France is investigating the growing influence of a group known as the Muslim Brotherhood, as a new government report labels it a \u201cthreat to the nation.\u201d In response, French President Emmanuel Macron is considering new policies to counter the group\u2019s actions, including even a ban on Muslim headscarves for girls.<\/p>\n
Macron ordered a government meeting to address the report, which stemmed from an investigation initiated by Macron in 2024.<\/p>\n
The official report was set to be released by the end of the week of May 19 but was leaked early<\/a>. It reportedly said the group is working to weaken French society by spreading political Islamism through local groups, schools, charities and sports programs.<\/p>\n What is the Muslim Brotherhood?<\/p>\n The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Islamist movement founded in Egypt in 1928 with the aim of creating a society governed by Islamic law. While it presents itself as a religious and social organization, its political activities and influence have sparked controversy across the Middle East and Europe.<\/p>\n The group has inspired a network of affiliated organizations that promote Islamic values in public life. Though not officially banned in France, authorities have grown increasingly concerned about its alleged attempts to influence institutions and challenge the country\u2019s secular model.<\/p>\n While not banned in France, other countries, like Egypt, have banned the group. The governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have accused it of promoting extremism and threatening political stability.<\/p>\n France\u2019s report accuses the Brotherhood of operating under the guise of fighting Islamophobia, while actually promoting \u201can influence campaign\u201d that challenges France\u2019s strict separation of religion and state. According to a version of the report obtained by Politico<\/a>, the Brotherhood and its ideological allies allegedly tried to sway Brussels leadership to adopt policies more in line with Islamic law, including calls to criminalize blasphemy.<\/p>\n The report also claims the group\u2019s network received funding from Qatar and Kuwait and used European organizations like the Council of European Muslims and the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organizations to push its agenda.<\/p>\n Macron pushes for policy proposals to address concerns<\/p>\n Macron asked his ministers to come up with ideas for how to respond to the report by June. The president\u2019s office said the situation is \u201cserious\u201d and needs a fast response.<\/p>\n In response to the leak, former French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, head of Macron\u2019s Renaissance Party, proposed banning Muslim headscarves in public for girls under 15. The party also wants to introduce a \u201ccriminal offence for coercion against parents who force their underage daughters to wear the veil,\u201d according to the proposed ban\u2019s language<\/a>.<\/p>\n Political reactions to Muslim Brotherhood report<\/p>\n Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, leader of the far-left La France Insoumise party, accused the government of fueling Islamophobia and \u201cgiving credence\u201d to far-right narratives.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s enough! You\u2019re going to destroy the country,\u201d he wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n The French Muslim Council also warned against generalizing the Muslim population.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state must above all not feed a generalized suspicion toward Muslims in France,\u201d the group said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the other side, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, a high-profile politician in the country\u2019s main conservative party, Les R\u00e9publicains<\/a>, said the report demonstrates how \u201cIslamist infiltration is a threat.\u201d The president of the country\u2019s far-right party, the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, told a French news outlet<\/a> the Muslim Brotherhood poses \u201cone of the most existential challenges facing our country.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tZachary Hill (Video Editor)\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tand Devin Pavlou (Digital Producer)
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcontributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France is investigating the growing influence of a group known as the Muslim Brotherhood, as a new government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[30705,34,2000,299,36,30706,522,9203,30700,30707,30708,30709,30701,30710],"class_list":{"0":"post-123696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-distro","9":"tag-emmanuel-macron","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-imds","14":"tag-international","15":"tag-muslim","16":"tag-news-update","17":"tag-newsbreak","18":"tag-oovvuu","19":"tag-smartnews","20":"tag-text-only","21":"tag-ve"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114553911022420503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}