CORK, Ireland: The Muslim Brotherhood has done irreparable harm to European’s view of Islam, and the influential group needs to be confronted over its ideas and philosophy by mainstream media and politicians on the continent.
That’s one of the major conclusions of a European Parliament panel discussion on Islam earlier this week on the reasons behind the spread of radicalisation of Muslims.
Given the Belgium has been rocked by a series of serious terrorist attacks on the Brussels airport and metro system last year by Islamic extremists, the panel focused on trying to figure out what drove Muslims to become radicalised.
Opening the event that drew leading academics and researchers, Marijana Petir, a Croation Member of the European Parliament, highlighted the difficulties being experienced in the Western Balkans where groups seeking to further the cause of political Islam are taking advantage of poor communities in Bosnia Herzegovina.
The Brussels event was organised by the Trends Research and Advisory think tank, along with the European Foundation for Democracy and was hosted by Petir, who sits with the European People’s Party grouping.
Groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood are also working to radicalise youth who can then enter the European Union through Croatia, posing a threat to all of Europe, Petir noted, adding she recognised that poverty or difficult socio-economic circumstances do not explain paths to radicalisation, and that it is necessary to identify the causes of the radicalisation which is the ideology being put forth by those supporting political Islam.
The experts examined a wide range of examples around Europe where it is clear that organisations like the Brotherhood are furthering an ideology that manipulates ideas from Islam to create polarisation in societies.
This deliberate manipulation of religion involves creating narratives of victimhood and exclusion, telling Muslims that Europe somehow is against Islam, when the reality is that individuals can exercise their freedom of religion and other rights in Europe without any difficulty.
The panel looked at recent events in Sweden, where a parliament report of the Brotherhood’s activities there noted that the government has refused to confront the emerging role of political Islam in the nation.
Sweden has a long-standing policy of embracing multiculturalism, but that has had a negative effect in that the government is unwilling to challenge the views proffered by the Muslim Brotherhood, with the result that the group exerts undue influence on how Islam is viewed, understood and treated.
Even though the evidence of the problem has been clear for years, the matter is becoming worse as a generation of youth will be manipulated by this ideology, the panel noted.
In Belgium itself, a government report prepared in the wake of the March 2016 terror attacks in Brussels notes how the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups infiltrate Muslim society and inspire violent ideas. This is done by the Brotherhood using language with double meaning to show governments that they are not the problem to address. The reality, however, is different – it is creating separations in society and polarising views which fuel radicalisation and violence.
The panel said the Muslim Brotherhood and other similar groups that exploits Islam for political purposes must be confronted about their ideas to reveal their true beliefs and how the portray society and religion.
Effectively, groups like the Muslim Brotherhood are responsible, the panel said, for the way Europeans view Islam. Politicians also need to be more aware of what groups like the Muslim Brotherhood are doing and the impact of their politicisation of religion. While their activities may be non-violent, they have been proven, as shown in the Brussels report, their ideology supports and inspires to those that use violence.
Politicians need to be able to have the strength to demand all groups adhere to the rules of European society, and not claim that their belief system puts them outside the laws of Europe. That’s the only effective way, the panel concluded, to develop more effective preventive measures to counter radicalisation of Muslims
