At five in the afternoon, Cairo time (41).. Dismantling the Muslim Brotherhood Organization… France’s Decision Marks the Beginning of a New European Phase (6)

 

Social Work and Associations… When “Charitable Work” Turns into a Network of Influence

 

After the report revealed how the Brotherhood turned education into a gateway for shaping new generations according to a vision that gradually distances itself from the values of the Republic, it moves us to another arena no less dangerous—indeed, one that may be, in practical terms, the most influential in everyday life: social work and associations.

 

Here, precisely, the organization operates using its most sophisticated tools:

A tool that does not appear political on the surface, carries no confrontational titles, and raises no sharp religious slogans… yet at its core, it creates an entire “society” within French society.

 

Charitable associations, academic support centers, clothing drives, Ramadan iftar tables, childcare centers, Arabic-language classes… all of these are transformed—as the report explains—into “soft bridges” that reshape the French Muslim’s relationship with the state, identity, and citizenship.

 

1) Why does the Brotherhood prefer the path of associations?

 

The report offers an exceptionally precise explanation for this question:

In France, associations represent the most legitimate and widespread form within civil society. They operate under the 1901 Law and benefit from a general climate based on freedom of organization, voluntary work, and donation-based funding.

 

This open environment—originally designed to serve democracy—has, in the hands of the Brotherhood, turned into an opportunity to build long-term influence through three advantages:

 

Legal legitimacy: the association appears as a “civic institution” with no connection to politics.

 

Moral cover: charitable work generates immediate sympathy and is difficult to attack.

 

Social reach: associations enter homes, schools, and neighborhoods faster than any political discourse.

 

Thus, social work becomes not merely assistance, but a system of recruitment and influence.

 

2) The “alternative society” begins with daily service

 

The report warns that the most dangerous aspect of Brotherhood-affiliated social work is that it does not function as a temporary condition, but as a “way of life.”

 

A child who joins academic support classes at an association, then moves on to a Quranic school, then joins a sports activity within the same network, then attends a religious lecture, and is later directed to a nearby educational institution… becomes embedded within an integrated system.

 

According to the report, the ultimate goal of this system is:

to create individuals in a state of partial or total separation from French society, and to prepare them psychologically and intellectually to feel that “the French Republic is not their home,” and that primary and ultimate loyalty should be to the group and to a closed identity.

 

Thus, the idea of a “counter-society” advances step by step.

 

3) Associations as a parallel authority in neighborhoods

 

The report explains that Islamist movements—led by the Brotherhood—have succeeded in exploiting the “vacuum of the state” in certain areas, particularly where services decline or institutional state presence recedes for social and economic reasons.

(Note here that they are repeating exactly what they did in Egypt and a large number of Arab countries.)

 

At this moment, the organization appears as the “savior”:

It provides food aid, family support, administrative guidance, youth activities, trips, language lessons, solidarity networks… gradually transforming into something resembling a social authority.

 

Over time, the organization comes to play an undeclared role in:

• Defining what is socially acceptable and unacceptable

• Influencing youth behavior

• Drawing boundaries in relations between men and women

• Reinterpreting “integration” as a form of concession

• Turning state laws into a “secondary option” in favor of a “religious reference”

 

This is not a state within a state in the administrative sense, but a state within a state in the social sense.

 

4) Charitable work as an entry point for funding and mobilization

 

The report highlights a striking point:

Social work does not function solely as a tool of influence, but also as a tool of financing.

 

By their nature, charitable associations are able to collect donations on a regular basis, especially during religious seasons, making them:

• A source of money

• A source of legitimacy

• A source of mobilization

 

More dangerous—according to the report—is that some associations blend the humanitarian dimension with the ideological dimension through a dual discourse:

a soft humanitarian language outwardly, and a mobilizing language inwardly.

 

In this way, humanitarian work becomes an “excellent cover” for expanding influence.

 

5) From “defending rights” to manufacturing victimhood

 

The report observes that the Brotherhood does not stop at providing services, but adds to them a highly effective propaganda tool: the manufacture of victimhood.

 

The dominant discourse within a number of associations revolves around a central idea:

that Muslims in France are subjected to discrimination, that the state “oppresses them,” that society “rejects them,” and that any criticism of political Islam is not political criticism but “racism.”

 

This discourse succeeds because it intersects with real feelings among part of the Muslim community:

unemployment, marginalization, housing problems, identity shocks… and the organization comes to offer a single explanation for everything:

“You are being targeted because you are Muslims.”

 

Here, social solidarity turns into a platform for reproducing anger.

 

6) Associations as a bridge to penetrate politics and trade unions

 

The report confirms that the organization does not operate along a single track, but works according to the logic of overlapping networks:

from the association to the university, from the university to the union, from the union to the municipality, and then to electoral influence.

 

A person who begins as a volunteer in a social association may later become:

• A youth-sector official

• A representative in a student union

• A member of an academic or professional trade union

• Then a “civil” front in the public sphere

 

Thus, associations are transformed into cadre-producing factories, not merely charitable institutions.

 

The report alludes to this meaning when it links student bodies, social work, and the discourse of “defending rights” as a gradual ladder toward building political influence.

 

7) Where does the real danger lie?

 

The report does not present associations as an “absolute evil,” but implicitly distinguishes between genuine charitable work and ideologized charitable work.

 

The danger is not in “providing food” or “helping the poor,” but in:

• Turning service into an instrument of loyalty

• Politicizing humanitarian needs

• Linking assistance to affiliation

• Isolating beneficiaries from state institutions

• Creating a sense that the organization is their sole protector

 

In other words:

The goal is not to solve the individual’s problem… but to bind the individual to the network.

 

This explains how networks that are small in organizational terms can become widely influential socially.

 

 The Brotherhood’s logic

 

The report explains that one of the Brotherhood’s strengths is that it operates in a way that combines:

• Local presence within the city or neighborhood

• Networked linkage with other entities

• Coordination through larger umbrellas that represent a “representative” façade

 

Accordingly, a small association may be part of a larger chain through undeclared links, shared figures, funding, or unified programs.

 

This networked structure is what makes dismantling the phenomenon complex, because one is not confronting a “visible organization,” but rather a “society of organizations.”

 

Here we clearly see how social work—supposed to be a lever for integration—has been transformed into a tool for producing the exact opposite:

withdrawal from society, the rebuilding of identity within an organizational cocoon, and the conversion of need into loyalty.

 

The Brotherhood in France, as the report reveals, does not storm the state with bullets… but enters it through:

• Social services

• A “pleasant” association

• Rights-based discourse

• The language of victimhood

 

These elements then turn into a network of influence extending from the neighborhood to the university to the public sphere.

 

Tomorrow we continue:

Funding and the economy… how is the money machine run? And how do “endowments and donations” turn into a structure of influence?

 

Paris: five p.m. Cairo time.