الديمقراطية في فخ الإسلام السياسي

Since the mid-twentieth century, the Muslim Brotherhood has begun to weave the threads of its presence within European societies, not as a religious refugee, but as a long-term ideological project...

The group exploited the climate of freedoms in Europe, particularly freedom of expression and belief, to build a missionary infrastructure whose apparent purpose was preaching and guidance, while its underlying goal was political empowerment. The penetration of political Islam into the European arena was not random; rather, it was executed with precise methodology, based on a smart reading of legal loopholes and the European political environment...

Britain and France, due to their colonial legacy and their position in the Cold War, were among the first countries to open their doors, driven by intelligence calculations at times, and by liberal naivety at others.

In the 1950s, London embraced prominent Brotherhood figures fleeing the oppression of post-independence regimes, most notably Said Ramadan, the son-in-law of Hassan al-Banna and one of the key architects of the Brotherhood's expansion in the West... which turned Britain into their primary refuge...

Ramadan established the "Islamic Center" in Geneva at that time under a European cover, using it as a launching pad for a wide network of relations with Western circles, especially during the Cold War.

Later, other names emerged such as Kamal Helbawy, the former official spokesman for the Brotherhood in Europe, and Azam Tamimi, who led Brotherhood intellectual and media fronts in London, most notably the "Dialogue" channel and the "Al-Raed" newspaper.

These individuals and others contributed to establishing a soft Brotherhood discourse that superficially aligns with Western values while building a parallel ideological project.

Britain granted Islamic groups the management of major centers like Finsbury Park Mosque, which later became a platform for extremist discourse under the leadership of Abu Hamza al-Masri, and later became associated with figures like Anjem Choudary, who is linked to increasingly extremist currents... Despite these indicators, official dealings remained lenient under the pretext of "integration and pluralism."

In France, the situation was a compromised secularism and field collusion!! Despite the strictness of its secular model, France fell into the same trap... After waves of Maghreb immigration, the state resorted to dealing with organized Islamic groups, most notably the Union of Islamic Organizations in France (UOIF); which was founded by Sheikh Fouad Abdelly and later embraced figures like Ammar Lazaar and Tareq Oubrou, who presented themselves as a "moderate Islamic" current while being ideologically linked to the Brotherhood.

Among the most controversial figures was Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Hassan al-Banna and a former professor at Oxford University... Despite facing ethical issues later on, he remained presented as a symbol of "moderate European Islam" for many years and had significant influence within French academic and media elites.

The collusion of some French security circles was evident in empowering these figures to represent local councils, even facilitating their participation in "municipal elections," as part of the "calming the suburbs" strategy, which practically turned into unchecked political delegation.

Amidst all that was happening at the hands of the Brotherhood, extremism was infiltrating from Germany to the heart of Europe!! Alongside the Brotherhood's expansion, extremism began to spread from Germany, where names like Pierre Vogel emerged, the German preacher who played a pivotal role in spreading extremist thought among youth, especially those of immigrant backgrounds... His rhetorical support and jihadist phrases ignited the feelings of a significant segment of immigrants, in the absence of a balanced religious discourse from the state.

This wave of extremism later moved to Belgium (through the Sharia for Belgium organization), Austria, and the Netherlands, finding a fertile environment in socially fragile areas, where the state was absent and ideology was present...

Today, we are not talking about a sudden infiltration, but about three successive Brotherhood generations that have emerged and formed within Europe: the first generation of refugees and theorists, the second generation of children of immigrants who received their education within European institutions, and the third generation - the most dangerous - who hold European citizenship, speak its language, and participate in its institutions, but operate within an ideological project that transcends the boundaries of the nation-state...

Europe has paid - and continues to pay - a heavy price for ignoring the difference between Islam as a belief and political Islam as a project... It has handed over mosques and Islamic centers to ideological organizations that oppose democratic values from within, and has settled for formal oversight without real accountability.

Today, pressing questions arise: Who controls the production of religious discourse? Who shapes the consciousness of Muslim generations in Europe? Can a democracy that is exploited from within withstand a project that uses it to overthrow it?

The state is absent, the Islamists are in charge...