ideological differences between the Wahhabis and the Muslim Brothers, both groups seek to turn Islam into a way of life and a program for the individual and society, aiming to preserve an Islamic civilization and to establish a universalist and proselyte vision of Islam.

In 2019, the French Senators Nathalie Delattre and Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio led a commission of inquiry for its own eight-month investigation. Following interviews with over 60 witnesses, the authors released a 244-page report on July 7, 2020, entitled On the responses provided by public authorities to the development of Islamist radicalization and the means to fight against it.²¹ 

The Commission report said much of the MB’s support came from Turkey and Qatar. It determined that the MB controlled 147 mosques in France (roughly 10 percent of the total) as well as 600 organizations, such as charities, sports clubs, and cultural centres. The MB branch in France, called Musulmans de France, refused to participate. The report called MB a dangerous organization and the top Islamist enemy of France.²²

The Commission’s 44 proposals included a total ban of MB leaders from France, including those already living in the country and global leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi who was born in Egypt but lives in Qatar. The commission openly questioned why Qaradawi’s book “The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam” was freely available in France despite its antisemitism, antigay sentiments, and calls for jihad.²³

The report recommended that France not renew agreements with other countries concerning the training and importation of foreign imams. Half of the 300 imams sent to France from abroad are from Turkey, even though just five per cent of French Muslims are Turks.²⁴

The MB made its first major breakthrough in France while Nicolas Sarkozy was Interior Minister. In 2003 the future president founded the French Muslim Council. This put MB in the position of representing all French Muslims, despite their minority position within the Islamic community.²⁵

Emmanuel Macron took a different approach during his election campaign in 2017 when he promised to oppose Islamism. On July 7, 2020, the same day the Senate report was released, Macron appointed Gerard Darmanin²⁶ as Interior Minister. Darmanin had roots in Muslim North Africa, since his grandfather was an Algerian soldier who fought alongside French Free Forces against Hitler’s Germany.²⁷ 

On July 16, 2020 French President Jean Castex promised new legislation in the fall to separate education and community organizations from religious practice.

“No religion, no school of thought, no organized group can appropriate public space and attack the laws of the republic,” said Castex. “[F]ighting radical Islamism in all its forms is and remains one of our major concerns. The whole government is concerned.”

By contrast, the Canadian government does not seem concerned whatsoever. Unlike Britain and France, Canada has made no serious inquiry into Islamism in Canada, let alone enacted countermeasures.²⁸ The Muslim Brotherhood seems unlikely to be a benign force and it would be in the Canadian interest to see what the extent of its influence is in Canada.

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1. New American Standard Bible, https://biblehub.com/nasb/isaiah/51.htm. Coat of arms of Canada photo converted to PNG by Fibonacci and then converted to svg by Zscout370., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41955572
2. https://www65.statcan.gc.ca/acyb07/acyb07_2018-eng.htm

3.https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486948/53163_Muslim_Brotherhood_Review_-_PRINT.pdf, p. 3.

4.https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486948/53163_Muslim_Brotherhood_Review_-_PRINT.pdf

5. Ibid., pp. 3-4.
6. Ibid., p. 4.
7. Ibid., p. 5.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid., p. 6.
12. Ibid., pp. 6-7.
13. Ibid., p. 8.
14. Ibid., p. 9.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid., pp. 9-10.
17. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-extremism-speech-read-the-transcript-in-full-10401948.html
18. https://theconversation.com/how-to-discuss-islam-and-education-following-the-trojan-horse-plot-82359
19. https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/publications/islamist-factory
20. Ibid.
21. http://www.senat.fr/rap/r19-595-1/r19-595-11.pdf. Translation of the

original “sur les réponses apportées par les autorités publiques au

développement de la radicalisation islamiste et les moyens de la combattre” was

made by Google Translate.

22. https://thelevantnews.com/en/2020/07/french-senate-strong-message-to-the-muslim-brotherhood/
23. https://thelevantnews.com/en/2020/07/french-senate-strong-message-to-the-muslim-brotherhood/
24. https://thelevantnews.com/en/2020/07/french-senate-strong-message-to-the-muslim-brotherhood/
25. https://thelevantnews.com/en/2020/07/french-senate-strong-message-to-the-muslim-brotherhood/
26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOjuJo-C9Ks
27. https://thelevantnews.com/en/2020/07/french-senate-strong-message-to-the-muslim-brotherhood/
28. Consider the comments of Canadian security expert Tom Quiggin during his interview by Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX2p8EB-TR0.

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Lee Harding is a research associate for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.