Opinion
Moderate Qatar? The Muslim Brotherhood patron nurtures the enemies of democracy
Qatar promotes itself as a modernising force. In reality, it is one of the leading sponsors of Islamist movements
June 19, 2025 14:14
3 min read
Qatar promotes itself as a modernising force. In reality, it is one of the leading sponsors of Islamist movements
June 19, 2025 14:14A classified report from the French Ministry of the Interior, leaked last month to Le Figaro, exposes the scale of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideological entrenchment in France and beyond and the role particularly Qatar plays in funding their activities. The 73-page document is unflinching: “The Brotherhood’s strategy is to install a form of ideological hegemony by infiltrating civil society under the guise of religious and educational activities.”
The numbers are alarming. The Brotherhood oversees 280 associations in France, including 139 mosques directly affiliated with the movement and another 68 considered ideologically aligned – nearly 10 per cent of mosques opened since 2010. Some 91,000 people attend Friday prayers at these locations. The group also influences 21 private schools (three state-funded) and 815 Quranic schools, where over 66,000 children are taught to view themselves as part of a global Muslim community in opposition to secular Western norms.
Materials used in Brotherhood-linked schools praise Sharia over man-made law, denounce interfaith marriage, and promote antisemitic tropes. “Hatred of Jews,” the report declares, “is a core ideological element,” often disguised as anti-Zionism.
The Brotherhood’s reach extends beyond worship and education. In cities like Lille, Lyon and the Paris suburbs, it has established “ecosystems” of halal shops, youth clubs, job training centres, matchmaking services, Islamic microfinance, and charities. These networks foster a parallel social order that undermines secular norms and exerts social pressure, such as veiling.
Though publicly moderate, the Brotherhood engages in “double discourse”, the report says: a peaceful tone outwardly, while promoting antisemitism, gender segregation and separatism in private.
President Macron, although reportedly angered by the leak, has launched a national strategy in response. Sweden has requested the full report and opened its own inquiry.
Labour should follow suit; the report includes several alarming references to the UK: “The United Kingdom has long been a stronghold for the Muslim Brotherhood. London has served as a rear base for numerous figures of the Brotherhood, particularly following the banning of the movement in several Middle Eastern countries.”
“It is in the United Kingdom that the Muslim Brotherhood has been able to develop influential institutions, think tanks, and academic networks that act as ideological hubs across Europe.”
“Certain centres of Brotherhood thought [to have been] established in London continue to exert significant influence, notably through the production of online content disseminated to France, Germany, and Belgium.”
This ideological infrastructure is not self-sustaining. As the report makes clear, alongside Turkey, the Brotherhood’s most active patron is Qatar. The Gulf state’s entanglement with the Muslim Brotherhood dates back to the early 1960s as part of a deliberate state strategy to project influence abroad via religious soft power.
Doha thus became a haven for exiled Brotherhood leaders. Most notably, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the movement’s leading ideologues, resided in Qatar from 1961 until his death in 2022. Under his guidance, the Brotherhood became entrenched in Qatari education, media, and religious institutions. Qaradawi justified suicide bombings against Israel, advocated killing gay people, and defended a husband’s “right” to beat his wife. His successor, Sheikh Ali Al-Qaradaghi, issued a fatwa calling for jihad against Israel.
Qatar’s influence operates through three key channels: media, finance, and diplomacy. The launch of Al Jazeera in 1996 gave the Brotherhood a global media platform. Its flagship programme Sharia and Life, hosted by Qaradawi, broadcast the Brotherhood’s views to millions. During the Arab Spring, Al Jazeera actively supported Brotherhood-aligned regimes and movements.
Since the October 7 Hamas attacks, the network has served as a mouthpiece for both Hamas and Hezbollah, while amplifying Iranian and Turkish talking points. Its Arabic channel is the most strident, but its English-language outlet and French web version AJ+ repackage the same messaging under a more palatable, victimhood-driven guise.
Qatar promotes itself as a modernising, moderate force. In reality, it remains one of the leading international sponsors of Islamist movements, particularly those aligned with the Brotherhood.
This places Qatar in a position of strategic ambiguity. It hosts a major US military base, mediates hostage negotiations with Hamas (a Brotherhood offshoot), and assisted NATO in Afghanistan. Yet it simultaneously funds Brotherhood-linked networks that foster communal separatism and, at times, espouse values antithetical to democracy.
Qatar exemplifies the central dilemma in Europe’s struggle against Islamism: how to confront a “strategic ally” that nurtures the enemies of democracy and secularism. Ensuring the independence of Islam in Europe, and the security of its liberal order, requires unravelling the funding networks that empower ideological extremism. And in that task, Qatar remains the most brazen operator of all.
Simone Rodan-Benzaquen is the Paris-based Managing Director of AJC Europe