The Muslim Brotherhood faces tough pressures within Europe related to the continued restrictions and controls on its activities and the drying up of its sources of funding that began years ago, starting from Austria, then France, and finally Britain, which the organization considers its main stronghold. London has placed the Muslim Brotherhood group at the top of the extremism list, according to the new government definition of extremism. It states that extremism „is the promotion or endorsement of an ideology based on violence, hatred, or bigotry, aimed at destroying fundamental rights and freedoms, or undermining or replacing parliamentary liberal democracy in Britain, or creating an environment for others deliberately to achieve those outcomes.“ This decision imposes restrictions on the movement of the Muslim Brotherhood Europe-wide.
This impact will be an additional sanction against the extremist organization, which has been greatly affected since 2020 with the spread of COVID and the ban on gatherings inside mosques, which in turn negatively affected the fundraising movement for the organization.
On the other hand, experts for Islamism are not very optimistic that Britain’s decision to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization will deter the group, which exists in the country under names and slogans “concealing its true identity”. Experts also see the timing of the decision as difficult, coinciding with the war in Gaza; both Britain and the rest of Europe face challenges with the emergence of pro-Hamas demonstrations; Islamic groups have exploited the war to create confusion between supporting Palestinians and supporting Hamas. Therefore, London is now trying to limit the impact of Hamas supporters. At the same time that a new definition is being adopted to combat extremism, Muslim Brotherhood leaders, including Anas al-Tikriti’s son, who was one of the founding leaders of the Islamist association, have met officials in the past period, including London Police Chief Mark Rowley.
The inclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood on the extremism list is a step in a series of repeated steps taken by the British government from time to time, hoping to harness existing political momentum, and this is now linked to the war on Gaza, but the step will not fundamentally affect the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood in Britain has long experience in hiding its organizational networks and making changes to the structural organizations it owns, making it difficult to track and difficult to ban as well. As for the new definition, it is a step aimed at promoting that the government is taking measures to reduce anti-Semitism after the escalation of hatred, but this will not lead to a real breakthrough regarding the Muslim Brotherhood activity file; therefore, it will not have a significant impact in Europe.
In Britain, the Muslim Brotherhood is intricately linked to a highly significant network of interests, encompassing political, security, and social matters, which have made them of great importance to successive governments. This is achieved through a well-established institutional system, including a network of associations, amounting to nearly 60 organizations within Britain. Meanwhile, the volume of direct and indirect investments by the Muslim Brotherhood in Britain has grown. Estimates suggest that the organization possesses financial assets ranging between 8 to 10 billion USD. Muslim Brotherhood companies and institutions have obtained legal status, stemming from Britain’s fear that the group’s activities could morph into covert operations to strike at British interests and threaten its security as Britain has become the base and center of operations for the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe.
Moreover, a document containing a significant review of the “Prevent” government program to counter extremism in Britain, dated December 29, 2022, revealed that British taxpayer funds were used to finance groups promoting extremism. It disclosed prominent figures associated with organizations funded by the “Prevent” program suspected of supporting the Taliban movement, advocating for banned extremist groups in the UK, and hosting hate speech preachers, according to a leaked draft of the document. Additionally, on January 10, 2022, Britain proposed a draft law aimed at scrutinizing security measures for public places, known as the „Protect Duty“, to combat terrorist threats, and the „York Anti-Terror Plan“, valued at 1.8 million pounds, is set to become permanent.
In the same context, a new report published by the British newspaper „Daily Mail“ uncovered the disruptive role played by the Muslim Brotherhood inside British prisons. Their conflicts in a London prison were an attempt to control the world of drugs, its sources, distribution, and areas of influence. The report highlighted growing concerns within London prison management about the impact of inmates from backgrounds of Islamic extremism, where two major gangs, calling themselves „Death Before Dishonor“ and the „Piranhas“, have been fighting against groups led by Islamic extremists since 2000. According to the report, the numbers of extremists in British prisons have increased in recent years, especially among women, as the Muslim Brotherhood and other extremist groups recruit the most vulnerable prisoners.
„Daily Mail“ stated that testimonies from former inmates and convicted criminals supported reports that extremist gangs have their own soldiers to carry out acts of violence, indicating that the ongoing war between the factions is not based on religious grounds but rather a desire to control the drug world, resulting in three deaths among the extremist and gang factions. Concerns are growing about the inability of the judiciary and security apparatus to deal with extremist influence within prisons, without being accused of racism towards Muslims in particular, as the number of white prisoners embracing Islam has disproportionately increased, according to recent figures from the British Ministry of Justice over the past thirty years.
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