Dr. Bahaa Helmy: Europe in the Embrace of Muslim Brotherhood Thought

London may be the Brotherhood's first capital in the world, providing them with protection and an alternative base, given its historical responsibility for supporting the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in 1928, its embrace of leaders of violence and extremism, and the continuing alliance and understanding built between the two sides. Yet the Old Continent can no longer control the penetration of the Brotherhood project and its intellectual and ideological activity, at both the ideological and the demographic level, which has become a challenge to European society, its principles, the values of its citizens and social cohesion. This is due to reasons related to the identity and strategy of the Brotherhood organization, and others linked to the policies of European countries and the situation they have reached. As for the identity and ideologies of the Muslim Brotherhood, it is well known that the group does not believe in the nation-state or in belonging to the homeland; its identity lies in its subordination to an international organization seeking to realize the thinking of Hassan al-Banna, who gave the organization's ideology a political coloring on the grounds that Islam is total and comprehensive, covering every aspect of life. At its founding he defined the movement's goals as working to liberate Egypt, then working to restore the caliphate and reach the stage of comprehensive empowerment, meaning Brotherhood domination, to be achieved by focusing on the individual and the family, then the people, then reaching government and empowerment over Europe and the world. Turkey and Qatar have devoted all the financial and media support needed to set up and establish many organizations, associations and federations aimed at implanting and empowering the Brotherhood project in European countries – sometimes under the cover of helping and funding projects in areas where the Brotherhood current is growing, and sometimes under the cover of encouraging dialogue – using the Brotherhood's skills in changing colors and their methods of lying and deception to implement and spread the culture and ideas of the group, from whose belly all the fundamentalist and jihadist currents and groups attached to violence and terrorism have emerged. European countries have not yet noticed how dangerous the Brotherhood organization is, owing to a failure to grasp reality, despite the terrorist plots that have struck them from within, the rapid growth of the Brotherhood's capabilities and the expansion of its activity in spreading ideas of jihad and rejecting religious freedom and gender equality, even as it pretends to accept those principles in Europe. The role of directed Islamic communities serving the organization's goals, such as the Islamic community in France, is also growing. Members of the Brotherhood organization are active in European societies, whether as members of human rights organizations, through participation in various events and occasions, or by running and using media and electronic machines to broadcast fake and inflammatory news and information against the Egyptian State. Add to this the use of Qatari money to employ the Brotherhood opposition in Europe to pressure its governments to implement its agenda against Egypt and its allies – by distorting Egypt's human rights record, urging EU countries to ban the sale of security equipment to Egypt or to withhold the export of certain types of weapons to it on the pretext that they are used against human rights, or to incite the imposition of economic sanctions – at a time when Europe finds itself in the embrace and thinking of the Brotherhood. We note the change in the positions of some European leaders and governments and their attempts to bully Egypt, in fulfillment of the demands of the Brotherhood cultural institutions, research centers and associations that have become entrenched in Europe, and to please them, without realizing the awareness and understanding of the Egyptian people and their faith in their land and homeland, which is absent from the dictionary and culture of the Brotherhood. History will record against the leaders and governments of Western countries their cooperation with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is characterized by moral duplicity and ambitions of establishing a caliphate over Europe and the world, and their responsibility for not listing the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group to protect their societies. It seems that in the coming period further reports and statements will appear from presidents or governments of European or Western countries about human rights, enforced disappearance and torture in Egypt, alongside attempts to stir up sectarian strife and terrorism to strike tourism, to affect economic growth rates or to undermine the country's security and political stability. But they will come to realize that states are not built on slogans or plots, but by a people who believe in their unity, their capabilities and their goals.