Brotherhood expanded through parallel entities: Islamophobia observatory

CAIRO – 21 November 2019: The Islamophobia Observatory affiliated with Egypt’s Dar Al-Ifta stated in a report about the Muslim Brotherhood’s parallel society that the terrorist organization was able to expand in western societies by forming the so-called parallel entities.

These entities, according to the report, seek to act as an alternative to the state for the members, with the aim of gaining power and practicing pressure on decision makers to meet the group’s demands.

The observatory also pointed out that the Muslim Brotherhood worked to present itself as a preaching group (known as Da’wah group) that seeks to spread “Islamic reformist thought,” as well as a reliable alternative to confront violence and terrorism resulting from extremist organizations.

The observatory explained that after a number of Brotherhood members left for Arab and European countries during the sixties, the group worked to implement the idea of establishing parallel societies in these countries “through controlling Muslim students and places of worship there, and publishing magazines that adopt the group’s ideology.”
“The group exploited the nation’s major issues, such as the Palestinian cause, and promoted itself as the first defender of it,” said the report.

The report added that the messages of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, were the main base of the idea of establishing a parallel society.

In the same context, the group seeks through this idea to achieve intellectual control over societies and penetrate the institutions of the states. Banna’s messages outlined the steps that can be taken to achieve this idea by controlling the schools' curricula, education system and media.

The group has “penetrated into western societies by calling for democracy and peaceful coexistence between sects of a society, while in the Arab and Muslim countries, they use a totally different tone when they speak about the West,” the report continued.

The report also referred to social relations the group sought to build through marriages between its members, and through establishing commercial and economic relations to adapt to the environment in which the group operates.

The Brotherhood is also working to attract immigrants to these countries and include them in the ideology of the group.

The report affirmed that the European countries have recently recognized the danger of the Muslim Brotherhood, so they tightened the screws on them.

For example, the British and Swedish governments revealed reports of growing Brotherhood thought among university students, confirming that the western countries see the ideology of the group as the basis for extremism.