The Muslim Brotherhood is a highly influential “movement” in the Western world. This article presents a few basic points.

The Muslim Brotherhood was born in reaction to a dramatic observation

By the beginning of the ^20th century, Islam had ceased to dominate the world:

• The abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate after the ^1st World War,
• the creation of nation-states on the territories he had administered,
• replacing Sharia law with Western-inspired legal systems and
• Jewish immigration to Palestine sounded the death knell for the Arab-Muslim world.

Some Middle Eastern intellectuals believed that the renaissance of their countries would require the adoption of Western values and political regimes. In 1928, Hassan al-Banna opposed what he saw as an absolute betrayal of Islam.

For him, the salvation of the Arab-Muslim world could only come from

• of a vigorous and complete return of Muslim populations to Islam,
• a return to guardianship of Jews living in Muslim countries,
• of regaining control of Palestine and
• the outright extermination of the Jews from the moment the Brotherhood allied itself with the Nazi regime.

Among the Qur’anic concepts that define the current objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood, two are absolutely fundamental:

• Islam is a totalizing system that legislates all aspects of life: worship, faith, state, homeland, government, nation, power, law, justice, education, culture, army and jihad.
• Islam is the religion of all mankind since, according to its teachings, people are born Muslims before life’s circumstances lead them astray towards other religions.

Today, wherever they have a foothold in the world, the Brothers are pursuing a fundamental mission: to Islamize host societies and bring together Muslims from the West, Arab countries and the rest of the world to establish a global caliphate in which Jews and Christians would regain their “submissive” (dhimmi) status, a prerequisite for world peace.

To achieve their goals in the West, the Muslim Brotherhood uses several methods:

• the Islamic veil, a sign of the subjugation of women, which they present as an expression of their freedom in the West
• the request to teach the Koran to Muslim primary school pupils
• hallal meals in school canteens to differentiate Muslim children from others
• the accusation of Islamophobia, which intentionally confuses criticism of a religion with rejection of its followers
• anti-Semitic propaganda blaming Israel for the plight of the Palestinians
• infiltration of the media, educational institutions, political parties, inter-religious dialogue groups…
• and a host of demands designed to separate Muslims from the rest of the population.

The active presence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Switzerland raises several unanswered questions:

• If the precepts of Islam are indeed anti-Semitic and racist, why does the Confederation allow them to be taught to children in mosques?
• If the veil is a sign of the degradation of women and their subordination to men, why is it tolerated for primary school pupils?
• If Hamas has been banned in Switzerland because of its anti-Semitic ideology and terrorist activities, why isn’t the Muslim Brotherhood, which supports Hamas and has provided it with its doctrine, subject to the same ban?
• If the Centre suisse islam et société (CSIS) claims to “foster academic discussion of societal issues from a Muslim perspective”, how can it achieve this academic objective if its advisory board includes members openly close to the Muslim Brotherhood? Shouldn’t the CSIS undergo an evaluation of its truly academic character?

Read also: The “Muslim Brotherhood”, History, ideology and objectives in a nutshell