A number of books on the Muslim Brotherhood have been published in recent years. What was lacking, however, was a complete and serious study of the genealogy of the phenomenon in Europe, and its networks on our continent.

This gap has now been filled, and not before time. How indeed can you effectively combat an organisation that has declared war on Europe, its nations and its civilisation, when you don’t know its aims or its methods?

Far from being a recent phenomenon, the penetration of the Muslim Brotherhood into Europe, and with it the Islamism of which it is the main vector, has its roots in the Second World War and the immediate post-war period. Its development kept pace with immigration from Muslim countries. It is the latter that is gradually giving it the ‘critical mass’ it needs to pursue its strategy of conquering our continent. From a few hundred thousand around 1960, by 2010 there were 20 million Muslims living in Europe, and by 2016 there were 26 million1. If the 30 million mark has not already been passed, it will be soon.

This meteoric rise naturally goes hand in hand with the growth in the number of mosques. In France, the Muslim Brotherhood officially controls around 5% of mosques. But in reality, their influence can be found almost everywhere, including the bookshop opposite the Grande Mosquée de Paris, where its students come to buy texts for their studies. While Qatar has long played a major role in funding the Muslim Brotherhood, it is now Erdogan’s Turkey that hosts the organisation. Ankara is the source of the orders, the men and the projects designed to extend the power of the Brotherhood over Muslim communities, but also to develop their influence right into the heart of the European states by means of dual nationality and involvement in political parties and trade unions. In the face of the Islamist threat, the response of European nations must be unified, coordinated and strong. Our democracies must show no weakness in the face of fanatics who think and profess that Europe is a Dar alHarb2, a land to be conquered.