“Muslim Brotherhood and Political Islamism in France” — Summary

Summary

Presentation of the Mission. A group of senior officials was tasked in April 2024 to document the reality of political Islamism.

Why Publish This Report. To explain what Islamism is and raise public awareness of its reality, as several other countries have done.

The State of the Threat. In France, the Muslim Brotherhood movement relies on structures in religious, educational, and social fields and spreads within local ecosystems.

Glossary. Key distinctions and definitions.

Further Information. Indicative bibliography and public reports.

1. Presentation of the Mission

By letter dated April 17, 2024, on the order of the President of the Republic following the January 2024 Defence and National Security Council, the ministers responsible for the interior, foreign affairs, and the armed forces commissioned senior officials to evaluate the Muslim Brotherhood movement and political Islamism in France.

The mission was to formalize—distinct from intelligence service production or academic research—a report clarifying the threat posed by Islamist entryism to security and national cohesion. The mission visited four European countries and ten departments and interviewed more than 200 people (state services, religious actors, academics, essayists, elected officials, diplomats).

Objectives

1. Assessment. Characterize the threat; define its weight in separatist drifts; characterize this threat internationally by documenting developments of the Muslim Brotherhood among France’s main European neighbours and in the Arab-Muslim world.
2. Recommendations. Propose methods to combat entryism within local and national decision-making spheres and international institutions (notably the EU); recommend actions to raise appropriate awareness of political Islamism in France.

Submitted in July 2024 to the sponsors, the report highlights a serious threat marked by double discourse, dissimulation, and apparent respect for rules—aimed at substituting new allegiances for the national community, breaking with the republican tradition.

Based on the report’s recommendations, the Defence and National Security Council meeting on May 21, 2025 presented initial orientations toward a national action plan.

Note: The public version removes classified elements to protect sources and ongoing judicial proceedings.

2. Why Publish this Report?

This report documents a phenomenon long established by specialists and researchers. The considerable damage caused in several Middle Eastern countries that have suffered Islamist regimes is also known and documented.

Regarding France, President Emmanuel Macron laid a founding act in his Les Mureaux speech on October 2, 2020, on fighting separatisms:

“The problem is Islamist separatism… a conscious, theorized, politico-religious project… materialized through repeated deviations from the values of the Republic… It is indoctrination and through it, the negation of our principles, equality between women and men, human dignity. The problem is this ideology, which claims that its own laws are superior to those of the Republic.”

In continuity with this speech, the law of August 24, 2021 on strengthening respect for the principles of the Republic constituted an important response to re-arm France against separatism.

Other public officials have expressed concern. For example, Gérald Darmanin (Minister of State, Keeper of the Seals, and former Interior Minister) authored Islamist Separatism: Manifesto for Secularism (2021). Former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal stated in an April 18, 2024 BFM interview:

“[There are] more or less organized groups that seek to engage in Islamist entryism” which promotes “the precepts of Sharia, particularly in schools.”

The State now poses a documented diagnosis to objectify and publicize the Islamist threat. The public debate on Islam remains instrumentalized by extremist minorities—especially online—who propagate rigorist visions, victimhood narratives, and an equation of Islam with Islamism.

International Context

• United Kingdom (2014–2015): Prime Minister David Cameron commissioned a review on the Muslim Brotherhood; main findings were released publicly in December 2015. Main findings
• Austria (2020-): Creation of the Dokumentationsstelle Politischer Islam attached to the Chancellery; autonomous research funding and multiple reports on political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood.
• UAE: Trends Research & Advisory has published numerous studies on the Muslim Brotherhood.

3. The State of the Threat

Since the Arab Spring, the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence has diminished in the Arab-Muslim world (notably after President Morsi’s fall and conviction in Egypt). The International Organization shifted core activities between Turkey and Europe, establishing the Council of European Muslims in Brussels and long-term implantation in Germany, Austria, and the UK.

France

Over nearly forty years, a solid network has been built around an umbrella organization—Musulmans de France (heir to UOIF)—and a set of religious, social, and educational organizations.

• Places of Worship: 139 affiliated, influence in 55 departments (~7% of the ~2,800 places of worship). ~60 additional mosques are close to the movement without official affiliation.
• Education: Involvement in confessional schools (five under contract with the State) and a National Federation of Muslim Private Education (FNEM) with ~60 out-of-contract, mainly primary schools. While reputed for academic excellence, concerns include lack of pluralism and values contrary to the Republic.
• Social & Humanitarian Sector: Charitable organizations bolster parallel legitimacy to public services.
• Preachers & Training: Outreach via preachers over four decades; theological training through European Institutes of Human Sciences (IESH), notably in Saint-Léger-de-Fougeret.

Local Ecosystems

From this framework, local ecosystems have been structured through which Islamism spreads—framing life “from birth to death.” ~15 ecosystems are identified by intelligence services.

Example (Hauts-de-France):

• Islamic League of the North (LIN), support for the Great Mosque of Lille, organizer of the RAMN.
• Islamic Center of Villeneuve d’Ascq (CIV), strengthened by urban projects financed by Qatar, Egypt, and Kuwait.
• Lycée Averroès (created 2003; under State contract since 2008).

Recent actions: expulsion of H. Iquioussen (2022) and OQTF against A. Jaballah (2024) have slowed this ecosystem.

Online Influence

“2.0” preachers are active online; “Islamic reminder” accounts total up to 1.5 million TikTok subscribers, feeding algorithms. According to the Institut Montaigne, ~90% of religious content online is rigorist-inspired, primarily Salafist.

4. Glossary

1. Islamism vs. Islam: Islamism is the political instrumentalization of Islam into an ideology covering all aspects of life, embodied by currents such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists, Tabligh, and Millî Görüş.
2. Separatism & Entryism: Both reflect the desire to live by specific rules outside common rules. Entryism is a mode of separatist action characterized by involvement in local life to access influence and secure accommodations to laws.

5. More Information

Public Reports (France)

• IGEN Report (Obin), Signs and manifestations of religious affiliation in schools, June 2004 — education.gouv.fr
• Senate Inquiry Report on Islamist radicalization responses — PDF
• IGESR Report on communitarian phenomena in sports/youth associations, July 2021 — PDF
• National Assembly flash mission on communitarian & Islamist drifts in sports, Mar 2025 — PDF
• Institut Montaigne, Journey to the Land of the Muslim Brotherhood (2018) — Report

Foreign Works

• UAE — Trends Research & Advisory (MB studies) — Publications
• UK — Jenkins Review (official summary), Dec 2015 — PDF
• Austria — Dokumentationsstelle Politischer Islam — Publications in English | IVO study (German) — PDF
• Spain — Real Instituto Elcano, La Hermandad Musulmana en España — Report

Academic Works

• Samir Amghar, Militant Islam in Europe, 2013
• Dominique Avon, The Reformist Islam of Tariq Ramadan, 2024; Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi (1926–2022), 2022
• Gilles Kepel, Quatre-vingt-treize, 2012
• Hugo Micheron, Anger and Oblivion, 2023
• Bernard Rougier, The Conquered Territories of Islamism, 2020
• Olivier Roy, Neofundamentalism: From the Muslim Brotherhood to the FIS, 1992

Testimonial

• Mohamed Louizi, Why I Left the Muslim Brotherhood?, 2016

Speeches of the President of the Republic (France)

• Press Conference, Mulhouse (Feb 18, 2020) — PDF
• Les Mureaux (Oct 2, 2020), “Fight against separatisms” — PDF
• Homage to victims of the Paris Police Prefecture attack (May 20, 2025) — PDF