"Destruction from Within": The Brotherhood's plan to gradually ideologize the West.

 

The Muslim Brotherhood

"Destruction from Within": The Brotherhood's plan to gradually ideologize the West.

Their tactics are based on stealth, and their actions may not be noticed for years, giving them the space to erode societies from within and gradually indoctrinate them.
This is what the French newspaper Le Figaro revealed in an extensive report on the Muslim Brotherhood's plan to seize power and gradually weaken Western civilization through education, associations, and lobbies.

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The report was prepared by Florence Bergoud-Blaclaire, a specialist in political Islam, a researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research, president of the European Center for Research on the Muslim Brotherhood, and author of "The Brotherhood and Their Networks" (Odile Jacob, 2023).

The report warned that the group, founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, was established with the aim of reviving the political project of Islam and seizing power under religious and social slogans.
The newspaper explained that, over the course of decades, the group has been able to expand within Europe, capitalizing on waves of Muslim immigration, establishing a presence in Western societies through cultural and educational associations and organizations, and beginning to implement a soft strategy to re-Islamize Western society from within.

The report added that this project relies on quiet infiltration of educational institutions, civil society, and decision-making centers, under a moderate, peaceful cover that conceals, at its core, a deeper ambition: to weaken the Western civilizational system and replace it with a social and cultural model inspired by Brotherhood ideology.

The report, published in a special issue of Le Figaro Histoire titled "The Awakening of Political Islam: From One Caliphate to Another 1924-2014," draws on historical documents, security studies, and recent academic research, revealing an integrated European Brotherhood network extending from Geneva to Paris, from London to Berlin and Brussels.

Origin and historical context

According to the French newspaper, the group's roots date back to 1928, when it was founded by Hassan al-Banna. The newspaper explained that the group quickly transformed into an organized political-religious organization, aiming to establish a society based on Islamic law.

In his famous letter to King Farouk I, Al-Banna wrote that confronting "Western decadence" could only be achieved by reviving the complete Islamic model in politics, economics, and society.
After the assassination of Hassan al-Banna in 1949, Sayyid Qutb developed the group's ideology in a more radical direction, paving the way for subsequent terrorist movements.

In the 1960s, some Brotherhood leaders emigrated to Europe, finding it fertile ground for establishing think tanks and religious and educational associations. Among the most prominent among them was Said Ramadan (al-Banna's son-in-law), who established the "Islamic Center in Geneva," from which the process of "proselytizing" the Muslim Brotherhood in the West began.

According to Le Figaro, the Brotherhood in Europe has established a broad network of organizations since the 1960s under legal and humanitarian facades, but operating according to a unified agenda aimed at creating a European Muslim generation with an Islamic identity and loyalty, capable of serving as a messenger of the Islamic call within Western societies.

"Civilizational Jihad" plan

The report's most significant revelation is the existence of secret internal documents confirming the existence of a systematic plan to Islamize the West through soft means.
One of these documents, known as the “General Explanatory Memorandum of the Group’s Purpose in North America” (1991), was seized by US authorities in 2007 during the Holy Land Foundation trial.

The memorandum describes the Brotherhood's mission as a "civilizational jihad" to destroy Western civilization from within through cultural, social, and media influence.
Other documents seized in Switzerland (Lugano), Germany (Munich), and France revealed the existence of organizational cells linked to the Islamic Center in Geneva, led by associates of Said Ramadan, working to build an "Islamic intellectual hub" in Europe to align Muslims in the West with the Brotherhood's vision.

European Brotherhood Network

According to the report, the European Federation of Muslim Brotherhood Organizations (FOIE) includes under its umbrella associations from various countries: In France: the Union of Islamic Organizations in France (UOIF), which has become known as "Muslims of France."
In Germany: the Islamic Community of Germany (IGD), in Britain: the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), in Belgium: the Association of Belgian Muslims (LMB), and in Switzerland: the Islamic Centre of Geneva.

These organizations promote the idea of ​​"European Islam," but, according to the newspaper, they actually seek to establish a system parallel to Western laws, placing religious loyalty above national affiliation.
The European Council for Fatwa and Research (CEFR) was also established to formulate "the jurisprudence of Muslim minorities," a legal interpretation aimed at enabling Muslims to coexist without fully integrating, a move Le Figaro interprets as "a consecration of the separation of Muslims from Western societies."

Institutional penetration and public funding

The report confirms that organizations affiliated with the Brotherhood receive public funding from European countries and local municipal institutions, under the guise of cultural or human rights
associations.

He points out that these associations operate through a dual discourse: a moderate discourse directed at public opinion, and an internal discourse based on religious isolation and a rejection of republican values.
According to the Courtiad-Goyette report submitted to the French presidency in 2025, there are between 200 and 280 institutions in France with direct or indirect links to the Brotherhood, including 139 mosques and 21 religious schools with more than 4,200 students, in addition to financial and charitable institutions operating under "humanitarian" labels.

Internal and external challenges

Despite its growing influence in the West, the group faces multiple crises, most notably widespread rejection in other countries where it has been officially designated as a terrorist organization.
The French newspaper also noted that there is fierce competition from terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS, which view the Brotherhood's slow approach as a concession to the "Islamic project" and a decline in its ability to recruit young Muslims in Europe in favor of more individualistic and modernist movements.

However, the report argues that the Brotherhood, despite this, still maintains control over the "global Islamic narrative," and that its Western branches have become a strategic center of gravity for the parent movement, which has declined in the Middle East.
Le Figaro concluded that the Brotherhood has developed a new model of Western-style political Islam, based on gradualism and quiet penetration rather than confrontation, while maintaining the same ultimate goal set by Hassan al-Banna nearly a century ago: to bring political Islam to power.
The newspaper describes this model as "a soft civilizational jihad that uses the same tools of Western democracy and secularism to reshape it from within."