Tracking Funding Networks and Associations: A Unified European Pushback Against Muslim Brotherhood Influence

Sophie Wilmès, Vice-President of the European Parliament and former Belgian Prime Minister, is leading a campaign within the European institution to counter the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, based on European intelligence reports that have raised issues regarding the financing of networks linked to the group and their relationships with European institutions.

Wilmès wants to move the confrontation from the level of national action to a joint European strategy, including tightening oversight of association funding, facilitating the dissolution of extremist organizations, creating a European list of hate preachers, and strengthening cooperation between police and judicial bodies.

However, opposition from left-wing and green parties to participate in the debate opens another battle inside the Parliament: will Wilmès succeed in turning the issue of Muslim Brotherhood influence into a common European concern?

"It is time to put the file on the table"
Wilmès, a member of the Renew Group, stated as reported by the Belgian newspaper "Sudinfo": "In June 2025, following the publication of the French intelligence report on the Muslim Brotherhood, it was necessary to give this file a European dimension. We are concerned about it.

We are not alone; Germany also is, and others. Religious infiltration, including Islamic, is not an illusion but is documented in periodic reports by intelligence agencies."

The practical proposals included in her group's resolution include: facilitating the dissolution of extremist associations, creating a European list of hate preachers, and enhancing coordination between police and judiciary across member states.

Wilmès points out that organizations such as "FEMYSO," which has links to the Muslim Brotherhood, are present in fourteen member states; making single national confrontations insufficient: "If we want to effectively combat this phenomenon, we need a European strategy."

European Left Refuses Participation
What worried Wilmès more than the phenomenon itself was the absence of socialist, green, and far-left parties from the debate. She says: "Why does the left not see the danger or refuse to see it?" She adds with strategic logic: Democratic parties must take ownership of this file so as not to leave it exclusively to the conservative and extreme right.

The most controversial file is "FEMYSO" (Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organizations), accused of being an institutional front for the Muslim Brotherhood.

The organization is present in 22 European countries, exerts pressure on the European Parliament and Commission, and received approximately €210,000 directly from the European Union between 2007 and 2022.

The Commission stopped direct funding in 2022, but "Le Figaro" revealed in September that the organization acknowledged that its activities are still "co-funded by the European Union" within broader projects. European MEP Nathalie Loiseau described this as "facilitating infiltration through negligence or naivety."

French parliamentarian Marion Maréchal describes the scene as "complete technical opacity," adding that tools for tracking European support for 2026 are "not yet available to the public," which complicates parliamentary oversight.

30 Years of European Positioning
"FEMYSO" emerged in 1996 from a meeting in Stockholm that included Islamic organizations from several European countries, among them "Muslim Youth of France," the arm of the "Union of Islamic Organizations in France (UOIF)," which is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Over three decades, it built a presence in European institutions and developed a discourse focused on "Islamophobia" and defending the hijab, while the French intelligence report classifies it as a "structure for training high-potential cadres in the Islamist current."

European MP François-Xavier Bellamy summarizes the problem: "This organization claiming to promote Islamic feminism has no goal other than normalizing Islamist rulings on women's lives and bodies. That this happens with European taxpayers' money is a real problem."

The sharpest criticism came from French Senator Nathalie Goulet, who has monitored this file for years, stating: "The European Union funds our enemies," but her warnings remained unanswered until now.