Muslim Brotherhood Europe

Muslim Brotherhood entered Europe in the 1950s from the Middle East, driven in part by the secular government of Egypt's crackdown against it.

Among the first Muslim Brotherhood members to arrive in Europe was a group led by Sa'id Ramadan, the son-in-law of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of Muslim Brotherhood who had been killed by the Egyptian government (see Hitler Islam).

Financed by Saudi Arabia, Sa'id Ramadan's group established beachheads in Geneva, Switzerland and Munich, Germany, where a network of Muslim Brotherhood organizations and mosques soon sprang up (see Muslims in Germany).

Starting in the 1960s, the Muslim Brotherhood spread across Europe, spearheaded, as in America, by Muslim student groups that spawned other groups as its members graduated and entered society. Prominent examples include the following:

•  Forum for European Muslim Youth and Student Organizations (FEMYSO) is an umbrella group that represents 42 national and international Islamic student and youth organizations in 26 European countries; it is based in Brussels, the seat of European Parliament, which it lobbies.

•  Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE) is an umbrella group with chapters in 22 European countries; it is based in Leicestershire, UK but fields a large office in Brussels, Belgium to also lobby the European Parliament.

•  Union of Islamic Organizations in France (Union des Organisations Islamiques de France - UOIF) has over 200 member organizations and owns or directs over 250 mosques in France; UOIF is a member of FIOE.

•  Germany's Central Council of Muslims in Germany (Zentralrat der Muslime in Deutschland - ZMD), Islamic Society of Germany (Islamische Gemeinschaft Deutschland - IGD), and Milli Görüş (Islamische Gemeinschaft Milli Görüş).

•  Italy's Union of the Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy (Unione delle Comunita' ed Organizzazioni Islamiche in Italia).

In 2014, the Muslim Brotherhood moved its European headquarters from London to Graz in southern Austria to avoid the tightening surveillance by the UK government (see Muslim Brotherhood UK).

Since then, Muslims flooding into Europe as refugees of the war in Syria and Iraq (see Muslim refugees) have significantly strengthened Muslim Brotherhood organizations across Europe and spawned new chapters, including in Sweden and the Czech Republic.

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