On Saturday afternoon, 22nd November, some 150 demonstrators assembled outside the Berlaymont building, Brussels headquarters of the European Commission, to urge the European Union to proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a terrorist organisation.
The two-hour gathering, organised by the ClassifyMBNow campaign, took place between 13:00 and 15:00 and passed off peacefully, with a modest police presence.
Participants carried banners reading “Demand that EU classifies MB as a terrorist organisation” and emphasised that their aim was to defend “Europe’s civil values” and protect society from extremism. Many were waving EU flags, mirroring the EU flags flying across the road from the Commission building itself..
In a statement issued in French and English, the organisers argued that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a legitimate political movement but an “expansionist and destructive ideology” that exploits legal loopholes to fund its activities, infiltrate institutions, and propagate division.
They called on the EU to freeze the group’s assets, restrict the travel of its leaders, and formally recognise it as a security threat. Classifying the Brotherhood as a proscribed organisation, they insisted, is a practical necessity rather than a symbolic gesture.
A keynote speaker was Nigel Goodrich, General Secretary of IMPAC aisbl (International Movement for Peace and Coexistence), a Brussels-based non-governmental organisation. Goodrich told the crowd that the Brotherhood’s founding texts advocate a global caliphate and regard jihad as an obligation, doctrines he described as fundamentally incompatible with European Enlightenment democratic values.
He drew attention to what he termed a “silent takeover” through mosques, universities, NGOs, and EU-funded programmes. He cited a French government report published in May 2025 warning of the Brotherhood’s threat to national cohesion, as well as recent research alleging that entities linked to the movement have received tens of millions of euros from EU funds, including through Erasmus, the Rights, Equality and Citizenship programme, and its successor CERV.
To illustrate the extent of infiltration he referenced IMPAC’s September 2025 conference in the European Parliament on Extremism– hosted not by far-right voices but by a “courageous young S&D MEP” – where Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, known as the “Imam of Peace,” dissected the MB’s three vectors of penetration: political lobbying, education (e.g., influencing universities since 1983), and the NGO/charity sector. He quoted Tawhidi (a governing member of the Global Imams Council) “Once inside your organisations, these actors reframe public debates, mobilise sympathisers, and pressure institutions to accept leaders and narratives that are hostile to pluralism.”
The rally comes on the heels of heightened scrutiny of the MB’s activities across Europe. Just days prior, on November 19th, the European Parliament hosted the launch of a damning report “Unmasking the Muslim Brotherhood: Brotherism, Islamophobia, and the EU” by researchers Dr. Florence Bergeaud-Blackler and Dr. Tommaso Virgili.
The document (commissioned by MEP Charlie Weimars from the ECR Group) exposed how MB-affiliated entities, such as the Council of European Muslims (CEM) and the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO), have allegedly infiltrated NGOs, educational programs, and even EU-funded initiatives to advance an agenda rooted in supremacism. Groups named in such reports, including FEMYSO and the Council of European Muslims, strongly reject any organisational link to the Brotherhood and insist they engage only in lawful advocacy.
Organisers emphasised that classification of the MB by the EU as a terrorist organisation is no mere symbol but a “practical and obligatory step” to shield youth, uphold values, and preserve global peace.
Despite there being moves in the United States to proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood, the European Union currently has no plans to do so. Officials here note that, unlike Hamas or Hezbollah’s military wing (both listed), the Brotherhood is not a single hierarchical entity and operates legally in several Member States. Any move to add it to the EU terror list would require unanimity among the 27 governments – a threshold that has so far proved unattainable.
Click here for more News & Current Affairs at EU Today
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
