At five in the afternoon, Cairo time (42). .Dismantling the Muslim Brotherhood Organization… France’s Decision Marks the Beginning of a New European Phase (7)

Money, Endowments, and the Financing of Influence… When Donations Turn into an Organizational Machine

 

If education shapes the “mind,” and social work shapes the “environment,” then financing is what creates the capacity to endure.

 

Here, precisely, the report offers an exceptionally important reading: the Muslim Brotherhood in France does not operate as a fleeting proselytizing current, but as a financial system that knows very well that influence is not built by sermons alone, but rather by those who possess the ability to:

 

Purchase real estate

 

Build mosques

 

Establish schools

 

Finance associations

 

Manage human resources

 

Create media and organizational arms

 

For the organization, money is not an “auxiliary means,” but a condition for existence, expansion, continuity, influence, penetration, and domination.

 

1) Why is financing the greatest danger?

 

The report states clearly that the Brotherhood is the most organized and influential Islamist movement in France, not only because of its mobilization capacities, but because it possesses—compared with others—material and intellectual resources that make it the most dangerous in the long term.

 

The reason is simple:

Salafism spreads quickly, but it is often dispersed among individuals and local islands.

The Brotherhood, by contrast, builds a network of structures: schools, institutes, associations, conferences, imam training, services… and these structures require regular budgets.

 

Here, financing becomes the “artery” that nourishes the entire body.

 

2) The difficulty of assessment…

 

The report notes that estimating the Brotherhood’s financial resources in France is difficult, because their funding structure is based on:

 

The intermingling of associations and front organizations

 

Multiple sources of income

 

Local self-financing

 

External donations

 

A broad religious economy (halal food / Hajj and Umrah seasons / conferences)

 

This opacity, as the report suggests, grants the organization a massive advantage:

financial flexibility coupled with reduced capacity for close monitoring.

 

3) The organization’s front and the gateway of money:

 

The report relies on a central example: the “Union of Islamic Organizations of France,” which later adopted a new name, “Muslims of France.”

 

It presents a telling figure from the testimony of a former president of the organization:

the operating budget of the union’s central administration was estimated at around 1.5 million euros, for 11 employees and approximately one hundred volunteers.

 

There is then another large budget tied to the organization’s flagship activity: the annual gathering in Le Bourget, whose budget reaches about 3 million euros.

 

Added to this is the financing of mosques affiliated with the network, schools, periodic conferences, mobilizations, and relationships.

 

Accordingly, the report estimates that the total expenditures of the union alone approach 5 million euros annually.

 

These are not the figures of a small association… but the figures of an institution of influence.

 

4) Self-financing…

 

The report draws attention to the fact that the organization relies on stable internal financing based on several pillars:

 

Member contributions: the report notes that financing is carried out through contributions ranging between 2.5% and 10% of a member’s income.

 

Activity revenues: from events, subscriptions, and various services.

 

The mosque economy: including seasonal and periodic donations.

 

These pillars make the organization less dependent on external funding alone, and more capable of resilience and expansion.

 

5) External support… when donations become policy:

 

The report mentions that a significant portion of funding comes from Gulf states and organizations close to specific countries.

 

It estimates that the funding ratio may be approximately:

 

60% from self-generated revenues

 

40% from external donations

 

The danger here is not related to the money itself, but to the meaning of the money:

external funds are not always “innocent donations”… but are invariably a form of soft political investment in shaping political Islam within France.

 

Every euro directed toward a school, institute, mosque, or association produces a direct impact on identity, discourse, and belonging.

 

6) The endowment…

 

One of the most dangerous points highlighted by the report is the Brotherhood’s establishment of an endowment entity: “Waqf France.”

 

The idea reflects a high level of organizational intelligence:

instead of constant reliance on fluctuating donations, an endowment structure is created to receive funds, invest them, and then distribute management profits to institutions serving the organization’s project, foremost among them:

 

Schools

 

Religious training

 

Support institutions for the network

 

The report indicates expectations that the endowment’s assets could reach around 11 million euros over 20 years.

 

This means we are not facing a preaching movement operating on a day-to-day basis, but an institution planning for two or three generations.

 

7) Bank Al-Taqwa…

 

The report goes further to an even more dangerous point, linked to the international financing of Brotherhood networks, by discussing Bank Al-Taqwa, founded in 1988, its activity in dozens of countries, and its role in collecting funds and channeling them to networks linked to the Brotherhood in Europe.

 

The report mentions prominent figures associated with this financial track, and notes that Western investigations historically linked the bank to suspicions of supporting the international Brotherhood network worldwide.

 

The importance of this section lies not only in the “story,” but in the lesson:

the organization in Europe operates within a cross-border economy, even if under different guises.

 

The “Project” document… financing as part of a penetration strategy:

 

The report recounts a striking incident involving the discovery of a document within the context of investigations linked to Bank Al-Taqwa, titled “The Project,” which presents the Brotherhood’s vision in Europe regarding:

 

Penetration

 

Proselytization

 

Building influence

 

Political participation

 

Influencing civil society

 

Avoiding integration into values they regard as “infidel”

 

Here, the central idea becomes clear:

financing is not separate from politics… but part of a single strategy.

 

9) Money creates institutions… and institutions create generations

 

The most dangerous aspect of Brotherhood financing—as the report shows—is that it is directly transformed into institutions with daily impact:

 

Religious education schools

 

Institutes for imam training

 

Associations for women, youth, and students

 

Discursive and media platforms

 

Large-scale mass activities

 

Thus, money becomes a tool for establishing what can be called:

an ideological infrastructure.

 

These are “cities within the city,” not merely buildings, but networks of services, belonging, and mobilization.

 

10) Why does the money machine succeed?

 

The report implicitly presents three reasons for its success:

 

Operating under a legal and civil cover that makes funding appear normal.

 

Investing in childhood and youth to secure long-term returns.

 

Linking religion, identity, and grievance to keep donations flowing.

 

Here, financing does not function as a conventional economy, but as an “economy of faith,” in which the donor gives because they feel they are contributing to the defense of their identity and existence.

 

Finally, the report clarifies that the Brotherhood’s penetration of France does not rely on propaganda alone, but on precise financial engineering:

from donations to endowments, from mass gatherings to schools, from self-financing to external support… to form a system capable of enduring for many years and quietly reproducing itself.

 

When money becomes capable of creating institutions, institutions become capable of creating a society within society…

 

Here lies the danger of the Muslim Brotherhood in France, understood as a long-term project, not a passing wave.

 

The most significant revelation of the confidential report, which has not yet been published, remains the intelligence component related to the monitoring of a number of Brotherhood leaders by the Ministry of the Interior and tax authorities due to their receipt of illicit funding. They are:

 

Mr. Ammar Lasfar – President of Muslims of France

 

Mr. Mohsen Ngazou – Vice President in charge of reform

 

Mr. Okacha Ben Ahmed – Secretary General

 

Mr. Selim Koujil – Treasurer

 

Mr. Nasser Kahoul – Deputy Secretary General in charge of activities

 

Mr. El-Hadj Tehami Briz – Member of the National Bureau for Public Relations

 

Mr. Mourad Djebli – Member of the National Bureau in charge of education

 

Ms. Hala El-Khamsi – Member of the National Bureau responsible for introducing Islam

 

Mr. Mokhtar Sirikat – Member of the National Bureau in charge of education

 

Ms. Kamelia Sarhan – Member of the National Bureau in charge of the family

 

Mr. Karim Menhouj – Member of the National Bureau in charge of social debates

 

Mr. Kotbi Abdelkebir – Missions Officer: delegations

 

Ms. Mariam Barkan – Missions Officer: religious upbringing

 

Mr. Anas Saghrouni – Director of missions: youth

 

Bachir Boukhezr – Regional Delegate – Brittany–Pays de la Loire

 

Sahnoun Kerrar – Regional Delegate – Occitanie

 

Jamal Zakri – Regional Delegate – Provence–Alpes–Côte d’Azur

 

Marwan El-Bakhour – Regional Delegate – Aquitaine–Limousin–Poitou-Charentes

 

Bashar Al-Saidi – Regional Delegate – Lower Normandy and Upper Normandy

 

Anwar Alami – Regional Delegate – Burgundy and Franche-Comté

 

Haitham Hazzaz – Regional Delegate – Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes

 

El-Hadj Tehami Briz – Regional Delegate – Île-de-France

 

Tomorrow we continue:

Political action and the battle over representation… how do the Brotherhood exploit democracy against the state? And how do they turn civic participation into an “electoral bloc” serving the project?

 

Paris: five o’clock in the afternoon, Cairo time.