An event took place inside the European Parliament today arranged by IMPAC Belgium, the ECR Group in the European Parliament, and the European People’s Party. Entitled ‘Safeguarding Europe’, the event gathered policymakers, experts, and stakeholders in Brussels to examine the aims of the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates across European societies, democratic institutions, and the implications for security.
The discussion inside the European Parliament highlighted the Brotherhood’s ideological infiltration, strategies of influence, and links to extremism. The event’s aim to foster informed dialogue and collaborative action to mitigate these risks, aligning with the European Union’s broader counter-terrorism framework, which emphasises preventing radicalisation and protecting fundamental rights, as outlined in the EU Counter-Terrorism Strategy and the EU’s sanctions regime against terrorist entities.
The event opened with remarks from the hosting MEPS, including Bert-Jan Ruissen MEP, Dr Tomas Zdechovsky MEP and Charlie Weimers MEP. This was followed by a commemoration. There were moving scenes as representatives of the Christian, Druze, Iranian, Kurdish and Jewish communities spoke and lit candles in honour of those murdered, held captive or displaced by those “espousing anti-democratic, totalitarian ideology”. New artwork by blacksmith and metalworker Yaron Bob, best known for his work ‘Rockets Into Roses’, was unveiled via video.
Dr Florence Bergaud-Blackler of the Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Information sur le Brotherism (CERIF) and co-author of the report Unmasking The Muslim Brotherhood spoke about the “entryism” method that the Brotherhood uses in Europe to infiltrate European society via educational institutions, councils and aspects of everyday life, such as parent associations. She explained that, in Europe, “We keep making the same mistake, assuming that what is not visibly violent is not dangerous”.
The event in the European Parliament follows the publication in 2025 of a report by the French government. According to that report, the Muslim Brotherhood targets four areas of French life: religious infrastructure, education, digital media, and local community structures. It named several organizations in France it says are linked to the Brotherhood. They include the Averroès high school in Lille, the Al-Kindi school group near Lyon and two European Institutes of Human Sciences, which focus on teaching Arabic and the Quran. “The Brotherhood’s strategy,” says the report, “is to install a form of ideological hegemony by infiltrating civil society under the guise of religious and educational activities.” It also highlights a broader “ecosystem” in several French cities, with Brotherhood-linked structures in education, charity work and religion that cooperate with each other. Similar concerns have been raised in other European nations, such as Belgium and Switzerland.
However, discussion inside the European Parliament today was not limited to Europe. On the sidelines of the event, concerns were also raised among participants about the foothold that the Muslim Brotherhood has in Africa, especially in Sudan. Sudan’s Muslim Brotherhood–linked networks as deeply embedded in state institutions and closely aligned with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the current civil war. The Sudanese branch operates largely through the Islamic Movement and remnants of Omar alBashir’s National Congress Party, which grew out of Brotherhoodinspired Islamist activism. Since Bashir’s fall in 2019, these Islamist networks are reported to have reorganised covertly, infiltrating the Sudanese civil service and security institutions rather than acting as a conventional open party. The Islamic Movement / Muslim Brotherhood is seen by many commentators as an ideological and organisational backbone of Gen. Abdel Fattah alBurhan’s SAF camp, mobilising former intelligence officers and Islamist cadres into militias fighting alongside the army.
Discussion inside the European Parliament touched the different approaches that the Brotherhood uses on different continents. One Brussels-based NGO activist concluded: “In Sudan the Muslim Brotherhood has historically acted as an openly Islamist ruling current deeply embedded in the state and security apparatus, whereas in Europe it largely relies on longterm “soft” influence and entryism through front organisations, funding channels and representation claims.”
