French report is an alert to all of Europe on the quiet threat of the Muslim Brotherhood

A French government report describing the Muslim Brotherhood as “a threat that spreads insidiously and progressively,” has put the spotlight not only on the secretive movement’s growing influence in France, but also on the extremist threat it poses more widely around Europe, writes James Wilson.

The 73-page report, recently declassified by Bruno Retailleau, the French Minister of the Interior, describes how the Muslim Brotherhood threatens to undermine national cohesion through a discreet and methodical strategy of entryism, meaning attempts to quietly gain influence within institutions.

Written by diplomat François Gouyette, a former French ambassador with postings in multiple Middle East and north African countries, and Pascal Courtade, Aube Prefect, the report is the result of research in France and Europe and includes interviews with academics and Muslim leaders at national and local level. 

According to the report, the Muslim Brotherhood targets four areas of French life: religious infrastructure, education, digital media, and local community structures. It names 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.

President Macron has expressed his concern about the ‘seriousness of the facts’ and instructed his government to present new proposals to combat the Muslim Brotherhood at the start of next month. His spokesman said the president recognised the Muslim Brotherhood was a ‘threat to national cohesion’, and that it was imperative to ‘inform the general public and local elected representatives about the threat and how it works.’ Government spokesperson Sophie Primas told Europe 1: “This report corroborates real facts and will allow us to act,” describing it as an “awareness of the reality of the danger”.

The Brotherhood’s apparent aim of gaining leverage via local European politics is causing particular alarm in France and elsewhere. Interior minister Retailleau is said to have declassified the report in order to draw the public’s attention to the organisation ahead of the 2026 local elections in France. ‘There’s a risk next year that they’ll be running in local elections with the rhetoric: “If you take us on, we’ll bring in a bunch of votes”,’ he said in a recent interview. It is feared that the Muslim Brotherhood could integrate candidates into mainstream parties and deliver the Muslim vote in exchange for political concessions aligned with their Islamist agenda.

“The Brotherhood’s public face is polished. But the report emphasizes the movement’s use of “double discourse”—projecting moderation in public while promoting antisemitism, gender segregation, and ideological separatism in private,” Simone Rodan-Benzaquen explained. She adds,  “The Brotherhood’s new frontier is digital. The report details a wave of online influencers—trained in Brotherhood institutions, fluent in grievance politics, and calibrated for younger audiences. Some present as activists fighting “Islamophobia”.” The Muslim Brotherhood aims to misconstrue what the French Republic stands for in terms of laïcité [secularism], in particular to try to demonstrate to Muslims that the state is Islamophobic.

Concerns about the organisation go well beyond France. Politico details how the French government report alleges that organisations with links to the Muslim Brotherhood have been attempting to influence European Union institutions through “significant lobbying activities.” The European Parliament and MEPs were “particularly targeted,” the report said.  The Council of European Muslims (CEM), based in Brussels since 2007 is said to coordinate and implement the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence strategy across European countries and institutions. One of the Brotherhood’s key instruments is the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO), which is registered in the EU’s Transparency Register. France and Austria are joining forces to oppose European funding for Islamist extremist groups. Benjamin Haddad, the French Junior Minister for Europe, met Claudia Plakolm, Austria's Minister for Europe, to forge a common position.

George Washington University’s Program on Extremism has reported on European Security Services and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Pan-European Network, explaining that “all European security services which have publicly expressed views on the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe over the last twenty years have clearly and consistently stated that: 1. An extensive and sophisticated network linked to the Brotherhood operates covertly in Europe, both at the national and pan-European level (through its umbrella organization, FIOE/CEM, and spinoffs like FEMYSO); 2. European-based Brotherhood-linked activists have created front organizations that allow them to operate within society and advance their agenda without being easily recognizable as being part of the Brotherhood; and 3. Brotherhood networks in Europe are not engaged in terrorism but have views and goals that are problematic, subversive, undemocratic, and incompatible with basic human rights and Western society.”

The challenge, for France, and for the rest of Europe, is how to tackle the Muslim Brotherhood with clear eyes and realism, while embracing and protecting the overwhelming majority of Muslim citizens who respect and contribute to the national societies in which they live.  French leaders are determined not to allow the report or any subsequent policies to be misconstrued as anti-Muslim. President Macron has stated that Islam has a place in French society. And Interior’s Retailleau has expressed similar commitments: “I will never, ever, confuse Islamic faith with this Islamist hatred that disfigures it. We stand by this distinction.”

Photo by Allan Francis on Unsplash

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