Muslim Brotherhood expanding influence networks across Germany, Italy, Israeli gov’t reports warn

The report notes that these groups are fully aware they remain under ongoing scrutiny by domestic security services.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

The Muslim Brotherhood has steadily built an extensive network of organizations, financial structures, and influence operations across Germany and Italy while maintaining a carefully moderated public image, according to new Israeli government assessments.

Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism released new reports this week detailing the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in Italy and Germany.

Founded in Egypt in 1928 by schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna, the Brotherhood seeks to implement Islamic law around the world by any means necessary, embracing both violent terrorism and lawful political activity.

The most influential Brotherhood-created group today is Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that perpetrated the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

According to the Israeli ministry, approximately 12,000 individuals in Germany were estimated to be ideologically or organizationally connected to the Muslim Brotherhood network as of 2024, with major concentrations identified in North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin, Bavaria, and Baden-Württemberg.

Even though German authorities have intensified oversight of Islamist actors and financial networks associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in recent years, the report notes that the organization has continued to maintain its operational continuity through decentralized structures, affiliated entities, and recurring rebranding efforts.

Among the principal organizations identified in the report as operating within or alongside the Muslim Brotherhood-linked network across the country are the German Muslim Community (DMG), Muslim Youth in Germany (MJD), Islamic Community Milli Görüş (IGMG), the Council of Imams and Scholars in Germany (RIGD), and the European Institute for Human Sciences (EIHW).

Israeli officials warn that these groups seek to expand their influence “from the bottom up” by investing heavily in education, religious outreach, youth engagement, and leadership development programs while maintaining a restrained and moderate public profile.

Although the organizations within the network appear, on the surface, to operate independently, their activities are in fact coordinated by a small group of senior activists that effectively serves as a “core leadership nucleus” directing the network as a whole.

“While externally presented as community-oriented and apolitical, their activities help sustain a continuous institutional and ideological framework linked to the Muslim Brotherhood network,” the report notes.

These groups are also reportedly connected to pan-European Muslim Brotherhood structures, as well as organizations affiliated with the movement in Qatar and Turkey, and Germany-based entities linked to Hamas.

On the financial level, intelligence monitoring has identified an extensive economic infrastructure underpinning the Muslim Brotherhood network, spanning charitable associations, donation flows, real estate assets, and diverse business entities.

The assessment also points to the Europe Trust as a central investment and real estate arm overseeing a major Berlin real estate complex used as an operational hub, alongside external funding channels linked to Middle Eastern actors, including charitable foundations in Qatar and Kuwait.

Israeli officials warn that these organizations tend to maintain a tightly controlled public profile, especially online, steering clear of explicit anti-Israel or antisemitic language while foregrounding narratives of moderation, interfaith cooperation, civic participation, and opposition to violence.

However, the report notes that these groups are fully aware they remain under ongoing scrutiny by domestic security services, raising concerns among intelligence officials that more radical agendas may continue to be advanced in less visible environments beyond public oversight.

In a separate assessment, the Israeli government also identifies five major organizations in Italy as affiliated with the global Muslim Brotherhood network: the Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy, Young Muslims of Italy, the Bayan Institute, the Islamic Alliance of Italy, and the Association of Palestinians in Italy.

According to the report, these groups operate an extensive infrastructure centered on religious education, imam training, and the development of future Muslim leadership across the country, while also seeking to expand their influence over Muslim communal representation through mosques, educational institutions, and youth organizations.

“There is a significant gap between these organizations’ effort to project an image emphasizing integration, tolerance, and dialogue, and cases in which social media posts and on-the-ground activities, since Oct. 7, 2023, have included elements of political incitement and the dissemination of anti-Israeli narratives,” the report notes, referring to Hamas’ Oct. 7 atrocities in Israel more than two years ago.

Among the most common and prominently promoted narratives identified in the report are claims portraying Israel as a genocidal state, comparisons between Israeli actions and Nazi Germany, calls for sweeping economic, academic, cultural, and diplomatic boycotts, and messaging that legitimizes violence against Jews and Israelis.

The report further notes that Italian organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood appear to rely on a decentralized financial model that includes local fundraising, government tax-allocation mechanisms, and foreign funding sources.